This last weekend, I was all set to gamemaster a well-crafted adventure for the game group I play with.  I had put in the time and planned an exciting combat adventure… that never happened.

Why?  The players picked up one some of the clues that I had carefully laid out in front of them, but decided to go in a completely new direction, nowhere close to the combat encounter I planned.

You have felt it before.  As a gamemaster, when your players don’t pick up on your hints or simply act in a way you hadn’t anticipated, what’s the temptation?  You want to guide them back onto the “right” path.  After all, it seems a waste to spend a lot of time planning, only to have to “wing it” when the players go another way.

A Guide, Not a Script

Whether you use a prepared module or create your own adventures, realize that these are just a starting point.  You’ll never be able to anticipate every possible twist and turn of the plot.  At best, you can outline the most likely course your adventurers will take.  After that, trust your wits.

Imagination Exercises

To develop your ability to think on the fly when DM’ing, try this.  Intentionally change one aspect of each combat (or roleplaying) encounter when your players actually get there.  Just one.  Decide that the floor is slippery, and determine under what circumstances the player may fall prone on it.  In another encounter, add obscuring mist to one area of the fight.  Add a second wave of monsters to the fight, deciding what to send at your players at the last minute.  …and so on.

Forcing yourself to make alterations at game-time when things go pretty much as you had planned them prepares you to do so in bigger ways when the players go completely “off course.”  It will stretch your ability to think on the fly.  You won’t feel that sense of panic when things don’t go as planned.

The “Right” Way

Don’t give in to the temptation.  As a gamemaster, one of the biggest challenges is rolling with it when things go in a direction you hadn’t planned.  It will stretch your imagination and skills.  You’ll grow in your abilities.  In fact, you’ll find that often, what you had to come up with on the fly often works out better than what you had planned.

Why?  Because your players feel like they are in the driver’s seat.  They don’t feel herded.

Worst Adventure… EVER!

In a email group thread from 15 years or so ago, I recall someone requesting that people send in their worst adventures they ever played in.  The one that sticks out in my mind, all these years later, was one where the party member were part of a prophecy.  They would do some great deed, save the world, and all that.  Why was it bad?  Because as the story progressed, the players felt like they had less and less control over the outcome of the story.  Since each player was an integral part of fulfilling the prophecy, none of them could die, or the story would be ruined.

I recall that the person telling the tale indicated that at one point, his character was on a rope bridge and had to roll a saving throw or fall to their certain death.  He rolled a 1.  The DM then made some wild excuse about why he didn’t actually fall.  By the end, the players just wanted to say, “OK, tell us how this ends,” and be done with it.

Choose Your Own Adventure

Is this an extreme example?  Of course, but it illustrates a point.  Players should be allowed to “choose their own adventure.”  They should feel that they have not only a stake in what happens, but that they can steer their own course.  Better yet, it will keep them coming back for more.