Matt Mercer DM Tips: Fixing GM Mistakes! November 10, 2022Zoltar <strong>THIS IS A AN AUTOMATIC CAPTION TEXT from YouTube, so it’s not “perfect”.<br /> My advice is to use it just to help people like me that are not english speaking, to understand the Video/Podcast</strong><br /> MATT: Hello. My name is Matthew Mercer. I’m a<br /> voice actor and the dungeon master for Critical</p> <p>Role, here at Geek & Sundry, and welcome to<br /> today’s episode of GM Tips, where we discuss</p> <p>fixing GM mistakes.</p> <p>[music]</p> <p>MATT: Being the game master for an entire world,<br /> guiding heroic players through stories from inside</p> <p>your mind, can be an incredibly fun and rewarding<br /> experience. However, you are not infallible.</p> <p>Mistakes do happen. Perhaps a misinterpreted note<br /> led to a conflict in story resolution, or an NPC</p> <p>you designed to be integral ends up killed by the<br /> party, you let slip a tiny tidbit of secret info</p> <p>that undermines your big reveal, or you gift a<br /> player with an item that is far too powerful than</p> <p>you thought, throwing party in-game balance<br /> entirely out of whack.</p> <p>How do you correct these unintentional errors to<br /> maintain the game you want to run? Well, let’s</p> <p>discuss a number of solutions to these<br /> challenges.</p> <p>Let’s say you’re running an encounter that isn’t<br /> intended to be that difficult. Either you</p> <p>miscalculated the power of the enemies or the luck<br /> was so against the party that a whimpering,</p> <p>anticlimactic TPK is imminent. Here some examples<br /> of how to correct that situation. You could</p> <p>suddenly have an arrow or spell fly in from out of<br /> nowhere, rocking one of the more dangerous foes,</p> <p>and have an allied NPC enter the fray to save them<br /> from the claws of defeat. You could also consider</p> <p>that if it’s an intelligent foe, perhaps they see<br /> the PCs’ terrible situation and see them worth</p> <p>more alive and enslaved than dead. Have them fight<br /> not to the death, and instead knock them</p> <p>unconscious or force them to their knees and swear<br /> themselves to the foe. This could even lead to a</p> <p>cool escape or revenge-type mission in the near<br /> future. You could also have a terrible, screeching</p> <p>roar blast across the sky, and your enemies<br /> suddenly look more frightened than they’ve ever</p> <p>been before. They quickly assess their<br /> situation, decide to flee, leaving you to the fate</p> <p>of some possibly scarier creature. The wounded<br /> party now has to hide from this mystery creature</p> <p>to survive. Or you could just have them TPK and<br /> explain how the darkness– or the light, possibly,</p> <p>as well– fades as they awaken in a stone room,<br /> shackled and held down. Suddenly, it appears that</p> <p>a powerful mage has resurrected the party. Who<br /> knows what plans he has for them? All he knows is</p> <p>that they are a party of skilled heroes and they<br /> have utility for such a powerful mage. (chuckles)</p> <p>Now, mind you, if the encounter is intended to be<br /> dangerous, challenging, and possibly deadly, let</p> <p>the dice fall as it may. That’s part of the<br /> game. You don’t want to undermine the ever-present</p> <p>danger and tension of the game. However, you also<br /> don’t want to completely end the story that you</p> <p>and your players have put into for months and months<br /> due to just an unexpectedly shitty scenario.</p> <p>Another situation is you’ve given clues and<br /> information and hints as to where to discover and</p> <p>follow the main plot, but no one is figuring it<br /> out or picking up on your nudges. The game is</p> <p>quite literally going nowhere. Don’t be afraid to<br /> be a little more blunt with your additional</p> <p>information. While some hints may seem like<br /> obvious reveals to you, you also already have all</p> <p>the information in your head. A PC getting these<br /> hints in a vacuum might end up either completely</p> <p>confused or misinterpret the vague info and<br /> extrapolate an entirely new and entirely wrong</p> <p>plot. If it goes on too long, drop more direct<br /> hints via NPCs they encounter, or have more clues</p> <p>found as they go, or just reveal information as<br /> part of the terrain as they progress forward.</p> <p>You can tailor and reshuffle your intended plot<br /> points and plot NPCs to be a little more direct</p> <p>with their info, or even appear in unintended,<br /> more convenient areas if the PCs aren’t as focused</p> <p>or driven as you expected. Moving the plot along<br /> for everyone’s benefit is more important than</p> <p>adhering to a theoretical structure that you<br /> created in your own little headspace.</p> <p>Here’s another example of a situation: you’ve<br /> offered information about your plot throughout the</p> <p>game, and the players discover an accidental,<br /> fairly large contradiction in your storytelling</p> <p>that confuses them or undermines your entire<br /> plot’s direction. First off, let them discuss the</p> <p>confusion while you consider options and how to<br /> retroactively disprove one side of that info. Pick</p> <p>which side of the plot conflict is more<br /> interesting to pursue, and let them seek answers</p> <p>in-game as to which side is false. Perhaps an ally<br /> who provided some of the info can now be revealed</p> <p>to be a saboteur or a mole, or information was<br /> planted by an unseen antagonistic force trying to</p> <p>throw off the scent.</p> <p>No reveal is immediately necessary. You can stall<br /> for time between sessions to unravel your mistake</p> <p>and make it work for you as opposed to against<br /> you.</p> <p>Another possibility is you accidentally spill a<br /> lead, like an info leak or secret about your main</p> <p>plot and spoil a grand surprise you’d been<br /> looking forward to dropping down the road. First</p> <p>off, don’t admit the mistake. Own it. Let the<br /> party think you intentionally did so and follow</p> <p>their lead. If needed, take a break shortly<br /> thereafter, or, if possible, even between</p> <p>sessions, and brainstorm a way to alter your<br /> current story to enhance the reveal, or even</p> <p>change it to be a bait-and-switch so you can still<br /> surprise them later on. If it was indeed info</p> <p>revealed by an NPC, you can also have that NPC<br /> feed them a bunch of additional misinformation to</p> <p>confuse the players into perhaps not believing<br /> anything they’ve said. You can later play out that</p> <p>they were either not in their right mind, like being<br /> mentally controlled by some crazy witchcraft, or</p> <p>perhaps a doppelganger trying to misinform the<br /> party. Doppelgangers are always fun. Make your</p> <p>party real nervous. Trust no one.</p> <p>If the reveal was largely due to a very clever<br /> player connecting the dots, don’t punish them for</p> <p>being clever. Let them enjoy that victory. Just do<br /> your best to not show any confirmation of their</p> <p>deduction until it’s put into action, leaving them<br /> to possibly second-guess their own idea in the</p> <p>interim. Then, if they stick to it, reward them. I<br /> mean, few moments for a PC really beat figuring</p> <p>out the villain’s plot and watching it unfold<br /> accordingly. Unless there’s nothing they can do to</p> <p>stop the plot, and they’re fucked, in which<br /> case, (nervous laugh).</p> <p>Another mistake-based situation may involve you<br /> giving a magical item or items to the party that</p> <p>quickly appear to be way more powerful than you<br /> anticipated. It completely wrecks your intended</p> <p>game balance and can sometime cause the other PCs<br /> to resent that unfair advantage that player now</p> <p>has. Well, here are some suggested ways to handle<br /> fixing that scenario. You could perhaps introduce</p> <p>a very powerful entity who lost that magical item<br /> or object and has been actively seeking it. They</p> <p>stumble upon the PCs and offer, in exchange for<br /> the item, other grand rewards and the favor of a</p> <p>powerful being that they can keep in mind for<br /> future use. Or the item can slowly be revealed to</p> <p>be cursed: the longer they use it, the more<br /> dangerous or penalizing it becomes. Now they must</p> <p>quest to cleanse it, and while doing so lessens<br /> its abilities, in the end, it can now be used</p> <p>without issue, and they’ve earned that item’s true<br /> use.</p> <p>Another way would be: perhaps the enchantment was<br /> unstable due to strange, arcane experiments and</p> <p>the item shatters. It must now be reforged using<br /> safer components, which produces a comparable, if</p> <p>possibly lessened version that lasts indefinitely.<br /> Or, by the time they repair the item, the party</p> <p>has reached a power level where it seems to befit<br /> the current game balance.</p> <p>Not all these options are possible, and there are<br /> many other awesome possibilities you can use to</p> <p>fix these issues that you can find and research<br /> online, but I hope these tips have at least been</p> <p>somewhat helpful if one of these scenarios does<br /> find its way into your campaign.</p> <p>Thank you so much for watching. My name is Matthew<br /> Mercer. You can find more GM Tips here at</p> <p>GeekandSundry.com, and I’ll see you on the<br /> internet.</p> <p>[music]</p> <p> Share this:TweetWhatsAppTelegramEmail
