Sometimes a game starts going down a wrong direction, and things stop being fun. Maybe the GM gave out too many magic items early on, and now the encounters are too easy. Or maybe some players decided to hoard fate points and are intentionally failing at everything to acquire them. Or perhaps the story took a bad turn, and now no one is having fun anymore.

Things happen, whether they be mistakes or bad roles or just unexpected plot holes. Sometimes friction gets into the players, or someone moves away, and that amazing game you were looking forward to every week is no longer as enjoyable as it once was. What do you do?

There are a number of things that players and GMs can try. We are going to offer a few suggestions here. They are not the only suggestions out there, but we know from experience that they can work. Keep in mind that none of these suggestions will work if the entire group is willing to move forward. Once people in a group are unwilling to compromise, the only solution is to find a new group.

Talk About A New Game

If a game is not going well and the entire group recognizes this, the first thing you should talk about is the possibility of trying a new game. Have everyone share what they enjoyed about the last game and what they would really like to see in a future game. The group will probably talk about where they think the current game went wrong, and that should help get everyone on the same page. Maybe a new system would help, or a change of characters, or even a new GM.

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