Wraith session #9
Low-energy game sessions
After a last-minute migraine cancelation last week, I ran my Wraith game again… and I have to admit, it wasn’t a great session.
We got started late, only had a couple of hours to game, and I struggled every minute to engage my players. There were long gaps of silence, and half the room always seemed busy looking at their phones. I even had one player fall asleep, I think… There was no snoring or anything, but I had to repeat her character’s name and then the player’s name a couple of times to open her eyes, and finally get a response to the question that I had asked.
Hmm, that’s far from the ideal game session. This is supposed to be an exciting story! I used all of the same engagement techniques that I have been leaning on, but they simply… didn’t work this week. My players were just too tired or disengaged. I don’t really know what was going on. One of them has been awake late at night a lot, and Cedar warned me up front that she was having a scatter-brained day. Other than that, I’m not exactly sure what went wrong.
But for the most part, it doesn’t much matter. Alright, so this wasn’t the most high-energy or memorable session of my campaign, but I moved forward with several plot points. Right afterward, I made Aron analyze the session over french fries with me, but we couldn’t find a place that I particularly dropped the ball. I did my best to be responsive and engage my players, to roll with their madcap plans — like Theo’s sudden desire to burn down the Haunt of a small Renegade gang who attacked his Cohort for their Glisten, the special Stygian steel carried by members of the Legion of Fate. Another PC talked him out of it, but I was ready to throw together a quick combat Crisis, give him some Angst, and let him burn the place down.
I did everything I could think of. Maybe it wasn’t enough — or maybe it was, but my players were just that out of it this past Sunday. Either way, I’ll just try again next week. I’ll pour all the energy I have into the next session, and see how it goes. If I have ongoing trouble with my players not being involved, then I’ll speak to them and find out if it’s a problem with how I’m Storytelling, or if it’s just out-of-game life issues. For now, I’ll simply roll with it.
But we were supposed to skip game next week because one of my players won’t be around. I may change my mind on that, though… We had to skip a weekend and then this last one was so short, and so slow. I’m not sure that I want to miss another session. I need to pump some more energy into the game, and there is only one specific thing that my missing character, Skylar, has been called upon to do next session — get another PC into the dreams of her twin sister. That’s just an Arcanos roll, so I can probably NPC Skylar through that.
I’ll approach my players and see if they’re okay continuing minus one player. It feels like the story’s momentum really needs the help, and I have to keep a hand on the metaphorical wheel to keep things on course. That’s my job as Storyteller.
Look, low-energy games suck, but they happen. When they do, first ask yourself honestly if you did your best to engage. If the answer is no, then it’s time to figure out how to better give your players what they need.
But if the answer is yes, and you have Storytold to the best of your ability, then the next step is to not take it personally. Remember those tired, sleepy days when you were a player. Maybe class or work was exhausting the day before, or there was family drama at home, and that kind of shit tires us all out.
TTRPGs are a lot of fun, but they also demand a lot of energy from both the Storyteller and the players, and not everyone always has that energy to give. It tends not to result in great games, but that’s okay. It’s natural, and you’ll recover your game momentum next time. If not, if the slow pace continues, talk to your players. Role-playing games are a team sport, and sometimes you just need to call a team huddle.
