In a Palpatine voice: “Spicy beef”
“Have you ever thought ‘I’m kinda hungry, but not hungry enough to eat a whole potato’?”
“I don’t like the wanking corner”

This seems like pretty bad advice.

The poster seems to assume that just being near content is the same as engaging in it, even if they don’t know what to look for. They seem to think rumours aren’t hooks. They seem to think that everyone who goes to Waterdeep is equally likely to get involved in political schemes and a treasure hunt.

My suggestion? Tell the players what the hook is. Then, make sure the characters they make fit the hook. If the hook is a mutual friend, make sure they all know the guy. If the hook is a job posting, make sure they’re all looking for work.

Bonus points for having multiple hooks. Either you can move players towards the one that fits best, or you can give them options in which hook to focus on.

Adventure is Nigh (a D&D actual play starring Yahtzee) had both a prisoner and a guard called Jeremy in episode 1. It was pointed out, so roughly a quarter of the NPCs in season 1 were named Jeremy.

Nah, do what Adventure is Nigh did. The first NPC they met was Jeremy Goodsex, and when a guard yelled at another guard, he used the name Jeremy. He then argued that it’s a very common name, and lots of people are called Jeremy.

So for every NPC in season 1, about a quarter had the name Jeremy. It’s a very common name.

Don’t forget the Tease-dere! “Okay, so which of you touched the door handle again? …The door opens. No, there wasn’t a trap, I was just asking, haha.”

But it’s a specific he. It’s referring to a specific person.

And why is a generic pronoun male?

What does being a robot have to do with anything? He still has male pronouns.

“He’s”

So Gender is male? Interesting.

They said “design cues”, not “designs”. Research, don’t plagiarise.

Actually, a good number of dungeons have a room or two you can completely skip. These usually hold bonus loot, like rupees or pieces of heart.

Heck, that shrine in BotW with the ball maze apparatus. Most people just flip it over and skip the maze. Some even just bomb jump over the gate and skip the apparatus.

Instead, I recommend you just accept that you might work on something the players won’t see. Save that stuff for later.

Steve Irwin doesn’t have enough scimitars, and Drizzt speaks too softly.

Perhaps we could bring out the drow bard Hyuu Jakum’ann?

Actually, dice have a better scottish accent than me by virtue of not having one at all. But you don’t join my table for quality scottish accents.

I learned in my first adventure that what I’ve prepared to happen might just be stupid and unrealistic, so I’m never too attached to it. If the dice say it doesn’t happen, they know better than me, so I just toss it. If I lie about the dice to make it happen anyway, I’m making a worse experience for everyone.

If a failure means a path is unavailable, see if you can open up a different path. If there are no other paths, just let them have this one for free.

Can someone make a drow Steve Irwin, please? Exploring the underdark in search of strange creatures and then wrestling them.

“You know, I only really need one or two of these at a time, but I just like collecting them. It’s just so nice shaking them in my hand. I must have spent a fortune on them at this point. Heck, I’m even thinking of getting some resin and making my own!”

“Oh, no, not like that. I just take her on a journey through pain and pleasure, tell her what to do, act out wild fantasies, bring her to the brink of tears and have her thank me for it. You know, roleplaying. We actually have a bunch of other guys who do it with us. It’s not weird or anything. If you’d like, I wouldn’t mind having you too!”

It’s part of the reason I love running heists: the players are the ones doing most of the planning.

So, like usual then?

If it’s a new game, I start off with a basic adventure I always have tucked away. A good starter adventure is a lifesaver sometimes.

If it’s an ongoing game, then we probably have stuff we were still doing? Just recycle the prep from last time wherever possible and play for time. “Oh, yes, you have the treasure from the depths of the dungeon, but now your rivals have seized the place and you need to fight your way back out! Totally not just doing this to reuse the dungeon map.”

If it’s an ongoing game and we just had a good cutoff point? Thank god that player just arrived. Ask them what they’re expecting will happen this session, nod sagely at their guesses and work from that. “Oh, you’re hoping you’ll fight that cult sometime soon? You never know, it might come up sooner than you think!”

Everything else is just good prep advice. Keep generic NPC templates and tokens you can use for anything. Use a whiteboard for any maps you need. Give your players control of the plot so you don’t have to come up with it.

That is such a better way to do it. One map for plot, one map for setting.

It gets even worse when your players tend to stick to one general area, cause then all the places they want to see on the map get bunched up. No, there aren’t 5 times as many settlements in Ferelden compared to the rest of Thedas. We’ve just spent 2 games there and that’s what all the books, comics and adventure modules focus on. I promise you it’s more spread out than that.