I am Phil, and I am suffering from Session Interruptus, and it’s impacting my gaming and feelings about gaming. 

Lately, I can’t seem to get two concurrent sessions of a game to go off, that I am either running or in which I am playing. There is no central reason; it is a series of issues, all valid, that keep us from getting into any game. 

Let’s talk for a bit about Session Interruptus, what it does to campaigns, and what to do when it happens. 

Session Interruptus

As defined above, Session Interruptus (or SI for the rest of the article) is when circumstances arise that prevent you from playing concurrent sessions of your campaign. For example, one week you play your session, the next week the game has to be canceled because the GM is out of town, and the third week you get together for the game. 

If the disruption only happens once, that is a minor SI and often not really a problem. It is when multiple sessions get canceled (session – cancelled – cancelled – session) or every other session gets cancelled (session – cancelled – session – cancelled) where the impacts of SI are felt. This is made worse depending on your normal gaming schedule (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly)

The Effects of SI

Overall, SI causes a drop in emotional investment in the game. When we play a game, we build emotional investment in the game. The fun we have playing the game makes us feel good, which gives us a positive outlook on the game, and builds a desire to have more good feelings by playing the game more. This is how we all wound up in the hobby and why we keep playing.

But emotional intensity is fleeting, and as time passes, that good feeling fades. If it fades too much, then it becomes a vague memory of a good time, but does not create a craving to re-create it.

The other thing that SI can do is that it can just lessen your desire to play RPGs. We all want to play RPGs, but sometimes we just want to stay home and rest. For our introverts (like me), doing a social thing, even a game, costs some energy. Sometimes, when I am tired or after a long week, I would rather retreat and hide than do something social, even if it’s running a game I love. Hitting a patch of SI can make you less enthusiastic about gaming, leading to apathy or even disinterest. 

SI and the Campaign

SI has a different impact depending on where you are in your campaign. 

At the start of the campaign, SI can do the most damage because we don’t have a lot of emotional investment built up in the campaign, since we have not played many sessions. Often (at least for me), I am unsure if a new campaign/game will be good, and so I need those early sessions to help prove to me that this game is worth the investment. If we cannot get a set of consistent sessions, then doubt can creep in, or I can become distracted by some new game that has just been released. 

In the middle of a campaign, SI does the least amount of damage, as long as the campaign is healthy (i.e., fun). If the campaign has been going well and we have built up considerable emotional investment, a run of missed sessions is not going to kill the campaign; in fact, it may increase everyone’s desire to play by creating a longing. The only damage it can do is that when you get to the game, people may have forgotten some details, and some of the more dramatic moments of the game may be a bit dampened because emotions are not running as high.

On the other hand, if your game is having problems (i.e., not fun) and you hit a patch of SI, it can become the excuse to stop playing. Having stopped playing and getting some distance from the game may be what causes the game to end. There is nothing wrong with that, but if your game was struggling before SI, and you want to keep it going, you may be facing an uphill battle. 

SI at the end of the campaign can be tricky. If your campaign was healthy enough to make it to a planned ending, then it likely has a strong emotional investment, more than what any SI can do to hurt it. Your challenge, as with the mid-campaign, is that players may start forgetting details or their emotions start cooling off. You may need to do some work to rekindle those before you get into the climax of the game. 

Preventing SI

Preventing SI is tough. We are humans living life, and there are things that are going to come up that prevent us from playing. That said, there are a few things you can try to reduce canceled sessions:

• Set a quorum –  Determine how many people can miss a game before it is canceled. Sometimes games get canceled when most of the players can play, but by having a quorum rule, you may be able to continue playing your campaign.
• Backup Game – playing something is better than nothing. Having a backup game that you can run is a way to keep the group at the table playing, even if it’s not the main campaign. That can lessen some of the effects of SI by continuing to create positive gaming experiences. 
• Online Play – sometimes the only reason you can’t play is that you can’t be in the same space. If you can pivot to an online session, you may be able to still play when someone is sick or out of town. 

Dealing with SI

If you hit a patch of SI, the main thing you need to do is to ride it out. It may be a while before you can get in a consistent set of sessions. Here are a few things you can try to keep gaming going:

• Schedule a game for another night – if the problem is a specific night for gaming, you can look to move it temporarily or permanently to another night. 
• Backup Game – same reasons as above. Playing something is better than nothing.
• Pausing your campaign – rather than suffering the SI, pause your game until the reasons for the SI pass, and then resume. You can do this in conjunction with the Backup game.
• Do some metagaming – if you can’t get together for your game, perhaps you can do some other activities outside of the game that will create emotional investment. This could be doing some in-character chats in Discord, some campaign-building exercises, etc. 

If Your SI Lasts For More Than 4 Weeks… 

Session Interruptus can be rough. Campaigns and gaming run on emotional investment, and if your emotional source keeps getting interrupted, it can impact your feelings about the campaign and gaming. There are a few things you can do to try to prevent it and a few things to do if it happens; none of them are perfect, but they can help.

The thing to remember is that SI happens from time to time, and it often clears up on its own. What could be a spring of interrupted games leads to a summer and fall of amazing continuous sessions. 

Have you suffered from SI, and what do you do when it happens?