What to do after a not-so-good session???

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Hor Kai Lan

First Post

• Dec 19, 2005

• #1

I'm sure this subject has been around... but I guess I'm curious what others do plus maybe venting will help a little. Earlier today, we had a not-so-good gaming session. Probably the worst session, I've personally DMed in 3 years or so. And now I'm left with the "yuck" feeling.

I know that no matter what anyone does, there always a chance a session will tank and not live up to standards but this was a particular downer. We never got into the flow, there were a couple of rule arguements... and this was all surprising given the fact we had somewhat of a layoff between sessions. Everyone seemed excited leading up to today. Could have been we were rusty. But nevertheless, that doesn't take away the sucktastic feeling I have.

I just plan to cowboy up and chalk it up to one of "those things that tend to happen now and again". But I wish I could get a reroll on today's session

 

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jgbrowning

Hero

• Dec 19, 2005

• #2

Seppiku?

joe b.

 

A

Abstraction

First Post

• Dec 19, 2005

• #3

Do you have the Luck Domain?

 

The_Universe

First Post

• Dec 19, 2005

• #4

Just move on. Your feelings may not necessarily be shared by your players (I've run sessions that I thought were stinkers that they recounted as their favorite exploits), and there's no reason to call attention to the badness if it was, in fact, objectively bad. If you can catalogue what you didn't like - great. Make a list of those things, and make sure they don't happen in the future.

But hey - everybody has a bad day, and there's no better cure than just moving on.

 

jgbrowning

Hero

• Dec 19, 2005

• #5

Jokes aside, just determine what exactly you didn't like and then determine if talking with your group would help something like what happened to not happen again.

joe b.

 

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lukzu

First Post

• Dec 19, 2005

• #6

Talk about went wrong with your players. Doesn't have to be a therapy session, but be open and honest about what's bugging you. It may turn out to be nothing, or you may learn something about your group.

Hold any such talks in a neutral space, i.e, not at the gaming table. Going out to eat is a great time to rehash a game.

Usually, when I have a bad session, it seems like the end of the world. But after I ask my friends what went wrong and why they did certain things or didn't do other things (or why they got really mad about something seemingly trivial), we manage to hash out our differences.

good luck. don't give up hope.
-Luke

 

H

Hor Kai Lan

First Post

• Dec 19, 2005

• #7

jgbrowning said:

Jokes aside, just determine what exactly you didn't like and then determine if talking with your group would help something like what happened to not happen again.

joe b.

Click to expand...

yeah... after reading the first two responses... I was like, "great... this is *not* what I needed"... but jokes are cool too - pile it on... I have broad shoulders

I should have entitled the thread - what do YOU do after a bad session? I guess I am more curious to hear specifically what others do. Take a break. Immediately dive back into designing the next session. Walk along a beach and paint a sunset.

I feel pretty safe in saying I'm a good DM... and thus I feel I can tell when the group is having fun versus HAVING FUN. I was not alone in feeling that tonight's effort was a stinker. Players said as much and blame was equally shared. We're pretty good about speaking what's on our collective mind. By no means do we or I think this a bad sign... just one of those things and we WILL move on. I was here to vent and hopefully come back with a whale of a session next time.

 

Crothian

First Post

• Dec 19, 2005

• #8

I killed my game. One bad session and I called it quits and handing over the DMing duties to someone else.

 

C

Cabled

First Post

• Dec 19, 2005

• #9

I don't do much

There are just too many variables from one game day to the next. How you're feeling, how your players are feeling, how mucn prep time everyone's had, what's going on in everyone's life... Spend a little time thinking over the BIG things you think went poorly (don't sweat the small stuff), think about how you can improve it for next time, and keep on keeping on. I've been gaming at least twice a month since 1981 (couple times a week when I was younger), probably 80% of the time GM'ing. Do I run bad games? You betcha, but it's the bad games that make you better. Some of my players have been with me since then, and I have a few "iconic bad games" that they still refer to. The vast majority of my games are at least good if not great though, and yours will be too. Practice makes perfect, and like everyone else you'll have bad games. Think about it for a half hour, laugh about it for a half hour, and move on

 

Mark CMG

Creative Mountain Games

• Dec 19, 2005

• #10

On the bright side, the not-so-great sessions make the better ones seem fantastic!

Seriously, never let it get you down. You can't have an average or great experiences without having some below average experiences. Start the next one with a bang or a joke. I once followed a bad session by having a spectacular event, with humorous tones. An NPC who had been harrying the PC party wound up being a lot more effective than I had anticipated due to a tremendous amount of bad rolling by the players and, perhaps, too little information being given out by the DM, yours truly. At the beginning of the next session I set up a situation where the NPC gloated far more than he should have and was blasted by a breath weapon as he turned to leave. Of course, this led into a fight for the PCs with a dragon, but the shouts of joy that went up when the NPC became toast more than made up for any misfortune or mistakes from the time before.