Wake me up before we go go?

[BigNorseWolf]

Do you have to memorize spells before or after the mission briefing?

Outside of missions where you're being sent on a boat and have lots of time to prepare, do the people getting you for the faction missions have the foresight to give the party the faction mission BEFORE dawn/breakfast/ whenever the prepared casters are usually memorizing their spells?

[Michael Foster 989]

You have to attend the mission briefing with your spells memorised, as a GM I would prefer you have your spell list setup before you reach the table as that means we dont have to wait for you to be ready to start the scenario. Afterwards if time allows you may alter it within the session (during rests, long travel etc).

I have a starter spell list for every scenario which covers the basics and then if we have time and I have information about what we should expect ill alter it enroute if I have the option.

[Thorkull]

It depends on the scenario. When Drandle Dreng wakes you up in the middle of the night and says, "Go do this right now," then you're stuck with what you have prepared.

If the VC says, "You have 5 days to complete this," then (if the rest of the party is willing to wait) you could theoretically prepare spells then.

Of course, if you show up at the start of the scenario with no spells prepped and the VC tells you to go right now because time is of the essence then I guess you're not going to be much use, are you?

[CanisDirus]

That brings up a related question - how much information should a player base those decisions on?

Should a player read the "tagline" of the scenario they're going to be playing in before deciding on what spells to prepare, or should they "keep it in character" and go into it blind until they hear from the VC (and then either have in-game time to prepare as people have said above, or "be stuck" with their "standard/everyday" set if they're forced to go in the middle of the night)?

[nosig]

Most of my prepared casters keep a spell slot or more unprepared, so that I can fill it later with what comes up. Some of my casters even keep an empty slot at each level....

otherwise, I go with my standard list. Though I often check out the blurb on the scenario to get a feel for the adventure coming up (often this will decide me WHICH PC I'll be running).

Hay, at least we don't go into the game short spells cast the day before... with whatever the PC was doing yestorday.

[Jussi Leinonen]

When running games, I tend to hint to the players before the briefing if they should prepare spells and equipment. This is the case if the adventure starts off right after the briefing. If there's time (e.g. a ship trip) between the briefing and the adventure, we save some time by not having to specify the spells for the briefing day.

[bdk86]

nosig wrote:

Most of my prepared casters keep a spell slot or more unprepared, so that I can fill it later with what comes up. Some of my casters even keep an empty slot at each level....

+1. People always seem to forget this particular piece of the rules. And honestly, if you're going to be throwing out all of your spells in the first encounter...well, that's a bad sign anyways.

Generally, I find it also helps to have a preset "general use" spell list setup for my prepared casters that can then be adjusted based on the briefing/mission/etc. later. While using blurbs toes into meta-gaming, it can easily backfire as these often give away very little in terms of pacing, timeline, and specific hazards/threats/challenges. So I don't really let it influence my spell selection.