Context For How I Prep
Jumping in on the "How I Prep" series started at Roll to Doubt by describing how I prep for my megadungeon campaign using Miranda Elkin's Nightwick Abbey (of which the first three levels, plus a lot more, is available at the Patreon).
Let me start by providing some context for the megadungeon campaign. My Nightwick game is played roughly two to four times a month, lasting 2 to 2.5 hours, with 3-5 players. After 31 sessions, each player as a PC level 3 or 4. The "area" I am trying to cover in the world is a loop between two 6-mile hexes consisting of the Abbey and the titular village.
Like many who have recently posted, my goal is to have prep take a short amount of time, demonstrate the impact of player choices, and make the world move independently of the players (factions, events, ect.). To that end, I keep a Google doc of campaign notes, employ a one-page tool that helps me prep, and I restock according to Nigthwick Abbey's prescribed methods.
Campaign Documents
It is a collection of both session notes and session one-pagers (which I'll talk about below). Collections of other elements that I want to incorporate into the game or to modify to be more Nightwick-flavored or specific, like the carousing table and the overloaded encounter die.
I have also thought of other geomorphs that might be good substitutes should I want to expand areas of the megadungeon itself or replace pre-existing 'morphs due to player actions. I will often doodle these or think of themes, so instead of letting them be idle thoughts, I write them down! Why let good ideas go to waste?
The last little bit labeled "articles" are more long-form thoughts about how I think about elements of the megadungeon. Again, after being a player in ~100 sessions and a DM for ~30 sessions, I have ideas about how run the dungeon, so putting them down helps me remember and keeps me consistent. I also, for a little bit was conferring with another DM who ran 50 sessions of Nightwick, so we traded notes.
Session One-Pager (the Actual Prep)
Here are the sections for my prep sheet which I try to keep somewhat digetic by framing it as if the characters are having a drink at Nightwick Village's best/only inn:
- AS THE WORLD TURNS
- IN YOUR IDLE TIME
- WHAT IS THE CHATTER FROM THE BADDERS' BOYS
- AFTER DRAINING YOUR CUPS, FIGURES APPROACH
AS THE WORLD TURNS: Here is where I am reviewing the
yearly, monthly, and weekly events that shape the world and the current attitudes of Nightwick Village. I try to place faction movements (if the party were aware of them) here as well as random events.
- I also try to tie yearly & monthly effects to an increase/decrease of resources, especially those that the players might need to use in the dungeon. And/or have the event impact their downtime abilities. I think this is one of the best ways to make these events feel real. For example, a recent monthly famine removed rations from the store. The woodsman PC had to hunt in downtime for rations, of which only about 1d4+1 were ever hunted.
- For weekly events, I try to make them a potential problem to be solved before or in lieu of going to the dungeon. The PCs don't have to pursue it, but it might have an impact depending on the action they do or don't take.
IN YOUR IDLE TIME: The is just time for me to run down a list of what actions and effects downtime choices had on the PCs. This is also a time we check in on the progress of various crafting efforts and with those who have been gravely injured. This is also the place where I think about how the PCs actions might have affected NPCs that they want stuff from.
WHAT IS THE CHATTER FROM THE BADDERS' BOYS: The goal of this section is to show how last week's session might have impacted the village. Its also an opportunity to hold up a mirror to the PCs actions from the point of view of the NPCs and in particular, the "law" of the land represented by the Badders' Boys. So they talk smack, in loud whispers, about the PCs: "Funny how that lot always drags 2-3 poor peasants into that abbey, but only they seem to come back alive...yeah....real funny..."
AFTER DRAINING YOUR CUPS, FIGURES APPROACH: And just when everyone is about to leave the inn, they are approached by hirelings (if any) looking for employment. I generate the number of hirelings, the type, quirks, and try to tie each hireling to one of the 7 deadly sins for added fun in the Abbey.
Dungeon (Re)Stocking
Miranda has a nice method of restocking
Nightwick that is based on a decreasing die size with each real-life week that passes between sessions. I usually also review the random encounter table here to make sure it best reflects the current state of the dungeon and the level of agitation the dungeon might have toward the PCs. This is also a time for me to upgrade
villains that have continued to plague the PCs. The final thing I might do is try to alter parts of the dungeon if the yearly or monthly events warrant it.
And that is it!
