For me, today, my essential question was just reworded into a weak goal. I didn't think about it being interpreted and just failed to input some measurability (or the main relavance of it being Dungeons and Dragons centered) and received some justifiably pointed takes on missing aspects. But a guideline/essential question should also have a lot of smaller goals inside of it. The original goal of "The table routinely and frequently fosters discussion around fun, community, ethics, and storytelling" should idealy be broken into 4 aspects; fun, community, ethics, and storytelling.

From there, the essential question can remain mostly the same without focusing on the necessary detail and effective goal aspects dilluting it's clarity. The 4 goals could all have a daily check-in in the form of a pre or post session conversation, as well as a a more focused individual conversation/goal for each.