How To Do A Session Autopsy

6 Questions To Keep Your Campaign Out Of The Morgue

Paul

Mar 05, 2025

There’s are silent game killer at your table, like carbon monoxide, it’s taking your players out one by one.

players that feels their game sessions are more difficult than others (Gone!)
players who feel like their actions are minimized (Gone)

players who feel they’re being left out or ignored (Gone)

Let me play the role of Private Investigator and share some reasons why your players might be dropping like flies.

Part of being a DM is reading your table and being self aware that some of your actions are being interpreted differently by each player.

These kinds of perceptions can lead player to conclusions that may or may not be true. Such as,

The DM has it out for me
The DM doesn’t like my character or me very much
The DM feels like I’m intruding on the DM’s “story”

I’m not saying this to make you “bend the knee” to your players or start story gaming. Play your game, just be aware that there are other humans around the table who want to play their part.

You may not even be aware there’s a problem and you begin to think, “Am I the problem?” Maybe, maybe not, but you won’t know until you do a session autopsy.

What’s a session autopsy? It’s asking yourself important questions even if you feel like your game went great.

Here are a few questions to get you started.

Did everyone have a little spotlight? A chance to be epic or at least contribute?
Did I invite others into the game that was playing out, planned or unplanned?
Did I make it harder for some but not for others? Take away agency, etc.
Do I have any biases? Gnomes, warlocks, etc, do you treat them different?
Did I ask the players how they felt the game went? Did I follow up with them individually asking questions like, “Did you think your character had enough to do?” Or “Do you feel like your character is developing?” How can I help?
Did anyone look disengaged? How can re-engage them? Maybe do a duet session that helps them contribute to the overall story or set them up for the next plot point

Could you give players, not characters, a role or responsibility that would make them feel valuable at the table? This could be a party responsibility such as keeping track of treasure or supplies or a DM responsibility such as making sure initiative is going in order or mapping a dungeon or hex crawl.

As a DM, I find, if I do the work of self critique, first, I usually find something I can work on or find something I missed during a session, even if it wasn’t intentional.

DM’ing is a skill you can get better at. All DM’s start somewhere so don’t beat yourself up and don’t judge yourself too harshly, you’re only human.

You may not make everyone at your table happy every session but you can try to keep everyone engaged which, along with good communication at, and away from, the table, that will lead to greater player longevity and yes, even more happiness.

But what do you think, do you do a session autopsy after every game?

What are your key questions?

What have you discovered?

Leave me some comments down below