So, if you think you could quantify it, how many hours would you guess you spend preparing a new campaign before it actually starts; and after that, how many hours do you spend preparing the adventures between one session and the other?

I was kind of shocked when I quickly estimated my own time; not so much the "between sessions" stuff, which is rather short, but the "before the campaign stuff" which is crazy-long (possibly explaining why the between-session stuff ends up being rather short, a lot of the leg work gets done before the campaign begins).

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;434114So, if you think you could quantify it, how many hours would you guess you spend preparing a new campaign before it actually starts; and after that, how many hours do you spend preparing the adventures between one session and the other?

I was kind of shocked when I quickly estimated my own time; not so much the "between sessions" stuff, which is rather short, but the "before the campaign stuff" which is crazy-long (possibly explaining why the between-session stuff ends up being rather short, a lot of the leg work gets done before the campaign begins).

RPGPundit

Before the start, a couple days to a week. Between games, half an hour to an hour.

-clash

Quote from: RPGPundit;434114So, if you think you could quantify it, how many hours would you guess you spend preparing a new campaign before it actually starts; and after that, how many hours do you spend preparing the adventures between one session and the other?

It depends on the game and what you consider prep.

For my current 4e game, none. I printed out a couple of low level monsters and made sure to have my Monster Manuals handy, but we created the world and the characters in the first session, thus there was nothing to prepare for.

Since then, my prep for that game has consisted of mucking about with the Monster Builder to adjust some beasties and doing a lot of daydreaming.

Starting a new Vampire campaign, in contrast, took quite a bit more work as I literally pulled all my books off the shelves, re-reading as many of them as I could. Then I created a couple of NPCs and did a lot of daydreaming.

Seanchai

I love pre-campaign prep.  I will take weeks to set up a sandbox or a detailed plot.   I have always enjoyed this aspect of gaming.  I prefer to run short arc campaigns with high intensity so this works nicely for me.

Between sessions, about an hour of physical prep and maybe a couple of hours daydreaming.

It depends on the game. When I am running stuff that is more character driven, I tend to prepare a lot more, in terms of NPCs and power relationships, so I know how to respond to player choices and actions. If I am running something a little more straight forward, like a horror adventure, the prep times seems to be less. I also pace it out over the course of my week.

Before an actual campaign I may prepare something like 5-6 hours. And between sessions, about 2 hours.

None of takes into account inspirations and thinking in my spare time. Typically when I go running in the morning I am either thinking about one of my campaigns or something I am writing for work. I'd say most of the real creative stuff gets done during this time.

It certainly does depend on the game, but I think that for my long-term campaigns, I'm dedicating something like 50 hours of prep-time total before the campaign begins (usually spread out over a few months before a campaign starts).  

The big thing that varies is actually the in-between-sessions prep time once the campaign has started; there, with my more serious games I might dedicate a couple of hours of prep between one session and the next, whereas my "less serious" campaigns might only see me dedicating 10-20 minutes of prep time between sessions.

RPGPundit

this is so variable...10-100 hrs initialy for a "campaign" depending on scale of the thing, resources available from other games or supplements...some systems lend themselves to wing'n it more than others and the expectations of the group obviously play into it.

a few hours between sessions is average.

We'll just say I am on the high end of any chart here,to save time.

I really enjoy worldbuilding.  I enjoy filling in the blanks.  I like having links for my live and online players, especially in town.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;434199(...)None of takes into account  inspirations and thinking in my spare time. Typically when I go running  in the morning I am either thinking about one of my campaigns or  something I am writing for work. I'd say most of the real creative stuff  gets done during this time.

Reading new material also takes up a major part of prep time, at least in my case.

Quote from: RPGPundit;434331It certainly does depend on the game, but I think that for my long-term campaigns, I'm dedicating something like 50 hours of prep-time total before the campaign begins (usually spread out over a few months before a campaign starts).

During this prep period, do you dedicate time to other RPGs and reading new materials as well?

Quote from: Spinachcat;434172I love pre-campaign prep.  I will take weeks to set up a sandbox or a detailed plot.   I have always enjoyed this aspect of gaming.  I prefer to run short arc campaigns with high intensity so this works nicely for me.

Between sessions, about an hour of physical prep and maybe a couple of hours daydreaming.

This is me on both counts, except that I spend most of my idle time during the week daydreaming about the game and its direction. I don't actually write anything down until at best the night before although it's usually more like an hour before game time. I'll jot down some key points or bits of dialogue I want to get in, but a lot of times I just play off the players' actions.

Pete

A pre-planned campaign (that is one that doesn't grow out of a one-shot that people want a lot more of) can take me a month or more to get ready for. I'm a big top-down planner kind of guy and like to front-load lots of detail.

A single game session, I usually work on for about four hours, usually on game day. I can throw something more casual together in about an hour.

Quote from: RPGPundit;434114I was kind of shocked when I quickly estimated my own time; not so much the "between sessions" stuff, which is rather short, but the "before the campaign stuff" which is crazy-long (possibly explaining why the between-session stuff ends up being rather short, a lot of the leg work gets done before the campaign begins).

RPGPundit

Well, I'm kinda surprised myself, because it doesn't seem like I spend that much time actively prepping between game sessions. Now, I'm not thinking of just "thinking about the game," which is something I do on and off all the time. But actively put pen to paper, yeah, I'm spending a tremendous amount of time prepping before the game and basically coming up with stuff for the sandbox. I think my biggest time sink is the maps of wilderness, dungeon et al. This has a ping-pong effect on my prep. I usually come up with some idea and/or start a map, and that process gives me TONS of other ideas. That's usually how it goes.

Quote from: HombreLoboDomesticado;434368During this prep period, do you dedicate time to other RPGs and reading new materials as well?

Yes, I certainly do, and this was not counted in my numbers above.

Quote from: Benoist;434414Well, I'm kinda surprised myself, because it doesn't seem like I spend that much time actively prepping between game sessions. Now, I'm not thinking of just "thinking about the game," which is something I do on and off all the time. But actively put pen to paper, yeah, I'm spending a tremendous amount of time prepping before the game and basically coming up with stuff for the sandbox. I think my biggest time sink is the maps of wilderness, dungeon et al. This has a ping-pong effect on my prep. I usually come up with some idea and/or start a map, and that process gives me TONS of other ideas. That's usually how it goes.

Yes, I definitely know just what you mean by the ping-pong effect, and go through it too. One thing leads to another.

RPGPundit

It depends on the project. I have some games that I've been running for so long that it's fairly easy to just fall into it again and takes maybe a week or two to get ready. Some of my other prep times can be really long if I have to start from scratch. Probably my longest was my Jazz Age New York By Night Vampire game. I spent about 6 months on that. However I suspect that it doesn't really count because I was away from my gaming circle for those 6 months so I really didn't have the chance to run it any earlier than when I got back to town.

The flip side to that is something like Call of Cthulhu. I can run a one-shot of that pretty much at the drop of a hat. I was at a weekend gathering of old college friends and it was suggested that I run something CoC for old time's sake. I took a 45 minute break with a notebook to flesh out some ideas and sketch a few maps and I was ready to go.