D&D: GM Diary: Group Conflicts – A Discussion
This time I can’t tell you an exciting story of adventures, heroes and monsters in the Dungeons and Dragons GM Diary – if you want to know what happens next with the captured Castiel, unfortunately you have to wait another week. Does that seem too long to you? Guess how Castiel’s player Dominik is doing, stewing with uncertainty!
This is because we spent more than four hours last Saturday (September 24, 2022) discussing important issues for the group and the future of the campaign. And starting with a real session after that didn’t seem very practical to us, because it was already in the middle of the night. So today I’m bringing you a report on our group meeting, player concerns, issues raised and possible solutions. Because that is also part of the life of a game master. If a campaign is to run well, all voices must be heard – and not everyone involved always agrees. Maybe we should have had this conversation before the campaign started, but somehow the individual points weren’t that urgent or present at the time. It’s only just come up now, so it was good and right to start this discussion right away.
Player vs. Game Master
Source: buffed
Looking back on the last campaign, some players confessed to me that they felt our battles would become more and more of a player vs. game master contest. And there they are right. I tried to keep creating new challenges for them so as not to bore them with my fights, and they always pulled new incredibles out of their bag of tricks that made it increasingly difficult for me to balance fights. Anyone who’s ever acted as GM for a group of adventurers past level 15 might understand that.
And we played in that level range for at least a year, even more than 10 sessions at level 20. And so our fights became competitions instead of fights together. We agree that this shouldn’t be the case in the new campaign. I don’t see any problem with this topic in the lower levels either. However, we still have to find a solution for how the tiresome late game should turn out.
Freedom of choice VS protective instinct
Playing in an open world campaign is a new experience for all of us. The first part of the campaign (Gladîn) was completely different: my players told me what they were going to do next and I then planned the next few sessions directly for it and adapted it to their level and themselves. This time, by level six, pretty much everything is written and you can theoretically go anywhere.
On the one hand, this gives more freedom, but on the other hand, it entails more dangers. Of course, as a GM, I don’t want them showing up in an area where the first enemy they come across can smack them down in one hit. Conversely, some players fear that I would give them too little freedom in the world for their own plans, interactions and actions in the future. That for me only my planned paths and solutions would exist and they were afraid to be more spectators in a story than actual actors.
Just wait and see
Source: buffed
A fear I can’t really understand. In the last four years I have always tried to do the opposite of that and have left as many avenues open to them as possible (at least in my opinion). And now they’re going into an almost impossible fight, with which I wanted to show them that please, please, please be careful with their explorations, because they can quickly die at the beginning of their adventurer existence – and that’s it do you have such fears?
On this point, only time can tell that these fears are not necessary. For as long as they treat my world and its inhabitants with respect, I will not stand in the way of their plans. Why should I, that’s what makes the story exciting in the first place? Only for Murderhobos I have no understanding. But my players haven’t been in the past, so I’m confident that they won’t develop in that direction in the future either.
In-game warnings
But my worries remain that some of them will not survive this first part of the campaign. The players agree that they don’t want plot armor, i.e. no magical protective armor that is put over them because they are the heroes. That suits me perfectly, because I wouldn’t want to give them such a protective shield either. And of course we all know that tragic deaths are part of D&D. Still, I’d like to be able to warn them of a potential death trap.
Sven, one of the players, strictly doesn’t want to get such warnings out of game, but through the conversation on Saturday we found that they are acceptable to him in game. This is so important to know! NPCs issuing area warnings, half-trodden corpses, the terrifying appearance of enemies, you name it. It’s all okay with him – and also with the other three. Dominik, on the other hand, asks to be able to flee from battles, so while the adventurers can challenge an enemy that is too strong, they still have the option to flee once they realize they’ve overstretched themselves with that foe. Promising that is much more difficult, because stuns and critical hits happen.
So if my warnings are clear enough, I should be able to prevent the heroes from being eaten without them being able to do anything about it. They still want the freedom to choose to run to their own death or perdition. I’ll give them that, of course, and I’ll always do that in the future – but it gives me a stomach ache. But that’s probably just part of it. And now I’m looking forward to finally getting back to playing and watching the young adventurers try to save Castiel from the pirates.
Reference-www.buffed.de