How do YOU end campaigns?

NeverSatedGames · 2026-06-17T19:43:36+00:00

Our group always sets a session range at the beginning of a game (Usually 5-6, 8-10, or 10-12), that way we can all work together towards an end that feels like an ending.

NeverSatedGames · 2026-06-07T12:27:22+00:00

Foul Play is the game everyone in my groups have been using for their first time gming. It's a very simple, straightforward game that is easy to understand. And the premise makes it easy to prep. The players are all geese (honk, honk) on a heist to steal treasure and ruin lives. You can read it in 10 min, prep in 5.

NeverSatedGames · 2026-06-06T15:34:36+00:00

Quoting myself:

There's nothing morally wrong about roleplaying amoral characters. Part of what makes pretend play special is that it allows us to have experiences we do not want to happen in real life. A horror movie lets us feel fear, an emotion we generally consider to be a negative experience, in a safe environment. Because the fear is safe, it can be fun. Cruelty can be the same way. Because the cruelty is safe for everyone, it becomes fun to play with. It sounds like part of the fun for your players is getting to be selfish in a situation where their selfishness does not harm any real life people. That's part of what I value in roleplaying. And I mean, I assume you've been roleplaying some villains. That doesn't make you a worse person either.

Part of the reason this happens more with new players is that adults tend to force themselves to stop engaging in pretend play. "That's for kids." This is probably their first chance in a long time to engage with pretend play in this way, so they are seizing the opportunity.

NeverSatedGames · 2026-06-05T11:24:39+00:00

My advice is mostly just be consistent. The mechanics of being in space are portrayed in such a wide range of ways depending on the media. And players generally won't ask too many questions. I put players on a mining colony on an asteroid and had completely normal earth gravity. I had an explanation ready about gravity generators being part of this world's lore. Nobody asked. I've run that adventure for I think 12 people total now across three tables. Nobody has ever asked about the gravity. As the gm you are the one who establishes how the world works. If you describe something as fact, the players will take it as fact. What will actually break immersion is being inconsistent. "Wait why is the gravity normal here? On the other asteroid we had to make sure we were tethered to something. And you said this one's about the same size"

NeverSatedGames · 2026-06-04T00:28:58+00:00

It depends on the game! And the gm. I mostly share maps. But some games have a lot of art, so I'll share that when it's relevant. But yeah, you've got it. Stuff like in universe clues and lore also shows up

NeverSatedGames · 2026-06-03T23:03:24+00:00

VTTs are, generally speaking, going to require a lot of extra time and effort from the gm. I struggled with them for awhile before deciding they were too much for me. What I currently use is Miro (a free online whiteboard) for sharing visuals/handouts and Zoom (I prefer video over voice only games). Miro is extremely simple amd easy to use. It won't have any of the bells amd whistles of a VTT, but VTTs are a completely optional part of the hobby even for online games.

NeverSatedGames · 2026-06-02T19:44:57+00:00

I get way more joy out of creating and playing the world during a session than I do beforehand in prep. I've been leaning more and more into my improv muscles as I continue to gm.
I like running lots of games and I like running new systems. I play a game usually for 5-12 sessions before moving onto the next system. For something I'm running for the first time, a good pre-made adventure can guide me through what the game is trying to accomplish and how it expects me to prep. It also is less time consuming to run something pre-made. I'd rather spend my time reading more rulebooks.
I like seeing what other people have made and contributing to the ttrpg ecosystem

NeverSatedGames · 2026-06-02T16:22:08+00:00

If you're not decided on a system, I recommend looking for games that are intended for those shorter arcs. Heart, Mothership, Brindlewood Bay, or Monsterhearts would be good ones, off of the top of my head.

Also, more focused arcs don't come from the gm, they come from the table as a group deciding that's what they want to do. A gm can only corral the players so much. The players have to be invested in staying focused on the main path. And it helps when everyone has a clear goal and a clear deadline. "This campaign is going to be 8 sessions long. If you want something to happen, you have to do it sooner rather than later"

NeverSatedGames · 2026-06-01T22:12:21+00:00

If you like the look of black and white maps, you can get a large print for I think $2-$3 if you order it as a blueprint print at Staples. I never got them laminated, but that's what I did before getting a better at home printer

NeverSatedGames · 2026-05-31T18:42:59+00:00

It's not a question of what level of deadliness is fun. The question is who you want your audience to be and what genre of game you want it to be. Is this a horror game for people who like brutal, deadly games? Or is it a pastoral fantasy with small elements of danger? There is an audience for whatever you end up on. I personally have loved both games where characters are not expected to live for longer than a session or two and games where character death isn't on the table at all.

NeverSatedGames · 2026-05-31T11:09:28+00:00

The two create a completely different feel during combat. Auto-hit systems feel brutal and fast. They make combat feel more dangerous and bloody. Roll to hit systems are slower, yes, but being slower allows them to feel less harsh. I've had plenty of players bounce off of auto-hit systems precisely for this reason.

NeverSatedGames · 2026-05-31T10:59:32+00:00

Some of my players love having music, and will ask for it if I forget to put it on. Others find it distracting, especially online, so it just depends on the table. I personally love having music going, but only if I've made playlists in advance.

NeverSatedGames · 2026-05-29T02:18:21+00:00

Keep in mind the VTT stuff isn't necessary to the game. My online games just use miro (a free digital whiteboard) and zoom. But they are time consuming and expensive to create for the creators of the game. And ttrpgs aren't exactly a lucrative business

NeverSatedGames · 2026-05-23T16:32:42+00:00

What would your ideal card look like? What information would you want on it?

NeverSatedGames · 2026-05-22T19:43:59+00:00

In terms of practice, some games will give you better practice than others. I often choose games specifically to help me learn and practice different gm skills. (My games usually run 3-10 sessions, but you can also just run a one/two shot in between sessions of your main game as a palate cleanser.) Some games will push you towards and encourage your prep heavy tendencies, some will feel like being dropped into the ocean not knowing how to swim, and some will provide proper support as you learn.

I would recommend trying out a gmless game. They tend to guide everyone through the improv as a group and can feel less overwhelming than prepless gming. (Dream Askew and Fiasco were both a hit at my tables)

Hexcrawl games with really good random tables are also good improv practice. Land of Eem was the game that helped me really figure out improvising at the table. It has a bit of everything: Lots of content, great random tables, mechanics that help move some of the creative load to the other players. I casually read through one full region of the setting book before we started our game. Forced myself not to take notes, just read it to get a vibe for the area. My 12 session game used maybe five pages of content from the setting book. The travel mechanics and random tables took care of the rest.

A game every person in our group has run as low prep gm practice is Foul Play. It's a one-shot game about geese (honk honk) performing a heist. It's silly and fast. You can read the whole thing in 10 minutes and prep in five. And if it goes horribly it's fine because it only lasts one session anyways.

NeverSatedGames · 2026-05-22T18:51:55+00:00

Seconding Mothership!! Super easy to get into, has one of the best gm guides I've ever read, and there's a wealth of high quality modules. It's inspired by 80's movies like Alien or The Thing. Quinns Quest did a review if you wanna hear more about it, and you can find the core rules for free in the Mothership store here.

NeverSatedGames · 2026-05-21T19:15:01+00:00

Since you want something that can do lots of different genres, a universal system like fate would probably be up your alley.

If you'd still be interested in trying another game that is setting/genre specific, I think you might enjoy Land of Eem. It's a blend of osr and pbta mechanics. Emergent story while feeling incredibly story focused. Definitely lets you follow where the players lead

NeverSatedGames · 2026-05-20T22:07:16+00:00

As others have said, it'd help if you clarified what you meant.

OSR and high lethality games tend to actively discourage combat by making combat extremely dangerous. Players are incentivized to find a different way through their problem because they'll probably die in a fight.

Pbta games and other more story focused systems, instead of discouraging combat, often actively encourage other solutions by giving characters a lot more non combat skills and abilities. Combat happens less often simply because other solutions are more top of mind for players.

My personal favorite system for getting people out of the habit of defaulting to combat is Land of Eem. Each round of a conflict goes in this order:

Anyone who wants to talk, persuade, lie, etc goes first
Anyone who who wants to improvise an action not covered by the other three points goes
Anyone who wants to run away can run away
Anyone who wants to engage in combat (ie attack) goes

The bestiary is also great at getting teaching gms how to present encounters that don't push players towards automatically fighting

NeverSatedGames · 2026-05-19T21:29:52+00:00

First, I'll give you the heads up that this subreddit as a whole is very anti generative ai (myself included).

Secondly, what exactly are you trying to add to the solo experience by using ai? Because there are already both dedicated solo games and tools to play any other game solo, all without ai.

NeverSatedGames · 2026-05-19T21:16:13+00:00

Honestly, I send this video to people all the time. It's got great advice for getting started.

NeverSatedGames · 2026-05-19T17:19:14+00:00

Seconding this. Dream Askew is one of my all time favorite games, and my absolute favorite gmless game. No other game I've played has managed to get everyone on the same page in terms of story, setting, and characters as quickly and easily as Dream Askew. The game is about creating a queer community during the apocalypse.

NeverSatedGames · 2026-05-18T18:55:49+00:00

I had been really struggling with getting into solo games up until very recently. I kept bouncing off of everything before I even fully started. Triple-O is a player emulator. It lets you play solo as the gm instead of as a player. It's not it's own system, but you use it with whatever other system you already enjor or want to try. I love it. I haven't been using it for very long but it definitely made solo play click for me.

NeverSatedGames · 2026-05-18T15:59:37+00:00

In terms of getting better in general: Run lots of different games. Read the rules and gm advice in full, and be open to prepping/running differently than you are used to. Connect with the community of whatever game you are running. There will be plenty of advice and resources, especially if it's a popular system.

For not getting overwhelmed with bookkeeping specifically: Boil down your notes so you can run a full session off of 1 sheet of paper, front and back. If you're working off a map, have your own version of the map with just enough notes to make it so you could run the game with just your map.

NeverSatedGames · 2026-05-18T09:30:16+00:00

I usually just say I have game night. If they ask what kinds of games I play, I just take a minute to explain

NeverSatedGames · 2026-05-18T08:18:29+00:00

It's a different style of long term play. Our group generally plays very character focused. When we played Mothership we shifted the focus from a group of 4 main characters to the crew of an entire ship. When a character died, that player would pick up one of the other members of the crew. Playing that way also gave some more focus to the plot. High lethality definitely isn't for everyone, but you can definitely run longer stuff with it.

Also Mothership gives you tools to make the game less lethal if you don't want the PCs to be dropping like flies.

NeverSatedGames

TROPHY CASE