Month / July 2026

by guyeatsfood

Stuck in a Prep Rut? Make some Pregens!

I have a long gaming to do list. Between conventions, Unconventional GMs, and new purchases, I’ve got a lot of games I want to get to the table. But I’m stuck. UK Games Expo was over a month ago, and my excitedly-purchased new games have been sat unplayed on my shelves. I have Bundles of Holding burning holes in my hard drive. But I can’t seem to get them ready. Sound familiar? “I’d love to run Dark Conspiracy at a con…” – well, why haven’t you?

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, and the chance to request articles or content, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

I’m in a rut – I just can’t seem to get started. But thinking about it, I know how to solve this, so in the true spirit of self-help, I’m telling myself what to do in this post. And what you should do if, like me, you’ve got games you really want to run, but can’t… just do the first step. That first step?

Continue reading →
by guyeatsfood

Actual Prep: The Lazy Loremaster – The One Ring

Here’s a new project – I’m fascinated by prep, in all its forms – one-shot, long-form, session notes, handwritten scribbles. My own and others. A quick check online leads me to believe lots of you are, too. So, I’m going to showcase this on the blog. I can’t promise every session I’ll share my prep notes, but I’ll try and do it where I can – and I’ll offer a variable amount of commentary. 

These are also going to be 50% patreon exclusive – half of them will never be released to the public – so spread the word, and let me know if you’d like to share your own prep and talk to me about it. This one, however, links to an active Kickstarter – so, unlike most of my posts, it’s going public on both platforms at once – a reminder that usually Patrons get access 7 days earlier.

This is a little different. This is the 2nd (or 3rd, if you count our little Session Zero-to-One as Session 1 – I like to get a bit of play in at the end of a S0 to wet the whistle) session of an ongoing One Ring game that I had to set up because I was having so much fun playing TOR in another campaign. They’re going to be working for Saruman eventually, but some of the players are new to the system and so they are bumbling around Bree for now.

Continue reading →