Basicallly I have never run a RPG session exactly as written. I have used published ones, but always cheat by changing it on the fly (nearly always in the players favor). My first RPG playing was nearly my last. A sadistic GM at a local con delighted in killing off my character in his very first move. So character death tends to be rare when I GM, replacing it with really bad injuries requiring them to go back home and heal up to try again, or having a new character show up for the player to continue playing. This booklet will help, especially new GM's, to keep more players happy.

This book contains good thoughts & principles for running a game as a "no-prep" GM. However, my criticisms are: one, there is still a decent amount of prep being introduced in the book (albeit with thought taken to make the prep minimal). Second, without any sort of random tables or actual content for your game, you have to turn to other sources to truly be a "no-prep gm".

Perhaps this book might be good for somebody who never thought of being a "no-prep gm" before and has no experience doing such a thing. The reality is, most GMs I know have run at least 1 campaign with no prep whatsoever, and most of the games go just fine. So, I really feel this book had good intentions, but fails in the application.

I love GMing RPGs but it's rare that I have enough time to sit down, read, absorb, and prep a module. And while I have some ideas for campaigns or adventures, pre-written modules are my go to since they involve less prep and everything is laid out. But lately I've been trying to look at some lighter rules systems and ideas on running RPGs with less prep. This book was an immense help. In fact, after reading through it, I gave it a shot: ran a one-shot, ZERO PREP rules light RPG at our game store's game day. We came up with a setting and using a bunch of tips in this book, I wove together and adventure that the folks at the table really enjoyed!

The author begins by sharing his own GMing experience, then moves into suggestions on how to fill your mind with story ideas, and finishes with advice on using random tables to get ideas and turn them into plots and stories on the fly. It's simple, but really good stuff. The best part is, a key theme is "Why does the GM have to do all the work?" By carefully listening to your players, they'll help you write the story as the adventures unfold. It's so obvious and yet clever.

If you'd like to venture into trying to run a game but you have no time, give this book a look and I think you'll find a ton of useful tidbits to make it happen!

This book gives you permission to not plan a huge campaign, but rather to work with your players to create something enjoyable. It's an alternate way to play the GM, a way to take the stress off a position that a lot of people don't want to do because of that stress. It's short but full of good ideas. Well worth the price.

My problem with this guide is that it's a one-sided presentation that repeatedly discusses the evils of GM prep and the joys of zero prep while glossing over the potential pitfalls of zero prep and how to avoid them. Besides, it's still asking you to do some prep.

Consider this core statement: "Random tables eliminate the need for session prep." They don't. For one thing, you need to come up with the tables in the first place. That's prep time even if you go looking for published tables, and if you spend any time reading them or thinking about them before you play. Also, do you know the Birthday Problem? It calculates the probability that no two people in a group have the same birthday. Do the math and it turns out that in a group of 23 or more people, two people sharing a birthday is more likely than no two people sharing a birthday. And birthdays are essentially a d365 table.

In a d100 table, which they seem to favor over at dicegeeks, that crossover point happens at the 12th roll. That is, by the time you've rolled 12 times against a d100 table, repetition of a previous roll is more likely than not. Ask yourself how often you'd roll on a given table. Multiple times per room that the PCs enter? Once per encounter? Once every 15 minutes of session time? Then figure out how long it'll take you to reach that 12th roll. That's when repetition gets likely. "You find another telescope" (or whatever you're rolling up randomly) gets less interesting with every repetition. Your fifth telescope doesn't mean you're having five times as much fun. If you can live with the repettion your d100 table would give you, great. If not, you've got a problem.

What's the fix to avoid repetition? "Roll again" isn't a good approach because you'll do it more and more as you use up a table. This wastes session time and can kill the flow of play. "Uh, hang on, we've done telescopes already. [Roll] And rusty swords. [Roll] Have we done sundials?" The fix is not to use the same table(s) over and over and over. Instead, use tables that reflect the different locales and environments in your setting. How do you do that? Prep time. Maybe you can find a variety of tables in books and online sources, or maybe you'll make up your own, but that's still prep time. It's not wasted time if it helps you and your players have fun, but it's still prep time.

The guide claims that if you prepare something the players never encounter, you've wasted your time. That doesn't have to be the case. Sure, it's a waste to roll up detailed room contents for a zillion rooms when the PCs will hit only an unpredictable fraction of them. I'd consider it a waste even if they visited every room, because "there are cobwebs, a table, and three wooden chairs" gets old pretty fast. Instead, focus on your process instead of making an unthinking series of dice rolls. If you have 10 minutes to prepare, roll up three things, and ponder how they might be related. Suppose you get a rusty sword, a goblin, and a rickety bridge across a chasm. What's special about this rusty sword? Why is it here instead of elsewhere? Is it lying around loose or is it hidden away? What's the goblin's interest in it? Why is the bridge here? What's on either side? Why is it rickety? What does the bridge have to do with the sword? You don't have to force your answers on the PCs, who might come up with their own ideas you can run with, but you've still done a useful warm-up exercise. You've primed yourself for improvising during the session.

The "zero" prep method in this guide isn't zero prep. It tells you to gather ideas, watch movies and TV shows, read books, listen to audiobooks, get familiar with story structure, search online for maps and pictures and whatnot, find a selection of random tables, and set up a laptop for use during play. That's all prep time, not zero prep.

"Use Combat to Stall" is potentially a bad idea. A combat should be exciting and interesting and relevant, not a time burner to cover up for a lack of preparation. Start the session 10 minutes later if you need a little prep time, instead of wasting an hour on a combat that serves no other purpose. Besides, if you're busy managing a combat, it'll be harder to come up with ideas. What happens when the players catch you off guard during play? Instead of deliberately stalling, use something from those extra 10 minutes you took, or make the players part of the solution instead of treating them like someone to be distracted while you come up with the answer. You can say, "You got me, so let's make something up."

There are three reasons to avoid or minimize prep time: 1) You just plain don't have the time. 2) You don't enjoy it. 3) It's not helping you during play. Instead of trying to eliminate prep time entirely, try to focus on the fun parts of session prep, and use it as preparation to improvise instead of just cranking out unnecessary detail. Focus on a few critical things that can help you during play (quality over quantity). A little time spent on good prep is much better than wasting session time with rerolling until you're happy or deliberate stalling. If you really want to avoid prep time altogether, use a GMless system, or let someone else be the GM. Otherwise, even a heavily improvised session involves preparing to improvise.