How to do TTRPG Prep

Some methods for easily doing TTRPG Prep

Overview

The vague idea is to enter the session with the following items prepared:

• Events the players may encounter at any given moment
• Secrets the players may find at any given location
• Locations the players may discover

To determine these, you draw from #Characters and #Lore

Pull ideas from

Characters

• What are the villains doing?
  • Do they have any plans?
  • What are their goals?
  • What Events might occur as a result villain's actions?
  • What Secrets might the players discover about the villain?
  • What Locations might the villains be using?
• What are the players interested in?
  • Have they recently unlocked anything new they may be excited to use?
    • What Events, Secrets, or Locations might give them opportunity to use these?
  • Do they have any current goals or plans?
    • What Locations might be involved with these?
    • What Secrets might point them in the right direction?
    • What Events might occur when they start acting on their goals?

Lore

• What truths about the world might serve as fodder for Secrets?
• What

Quests

Quests are notes containing the status of ongoing mysteries and plots.

• The players managed to open a mysterious vault that has been sealed for thousands of years. Nobody knows why Joy was able to open the vault - only that she could, and that many secrets were hidden within.

The quest note for this might look something like:

## What's inside my head?
Why is Joy able to open the Star Vaults?

> See Heidi, Joy's maker.

#todo figure out why Joy can open Star vaults, and what Heidi has to do with that.

Quests are great fodder for all of these items. They are the single best way to potentially predict what your players may try to do.

Final Prep

Events

This is a list of event that may or may not happen. There are two types of events:

• Triggered events, that happen when the players do something you are expecting them to do.
• Spontaneous events, that you ca pull out of your back pocket more or less with no restriction.

An example of a Triggered event would be:

The next time the players enter a city, they will be confronted by a hostile guard.

An example of a Spontaneous event would be:

The villain makes an attempt to kidnap one of the players.

Events might be random encounters, puzzles, setbacks, storms, or any other thing that represents the world having some level of agency.

Secrets

This is a list of secrets that may appear as a result of player action. They can be more or less location-independent, unless something about the secret is highly context-dependent.

One of the players decides to visit a library. You have a secret prepared about the magical plague they are trying to cure. A note containing this secret will fall out of one of the books they open.

This note could have also been found in the villain's office, or in the stolen purse of a noble. Note that in each scenario, the discovery of the secret raises more question. Why was the note in that book in that library? Did someone plant it for the player to find? Why did the noble have that note? Do they know more about the plague? Are they involved somehow?

Locations

Locations come in two main types:

• Story locations, which are somehow connected the Players or the Villains.
• Filler locations, which may contain their own mini-plot or arc.

The villain's lair, deep within the mountains. It contains many tools for arcane research.

Anatomy of a Location:

• What Triggered Events might be tied to this location?
• What Secrets are likely to be found here?
• What Characters might be here?