I have 10-20 hours of prep I need to do before the next session

Know that feel OP, I think that the last session that I was genuinely and thoroughly prepared to was like a year ago or something like that.

Quick, steal everything you can from other people during the last 3 possible hours. If you don't have all the necessary stuff for the campaign beforehand, try to write some notes as the game goes on as you improvise stuff.

>>46313000
Schedule prep time blocks for the next few days. Stick to that schedule, and you'll be prepped with minimum stress.

>>46313548
>stick to the shedule
If only that worked...

>>46313000
Write what you know.

Dare they enter your magical realm?

>>46313785
It will work if you do it. Set alarms to make yourself do it.

>>46314036
I'm not OP, but I struggle with similiar problems and sticking to a shedule was always a big problem to me. I agree however that alarms do help a lot.

>>46313000
Run a module.

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OP here, thanks /tg/. Part of it is just campaign fatigue... I've been prepping a lot for this campaign recently and it's a lot more work than I often expect. There's supposed to be a big social event with intrigue stuff planned, and I just need to get together so much stuff. I've been using random generation tables and then adding details to the final result, but it's slow going.

It just feels like I've set the bar for quality really high because of my own insecurity: in the upcoming event, every NPC needs to have a different personality, a full stat block in case the party gets hostile with them, and their own motivations and plans. I don't want to wing it because I don't want to have a big OOPS moment when there's a huge inconsistency I overlooked. It's looking like I'll need about 5 detailed maps with 30+ NPCs. I started fairly early and gave myself an extra week to prep, but things came up and I'm looking at a deadline that's getting steadily closer.

Focus around what you have, manipulate the players to those NPCs you fleshed out, dangle some lovely plot hooks from them and make the other NPCs you didn't detail seem unimportant (which they are).

The biggest thing you need to establish is what are the players trying to get out of this scene, build around that, you'll never be able to plan for every curve ball so don't try. Be flexible and don't be afraid to improv, you'll find you're better at it than you think.