Never Unprepared

The Complete Game Master's Guide to Session Prep

By: Phil Vecchione

Narrated by: Colby Elliott

Length: 3 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

Whether you're new to game mastering or have been running the same campaign since 1974, Never Unprepared: The Complete Game Master's Guide to Session Prep will help you prepare for games faster, avoid common pitfalls, and have more fun in the process. Never Unprepared breaks game prep down into its component phases - Brainstorming, Selection, Conceptualization, Documentation, and Review - and provides the tools you need to make the most of each phase. If you hate prep, you'll find ways to make it more enjoyable. If you already have a great system for doing your prep, you'll learn how to make it even better. Ten years in the making, Never Unprepared is award-winning author Phil Vecchione's epic rock ballad to game prep.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2012 Phill Vecchione (P)2019 Last Word Audio

This Book Changed My Prep!

I've read a lot of GMing books and blogs. From Sly Flurish, The Angry GM, Guy, and so on. I've gained a lot of knowledge from the former, but this one really helped me tighten up my GM prep, shorten my notes, and helped me create my own preping system. If you're a DM/GM, of any kind, there's a lot you can learn here!
(Oh, and don't listen to the comment saying the books to intensive and says "I don't want to write a book." The author in no way suggests you write a book. He's got a wife and kids, and no time to write a book for each session. And he mentions how having to many notes can slow you down in session. That commenter missed some key messages in the book itself.)

another tool in the box

another tool in the box good listening can apply in more then dnd or d20 dice games

Refund once, brought it again. Still useless

I fell sleep while listening because this book are just a bunch of filler. I only managed to get through the entire thing by listening at 2.2x speed.

1) If you actually want a way to 'prep' go read return of the lazy dungeon master (I'm not bias, I did not use that book for my own prep. But at least it's a good foundation and actually useful for beginners)

2) Too broad to be useful. Brainstorming -> Selection -> Conceptualization -> Documentation -> Review. There! I just save you ~2 hours.
all he say is 'how to think'! while it might be interesting to how prep can be break down to that. It just that, nothing more. The chapter itself is just a filler, he did not elaborate more. He even enforce his idea more by saying 'if you did not do this' all these negative thing to happen. But the idea itself is too vague to be any useful or exist at all.

This is just a essay. Not an actual book.

3) It's seem to emphasize 'prepare more', think about 'running a game more'. You could say "he say that you don't have to spend much time!!". Hell no, from what I heard: 'spend more time = more great game. He is sure to tell you that if you don't, your game'll suck.
That's completely opposite of my philosophy. I still hold 'play unsafe' to my heart. (It's on audible too) or 'prepare less'.

4) I get nothing out of this. I'm considered myself a high-pace adaptive GM. I'm ready at all time to go any direction that player decided to go.
Is there any advice on throw away scene? No
Is there any advice on structure of adventure? Yes and No, He only mentioned it vaguely "ThInK aBoUt motivation, goal, climax" did not go any further.
It's like a book on [how to become author] instead of telling you how to write a story. [He told you English language and it's grammar]

5) am I bias? Yes. I do handful amount of prep but only fundamental of the adventure. But I'm still improvise, i would not call it that, more of 'think fast'. So I really seek the tip on how to prep essential things, tip and trick, proper topic, list, structure. But I got the complete opposite: I got a big ol essay on how to use your brain.

I might seem like overly critical, well yes. I like to write a long review. And I choose to spend my time reading this book, so I expected something out of it. I'm just disappointed. There aren't that many GM books on audible.

So useful

I am looking forward to applying The techniques I’ve learned and going on to read the books Phil recommended.

LOTS of filler, one GOOD chapter

This “book” was basically one useful chapter with several more chapters of complete fluff. Either the writer didn’t have enough genuinely valuable content to warrant a book, or else he must think his audience is pretty ignorant.

Example: in an overly-lengthy discussion about which office supplies you’ll need, he goes into detail about making sure to—if you’re going to make notes by hand—purchase paper that’s sturdy enough not to tear whenever you decide to erase something. Wow! Thank God for such insightful advice! If only I’d read this book sooner, I wouldn’t have piles and piles of hand-written notes lying around my house, full of eraser holes. Genius!

I quickly found myself skimming the fluff, just to get to the one usable chapter which lists all the elements you should have in your game notes such as the purpose of each scene, the conditions for winning / losing and the possible outcomes of each, what tactics the NPCs will employ (so that they do more than just stand there and give / take damage), plus little details such as distinct mannerisms for NPCs and the weather (which is often ignored).

If you think this one chapter is worth paying the sticker price, then this might be a good return on investment for you. Personally, even though I am grateful for hearing that one chapter, it’s hard not to feel ripped-off about the rest.

Also, I didn’t care for the narration all that much. It sounds like the narrator is trying to do an impression of someone who has a naturally deeper voice than his own. I prefer a natural, conversational approach rather than trying to sound dramatic, especially when the book isn’t dramatic; it’s about how to organize blocks of text on note-pages, for goodness’ sake. So, that was a bit distracting.

Meh.

This may be my fault but i was expecting more from just common sense. it has very useful tips and information, but nothing more than you could get from searching "DM tips" on youtube.

Too Intense

This makes game mastering sound awful. I want to do less prep, not write a novel.