Well, here’s the thing. About 7 years ago I set up a game for my son and his friends. Because I’m stupid busy I needed to make it such that I didn’t have to do a ton of preparation for each session. So I went about streamlining the rules of AD&D to work fast at the table. https://twitter.com/Blackmoor_Film/status/1340215168337362944

I also decided to create a setting for the game, I realized that having a setting to lean on, rather than just running disconnected modules and such would do a lot of the work for me. That took me about a year to put together, and it is the base of my current campaigns.

Then I started a business running D&D games. Once I realized I would be running weekly games for multiple groups I decided I needed to do some things to make sure I wasn’t going insane with prep every week. So I made a few important decisions.

1. My games are not ‘level appropriate’, in essence, your level isn’t really important, you explore the world, sometimes you encounter things above your pay grade, sometimes you don’t. But I don’t design the adventures for the party. This makes everything I create modular

2. So I get to reuse things for different groups. For example, when I started a new group in September their first adventure was on an island. I used that same island adventure with a few small tweaks for a birthday game, and again for a different regular campaign.

3. As an interesting side note, the higher level PCs did not “do better” in the adventure than the lower level PCs. This happens a lot, I find, as lower level PCs are more cautious, and avoid combat and danger where possible. That makes a big difference in AD&D

4. I run a 100% fully sandbox game. I wonder sometimes if people really understand what that means. For me, it means that the players can go anywhere they want any time they want. And as such, I am prepped and ready for improvisation every single session. I expect to pivot.

5. I have learned a few tricks to ensure that I can either: a) improvise something on the spot, or b) keep the players busy until the end of the session and prep something between sessions for the next time. Tables help with this, as do ‘former opponents and allies’ popping up

6. Another aspect of sandbox games that is important is riffing off of the players. Since I let them do whatever they want, we have had whole sessions where they “go to the blacksmith”, or “consult with sages” and stuff. This fills sessions for me without any advanced work.

7. I have a mountain of modules and adventures collected over the last 40 years, I cannibalize them at will, sometimes mid session if I need a map or a town or a NPC or whatever. My players have no idea as all they are familiar with is current material. Ignorance is your friend.

8. I have found enough free mapmaking and “generation” programs on the web that I can generate a decent map or town or whatever quite easily if I need them between sessions. It’s pretty remarkable what you can generate in a short time.

9. I don’t run many “dungeons”, our adventures are largely urban or wilderness, so I save the time that is dedicated to creating sprawling dungeons and figuring out their ecology. I do periodically run dungeons and such, but I usually have lots of time to do so.

10. I read and have read a metric ton of comics, fantasy and sci-fi literature, and my geeky brain remembers it all! When I am running a game I can pull on these things to help improvise. I have started sessions before with ZERO planned ahead of time, and nothing carrying over…

… from the last session. It doesn’t happen often, usually the hijinks from the last session bleeds into the current one, but even when it doesn’t, I just sit down, ask the players what they are doing and we go from there. It sounds weird, but the game almost runs itself

11. I have a lot of young players, kids anywhere from 10-17 years old. Youth feeds your enthusiasm and they are always suggesting things in game that I shamelessly pinch. I may have ZERO idea what the NPC will do next, until a player suggests something.

12. In sandbox play nothing stays buried. As the players run around and abandon plot threads and NPCs I can use them later in other campaigns and later in the same campaign. I am constantly amazed at how much content the players create by their actions

13. I’ve been running games for 35 years, and in my home-brewed system and setting for the last 8 years, I know this stuff backwards and forwards, and where I don’t I’m comfortable enough to improvise and not care if I get it “exactly right”, as I’m running homebrew

14. There is a whole other thread here about the joy and power of home brew gaming. I DON’T CARE if my game is “canon” or “true to the rules”, it just has to be fun and flavorful, so improvisation is much easier for me than for some refs.

15. I’m an academic, I read and write VERY quickly. This allows me to digest or produce a lot of content in a short time. I can and have sat down with no idea of what to do an hour before a game and create an adventure for that 3-4 hour game quite easily if needed.

16. The other advantage of having been a lecturer for 20 years is speaking in front of large groups or strangers doesn’t make me nervous. It's a skill that has served me well running games. Half of what makes improv hard is nervousness like this, I’m free of that.

17. TTRPGs have the perhaps unique quality of being able to surprise me. EVERY SINGLE SESSION something new comes up that I have to creatively rule on. I find this both fascinating and compelling. It keeps it fresh and keeps my interest

18. I get a buzz, almost a high, from running games, I CRAVE it. The unpredictability, the riffing off the players, the game engages my creative side and my intellect, it’s pretty much the perfect combination for my personality type. So I don’t get bored easily.

Hopefully some of these points might be useful for others who are running regular games, but many are kind of keyed to my particular experience and skills/limitations.

Oh, and I made a deal with an extraplanar being a few years back, that always helps!