How much effort do you put into being a GM?

How much effort do you put into being a GM?

How many hours of work do you put into a given session?

What lengths do you go to, and how much original content do you produce?

Dead nervous first timer here.

First time DM here running HotDQ and RoT. Are you running a module or your own homebrew? Personally I put in a couple hours a week in and some people will say thats loads for a module. But I am running it for 9 people! (7 most weeks though) so i need to balance everything quite a bit. I do add things in to the campaign every now and then, like interesting encounters or story elements that i think make more sense but more often then not if its added in its in response to rp so I just improv things on the fly. Mybplayers are having fun and enjoying the campaign so i must be doing my job okay.

About 15-30 minutes per 4-hours session on average

Mostly run Dark Heresy and the answer is probably far too much, though I'm a stickler for bogging shit down with too much world building.

Probably around 2-3 hours per 4 Hour session?

I don't prepare for the sessions, improvise almost everything on the spot, and people still tell me I'm fantastic and don't want any other GM's.

>How much effort do you put into being a GM?
A considerable amount. Mostly put work on setpieces and locations, but only because I can churn out characters in an instant.

>How many hours of work do you put into a given session?
Same with although sometimes I may spend a full hour too.

>What lengths do you go to, and how much original content do you produce?
Not many. From my experience, it's better to use already made locations and monsters or just rip stuff straight off from movies/books/cartoons/etc. If I make some OC stuff and the players don't even bother, I'll just recycle it for another game.

>How much effort do you put into being a GM?
Close to none
>How many hours of work do you put into a given session?
Depending on details, from 15 minutes up to 4 hours. Usually it's around one hour. And most of it is spend on doing rehersal.
>What lengths do you go to, and how much original content do you produce?
Greatly depends on mood, last campaign and how many players will be present (my party has 3 core members and another 3 people on irregular basis). But originality is close to zero. Why? Because my players are movie-illiterate. I can pick almost any damn movie and use it as a plot basis without anyone realising it's a direct rip-offf. How bad they are? I've managed to rip Silverado almost entirely in my previous campaign and NOBODY NOTICED.

Don't be nervous. There is no real point. If you are new to the hobby or job of the GM, you can honestly pick up pre-made adventure modules for the game you are running or use guidance provided by core books and spin a scenario out of them. They always come with all the hooks, details and instructions for GMs how to run this thing and are written precisely for greenhorns and alike. Your players won't mind, even if they've read that module, because they know you are green and they know you are trying your best. Besides, running a module has a luxury of being (usually) well-structured, so the story has much more sense, a lot better prep and it appears that the game was very well prepared by you.
Remember - this is supposed to be fun. not a job with a deadline

just enough to get the players to want to do shit. once they start doing shit i let them dictate the pace and will make big maps and stuff for them to close a thread but that's it

if you plan nothing for some reason they will act like they're in a linear story and won't be proactive, and if you plan a lot then they'll apparently try to break the chains and fuck your plans as soon as they can

I run GURPS.

I start preparing for a campaign about 1 to 2 months in advance depending on how familiar I am with the books I'll be using and how unique is the world of the game.

Once I'm done with my preparations and worldbuilding (if any) I usually prepare about 1 hour before the session and then another hour after the session for the next one while ideas are still fresh in my mind.

Most of my writing time usually goes into worldbuilding, but I enjoy doing and do it even when I have no campaign so I do get a lot of material. Pruning it into something workable is the hard part.

About half the time is spent preparing the game world for play, writing out NPC tables, biographies and personalities of important NPCs (about half a page to a page of text, never more), collecting pictures and sounds for soundboard, making town and continent maps (for myself, I almost never show these to players), making and statting out equipment lists and pricing details, and whatever else needs to be done to make the world playable. About 25% of what I do will ever be touched by players and the rest is usually only mentioned in passing, if at all, but I don't mind, and I can always reuse stuff at a later date.

I spend no time at all preparing a plot for my players, they're usually the free-roaming kind that like exploring and getting involved by themselves so here I have to improvise on the fly. I do spend some time deciding what happens around the players, without their involvement, though.

>if you plan nothing for some reason they will act like they're in a linear story and won't be proactive, and if you plan a lot then they'll apparently try to break the chains and fuck your plans as soon as they can
As someone who is GMing since 2005 - this is a total bullshit and a fucking stereotype, don't listen to this guy, OP.
Anyone who tells you that players will fuck up your plans is either meming or incompetent as GM, who only did a very basic plot structure and ignored both own players with their quirks and personalities and the game mechanics they can use.
If you plan ahead and anticipate your own players, you can easily manipulate them into doing what you want from them do to, without them feeling railroaded and actually being sure they've outsmarted you, while everyone has a great time.

To all 3, far less than you'd expect.

>How much effort do you put into being a GM?
Define effort. I love to read books, RPGs flatbook and take notes outside of the session, so I put all my "effort" in dealing with the social drama of my group and thinking of ways for the player to like the game as much as I do. I'm very focus during the sessions, which means that I can't run for more than 5 hours without it turning to shit from me being tired and saying bullshit.

>How many hours of work do you put into a given session?
Usually one, before the session, marking down all the names and facts on a sheet before me. The rest of the work is during the week before, when the inspiration comes in. And when it fails to come, I take random table to give me ideas.

>What lengths do you go to, and how much original content do you produce?
All of it, almost. I don't like to run pre-written campaign ; usually I take them for a two or three sessions arc for my group.
For example, I'm doing a FFG SW game set in the Legacy Era ; I run Friend Like These, the last adventure book, but only as a part of something bigger (their campaign : rebuilding a massive starship).
I feel too constraint by pre-written campaigns, and some are really badly written. I'm thinking of the 3 last parts of Rise of the Runelords, of pathfinder.
BUT ! If you are a new to DM, I advise you to run a prebuilt adventure. Add some things that you like to it, but follow the arc. If it isn't too badly written and your players are comprehensive, all will go well.

I haven't read all the thread, what kind of player do you have ?
Friends, unkowns ?
This guy or that guy ?
Green or seasoned ?

And, don't worry. No first time have been perfect, so even if you think you failed its no reason to qui.

I basically spend the same amount of time prepping I do playing.

But it depends on what/where the group is. If they're half way through a dungeon I know I might just do 30 minutes prep for a 3 hours session which is just me flicking through notes reminding myself what is meant to happen.

Last week I wanted to add some new stuff in and spent 5 hours prepping for a 3 hour session, the new stuff was well received and will be reused going forward.

Lately I've done fuck-all, just some maps and the general task at hand including a planned.combat encounter or two.
This is mostly because I'm in the army now and my friends aren't, though. Before my conscription I planned a shitton of sruff and did a lot of worldbuilding, still dependent on inspiration though.
It also helps that now I'm GMing Onöy War which really doesnt need much planning it seems.

It heavily depends on the game and what will be done. For most games you're best off just creating a skeletal version of the world and events and filling it in as you go where you need to. That way you don't waste huge amounts of time doing things that will not bear fruit.

Depending on the game and its rules, and the goal, you either have to do more or less work ahead of time. Some times you can just say fuck it and make it up as you go along.

Too much, too long for how far we get, again too much.

Silly amount of time worldbuilding, 30 minutes or so planning actual sessions

>all this "lol 15 minutes I just make it up perfectly as I go and pull maps out of my ass because I'm an artistic genius"

I'm boned I guess. I spent 8 hours yesterday and still don't have any maps or anything.

this, I'm a fucking hack and I know it.

But maps are piss easy. You can literally improvise them on spot, as long as you have a broad idea where you want to place all objects on it.

If I were doing 40k or something, how are you supposed to just shit out maps for something as complicated as a forge complex or the sprawl of an underhive?

Maps are the one spot where you can see a large difference between thrown together on the spot vs. planned out carefully.

Maps that are thrown together on the spot usually have inconsistencies, are implausible or unrealistic, have weird errors and don't stand up to basic scrutiny. This is particularly true for city maps and country maps.

Combat maps thrown together on the spot also tend to have balance problems and make for boring combat. Either they make the encounter too easy, too hard, or just don't figure in the encounter at all because they're just flavor.

I prepare exhaustive details (names/regions/towns/dungeons/encounters/wares/etc.) extensively--but usually in bursts, and just BARELY in advance.

>Story leads to massive dungeon crawl
>Seven floors of pain
>Realize I prepared nothing
>Spend hours exhaustively plotting the layouts, traps, puzzles, and encounters
>Only finish two floors
>Despair that they'll plow through my material no sweat
>mfw they only finish one and a half
>mfw I prepare a floor and a half every week and they just barely run short of my prep every time
>mfw finish the dungeon a day before they do
>mfw the whole time

On average, I spend maybe 30-60 minutes for any given session, most of it being turning over future developments in my had.

Yeah I do very little "hard prep." Dungeon maps are about it, maybe boss fights and set pieces if the game demands it.

Otherwise it's all improv, or just loosy goosy ideas that are floating around in my brain waiting for their turn

>9 players

Jesus fuck, cut the group to 6 AT MOST. In my experience, anything above 6 is a nightmare and 4 is the sweet spot.

Every 2 hours of play generally has 4-8 hours of work behind it.

But that's just because I tend to plan too widely, and cover as many options as possible.

Half an hour of actual work, occasional note-taking over the week, unless we're dungeon crawling. Then I spend hours on that shit.

DM for 4e(inb4 4rry), maximum effort at the table, about 10 minutes pre/post session to make a "last time in..." writeup for the start of the game. Crazy easy to wing challenges and encounters once you're comfortable with the math.

It REALLY depends on what system you run and how much work you want to put into being original. A lazy DM can still do a pretty great job with a popular-enough system that has lots of created content for it just by swiping free or pirated modules, monsters, et cetera. Of course, the more you put in the more you'll get out.

i write notes when i think of them during the day, and sometimes write up some monsters when im bored and then maybe use them. otherwise most of my campaign i just think about what happened in the past, stress out, and then come out with a plan for what to do on the car ride there.
but i also spend a bit during the week thinking about what i need to do to move things forward.
i would say i make up 50% of the monsters and stuff people fight, and use 50% stuff from books.
i often take scenarios and maps from prewritten adventures and just wing changing them during a session. like "oh i need a cave full of monsters the party needs to encounter to rescue X, lets see what pdfs i have on my computer".
its hard, i make mistakes, my party helps me out. i make them name everyone and every monster and stuff.

>How much effort do you put into being a GM?

Not too much. I outsource my underlying work for the campaign to the players themselves: Every character who comes to my table HAS to come with at least three story-hooks built into their past and an eventual, realistically attainable (for the setting) goal.

Most of my work once I get their history is figuring out the broad path of the campaign and picking which plot hooks in their path I toss their way, while occasionally having them stumble across unrelated adventures.

>How many hours of work do you put into a given session?

Half an hour for every four hours, tops. I source most of my maps online, use programs to generate statblocks when figuring out mooks, and have a stack of character sheets I can pick through when I need a sudden villain.

>What lengths do you go to, and how much original content do you produce?

I produce very little original content. Any time I begin a campaign, I start with a broad-strokes description of the setting, i.e. "Low-magic, steampunk-esque world which uses dirigibles for transport across islands floating in the sky" and then fill out details if and when they become necessary for the party.

Like my character sheets for suddenly-needed villains, I keep a stack of randomly-generated maps with generic encounters handy for when the need arises, and then fill in the flavor text for whatever I need. "Oh, you're exploring that undead temple? Got it right here..."

>how are you supposed to just shit out maps
By shitting them up. What kind of questions is that? What? You can't improvise mega-dungeon on spot?

If your players don't care about topography, maps can be effortlessly thrown together, as long as you know what you want to achieve. If they care, all you need to prepare beforehand is the placement of large geographical areas, but that's it.
And I'm sorry you are a fucking failure unable to improvise map that don't suck. Few days ago I've been working on a map with Indigo, I've thrown it together in 5 minutes, it still holds, still has decent topography, ifrastructure placement and semi-sensible climate. So I'm not sure what you are talking about here. Your Geo classes sucked or something?

>I've thrown it together in 5 minutes, it still holds, still has decent topography, ifrastructure placement and semi-sensible climate
It probably doesn't. You just don't know any better.

this.

I look back on the slapdash maps I used to use and cringe a bit in comparison to the larger, more elaborate maps I actually put care and effort into.