The Mid-Campaign Check-In
Last weekend I was at Ravenwood Castle for their 10th annual Hoop & Stick Convention. Abigail and I had a wonderful time playing games, running games, making new friends, and catching up with old ones. We also helped to raise more than $16,000 for Ravenwood Castle’s Hoop & Stick Extra Life Charity! At this convention, a friend of mine and I were talking about roleplaying games and during our chat he regaled me with his tales as a Game Master. He told me that he and another Game Master were running separate games when the other GM could suddenly no longer continue. My friend suddenly found himself running both games and he was struggling to set expectations for his newly inflated group. I asked him if he had done a Session Zero to which he replied that both groups were so far into the campaign that he didn’t know that he could. With that, I thanked him for the inspiration for my next blog post, and posed this radical idea: The Mid-Campaign Check-In.
For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of a Session Zero, this is basically where the Game Master sits down with the players and sets expectations and ground rules for the session. The Game Master also discusses potential plot points, major factions, and other important details. So is it possible to do a Session Zero mid-campaign? The short answer is no, but I think it is possible to do something similar with a Mid-Campaign Check-In.
How would I do a Mid-Campaign Check-In? First I would let my players know that I plan on doing one soon, that way they are not caught off guard when we spend half the session [or even more] chatting instead of playing. I would also advise pulling each player aside to discuss their character and to get their individual opinions. As we all know, when we are at the table some voices resonate louder than others and you want to give every player the chance to voice their opinion free of the influence of others. Once each player sat down alone with me I would ask them a series of questions to help me get a feel for how they are enjoying the campaign, if they are confused by any of the story, or have any concerns or suggestions. Here is a sample of some Mid-Campaign Check-In Questions you could use in your campaign:
What is your favorite thing that has happened thus far in the campaign and what made it memorable?
What is something that has happened thus far in the campaign you did not enjoy and how would you have improved it?
What do you feel is your character’s role in the story we are telling together?
What motivation(s) could I provide your character to help tie them to the main story better?
Is there anything I could do to improve your overall enjoyment of the campaign?
Are there any (spoiler free) questions you would like to ask about the story so far?
You can use these questions as a framework or design your own and then dig deeper with each player as you speak to them individually.
My biggest piece of advice when it comes to designing questions for your players is to consider what kind of information you are looking for and how you can use the information to make your campaign better. This is also a great time to introduce, revisit, and/or reinforce ground rules for your campaign. Are you playing online and do you need to revisit remote play etiquette? Are you playing in person and want to get player feedback before establishing a no-cellphone rule to avoid distractions? Do you want to introduce safety tools to your players to have something in place in case someone is triggered by the content? The Mid-Campaign Check-In is the time to do it! Suggestions for Session Zero can be found in both the Dungeon Master’s Guide and in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, but I haven't been able to find a good guide on how to run something similar in the middle of a campaign. I find that like I’ve said in my blog post about feedback, it is very important to listen more than you speak. Remember, a Mid-Campaign Check-In is just as much for you as it is your players.
Take Heart!
Karington Hess
Game Master and Founder of Open Heart Games
