In one of our episodes I, your fearless and heroic Dungeoning Master, screwed up. I failed in the way that all Dungeon Masters are afraid to fail. I railroaded my players down a path which I had set in stone because I was blind sided by a player’s decision.
In this scenario the players were lead towards a stairway which was going to become a slide and lock them into the next encounter. They had already engaged the “cut scene” which would have been playing in a video game when Merlin, always ready to surprise me, called out that he was going to tie off a rope.
I panicked, I didn’t know what to do, how could I validate and reward him for seeing that something bad might happen where they fall down this stairwell which I needed the party to go down to progress the story. I made him roll a Dex save and when he failed I had him loose hold of the rope which meant now I punished him for his brilliant idea. No sarcasm, it actually was a good idea.
How do we not do that
This is not the situation any player or dungeon master wants to be in. Thankfully Merlin, my dad is cool. He took it in stride and rolled his Dex and didn’t get upset when he rolled a 4, loosing his grappling hook and rope. I was sweating bullets hoping he would fail trying to think of what to do if he passed it.
As a DM we need to be rigid with our story and the rules to a certain extent, but we also dread this scenario. I had dialogue written around this trap working. I needed it to work. Try not to fall in love with a single path.
I’ve been DMing longer now and I’ve learned how to react to this better than before. So how should I have responded?
I should have invented a trade. Even though the trap wasn’t planned to hurt the party and it was just to trap them I should have let Merlin have his rope and the party still could have slipped down into the trap. The rope could them have stopped them just before some spikes.
Success doesn’t always mean what the players want it to mean
The players wanted to not fall in the trap, but the narrative needed them to fall into the trap. Success can mean avoiding something you didn’t know about instead of the thing you did.
Example, spikes at the bottom of the pit.
The rope then lets them slowly lower down as the door overhead closes. They will then try to get out, success may mean to get closer without falling, failure could mean slipping and needing another players success to save them from impending doom. Time is running out.
SHH… don’t tell them they need 3 sucesses to get there and the door closes in 2 and the other party members are hanging upside down tangled in the rope about to fall into spikes.
Now the transaction becomes instead of Merlin being punished and losing his rope and hook. He used them to stop the party from taking damage from the trap. He’s a hero.
Instead of feeling like our player LOST something he USED it to save the day.
What about the pre-written dialogue
The non lethal dialogue could have been moved to trigger once they stepped onto a new platform and now the bad guy figured they would get out of it making him even more nefarious and the party even better for thwarting his efforts.
The biggest take away
Don’t be afraid to stop time for a moment and think things over. In my rush to make my world feel fully fleshed out and immersive I made it the exact opposite. Railroads are flat and predictable. The next time it comes up, I’ll be wiser about it and now you can learn from my mistake so you can be a better Dungeon Master too.