GM Tip: End Mid-Combat Session Breaks on Your Turn

GM tip for myself for next time and for others in the future:


If you end a session mid-combat, end it just prior to the NPC's turns.

Not the player's turns. If the initiative order is all mixed up, end it prior to an NPC going. If you roll initiative each round, this doesn't matter - end the round, and pick up next time with a roll for initiative.

Why?

Because then you, as the GM, control when the game starts. No waiting for the first person to make up their mind what to do, no delays as everyone kibbutzes about potential moves, nothing. You just start going and change the situation that must be reacted to. Oh sure, one of your NPCs might knock out/kill/incapacitate a player and then have him or her just sit there, having rushed to game to do precisely nothing. But that can happen on their turns or on the next turn anyway.

Plus, it frees the players from either a) spending the whole week(s) thinking about what to do next session's first turn, and b) getting recriminations from the GM and the other players because they didn't give it a second's thought since the session ended last time. You know, because they have so much other stress and busyness in their lives that what their barbarian does for the rest of that imaginary fight isn't a top priority.

So for their sake and yours, end it before you go.