So I’m running my regular D&D game a Friday or two back and the party comes to a portion of the adventure where they are face to face with the main bad guy. Combat begins as they struggle to get past his defenses and to protect themselves from his powers.



One of the players has a spell up that he feels will protect him from the soul draining power of the bad guy. No luck, I say, as the bad guy singles him out and sucks his soul into a gem. I can see that the player is ticked off, but I’m not sure if it’s at me personally, or just at the situation or what. So I decide to lock that away for now and move on. Eventually the party defeats the bad guy, just barely, and they are able to rescue the lost souls and the PCs are saved.



At the next critical juncture that evening the party is transported to a new world whereby the apparently loose 90% of their magic items, some of their spells are not working correctly, and at least a couple of them have lost a few levels. To top it off, they’re now face to face with the bad guy once again, but this time he’s in a strange new form.



After that encounter I could once again see the ticked off look on the player’s faces. Frustration was high, so I wrapped up the game session with promises of more explanations and information to be forthcoming. I told them not to worry, and that I was sure they could rise to the challenge I had laid before them. Sure, it was a tough spot to be in – Trapped on a new world and apparently without much of their hard earned magics, but they’re adventurers I thought. Tough spots are meat and drink for the likes of them! Right?



Mark’s article Arbitrary brought the events of that game session and the days that followed to my mind as the word “Arbitrary” was one of the things I heard most often from the players after it was over. They were pissed at me as they felt my rulings in combat, and my removal of magic items and character levels were all arbitrary. They felt they we’re getting shafted by the GM and they didn’t like it one bit.



I found this out from one of the players who is basically the group spokesman. There had been a lot of inner party email going on where they complained and railed against me, so the spokesman took me aside and explained the group’s feelings to me. Not to berate or condemn my actions, but to tell me that the group was upset and that he thought it would be very helpful if I sent out some of my promised info before the next game. A pre-game email with some explanations and information would go a long way to help remove the fear and doubt that was creeping into the group.



I have to say I was shocked at what I heard. I knew there was a problem, but I had no idea things were as bad as they were. What the group saw as an arbitrary ass kicking by the GM I saw as a GM built challenge for the party to rise up and defeat. I thought I had done a great job in putting the party into a tight spot, and that they would surely see it as an opportunity to meet and overcome the challenge. Obviously, I was mistaken.



After I sent out some info via email, I started thinking about things and I realized that the root cause of all the complaints was my delivery. I was using a similar delivery method that I use with my Vampire group, which is very successful, but it was not working at all with my D&D group.



During the first big combat with the bad guy, one of the players has cast an anti-magic shield to protect himself. I had already determined that the only protection that would stop the soul ripping attack were spells that protected against negative plane energy – nothing else would work. The party was very high level and they have these types of magics (spells and items) available to them, and they’d used them in the past, I felt they would figure it out. Sure, it wouldn’t be easy, but it wasn’t supposed to be easy.



The problem was that when the player with the anti-magic shield had his PC’s soul ripped out and he asked “Why didn’t my spell work?” I said “You don’t know.” The player tried to push for an answer, but I told him I was not going to explain why his spell didn’t work in the middle of combat. He and the others needed to figure it out themselves.



And then when the PCs were transported to another world they asked why they lost levels and why their magic items disappeared. I again told them that they didn’t know at that point. They didn’t have enough info to determine the cause yet. One of the players said “I have a very high level in plane knowledge,” he then rolled the dice. “I rolled a 30.” I told him it didn’t matter what he rolled, because at this point they were once again in combat with the bad guy (his new form now), and they didn’t have time to focus on these things.



The cleric tried to cast a healing spell and I told him that didn’t work either as he felt his connection to his deity was severed. He asked why, again, I said he wasn’t sure – combat was on and they didn’t have time to delve into these things, unless they wanted to ignore the bad guy and give him big to hit bonuses.



Now, with my Vampire group my delivery wouldn’t have been a problem. Simply saying “No, it doesn’t work and you’re not sure why,” is enough to get that group thinking of other ways to accomplish their goals. They know the explanation for why something didn’t work will come later, when their PC has time to think about possible answers. I’ve also been playing with these guys for over 12 years so there’s a lot of history and trust that we have with each other.



My D&D group on the other hand is only in it’s second year, and everyone comes from a different gaming background. We don’t have the level of trust built up that the other group has. I made the mistake of assuming that a game group is a game group and that they would fall in line eventually. Obviously, that didn’t work.



So, I’ve decided to change my delivery with the D&D group. I will offer more info instead of just “No, it doesn’t work and you’re not sure why,” and I will also be sure to tell the players that they can expect some disclosure at the end of the encounter or game session. Sure, I will need to keep some things hidden from them, a GM can’t give away everything especially if it’s in the interest of a long term campaign, but I will give explanations so the players don’t feel my actions are arbitrary.



The other thing I’ve decided to do is ask the players to bear with me and realize that we all have different game styles. I will do my best to adapt and change to help them out with my delivery, but they will also need to help me out by having trust in me. I trust that they won’t cheat, so they need to trust that I’m not arbitrarily denying them because I don’t want them to succeed. There is a reason for why I tell them that something does or does not work. They may not know exactly why at first, but they can find out eventually.



I think I could have avoided this problem if I had paid closer attention to the players reactions to my delivery. If I had asked them what they thought of the game. It’s not always easy to read people and know what they are thinking, but by taking note of the players reactions I can then, after the game (or in game if necessary) ask them what’s bothering them.



Just remember: When you ask for what someone thinks be prepared that you may not like or agree with what they say. You will need to listen to what they say and be calm with your reaction to their thoughts.



If the player tells you that he doesn’t like it when you do X, you can’t tell him that he’s wrong or stupid or doesn’t understand the finer points of GMing. You can explain what you are trying to do when you do X, but you can’t be rude. You asked what the player though, you gotta be prepared for truth. And the player also needs to be prepared for your thoughts as well - Truth cuts both ways.



The other thing I learned from this experience is that anything which appears to be an arbitrary outcome in my game takes away from the realism of the world. People want to know why something happens. Yes, sometimes it’s not easy to find out or the info isn’t readily available, but people want to know why. If we as GM’s never provide the why, or at least hints or directions on where to find more info, the players feel cheated and the game world looses some of it’s realism.





Well, that’s it from me. See you in the Forums!