What Happens If We…

Christian Malleck
Jul 10, 2017 · 5 min read

One of the most frightening and exciting times as a DM is when the players go down a path you completely didn’t expect. You will often hear that a DM needs to say “Yes” as often as possible, and this is the situation in which that rule applies the most. Nothing will sour a player’s experience more than trying to go the direction they want only to find that there is nothing available to them. For example, I once played in a game where people were not allowed to leave a city unless they had permission from the mayor’s office, and so my character forged documents and managed to leave. However, despite exploring the surrounding wilderness for a while, the DM offered nothing more than “There is nothing interesting.” Not even a better description of what my time in the nearby forest looked like; I was given nothing for trying to interact with the world. Here are some examples of times players went in an unexpected direction, and what I did about it.

The story I often tell is about a quest in which the players had to get a shocker lizard for a wizard. They had found out that one was being awarded as a prize in a nearby town’s local tournament. The party went to the small town and I described that the exotic pets were being kept in a warehouse and what the tournament involved. It was planned to span three days; upon arrival they immediately decided to break into the warehouse that night and steal the lizard. Given they had never done something so chaotic before, I was not prepared, but I loved it. I always approach break-ins the same way; I quickly plan the layout/floors/rooms that exist in the building, and I decide immediately what the defenses are. After that, I do not change the defenses. I think that whatever I come up with is what the owners of the place came up with, and any gaps in security that the players find is theirs to exploit. I decided the warehouse doors were locked, it had windows only 40 ft up, and the inside was under the effects of an anti-magic zone. Other than that, they could do what they wanted.

The most drastic change of direction I ever experienced was so jarring I actually ended the session a little early. My players had tried to teleport, but had accidentally arrived miles away, inside an evil organization’s headquarters (Zhentarim for you fans of Forgotten Realms). After escaping the headquarters, they holed up in an abandoned shack in the woods for the night. Here they were ambushed by a force I thought would be enough to overwhelm them and that they’d have to flee. I hadn’t known that the cleric had just gotten the spell Mass Heal, and when the party was almost dead, they were magically revived to full health. They killed the force, and ended up with 13 +1 swords and armour. I told them they would be hard pressed to sell Zhentarim equipment anywhere in the world, and so the one player decided that they would use their recently acquired Plane Shift spell to go to the plane of celestials, and try and unload the magical gear there. My party went from travelling in the woods, to traipsing around heaven. After the session, I had to do a bunch of prep on how to make the plane they were on feel different, and decide what the creatures would be like. At no point did I try to stop what they were doing though, or suggest they go another way! In order to make a great experience, don’t be afraid to step away and take some time to plan. Even breaking for 30 min. mid-session to do some extra planning might help.

One of the most unexpected paths I’ve seen players take is one in which they abandon a quest. It’s sometimes because they cannot decide on a course of action, but I’ve also seen it happen where the motivation of the characters does not allow them to remain invested in what they started. A small town’s economy was based around the harvesting of a nearby plant that only grew in an old, run-down temple. This plant only grew there because of the specific magical nature of the place. However, a group of three powerful monks had come to the temple and, claiming to be on a sacred mission, prevented anyone from entering the temple. The town hired the party to get the monks out by any means. After talking with the monks, discovering that the temple fell outside the city’s technical limits, and that the town had been the first to take hostile action to try and remove them, the party decided to walk away. They felt that the town was stupid for relying on a single product to sustain them, and that they should have done a better job to protect the temple (they hadn’t because they were so remote it had never been a problem). All my plans for combat, negotiations, dialogues, etc. was all useless because the party decided to just ignore it.

This is a reality of the game that DMs need to accept and prepare for. Be ready for players to skip over adventures. Be ready for them to find a totally different path. Make sure that you follow their cues and remember that this is a fully functioning world that can be explored. If the players all immediately want to go down into the sewers as soon as they reach town, consider what the sewers are like here, and throw in some small reward for the creative exploration (maybe something that was lost down here is found by them!). You will surprise your players when they go in a direction that you never directly presented only to find that the adventure still continues full steam.

Christian Malleck

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I’m a Dungeon Master. I’ve learned by trying every game I can get my hands on. These are the lessons other DMs aren’t sharing, kept short and simple.

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