TTRPGs That are Actually Fun to Prep
It’s helpful to find a media reviewer with clear preferences. If you know what that person likes, then their review is much more useful to you. “She hates science fiction elements in games, so her negative review is actually a plus for me, a science fiction fanatic.” And if you’ve been reading my reviews for a while, then you know one thing above all.
I tend to prioritize game books with bullet points, neat layout, quick summaries, and evocative touchstones. I don’t want to read and memorize 50 pages every week. All I need is a few good ideas and I’ll fill in the rest with my classic style of imaginative bullsh*t.
But there have been a few times when I, too, enjoyed that solitary creativity of taking notes, drawing maps, and making plans (that I know will be ruined by my players). It’s time to come clean and share the games I’ve actually, truly, deeply enjoyed prepping for!
Mythic Bastionland Permalink
There’s been a lot of buzz about Mythic Bastionland on my social media. I loved Into the Odd because it came with a killer dungeon, but Electric Bastionland disappointed me by being more of a toolbox than a bespoke adventure. So I was fully prepared to skip this newest entry.
And then I played a fantastic campaign of broken knights and ancient evil. And then one of my favorite poets, Malcolm Guite, started teasing his newest book about Aurthurian Legends. And then I found a battered copy of Mary Stewart’s Merlin Trilogy at a local thrift shop. So I guess we’re doing knights now.
Look at this beautiful art of the various knights you can play as!
There’s a simple two-page spread of rules for creating a realm. You grab a blank hex-map, plop down a few myths, place some major holdings, scatter some sanctums, and finally sprinkle some hazards on top. Then you populate them with leaders, knights, mad seers, monsters, and weird folks. Lastly, enscribe a name atop the map and hand it to your players. Voila! The process was really simple, but more surprisingly it was really fun! I spent 4-5 hours building out my realm and enjoyed every second. These generators by loner were a huge help!
Huge credit to Chris McDowell for getting me to enjoy prep for the first time in actual years of running games. If you already like worldbuilding, then this game will consume your brain and output a beautiful, gameable hex-map.
Index Card RPG Permalink
As I was telling my friend Jeff about Mythic Bastionland he prompted the idea for this blog post: “What other games are easy to homebrew? I love creating my own worlds and stories.” After some introspection I brought him a pile of books to check out. After looking through them all, he reached for Index Card RPG.
I woke up the next morning to this text from him:
Okay, so I may have woken up at 5am and started looking at ICRPG. I gotta go to the card shop tomorrow and get some sleeves. Im also out of index cards haha! Looks like a target run as well.
Poor guy was HOOKED, and I don’t blame him! ICRPG has this rough, middle-school marker art style that encourages you to draw (even if you don’t think you can). Here’s some of the art from the book:
And here is some of the art that Jeff drew while prepping for his game:
This video explains the Index Card Method better than I could. All the other advice facilitates this index-card based approach to theater of the mind. Abandon minis and terrain and AI-art. Instead just grab a bunch of cards and markers and jump into an adventure!
More importantly than the art is the fantastic advice scattered throughout this MASSIVE book. Advice for creating one-shots, campaigns, monsters, maps, encounters, NPCs, magic items, and more. It all has a lab-tested feel to it; as if the person writing it has been a GM for decades and has mastered the art of prepping…which is true!
Even though it’s been a few years since I played it, I still use a lot of the advice and principles in every game I run. If you want to skip the boring parts of prep and really dig into the fun stuff, then ICRPG will help you focus your energy. And you might just find yourself reaching for those forgotten markers in the junk drawer.
Valley of Flowers Permalink
I ran a 6-month campaign of this fantastic setting, so obviously I had a great time! This is an observation that I stole from the wildly entertaining podcast Between Two Cairns (04/11/2024).
I want to read this again because I feel like I’ll get more out of it. It does the rare thing of making you want to read it like a novel and then run it like a game.
This one stands out because it was such an engaging reading experience. I remember staying up late to finish certain sections. And ended up taking notes just so I could enjoy tracking connections between all the elements.
This is DENSE! Each NPC is tied to another NPC, or a location, or a scenario, or an important piece of worldbuilding. Even minor elements end up being tied together by the end of the book.My players were effortless guided around the entire region, each random encounter leading to the next. It was beautiful.
In fact I would warn anyone who wants to run this that they should plan to read through it twice. And plan on taking notes for their second read-through. Does taking meticulous notes on something count as prep? Especially considering I improvised and added very little from my own brain? I dunno. But I enjoyed this book before any dice hit the table.
My Hypocritical Conclusion Permalink
“Sometimes a hypocrite is nothing more than a man in the process of changing.” - Oathbringer
And sometimes I’m just a big hypocrite. If we take a peek at the DOWNLOADS section of this very website you’ll see a bunch of game prep that I took the time to cleanup and share with the world. I’m always surprised when I look back at this stuff. In my brain I tell myself “I don’t like prep” but here’s evidence to the contrary!
I spent so much time aligning and printing coasters for Barkeep on the Borderlands. Hours meticulously guessing at stats for Hot Springs Island. Days (at least two!) trying to get the Wildsea Map to look how I wanted. And I know I tested a friendship while playtesting some of the UVG pets I created (they really didn’t want their Flabby Jelly to float away!)
I’ve always known that prep is worth it. That my investment of time and energy will pay off as soon as my friends arrive and the dice start rolling. But only recently have I started to crave that solitary creativity. Maybe it’s just because I haven’t published anything in a year. Or maybe it’s just because my brain is changing (“growing” seems like a stretch).
But one day I hope to convince myself that I actually DO enjoy preparing for games. And I’m so grateful to all the fellow GMs and creators who inspire me. What are some of your favorite games to prep for? Leave it in the comments!
Just kidding, there are no comments. Languish in isolation! Or reach out on social media or whatever. I’m going to try and post here more regularly, and hope to be working on something exciting soon…
