Session Rituals: Ending, Between, and Starting

An ongoing Stonetop game lives in the rhythm between sessions, not just within them. Three rituals hold it together.

Start wrapping the action 30 minutes before folks need to leave. Save 15 minutes for the End of Session move. Set a timer.

The move asks each PC to point out how they engaged with their instinct (mark XP if so) and how a relationship has changed (mark XP if so). Then answer four questions as a group, marking XP for each "yes":

• Did we learn more about the world or its history?
• Did we defeat a threat to Stonetop or the region?
• Did we improve our standing with our neighbors?
• Did we make a lasting improvement to Stonetop, or tangible progress?

Finish with praise (something about the session you enjoyed) and a wish (more X, less Y, a chance to Z). The GM takes notes — the praise and wishes are the most important parts. They let you calibrate the game.

Then handle logistics: schedule the next session (games die from scheduling neglect more than disinterest), identify follow-up tasks and who owns them, help the host clean up.

Finally, take notes. Now. Capture your follow-up tasks, new NPCs and their key details, decisions you made on the fly, consequential events to revisit, things you hinted at, prep you'll need.

Reflect on what happened. Did you meet your goals? What did your players praise and wish for? Where did the game drag or feel uncertain? Did you pursue your agenda and follow your principles? Don't beat yourself up — be honest. Write 1-3 specific goals for next session.

Make sure a session recap exists somewhere public — your players' notes or your own.

Do bookkeeping: update threats, NPCs, followers, the steading playbook, content guidelines, loot, your "I wonder..." list of open questions.

Then prep what the next session needs. Prep only what you need (monster stats for a fight you can't avoid), what you can't easily improvise (maps, complex political webs, impending dooms), and what you want to prep (because it brings you joy or grants a wish). Resist the urge to prep a plot.

Give everyone a chance to settle. A start-of-session checklist becomes a ritual — drawing a magic circle around the fiction. Common items:

• Logistics: food, drinks, who's taking notes, when to break, when folks leave
• Recap: have the players do it if possible
• Content guidelines: read aloud, ask if anything should change, remind folks to call "time out"
• Highlighting: instincts, relationship changes, outstanding wishes, your personal goals
• Bookkeeping: HP resets, debility clears, Level Ups
• Starting moves, setup questions, love letters
• Opening scene: address one or more PCs, frame the action, make a soft move, ask "What do you do?"

When there's a player-level issue — friction between players, mismatched expectations, hurt feelings — talk to them about it. Don't let things fester. Don't try to fix player problems with game mechanics or fictional consequences. Encourage your players to initiate check-ins too. The solution might be "play something else" — and that's okay. You and your players are more important than the game.