The DM always wins... or do they...

[Hereticus]

Please cite some examples from your experiences where the DM was taken by surprise by the actions of the characters (and left dumbfounded and temporally defeated), whether you were a player or the DM.

Back when we were playing second edition (with optional skills and powers), we had six to eight regular players in a game that spanned years. We used a rotating system of DMs, there were four of us that took turns for a moth or so at a time. One of the players decided to give it a shot as DM for the first time, and created an elaborate scenario. He placed an open call to adventurers to rescue some important person being held hostage by a dragon. He offered us a box of treasure and magic items as a reward. One of the wizards asked to see the treasure, and the DM handed him the box. The wizard immediately teleported away, leaving the rest of us laughing and the DM with a look of shock. We proceeded to trash his city, because he (the king) summoned us and wasted our time with no reward in sight. We played an evil party, and we were leveled in our teens. The DM was part of the group, he should've known what to expect.

I was DMing a 3.5E game, and I killed one of the player's characters. He was being greedy and the rest of the players were smart enough to run away from immanent death. I had another nasty encounter planned, so I decided to let the pissed off player play the monsters (Ogre Magi and Troll slaves), because he wanted revenge on the cowards who ran away and left him stranded to die. But instead when the combat started he turned on his fellow monsters, then asked to join the party afterward. It was pretty funny when it happened. My first impression was NO, but the rest of the party wanted to let him join. So sure... what the heck. It greatly increased the level of enjoyment of the game for all the players.

 

[Greg K]

The DM wins when he and the players have fun. If the DM and player's don't have fun, the DM doesn't win (and neither do the players). Then again, I don't view the game as a competiton between the DM and the players.

Now, as for player's surprising me (the DM), it happens fairly often, but that is too be expected with 6-8 intelligent and creative players. I have just learned to improvised and never them see me sweat!

In my superhero campaign, the characters are in a mystical dimension inspired by DND (the adventure is based upon a character's origin). While in a tomb of a powerful wight, one of the characters took an eagle-headed coin off the corpse of an adventurer that had, previously, come to slay the wight and failed. The coin granted telescopic vision and (unknown to the character) true seeing. As the party moved on further down the corridor, the corpses behind them animated and the player with the coin panicked. She thought they wanted the coin and threw it back at them. Everyone at the table just stopped, stared at her in disbelief for a moment, and broke out in laughter. Another character then proceeded to freeze all the zombies in one big block of ice- sealing off the corridor in the process.

Unfortuantely, for the party, the telescopic vision granted by the coin would have allowed them to learn that the slimy substance covering the arm of a character (acquired when she reached through a magic mirror) was alive and comprised of many singled-celllular organiasms. The true vision granted would have revealed that the mirror gateway would have led to a castle filled with oozes and slime molds.

 

[Nifft]

Please cite some examples from your experiences where the DM was taken by surprise by the actions of the characters (and left dumbfounded and temporally defeated), whether you were a player or the DM.

When I'm the DM, I'd feel saddened and defeated if my players failed to surprise me.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Mark]

The DM always wins... or do they...

A DM facilitates the game, describing the environment and the consequences of the PCs interacting with that environment and its creatures and people. Everyone wins when a DM does this well.

 

[Hereticus]

A DM facilitates the game, describing the environment and the consequences of the PCs interacting with that environment and its creatures and people. Everyone wins when a DM does this well.

When I'm the DM, I'd feel saddened and defeated if my players failed to surprise me.

The DM wins when he and the players have fun. If the DM and player's don't have fun, the DM doesn't win (and neither do the players). Then again, I don't view the game as a competiton between the DM and the players.

Now, as for player's surprising me (the DM), it happens fairly often, but that is too be expected with 6-8 intelligent and creative players. I have just learned to improvised and never them see me sweat!

As a DM and as a player, there is always something that another player does that surprises me.

What I was trying to do is get people to share some of their more memorable surprises, events that will be remembered for a long time.

Thank you.

 

[Lord Mhoram]

One time I got the GM to facepalm...

It was a superhero game, and we were investigating a drug ring whose mastermind was a mentalist. When the telepath in the group tried to read the minds of those underlings we captured, after a few moments, the person's memory would be erase back to the just before he met the bad guy mentalist. It was his way of insuring no info got out (and to reinforce just how bad he was).

So we had the manufacturing of the drug down to a particular manufacturing plant. But we had no idea which two of the people coming into the shift were the bad guys. The players are debating what to do and I pop off with "Let's just do a quick telepathy on everyone - the bad guys will lose their memory and look confused and we can find the stuff."

The GM, being a very good GM, after burying his head in his hands for a few moments, rolled with it.

 

[Nifft]

As a DM and as a player, there is always something that another player does that surprises me.

Honestly, it became the norm in my campaign. Above a certain level (in my case: 7+), I simply couldn't envision every option available to my players*.

So: I stopped trying to predict their actions. Now in my game, there are things going on, and there are problems they can solve, but figuring out what the PCs can do to solve the problems isn't something I do as a DM any more.

These days I prep a general outline of how events would unfold if the PCs do nothing, I prep NPC motivations (so they can react to the changes wrought by the PCs), and I prep a few encounters which may occur.

Cheers, -- N

*) This was true in 3.5e, and it's true in Exalted too. 4e? Dunno, we're still playing mostly Heroic tier.

 

[Dragon Snack]

Yeah, it got to the point that I assumed they would surprise me, so I threw whatever I wanted at them. I didn't have every splatbook, so they had the upper hand.

Unfortunately, sometimes they would 'surprise' me by not 'surprising' me, which usually led to one (or two) PC deaths...

Or they would surprise me by bypassing large chunks of the adventure (and thus XP) and getting to the BBEG a little too soon, leading to more PC deaths...

It should be noted that not fudging stuff was one of the things my group liked about my DMing (not that I didn't do it, but they got annoyed if they noticed me doing it).

 

[Bullgrit]

Honestly, with my game group, they don't usually surprise me with solutions to situations. They surprise me by finding a way to get one or all killed.

For instance, in my latest adventure, the party was told they were going into a volcano to deal with a red dragon. They knew this -- they even expressed nervousness at the idea of going into a volcano, and they explained to the new guy in our group what going up against a red dragon would be like. But no one bothered buying or preparing any kind of protection from fire magic.

In the battle with the dragon, there were 5 PC deaths. 4 of those deaths were from fire damage. I was surprised.

Bullgrit

 

[Shemeska]

There's no such thing as the DM "winning" in any campaign of mine, because I don't see the game as an adversarial competition between DM and players.

That said, I -adore- when my players surprise the heck out of me, and just blindside me with some awesome, unexpected idea or course of action. They're done it multiple times.

Among other things they've surprised me by:
1) Releasing the archdevil Zariel from beneath Bel's Citadel of Bronze on Avernus, using a combination of an artifact and some epic magic that I'd never considered for the task, which worked too well and was too out of the blue to do anything but let them.
2) Semi-accidental suicide that ended up destroying FR's arn rock in the lake of salt, and an avatar of Garyx in the process.
3) Releasing an imprisoned Molydeus because he promised that he'd help them navigate a planar maze they were locked inside of, and really pinky swear his binding circle compelled him to be honest about that sort of thing. Really. Honestly. Would a tanar'ri lie?
4) Turning a yugoloth lord of stone while she was astrally projecting and using a surrogate body spawned via color pool hopping in the Astral. End result was a statue and a catatonic archfiend back in Carceri with no way to end her spell and thus her effective imprisonment.
5) Suckpunching an archfiend while inside a dead magic zone