u/ExpressParticular109

Okay, so I recently started dming and I’m learning, but one thing i struggle with is the empty non plot heavy sessions where they just have fun in some town. I feel like I’ll either over-prepare and basically throw a thousand things in my players face or I’ll plan too little and they’ll just sit there for 4 hours trying to come up with something to do. My last session like this was for valentines and it was a festival session. I’m just not sure how much fun they had. I had put a bunch of mini games but they felt repetitive, sortve just like “roll dice good and win” I’m pretty new to dming and I really want to get better so my friends can be more immersed and have a better time. Other little tidbits that may be helpful: they’ve been doing a lot of serious stuff lately and one of my players told me they didn’t feel like the pcs got to really mesh before diving into the main story and that so many important stuff is happening they can’t really do stuff together. I sortve just don’t know how to run a lighthearted session without tons of awkward silence and getting through everything I have planned way too quick.