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A gaming group is like a little family. There are multiple factors why you keep coming back to the table week after week (or game after game). You enjoy time together and have fun sharing these experiences and stories. However, like family, you also have your differences and disagreements. If someone leaves, do not take that personally as there are multiple reasons why one would walk away.
Not the right fit. Everyone has a style of play they really enjoy. A player may be looking for something combat heavy, but most of the group are doing more character development, roleplaying social encounters (and even the occasional shopping episode). They become bored with this gaming style quickly, and if it happens often enough they will walk away. The opposite can also be true for someone into roleplaying sitting at a table that is combat heavy. This is okay! Encourage them to find a group that fits what they are looking for and to keep gaming. Too much water. Sometimes the player has had enough conflicting moments between other players that they are now experiencing tension between them. If they are experiencing issues with the other players (or they are the “problem player”), it may not be an issue with another group of people, but at this table it is. Trust me when I say some people know when they are the problem. Sometimes they will discuss this with you, other times they will just stop showing up. This is okay! Again, encourage them to find another group to play with. Don’t like the system. *Gasp* Yes, people stop showing up for games because of the system or genre. Players who are into epic fantasy stories are not going to enjoy running space traveling merchants. They will often graciously duck out of the games until you circle around to a system or genre they like, then rejoin. This is okay! Remember to call them up when you start something you think they’ll enjoy and invite them back. Players come and go, it’s usually nothing personal. If there are issues that you can discuss and come to a resolution on, then it is worth having that conversation. Will it bring that player back? Maybe not, but be okay with their decision. Do not try to convince a player to return if issues are not resolved as that will only cause more. There are many great players that would not be a good fit for my table. I am okay with that, and they are too.
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When you have little to no time to plan a session, sometimes you have to use whatever is available to you. For short notice one-shots, this is what I have done. Thanks to the many conventions and extra sessions I’ve been asked to run, I have things I can pull from at the ready. If one of my players cannot make it, that is exactly what I do.
I’ve recently come across some great resources to pull from. In my digging I have found RuneFoundry and Loke provide some great scenarios and maps to go with them. I struggle with both on the fly and these two provide both, and at a reasonable cost (some even free). I am sure those are not the only ones, but I find both of these give just enough. The scenarios provided give good foundations to pull from without causing a complete trainwreck if the players go off track. They also give just enough options that the players will not feel pushed to do something in particular. I like to take these ideas and mold them to how I know they like to play and anticipate a bit of shenanigans. You can always adjust anything you have to work for you. Make it yours. Switch out the monsters, change the setting, even the genre can be flipped to some degree. If you struggle to come up with sessions, go look up a few for yourself and let me know if you have a “go-to” for last minute planning. New Year resolutions are often made with good intentions, but quickly fall to the wayside a few weeks in. This is why I don’t make one, I know it’ll be forgotten just as quickly as I commit to it. However, I still have goals, ones that have an end date in mind while others are pretty infinite. One such goal is to learn and run games in other systems.
As this campaign is coming to a close, we have discussed what we would like to do next. There was some tossing about of various systems and even possibly staying with D&D. I made mention of some systems I do not particularly care for (too number-crunchy for me), but in the process, mentioned one that I was thinking about reading through anyway. Of course my players jumped on THAT one. So now I find myself reading, and re-reading the core book as well as a few supplemental resources. I have only actually played in this system for two campaigns, and although they were longer campaigns, I still didn’t have a real grasp on the world as I lived in the small world of my character, not looking at the bigger picture. I also did not truly understand the mechanics. I had cheat sheets that I followed for any rolls from the first time I played until the last session nearly 2 years later. As big of a project as running a game in a system I am only vaguely familiar with is, I’m excited to try something new. I do hope others who are interested in trying this are encouraged by my attempts at it, successful or not. Be with me on my failures, but also join me to celebrate when I can quote Hannibal saying, “I love it when a plan comes together.” |
AuthorJodie 
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April 2025
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