End of Session Questions

Summary

End of Session Questions is a Dungeon World game mechanic used to review what happened during play and allocate experience points to player characters. The mechanic involves three specific questions asked at the conclusion of each session: 1) Did we learn something new and important about the world? 2) Did we overcome a notable monster or enemy? 3) Did we loot a memorable treasure? The party receives one point of experience for each question answered affirmatively, making a maximum of three experience points available per session. The collective nature of the reward—where the entire party gains points together—reinforces collaborative storytelling and shared success.

The process is introduced late in Session 3 as Shawn asks whether to conduct the questions immediately or wait until next time, acknowledging they should have been conducted multiple times already but have been skipped.

Details

The end of session questions serve as both a review mechanism and a reward system in Dungeon World. Shawn explains the process: "End of session questions are something that you do at the end of a session to kind of go over what happened. To go over what happened. And allocate experience for achieving a number of things."

The mechanic functions through three fixed questions asked by the GM:

1. "Did we learn something new and important about the world?" — This question rewards discovery, investigation, and worldbuilding revelations. Learning qualifies if it is both new to the party and significant to the campaign's larger context.

2. "Did we overcome a notable monster or enemy?" — This question rewards successful confrontation with meaningful threats. The enemy must be "notable" rather than merely present. The system rewards overcoming enemies through non-violent means such as befriending or negotiation, not only through combat. In Session 4, Shawn clarified that the party receives only one experience point total for overcoming enemies, regardless of how many distinct enemies were dealt with during the session.

3. "Did we loot memorable treasure?" — This question rewards acquisition of significant items, wealth, or resources. The treasure must be "memorable"—either valuable, unique, or story-relevant—rather than routine coinpurses or standard equipment. Shawn established that looting opportunities are rarer in this campaign compared to classic dungeon crawls, suggesting that acquiring interesting items would fulfill the treasure requirement rather than traditional treasure-chest scenarios.

The process begins with alignment questions, where each player examines whether their character acted according to their stated alignment during the session. [When Shawn starts the questions with Vasso](timestamp://355acf0c-a859-4c94-ab24-c50f67c21797/00:00), the player Dayna describes Vasso's alignment as: "I endanger myself to protect someone weaker than me." This demonstrates how alignment in Dungeon World functions as a specific behavioral guideline rather than a broad moral category, and fulfilling it during play earns experience.

Each "yes" answer grants one experience point to every player character in the party. The maximum possible gain per session is three experience points, while a session with no positive answers yields zero. The GM has final authority on whether an answer qualifies as "yes," though the questions typically generate group discussion before resolution.

History

Session 3

As the session draws to a close, Shawn introduces the end of session questions to the group. The Game Master asks whether to conduct the process immediately or defer it to the next session. Shawn explains the purpose and function of the questions for the players, acknowledging the group's failure to implement them in previous sessions. Shawn notes the group has fallen behind on this process, remarking "We should have done them like three times," indicating the mechanic should occur at the conclusion of every session. The process begins with Vasso's alignment, establishing the format that will be followed for all player characters.

Session 4

At the end of Session 4, the party conducted the three end-of-session questions that award collective experience points. For the first question—"Did we learn something new and important about the world?"—the answer was yes: "There's little blobs that are WI fi connectors." This referred to the discovery of Thunk and Felix Thoughtomation as Wi-Fi connector entities.

For the second question about overcoming a notable monster or enemy, the party also answered affirmatively. They had overcome both the Wi-Fi connector blob through befriending and Louise Guzman through negotiation. Shawn clarified an important rule: "So you get a point of experience for that, and you just get one. Not for the blob and Guzman." Despite multiple enemies being overcome during the session, the party received only a single experience point for this question.

For the third question about looting memorable treasure, the party answered no. While they had acquired a flammable goo can, this did not meet the threshold for memorable treasure. Shawn used this to establish expectations about treasure in the campaign: "I feel like acquiring item that is interesting will probably act like we'll probably fulfill that requirement because, like, the opera, the odds of you guys just, like, I kill the orc and I check his pockets, or like, I find the treasure chest in a jail cell for some reason, like, that's not gonna." This indicated that interesting item acquisition would satisfy the requirement rather than traditional dungeon-crawl loot scenarios.

Session 6

The End-of-Session Questions were resolved during Session 6 of the campaign, following the party's confrontation with Nick Silver.

For the first question—"Did we learn something new and important about the world?"—the party answered yes. They cited two major discoveries: the revelation that nanites are "everywhere" in the world, and learning the identity of Dr. Doranelle Felix. These revelations were judged significant enough to qualify for the experience point.

For the second question—"Did we overcome a notable monster or enemy?"—the answer was no. The GM noted, "in fact, you were overcome by somebody else," referencing the party's defeat by Nick Silver during the session. The group jokingly debated whether the sweaters should count as a notable enemy, but this did not change the final ruling.

For the third question—"Did we loot memorable treasure?"—the party answered yes. They had acquired the Log Files from Nick Silver's Staff, which qualified as memorable treasure worthy of an experience point.

The final tally awarded the party two experience points for the session—one for learning and one for treasure.