Member-only story
Dungeon Masters Ask Questions
Invite your players to have a regular hand in the game design.
One of my favorite quick tools that keeps every D&D table humming is called Stars and Wishes.
I love it because it’s equal parts celebration and calibration.
At the end of a session you simply ask, “What was a star from this game?”-an earnest moment that stood out for you. Then you ask, “What’s a wish for games in the future?” and here you end up crowd-sourcing with the players to establish small tweaks you’d all like to see next time.
That’s it: positive feedback with a built-in rudder that your whole group gets to have a hand in steering.
This works so very well because stars anchor everyone’s memory of the game in what went right, what they had fun with. This helps everyone leave the table feeling good.
Meanwhile, wishes provide forward momentum without slipping into criticism spirals. Better yet, it scales. A fast table check? Perfect. A deeper dive in Discord the next day? Also perfect.
When I’m the DM, I usually post my own star and wish first, partly to model the tone and partly to invite more thoughtful replies. And it doesn’t have to be fancy, just: “Star: the improvised goblin ballad that player x handled! Wish: seeing the group…
