lisamarlene wrote:
So this is my problem: either under-preparing, and not knowing what to do when my players ask me questions, and then fumbling with answers, looking them up, and boring everyone to tears while I flip pages in books... OR, overpreparing and spending more time in exposition and storytelling than in actual gameplay, choices, and combat, and boring everyone to tears while I ramble on and on and on.
Hi Lisa Marlene...great job of DM'ing (as far as I can tell) and storytelling so far! Thanks for sharing.
My .02, you can't be over prepared, more prep is always good, and if you don't use it all, it can be recycled for use in a later session. As you said when you were underprepared, you didn't have the info to answer questions. So if you have prepared a ton of stuff, just use it to answer questions, no need to ramble on about background and such unless they seek out the info.
Sounds like the kids are having fun, my 6 yr old is on and off about D&D on paper, but loves adventure computer games.
Enjoy!