GMing as a Practice, and Why You Prep

Running an RPG is a practice, like yoga or martial arts. You don't master it; you get better by doing it, reflecting on how things went, and trying to do better next time.

Ask your players for feedback. What did they enjoy? What felt rocky? What do they want to see more of? Listen without defending. Then, on your own:

• Did you pursue your agenda? If not, what would that have looked like?
• Did you follow your principles? Where did you slip?
• Where did you get stuck in the core loop? What prep might have helped?
• Did you handle moves correctly? Did you miss any triggering?

Write down 2-3 specific things to focus on next session. Put them where you can see them. During play, try to do them.

Five reasons:

• To give yourself interesting stuff to say — descriptions, NPC voices, names.
• To speed up play — so no one waits while you stat a monster or draw a map.
• To shore up weaknesses — if you always forget followers, prep something for them to do.
• To hone your craft — give yourself time to make things thematic and consistent.
• To give yourself permission to play hard — if a monster has a written move like "tear an arm off," you'll be more willing to use it. Prepping impending dooms makes it easier to follow through.

The candidates: Threats (the recurring problems), hooks for pushing PCs into the field, expeditions (the Chart a Course choices), sites the PCs might explore, dangers (hazards and monsters), discoveries (clues, puzzles, arcana), and NPCs you expect to appear.

Prep only what's useful and valuable to you. Don't write down what Nia looks like unless you'll forget. Don't prep a plot or a sequence of inevitable scenes — that's authoring the story in advance, which is exactly what you're not here to do. Prep things that help you improvise; let the dice and the players do the rest.