One of my goals when I’m planning a session for a long-term campaign is to make each session different from the last one. What I don’t mean by this is to make every session in the campaign completely different from each other. What I mean is to rotate between the focus on each of the three pillars of play – exploration, role play, and combat. If I have a big combat at the end of a session, the next session is going to start with role play and exploration, especially if it was a big bad involved. The next session is going to be relaxing in town, then getting the quest at the end.
For me, this helps because I get to rotate between the three pillars throughout two or three sessions. Which means they all will get hit hard and focused on. This allows all of the players, depending on what they like the most, to get what they like out of the game. If my players are exploring a dungeon, there’s going to be lots of role-play involved. Then towards the end, we might get into a big combat. The next session is going to start with meeting a new NPC in the dungeon that helps them out or hurts them, who knows? It depends on what the PCs do.
I find one of the easiest ways to rotate through these three pillars of play is to go in on one of the pillars hard at the beginning of a session. Start strong right away. Start with initiative. Start with a player discovering new information. Start with an NPC coming out of nowhere and introducing themselves, etc. By thinking of the different pillars, themes, and tones that you want to convey over a session, encounter, mini-arc, or whole campaign, that intentionality will show to the players. They will feel it, but they might not realize that it’s happening. By focusing just on those things that you can control – roleplay, combat, exploration, theme, and tone – you can provide a well-rounded experience for everyone at the table, including yourself.
So when you’re planning your next session, think about what pillars you focused on the last time and focus on different ones this time. Rotate between the three pillars, exploration, combat and roleplay. When possible, try to have an encounter including all three. It’s super fun. Let me know how it goes.
Good luck with your next session. I believe in you. See you in the future.
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