S is for Stars and Wishes

From the Play Fearless Dictionary in a galaxy far, far away.

“Man, Luke diving into that trench — that move deserves a Star right there.”

“I gotta give one star to Ben, that whole “not your droids thing!!”

“For my wish though…I’d like to see young Luke duel with Lord Vader, for sure! I think I can take him!”

“That alien cat I shot at the bar was really sad. I wish Jabba had sent somebody real after me!”

Stars and Wishes is an RPG after-session tool for folks to highlight their favorite parts of the session and to signal what they’d like to see more or next. Lu Quade wrote a piece for the Gauntlet https://www.gauntlet-rpg.com/blog/stars-and-wishes, and IIRC is the creator of Stars and Wishes. I like this tool far better than Roses and Thorns. Two positive feedback pieces versus a thing I liked and a thing I didn’t like won me over.

When running a session, I try to include time near the end to do Stars and Wishes. I’m ready to get it going if the table is shy about giving out stars. I’ll go first to lead by example. I like to give out stars for clever or solid use of game mechanics. I also like it when I’m surprised by player twists in the fiction and will award stars for those new directions. When the players start giving out stars, I listen and take notes. I’m hearing what they like about how we’re playing — that’ll help me keep the game groove. Are stars being awarded more for fights than social encounters? Are the stars grouping around another aspect of the game — I’m listening.

Wishes are gold!! Players are literally providing content, encounters, and conflicts for future sessions! I write that free work down! During game prep, I look at those wishes and weave them into our established narrative, tweaking or twisting them for effect. I’ll use a wish as GM to pitch an idea and see how it’s received.

You can even make this work for one-shots and con tables. Do it at the mid-break -you do have a midpoint break, right?!

So, Luke wants to have a one-on-one with Lord Vader, done deal-but maybe that Sith lord has a little something extra for farmboy Luke!
And Solo wants to see a more competent bounty hunter? ok, ok, let’s see what I got on ice. 🤷🏾‍♂️

Originally published at https://playfearless.substack.com.