Players: Don't Wait for Me to Ask!

November 12, 2025

Hey, players, it’s me again, trying to tell you how to play better. Thanks for putting up with me.

I just wanted to share a quick thought on scenes, momentum, and responsibility at the table.

I’m getting kinda tired of asking players, “What do you do?”

Naturally, once a scene starts to come to a close and players are resolving their last thoughts, delivering the punch line of their last joke, and grabbing the last pretzel, there’s a lull in the action and the conversation. One by one, players turn to look at the GM, silently asking “What’s next?”

So I ask. I always thought this was a good thing. A lot of people actually suggest this as a good practice for GMs, and for good reason - it gives the GM a push the game along towards the fun, keeping the pace up. But there’s also a downside to it.

It feels like pulling the players along. It feels like they are waiting for me to tell them that something comes next, like I’m going to unfold the next paragraph of the plot in front of them. But I don’t want to tell them what comes next, I want them to tell me what comes next. I want them to confidently tell me they are going over there to do that thing. I want to arbitrate and justify the world for them as they pursue the story.

Also, it’s just more responsibility for me. I don’t want to have to hone the skill of ending every scene with something tantalizing for players to react to to keep the game moving without these lulls. That’s not easy, and I have so much other stuff going on that I have to be thinking about… please, take some of this burden off of me!

So asking “What’s next?” seems counter productive. I want to encourage my players to answer that for me.