Have one or two puzzles in your back pocket. If you start getting confused, contrive a way to get the players interested in your puzzle, then hurry the heck up and figure out what it is you're supposed to do next!
Venture-Lieutenant, Finland—Tampere
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Read ahead in the scenario whenever your players discuss anything for even a few seconds. Also, don't be afraid to go "wait, I did something wrong here, let's backtrack a little". Most players are surprisingly understanding if you tell them up front you haven't had time to prepare adequately. Just do the best you can.
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I've only run one scenario truly cold (convention overflow), though there's been a few with less prep time than I'd normally like:
If you haven't checked out pfsprep.com yet, now would be a great time to do so. They've got helpful documents (mainly stat blocks, but other things as well), for pretty much every scenario. The quality, especially for recent seasons, is quite good. Printing those out will give you at least something to start with. Obviously, without the context of the scenario text and map you can only go so far, but at least in my case, prep tends to involve a fair amount of looking up how different spells, feats, and such work, so you can at least get started. Skimming through the threads for each scenario on this forum may be helpful, to see what issues and questions people had in the past. Again, that's only going to get you so far without the actual scenario, especially if you haven't played it yet.
I'd also re-emphasize the importance of explaining the situation to your players. They'll almost certainly be patient if they know what's going on. Backtracking when you make a mistake is important, but sometimes it might make more sense to just acknowledge the error and move on.
Venture-Captain, Alabama—Birmingham
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The worst part of running cold is that you are about 3-5 hours of prep behind as the game starts. Time is your enemy more than anything in the scenario.
0) tell your players you are running cold, and ask them for understanding and patience. Most players are forgiving under circumstances like these, and if they aren't they need the chance to walk from the table before they get really upset later. Don't take it personally if they do.
1) read the summary.
2) grab your (or whoever's is handy) smartphone and look for threads on the forums. If there is something tricksy, someone will have griped about it.
3) while you've got the interwebs up, look at pfsprep.com for that scenario. If you can print the pages great, if not, at least skim them and jot down any notes you need. If you can get the organizer to do this step for you, even better!
4) skim through for maps. Hit your organizer first, then walk around the pfs room begging for flip mats or map packs. If the maps aren't giant spoilers or have secret doors, have one of the players start drawing them for you. Drawing maps eats time you could be reading ahead!
5) read the scenario. It takes time but you need the heads up that the summary often doesn't provide.
6) reread act 1 and then begin the game.
7) Do everything possible to speed up the game, short of ruining the experience. Optional encounters are right out, period.
8) Take breaks between acts to read the next section.
9) don't forget to have fun! Running cold is stressful, but its still a game, not just for players but GMs too!
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In most cases, I'd try not to run cold and address whatever factor is causing you to run cold.
If it's lack of funds to purchase the scenario, talk to the coordinator or your local VO and see if they can loan you a printed copy of the scenarios in advance.
If you do have to run cold, here's my tips on logistical things you can do (which is different than style tips when you're playing):
1) If you absolutely can't get your hands on the scenario until a precariously short time before the event, consider taking the first slot off and dedicating it to skimming through whichever scenarios you've committed yourself to. This way you'll have a stress-free 4-6 hours to get your arms around things.
2) Prior to going to the con, use the GM prep site to grab the stat blocks for all the monsters in the scenarios even though you don't have them. Skim those the week prior to the event so you can familiarize yourself with obscure rules that may be important to sort out. You can use the GM prep site to identify that the robots in a scenario will have hardness 10 and then at least brush up on what that means to your party. You can identify the BBEG has solid fog and fog-cutting lenses and brush up on what that means.
3) Identify what maps are part of the scenario (there's an excellent thread that lists all the maps by scenario that was recently started). Grab these maps in advance if you can, or consider drawing them in advance. This will save you some table time which you can instead use to read ahead or more thoroughly read a section you skimmed. If you're also drawing maps, you have a higher risk to lose momentum and player attention as you both draw the map AND read a section before giving players your attention.
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As some one who got my start in convention gming on classic tables; here is what I did.
I let them know that I needed a few minutes to read over the scenario;
take 5-10 minutes to scan it .. look at the stats, skim over the opening so you don't tie your tongue in knots reading, and read the summary at the beginning closely .. this is going to give you the biggest boost in running the scenario.
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16
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Make sure you read the tactics section for all combats twice. In the few times I've run cold, I've almost always had a tactics error somewhere in the session. Usually it's not a big deal. However, if you make an error that makes things deadlier than normal and someone dies, that could end up being an issue for someone.
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One thing I do (and am doing for a convention this weekend in Minneapolis ) is to take Thursday off for prep. Since you should have the scenarios today, you won't be cold, just may not be enough as you'd like. Read each scenario, cover to cover to see he full story. Check out the stat blocks, and go to the PFS shared drive site to see if anyone has nicely formatted pages for it.
Walk through both, noting the creatures and how many, for the eventual mini pull.
Read the GM discussion forum, to see if there are gotchas.
On a printed copy, make some noted... Perhaps highlight some key DCs.
Finally, relax. The players will have fun, even if you are frustrated by your performance. Be open and honest with them, and they will want to understand... And will even want to help!
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When I face a similar situation I tell the players that I'm not overly familiar with the scenario and there will be a few extra breaks if I need to check something and read ahead before entering a new situation. So far no one has complained and from my perspective it's a new challenge. 3-7 is so far the highest tier I have done it.
But if time is limited my quick-prep is as follows:
1 - Read the summary.
2 - Check success condition. Especially in older seasons you might just skip a faction mission that gives the second Prestige point.
3 - Make sure the players are aware that you have not prepared to run current scenario beforehand and if someone does not want to risk potentially spoiling the scenario because of the, they are free to walk.
4 - Have fun. It's still just a game and everybody is there to have fun.
