It’s September. The campaign stopped in June, for no reason anyone can name. A wedding, a vacation, two soft cancellations in a row, and then the Thursday slot just quietly stopped being a thing. Last night somebody typed “we should play again” in the group chat, four people reacted with emojis, and now you, the DM, are staring at your notes from three months ago wondering how you get six people back into a story none of them remember. ...
Here’s how a campaign actually dies. Session four is scheduled for Thursday. On Tuesday, someone posts in the group chat: “hey, work thing came up, can we push to next week?” Everyone says sure, no problem. Next Thursday, someone else has a birthday dinner. The week after that is fine, you play, it’s great. Then two more reschedules land back to back, a month has passed since anyone rolled a die, and the DM quietly stops prepping because prepping for a game that keeps evaporating feels bad. Nobody ever says the campaign is over. The group chat just changes subject. ...