Session prep packet template
A one-page packet you fill in before the game: the hook that opens it, the situations that fill it, the NPCs who might appear, and the threads to pull. Print it or copy the Markdown into whatever you run from.
How to use it
- Cold open first. Fill the opening before anything else — a session that starts mid-problem is worth twenty minutes of prep.
- Situations, not scenes. For each, note the place, its people, what they want, and what happens if the party does nothing.
- One line per NPC. Voice, want, secret. Skip anyone the party is unlikely to meet.
- Leave a thread. Note one loose end you are deliberately saving so next week never starts cold.
# Session Prep Packet — [Campaign] — [Date]
## Cold open
One vivid situation, already in motion:
-
## Objective (what the players are chasing tonight)
-
Stakes if they win / lose:
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## Situations (3–4)
1. Place: ___ People: ___ They want: ___ If the party does nothing: ___
2. Place: ___ People: ___ They want: ___ If the party does nothing: ___
3. Place: ___ People: ___ They want: ___ If the party does nothing: ___
## NPCs who might appear
- Name — voice / want / secret
- Name — voice / want / secret
## Threads to pull (from last session)
-
-
## Leave for next time
- A worked example
Cold open: the fence the party is hunting is already dead when they arrive, still warm, the reliquary gone. Objective: catch the ship that left at dawn before the trail goes cold. Situations: the dockside tavern (nervous barkeep, a witness who wants paying), the harbormaster’s office (records of a dawn departure, a bribable clerk), the buyer’s townhouse (guarded, a servant who can be turned). NPCs: barkeep — wheedling, wants them gone, hiding that he moved the body; clerk — frightened, wants transferred inland, hiding forged logs. Leave for next time: the reliquary aboard the ship is a fake.