DM Babble: Talk to your players... how that went.

 After ten sessions of my homebrew world with the South Africans, I decided to follow advice frequently dolled out and very rarely done.

"Talk to your players," the advice goes. "Find out what they like and don't like about the campaign you're running. Touch base with them and find out what expectations or desires they might have."

Now this sounds like sound advice, but these internet wise ones neglect with one crucial bit of reality.

Asking for critique is fucking terrifying! Especially when it's about things you've spent hours working on and have poured a lot of yourself into.

So with both these thoughts in mind, I went ahead and warned my players that I was going to ask them feedback at the end of the session. Fortunately with this group, it's a bunch of thoughtful, emotionally intelligent people which means I got a lot of constructive feedback and uplifting comments. Each had a different focus and there are some challenges that I need to overcome, but what I essentially got from the whole conversation was that they were enjoying themselves, that there are a few things that can make it better, but overall there was a general sense of being satisfied.

Yay.

Now comes the question: Would I recommend everyone doing this with their players?

Nope!

You know what players you have. Some of them are critical without really being considerate. Or they're selfish, pushing their desires at the cost of everyone else's. I'm fortunate that I have a group of older, more mature players. Not everyone has that. If you do have that, then go right ahead! Bask in the terror and be prepared to grow. But if you're dealing with miscreants, then don't expect to get much out of the exchange.

Not being terribly helpful, am I. Well, I guess it comes down to how well you know your crowd.

As part of my 'take it easy' drive, I only have one more session with these peeps this year (that I'm running). I'm optimistic that it'll go well. My anxiety isn't quite as high and even if I mess up, I know I have so many potentially cool things that could happen in future. So I'm optimistic.