Prep on Wednesday

I prepare for my games only on Wednesday, and I suggest you try it out.  Taking just one day to do your game prep requires a few skills but the payoff is remarkable. 

By prepping on Wednesday and Wednesday only. I really mean taking a few days off after you game to digest, and then take time in advance of the next game to focus on your prep work. If that works out to Wednesday that’s great, if not it doesn’t really matter which day it is. What does matter is limiting yourself to a single day. That means you will have to focus more on the essentials of the next game session and spacing that prep out to be in the middle of the time between games gives you a chance to revise later if you need to.

I know a lot of GMs who over prepare, they have reams of information that never ever get used.  By setting yourself a tight timeline you will have to cut out any useless information. This forces you to focus on the high points, or the crunchy parts that you often have to look up or forget.  Condense those NPCs down to a few bullet points, distill the scenes into highlights, and grab the critical information you will need at the table and go from there.

That isn’t to say that you can’t develop your lore or NPCs or plots at all, but when you sit down to prepare the game, make sure that utility is forefront in your mind.

A technique that can help with this is setting your prep time up like any other SMART goal.  Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. Knowing exactly what you need to prepare, having an eye to the amount of material needed to fill the night, being ambitious without over reaching, and making sure you’re not wasting time on unneeded material will all help you keep within your single day of prep. Save the large lore and world building for the moments when inspiration strikes you, on Wednesday you have a game deadline to hit.

You can facilitate this by good note taking during game. When you consolidate your notes at the end of a session you should know where the next story begins and what material you will require. By using those notes you can condense down your needs into a specific set of information you will need to fill the next game session and not waste time on things you don’t need. Improvisation and creation happens spontaneously at the table as well, so keeping track of those off the cuff NPCs, minions, and descriptions can all be funneled into the prep work later, saving you time and effort.

Setting a specific date and time to work on game prep can also turn into something of a ritual.

By getting into a solid habit of sitting down and doing your prep work at a specific time you can train your brain to be fully engaged and make the most of that time. If you spend a lot of time waffling on ideas, or struggling to get into the writing groove, this can be an important tip to implement. Setting up that writing ritual takes some experimentation, but some common themes are writing in the same comfortable location, cutting distractions, listening to music without lyrics and allowing your mind to wander for a while before you press into the writing.

Once you’ve established that routine and cranked out some notes for next session, set them aside and let your subconscious process that material for a while without judgement. Often you will get inspired a day later with a clever embellishment or realize a goof you made. That’s perfectly fine! Grab your notes, amend them quickly, and then put them away again. You’re done with prep work, anything that comes up after the fact is a bonus. You don’t have to stress about adding more or doing any editing. When you get to the table with your prep, you know you’re going to improv some of it, some of it will get thrown out and you will always have something you forgot or missed or must look up. This is normal! Just make a short note as you play about what worked well, and what came up short. I keep markers on hand to give myself a green star on notes that rocked the night, and I use red to jot down anything I needed. Figure out a system that works for you if markers aren’t your thing!

The biggest take away from this article is that keeping your prep work constrained can not only make you work and stress less, but it can also build creativity and consistency as you make it a routine ritual.

If you enjoyed this article and found it helpful, please support me by joining on ko-fi. You can also find the games I have developed on itch as well.