@Scott Martin – We have that problem in my group, too (maybe in all groups). I’m usually the problem, though it’s not ALWAYS me asleep at the wheel. I have no idea how to handle this — Island Design Theory, maybe?

@Rafe – I’d never considered stopping sooner and padding things with something less involved — that’s an excellent idea!

Something else that can be done is to end a bit earlier, at a good stopping point (it makes sense, it’s a cliffhanger, whatever) and do a recap or receive feedback (and give feedback).

For instance, in Burning Wheel, we’d stop even earlier than planned for and do a small Trait vote or alter Beliefs and Instincts based on recent occurences in-game. Those sorts of things give you an additional time buffer so it isn’t GO-STOP!.

A lot of RPGs have other mechanisms in the game that can be used to fill in a bit of time if needed. Those sorts of things help you hit a good point to end the session, allows a bit of necessary “book-keeping” and also stops you from spilling into overtime.

We’ll often continue for a while per #5 (short handed, semi-ignoring the snoozing person), but it’s really lackluster. It’s very hard to plan for, since there are nights everyone’s good for playing past 1 am, while other nights players start dropping as early as 9 pm. Having someone asleep really makes struggling on to the next good stopping point (#3) tough– particularly if their character’s necessary before the next stopping point.

Other than “make your game more interesting” what’s a good way to deal with the situation?

Have a modified version of the combat rules such that everything goes faster. A simple idea: double damage on all hits, monsters included.

In fact, as a side note, I’ve been tempted to speed up all 4E D&D games by halving monster (but not players) hit points and doubling the damage they do. Warning: I have not had a chance to test out this probably oversimplified scenario. This also assumes that most monsters will still take a few hits to knock down even at this rate.

I think that ending right in the middle of a combat encounter is about as bad a way to wrap up a session as it gets. Why? Because it is awfully hard to remember what happened the session before, particularly in fiddly details about a specific fight. And lord help you if the GM lost his notes concerning intitiative order and what the status of everything was when you ended off.

Option #8: Take It Online
If you are in a narrative scene, and you need to wrap your game for the night, agree to pick up the narrative thread online. The discussion between the PC’s and their NPC patron can occur online, and in some cases will result in a longer conversation since there is no pressure to wrap it up and get to the next combat.

This is also a great option, if the players are about to plan some kind of heist or ambush. By stopping the play at the table, and moving it online, the players have much more time to discuss things.

Again, this won’t solve the problem if you are in the middle of combat.