Random GM Tip – Open Table Communal Events

In my Mothership open table, a character named Manny Vasquez recently died. One of the other PCs, Dürmig Ableton, decided to use one of his downtime actions to arrange a memorial service for Manny — a chance for everyone who had worked with him to share their memories and commend him to the wisdom of the stars. I loved this idea, but it was also problematic. Sure, we could play through the memorial service with the four players who were currently at the table, but what about the other twenty players who are currently active in the campaign and their characters? In fact, even Manny’s player wasn’t at this session! (Dürmig had heard the news of Manny’s death from one of the other PCs in the session, who had been working with Manny when he died.) What Dürmig was really proposing was a communal event that, ideally, everyone playing in the open table could choose to participate in. The problem is that I’ve tried organizing community events like this before — where a bunch of open table…