Ian Slater over at Dweller of the Forbidden City posted a session report from his home game yesterday.
I first met Ian on X, but really became familiar with his work when I started following him on Bluesky. Ian is developing Bhakashal, a custom setting and AD&D1e retroclone ruleset. He’s been posting incredibly detailed session reports from his games using the setting and ruleset since October 2020.
Ian’s session reports are a brilliant window into his DMing style, worldbuilding, and the decisions he and his players make at the game table. You can read the full session report here.
What is a Session Report?
A session report is simply an introspective debriefing document that you write after a session of Dungeons and Dragons or any other TTRPG.
In its most basic form, a session report is a short journal entry recapping the session. It’s an opportunity to analyze the way you ran the game, and reflect on ways you might improve your next TTRPG session.
With session reports, every session of your TTRPG of choice becomes a stepping stone of incremental progress towards improving your skills as a Game Master. A good report lets you see what went well, what didn’t, and make plans for better gaming in the future.
Session reports can be written for your eyes only, but they really start to shine when you share them with others, for a few reasons. Session reports:
- Let you see how other DMs structure their adventures and settings
- Expose you to new techniques, ideas, and methods of dungeonmastering
- Show you how other DMs rule on specific situations
A session report isn’t just a narrative recap
A good session report doesn’t just tell the story of what happened to the characters and the gameworld during the session.
Instead, it breaks down the actual game elements and decisions the players and DM sitting around the game table made, and how they developed throughout the session.
Playful Void has a fantastic list of questions to guide your thoughts when writing your session report:
- What did I change about the module? Why? How successful were those changes?
- What rulings that weren’t rulebook supported were made, and why did I make them?
- Did I have to work around the rules in order to facilitate play? How?
- How did I use procedures to facilitate play?
- What did I modify “behind the screen,” and why?
- When did I tailor things to my table instead of randomising them?
- Were there any pain points in the session, and how did I respond?
- Were there any emotional or triumphant moments, and did I or how did you facilitate that?
- How did I maintain pacing during this session? Did I have to work to balance attention between players?
- Was there any prep that felt wasted or unused on reflection?
- When did I have the most fun this session? Why did I think those parts were fun?
Session reports teach you how other DMs run the game
![A quote over a photo of a 20-sided die and pen lying on an open journal. The text reads: "“The party priest cast Spiritual Weapon [...] and a shimmering, dark blue trident, the weapon of his god, Sithasial, god of oceans and travel, appeared in his hand.” ~ excerpt from a Bhakashal session report"](https://www.wobblerocket.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Untitled-940-x-627-px.jpg)
One of the biggest benefits I’ve found from reading session reports from other DMs is seeing new and different ways of running the game.
Every DM has their own unique style, and we each prioritize different aspects of the game. Some of us are staunch defenders of rules like encumbrance, while others throw those rules out in favor of more cinematic games. Some DMs rely on “rule-of-cool” and handwavy loose interpretations of rules, while others stick to a strict rules-as-written viewpoint.
DM styles that differ from your own teach you new ways to think about D&D.
Here’s an example. In Ian’s session report, a rules arbitration question came up:
The party priest cast Spiritual Weapon, the Bhakashal version of Spiritual Hammer, and a shimmering, dark blue trident, the weapon of his god, Sithasial, god of oceans and travel, appeared in his hand. He threw the trident (outdoor range 90’) at the Necromancer and did enough damage to reduce him below half total HP, so he was dismounted [per Bhakashal rules].
That produced an interesting rules question.
According to the rules, when you are surprised, your attackers all get one action against you before you get to act in the next round (in AD&D that can be more than one action, Bhakashal simplifies this to one action only). So, technically, he could not do anything as he plummeted to his death.
However, AD&D rules also say you should always have a chance, that’s the whole idea behind saving throws. And I put it to the players, if your PC was knocked off a high spot in a surprise round, would you want to be able to react in some way, or would you accept that you were just going to plummet to your death?
When stuff like this comes up I put it to the table to decide, knowing that the choice they make at the table can come back to haunt them later.
They decided Calligaster should get a saving throw versus death to be able to cast a spell, it just so happened he had Feather Fall.
Typically, the Dungeon Master would decide how to adjudicate a rules question and the players would be expected to abide by the DM’s ruling. This is the way I’ve always run my games. I think it’s the way most D&D DMs play.
Ian’s method of turning the rules question back to the table and framing it in terms of “If your player character was in this NPC’s situation, how would you want me to handle it?” is a fantastic idea — it democratically puts the decision about the rule in the players’ hands, functionally eliminating any question over whether the DM’s call is good or bad.
Although I’ve never played that way, I think I’m going to try it the next time a rules question comes up at my table. I don’t have to keep it if it doesn’t work for my table, but it’s a useful experiment I wouldn’t think to try without reading Ian’s session report.
Further reading about session reports
Session reports for TTRPGs aren’t a new concept. Here are some articles and session report collections other gamers have written:
- On Writing Good Session Reports from Bumbling Through Dungeons
- Australian gamer Merric Blackman writes extensive session reports of published adventures like The Shattered Obelisk and Empire of Ghouls.
- /u/Rymbeld on Reddit has written some really detailed session reports about the Stonehell megadungeon.
- Dyson of Dyson Logos has a great collection of session reports from his Enemy Within campaign.
Share your own session report on Bluesky
We’re slowly developing a budding session report community on Bluesky using the #sessionreport hashtag, with gamers like Jacob Shelby, Castor, Ian, and yours truly posting session reports either as Bluesky threads or as links to blog posts.
Here’s a few of them:
We’d love to have you join us: just use the #sessionreport hashtag when you post about your next game.
More about Bhakashal
Ian Slater’s What Is Bhakashal? post is a great introduction to the setting and ruleset. The Bhakashal Spellbook is available as an ebook from DriveThruRPG or hardcover from Lulu. The Bhakashal Setting Manual is nearing completion — I’ll post here when more information about its release comes out.