D&D General Does anyone else title their D&D sessions?

[el-remmen]

I am not casting aspersions on anyone by saying this, but I would be worried about committing myself to things happening in a session, if I titled them based on what I thought would happen. It's easy for me to dump or back-burner something, working without titles or other expectations, and it's pretty clear that neither @Blue nor @el-remmen are forcing anything--this is just about my own shrinkology.

And just to be extra clear, the names are based on what is most likely going to happen or was already clearly established would happen. For example, in the list immediately above, the party decided at the end of session #1 they'd be traveling south. So the next session was easily entitled, "On the Road South." That is not a spoiler or a so-called railroad.

 

[Lanefan]

I don't title individual sessions - I'd have long since run out of good ideas! - but adventures get titles; and sometimes connected series of adventures get their own formal or informal titles.

 

[Blue]

I am not casting aspersions on anyone by saying this, but I would be worried about committing myself to things happening in a session, if I titled them based on what I thought would happen. It's easy for me to dump or back-burner something, working without titles or other expectations, and it's pretty clear that neither @Blue nor @el-remmen are forcing anything--this is just about my own shrinkology.

Mine are based on what I prep. I am absolutely ready (and regularly do) to go off that. I usually prep a lot around what I'm doing, present 3-4 hooks at a time (including in the middle of other adventures), and expect my players to pull up older hooks or make their own when appropriate all the time.

That said, at the end of every session I usually end on either a cliffhanger or a definitely direction for what the party wants to do next. Which is what I name the sessions for. But I don't hold them to anything - as my example of S8 when they said they wanted to go after one hook, but next session after people had thought about it longer they decided to go after a completely separate one in the exact opposite direction. I'm good with that.

 

[pogre]

Love this idea. I have always named campaigns and adventures, but I like the idea of naming sessions - thanks.

 

[MatthewJHanson]

Sort of. In my campaign they are a group of dedicated dragon slayers, so each arc is named for the dragon they are hunting. The sessions the are Dragon's Name Part 1, Dragon's Name Part 2, etc.

 

[aco175]

I title the adventures/modules and not each session. Each module may last 3-several sessions. I used to write the date and a few notes on the cover page of the module. This helped mostly looking back when the campaign is over and talk about how it went and how long the campaign lasted.

 

[prabe]

And just to be extra clear, the names are based on what is most likely going to happen or was already clearly established would happen.

Mine are based on what I prep. I am absolutely ready (and regularly do) to go off that. I usually prep a lot around what I'm doing, present 3-4 hooks at a time (including in the middle of other adventures), and expect my players to pull up older hooks or make their own when appropriate all the time.

I had hoped I was clear I didn't think y'all were doing anything other than what y'all are doing. My concerns with the practice are entirely about what goes on in my own head--it's a beautiful practice I'm worried would trip me up.

 

[Morley_Dotes]

I started doing this a while ago. . . after my "Out of the Frying Pan" game ended, I briefly ran a Mutants & Masterminds game and part of the conceit of that was that each session was the issue of a comic book, so each one had a comic book-like story title that I either came up with before or applied after (depending on the direction of the game, sometimes the titles would be retroactively changed). The idea was a hit and I found that titling the sessions helped set the tone and stick particular sessions/events in our memories, so when I began what would come to be the last 3.xE game I'd ever run (It was called "Second Son of a Second Son") I started titling those sessions as well, and then it kinda stuck. Sometimes a title is straightfoward, like "Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh (part 3)" and sometimes they are more esoteric, "Love will Tear Us Apart."

Anyone do something similar?

As you can see, sometimes the titles aren't great, but they do their job. Other times, as in session #8, what I think is gonna happen (assaulting the Sea Ghost) is delayed, but since they got info about the Sea Ghost that session, it still applied (they just decided to hunt some baby velociraptors hanging in some sea caves rather than just let the two days till the pirate ship arrived go by and getting right to the boarding).

I've titled my campaigns and many of the DM's have named the campaigns I've been in. A current game that I playin the DM allows the pc's to write up a character POV narrative and he writes up kind of a What actually happened. I try to come up with a creative title that is at least somewhat relevant to my character's narrative to entertain the DM and players.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I haven’t ever shared the titles or anything but I do title them during prep, or sometimes afterward.

My most recent adventure, “A Knight In The Nightwood” was really fun.

I’m thinking about starting to write summaries of sessions for my players to read, complete with titles and lists of what the PCs learned or gained, or lost, enemies or allies made, etc.

 

[humble minion]

I've never done it in a D&D game, but there were session titles for Buffy and Firefly games I (kinda) co-DMed. Partly because the TV roots of those games made it seem natural, and partly because there's two different groups involved and the D&D group is less into the episodic storytelling kind of game than the Buffy group.

(Wow, I'm going back in time now though. But all the session summaries are still online, hooray for the internet!)