The 15-Minute Session Prep Workflow That Saved My Campaign

This is the prep workflow I use every Tuesday for my home campaign. It takes 15 minutes — but only because I stopped doing the things that didn't matter.

The problem with "prep more"

For my first three years of DMing, I tried to prep for two-to-three hours before every session. I wrote backstories for NPCs that never spoke. I designed dungeons the players bypassed. I drafted dialogue I never used.

By year four, I was burning out — and worse, my prep work was making me worse at running the table, because I was so attached to my plans that I couldn't roll with what the players actually did.

The 15-minute method

Here's what survived after I cut everything that didn't change the next session:

• Min 1–2: Re-read the closing of last session. One paragraph. What was the last thing the players saw?
• Min 3–5: Pick the OPENING SCENE. Not a town. Not a region. A moment. "You wake to the sound of horses. They're close."
• Min 6–9: One sentence for the CENTRAL PROBLEM. It has to resolve in 4 hours. "The mayor's been replaced by something."
• Min 10–12: One NPC. Name. Want. Quirk. That's enough. "Tomas Hale. Wants to escape this town. Picks at his fingernails when nervous."
• Min 13–14: The WILDCARD. Something to deploy when the energy dips at hour 3. A storm change. A misdelivered letter.
• Min 15: Write the closing hook. The cliffhanger. Even if you don't use it. The act of writing it shapes how you steer.

What gets cut

Everything you write that the players don't see. NPC stat blocks for villagers who'll never be in combat. Five branching paths when the players will pick one. Detailed maps of taverns. Backstories for the third henchman.

None of that matters. The session matters.

The compounding effect

The real win isn't the time saved per session. It's the consistency. When prep takes 15 minutes, you actually do it — every week, for years. The campaign survives the years when the rest of your life is busy.

Free 6-page PDF

If this workflow is useful, we put it into a free 6-page printable with a fillable prep sheet and a worked example from our home campaign. Or grab the expanded 21-page Lorekeeper Session Prep Sheets ($6) for the full template pack.