E is for Exiting the game.
From the Dictionary of Fearless Gaming
Sometimes games just don’t work out. Even when you have a great group of folks playing. My experience is that a great table of players can carry a bad game run, for several sessions. But sometimes you have to pull the plug.
I ran 4 sessions of Nibiru RPG with three veteran players. We’ve had a few normal ‘trip ups’ happen, standard stuff for a new game. We also had fun interacting with the setting and the mechanics of the game. However, we weren’t finding our ‘groove’ with the game. There were many things we were excited about in Nibiru. Playing on Twitch also adds challenges, for example, Nibiru is a heavy setting how do you unpack that for the uninitiated?
After 4 sessions we’re walking away on a cliffhanger with the option to conclude or epilogue it at a later date. That’s a good ending for us.
Nibiru is not a bad game. I am saying maybe I should have run it slower and offline. I’m saying my group couldn’t find our groove with the game. We might have put in a few more sessions to work it out. After the fourth session, I did a group check-in. These are good even if you are playing with ‘folks I’ve known for years’ — check-in anyway. You find out where everybody is, explicitly. No-fault, no foul. We chose to Exit and play something else.
It’s Ok to tap out.
Play Fearless,
Mad Jay.
