Secret to Consistent Games

The bane of any game group – scheduling. How do we help keep the session momentum moving if we don’t have consistent games? The answer is you can’t really. But that doesn’t mean all is lost. There are alot of things we can do in order to help keep the momentum going during sessions and motivate everyone to continue showing up. Of course you still have to make sure it stays on everyone’s calendars. So this little rant time is all about the tips and tricks that I have come across over my *coughmumblecough* years of running games of all kinds of systems. I’ll give you some dos, some donts, some maybes, and some truly batty ideas before we are done here. But as always I am my chaotic best by just jumping right in.

Let’s start with what not to do. These aren’t hard or fast stops, you have to know your players to know those. But these are things that I often see kill a gaming group. Campaigns have crumbled and been left for dust from many of these. Remember – only you can prevent collapsing game syndrome. Our first culprit is going to have to be just the tangle which is that ding-dang-dong adult thing we call schedules. Too much back and forth can get everyone’s availability lost or things can change mid discussions for people. I’m not saying I have the miracle for scheduling TTRPGs sessions, if I did I’d patent it and make an app or something to be super rich. Instead some things that work for me – polls with days to pick from, keep the time frame of the game consistent so players know how long to expect to have to set aside, a Google Calendar for games that invites the players to the scheduled events, regular check ins the day before the game is scheduled, and a policy in place for if one or two of your players can’t make it one session. The last one is actually super important. Life stuff pops up at some point no matter how prepared you are. You can’t account for fender benders, burst pipes, or emergency dentist visits. What you can do though is talk about what missing one or two sessions look likes, what does the group do with that character, and deciding if a particular character is pivotal to the next part the players are tackling. For instance you might not want to have a session without your rogue if you are pulling off a heist, but if you are going to be in a magic library then yeah easy miss. I’m going to be honest most of the bad stuff comes from us having to adult and play TTRPGs. Try not to have too much time between sessions without engaging your players in some way. That can be through downtime activities in text, encouraging the players to interact in character in a chat, asking the players questions either individually or collectively about the world or what is happening in the campaign currently. I also see having super long sessions, especially those without breaks, tend to break players way quicker as well. If you are meeting like once a month sure go 6+ hours but provide breaks – eat, drink, walk around, and let people shoot the shit before refocusing everyone. I don’t know about you but I get antsy being still in a chair that long.

We had some no’s so now some do’s. I know this sounds like a no brainer but – keep it consistent. But I really truly mean consistent – same week day, same duration, same expectations, etc. Build it into a habit through consistency it will be harder for the players to shake and they’ll WANT the next session to happen because not having that in their schedule feels wrong. Psychology is useful to those trying to run games. I also like to give my players some in game rewards for being in a session, nothing huge that will throw off the balance of things, but something as simple as DM Inspiration or a reroll. Dopamine is a powerful thing especially for those of us that are easily distracted by things. Heck I’m only able to write this as I type because I found a cool game that lets me defeat monsters via a word count. When you hit a block keeping sessions with a group you need that something extra to get over the hump and back into the habit.  Rewards are a great way to do that. Also as I mentioned reminding the players that the game is still there waiting for them is great. I am a big out of sight, out of mind person for better or worse. Which means unless I get reminded I am very likely to forget but the second someone is like ‘hey what does your character want to explore next session?’ I have a big flashing ‘OH YEAH~’ over my head and immediately reinvest. Let players do their downtime activities between sessions in chat (with rolls and everything), encourage RP between characters in chat this can be cannon but can also just be for fun to help figure out dynamics, or maybe provide some mini games or a quiz that if they hit a certain mark gives the group a boon in the next session. That could definitely engage them especially if they were about to go into a battle before you ended last time.

But what about the session itself, how does it help or harm us when trying to keep it consistent. The things happening in the session can help motivate or demotivate players when it comes to getting to the next session. If its something the players are engaged and excited with they’ll want to get to it as soon as possible, I’ve even had the group all pull out their phones and schedule the next game right there and then. If its something they are kind of meh about it can have the opposite effect. If its a story line they aren’t really vibing with, or the ‘boring part’ to them then its going to hurt your momentum to get the group to the next session. This can be really hard to control and balance among all the other things that DMs keep an eye on during a session at any one time. I know sometimes I have problems with this especially because I am a big believer in the actions of my players having consequences. Say you are hiding a run away and get caught by bounty hunters that then lead to a cart chase through the city onto private property to hide. Its not like the bounty hunters are going to throw up their hands and give up. In the case of one of my games the manor was served a writ of search, the players escaped with the run away to hide out at a church and claim sanctuary, and now they are in a legal battle. I’ve had several delays getting the next session going because of adult scheduling and emergencies. But the group just got paid for one job, already have the details of another one but now they have this distraction going on. They don’t have the chance to spend their money and enjoy themselves so there is less motivation there. One way to help with this is to learn to leave on a high note. End the session early if you need to in order to let them end on a high instead of diving back down into the weeds before ending. You killed the hill giant and the final blow makes them fall backwards, the forest is quiet again. The group finds a small stash of things from the victims of the hill giant and have made a hefty sum from slaying it as well. Have the curtain fall as they set camp talking about the fight they just had and fade to black before the watches. This isn’t always possible but practicing knowing when to do this will go a long way to things. Another good thing to remember is that we are all creatures of habit and all kind of crave keeping our habits a bit. I tend to host my in person games and cook for my players. Everyone tends to arrive on time or a little early so that they can see what’s cooking and enjoy a drink while catching up before we jump in. Halfway through there is always one break, there might be more then one if things get intense. Combat runs fast with people on deck planning while turns are happening. We end about 5 hours after we start. It lets them plan other adult things around my games and makes it easier for them to not just be there but to be present during it.

We are balance the real world adulting slug with our TTRPG groups in our own ways. These are the things that I have found that work or don’t work in my time but I’d love to hear from all you lovelies out there on the void called the web. What has killed your game or campaign? What has kept your long running game going?

With that little rambling over with, I’m JustKay your regular DM Dalliance on the web and I’ll see you next post.