The Dungeon Master role is really multiple roles bundled into one—you’re the rules referee, the narrator, and the administrator of the game you and your players are participating in. You decide when the action starts and when it ends. This applies both to in-game moments (“Okay, so after that conversation between your characters, it takes a few more hours to reach town. Now you’re in town, what do you do?”) and the session at large (“And that’s where we’ll stop for tonight.”)

So what makes a good end to your session? In this post, we’re going to talk about ways you can bring your game session to a close.

The start of a session is certainly important, but how you close the session is the last thing your players will remember about it. It colors their impression of the session as a whole. It will likely be the moments they revisit at the start of the game’s next session.

Scheduling

I recommend determining both a start and end time for your sessions. For example, our group’s sessions are scheduled from 7:30 to 11:30 PM. This is the time that the session will occupy, which helps your players form accurate expectations of how much they can accomplish in the session and how much of a time commitment your games are.

Of course, you may run over or under time, because we are all human. You may need to call a session early because of energy levels or other unexpected factors (technical difficulties or unexpected turns of events that throw all your session prep out the window). Your group may also want to push forward when an earth-shaking reveal happens right before your scheduled end time. But, generally, most sessions should respect the predetermined start and end time.

So, let’s say you’re happily Dungeon Mastering along, when you glance at the time and realize you need to wrap up the action soon. How do you do that?

Wrapping up the action

Dungeons & Dragons sessions that fit into a larger campaign are episodic—they tell a small story that is part of a larger continuity, like chapters of a book or episodes of a television show.

A very simple way to categorize endings is either “in the middle of something” or “at the end of something.”

“At the end of something” means that you’re ending the session after the party completes a quest, finishes exploring a dungeon floor, gets to the end of a combat encounter, takes their long rest for the night, and so on.

This is generally a good point to say, “And that’s where we’ll end for today.” Your players have ideas about what they want to do next, but they haven’t started executing on them yet. Another benefit of this ending is that when the players start the next session, their characters are also starting a new day, the next floor, and so on. Tension is generally low here.

“In the middle of something” is the opposite: tension can be high, and your players are likely in the middle of their plan of action. They’re in the middle of a dungeon, a negotiation, a quest. (Please don’t end a session in the middle of initiative, though—this makes it difficult for you and your players to hop back in next session.)

If you’re running out of time in your session, you may need to close in the middle of things. Try to find a natural pause in the conversation. It may also be helpful to remind your players when you’re (for example) half an hour away from the scheduled ending time. A reminder allows your players to help you find a natural closing point to the session.

Cliffhangers are popular because they evoke strong emotions in your players, emotions that can in turn allow them to jump in with enthusiasm next time. Cliffhangers work great when you introduce the complication or reveal and then, in the same breath, close out the session. “The villain removes their mask—you see your sister’s face! And that’s where we’ll stop for tonight.”

Not every session lends itself well to cliffhangers, and this is a good thing, since constant use of this technique can be emotionally exhausting (not to mention potentially frustrating) for your characters. Especially so if you don’t meet up for sessions often. But every once in a while, a well-timed cliffhanger can be a lot of fun for the whole table.

But what happens if your players really want to press forward?

Pushing forward

Your players might come up on a really exciting chunk of content—fifteen minutes before the session is supposed to end. What do you do then?

This may be the best time to step out from behind the curtain and say, “hey, everyone, this situation is going to take a lot more time to resolve than we have scheduled, and it’ll definitely include (some combat/some puzzle-solving/negotiations) that may take as long as (two more hours/an hour/thirty minutes) before the next best point to end will be.” Then, you can say whether you’d prefer to end here or are open to continuing.

Reading the room here is important. Are your players tired? Do they have another commitment coming up after the session? How engaged are they?

You want a unanimous “yes” from your players (and yourself) to move forward. If a player has to leave, it’s probably not worth continuing without them, and if your own energy is spent, it’s best to leave it to a fresh start next session. But if everyone is on board, go forth with confidence!

Decompressing after the session

Now, you’ve closed out the session—your players are probably not immediately logging off or heading for the door. It’s extremely common (and, in my opinion, necessary) to have some out-of-character chatting after the session has officially ended.

This allows your players to transition out of roleplaying, to cool off after moments of high tension. They can discuss what happened in the session and do any needed character maintenance (for example, levelling up or adding a new item to their inventory). This also allows your players to start planning for the next session. Our group uses this time to set the date for our next meeting.

As the Dungeon Master, you can use this time to discuss the high and low points of the session and to remind your players that you’re on their side!

I’ve been looking at Stars and Wishes, a tool that helps formalize some parts of the after-session chatting. Each participant mentions a star (a moment of good roleplaying in another player, an exciting turn of events, a cool way someone used their character features, for example) and a wish (something they want to see next session, like a particular character interaction or the opportunity to use a new feature).

I haven’t used Stars and Wishes yet but would love to hear about your experience if you have! You can read more about it in this twitter thread or this post by Gauntlet RPG.

Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.