How do you prep for games?

Hi all! Longtime player looking to write an adventure. It'd be great to hear about any dm's that have made their own homebrew campaigns and what work goes into  preparing to run them. It'd be an amazing help. Thank you!

Just as a reminder.... From the Roll20 Community Code of Conduct : The Roll20 Forums exist to discuss topics directly related to the use of the Roll20 program. Anything that more fittingly could be discussed on another website SHOULD be discussed there. Make sure to keep the advice Roll20-specific:)

I run 13th Age, so I prepare an encounter or two using the battle building rules, find a nice map or two, and the rest is either cribbed from fragments of published adventures or improvised.

I'm working on a campaign right now, have been off and on for a few months, and have the following. In the game forums there is a couple threads, character creation, specific thread for ooc stuff, and a group rules which explains what is expected from everyone (think of it as a Code of Conduct). As those are non game related material (behind the scene stuff) I tend to keep them outside the game room. I also have the API script "Welcome Package" installed to make it easier for the potential players to start on their character sheets. Inside the game, I do some of my usual prep. Create maps and setup any feature that is going to be used then archive all of them till needed. Create a playlist of music and sound effects. Create my organizational layout of folders in the journal tab. Generally it looks like this or similar: A game handout that provides multiple things: Some basic game world information Functions as a hyperlinked index of various archived handouts which provide more specific location information Sheets Characters NPCS Monster Manual - this only holds what I will be needing for the adventure including any random encounter monsters that might be needed. HD - to sort monsters by their hit dice Game Stuff - usually has a more specific or elaborate name Macro sheet - I use a splash page that has a token on it and it is linked to this sheet. The sheet has one macro and it is for character attribute rolling which is displayed when the token is selected. Adventures  A character sheet named as the adventure- I usually setup initial location descriptions so when the group enters the scene, I can just click on it and have it show up in the text chat.

Well the initial work consists of getting a good grip of what the world looks like, how it feels and how it works. - As a start-map I have the map of the current region my players are in as the background. I also write down the current date and what that say of the week is in the language people speak here (e.g. Wednesday may be called Marketday) Consecutive adventures usually take less time to prepare (rule of thumb: 1 hour preparation for 1 hour play, but vary greatly though) - I workout maps for every scene the encounter where there might be battle. I also have a few general backgrounds such as street or forest - I use GIMP to make the background images and upload those. I add tokens for objects that might be displaced (e.g. chairs, tables, etc.) As @Pat S described I use Sheets as well for enemies and allies. I associate tokens with those so I can drag and drop them into the map. Makes preparing faster and allows for ad hoc fights. I also use a lot of API code to write abilities into GM description of tokens since I use my own turnoder which is displayed only to me in chat. A good sound collection helps as well. Sadly we cannot play 2 or more playlist at the same time (yet) , so if you want ambient you need to select the music track manually. I provide new items as item-cards which I upload beforehand. Once my players have identified the item or seen its complete effect I give it to the respective players as handout.

GenKitty said: Just as a reminder.... From the Roll20 Community Code of Conduct : The Roll20 Forums exist to discuss topics directly related to the use of the Roll20 program. Anything that more fittingly could be discussed on another website SHOULD be discussed there. Make sure to keep the advice Roll20-specific:) Where should players hoping to DM go? I know Roll20 always says they want more GMs, but they very clearly in their terms and services don't want them talking about it here.

Jeremy R. said: Where should players hoping to DM go? I know Roll20 always says they want more GMs, but they very clearly in their terms and services don't want them talking about it here. Try reddit /r/Roll20 /r/rpg /r/DnD /r/Pathfinder_RPG

Start page best-practices I like to recommend for setting up a fresh new game table in Roll20: Always make a "Start" page, splash page or landing page in Roll20. Enbiggen it (50x50?), plenty of room to sketch drawings or stash pop-up illustrations of the atmosphere/setting. Keep the Players ribbon here in between sessions, and a copy of all of their Character Tokens, so that the GM can be working on other Pages and anyone who happens to log-in won't see what the GM is preparing. Set a darker, non-white background color on Start Page. The white is too bright. A dimmer color (or a cool background image or map) is more pleasing when you're sitting on the Start page waiting for the game. Have the Start page load some music or sound effect on launch, perhaps just a short sound-effect like a bell or voice that says "Welcome". This way there is always a sound-test / speaker-test each time the game is launched. Spend a little time on Page Settings and intro-contents on your Start Page. First impressions & good utility space. Does not need to be perfect or fancy, just functional and pleasing. It's your lobby which can have any features in it you wish to convey.