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When PCs fail.
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<blockquote data-quote="ffanxii4ever" data-source="post: 5283197" data-attributes="member: 85809"><p>Personally, I approach my job as DM when planning the game as this: The PC's will rarely, if ever fail. The only time that they risk actually failing (as in "good try, game's over, you lost" as it seems what happened with your group) is at the absolute end of the campaign. Because of the style of game that I like to run, I tend to do very "yeah, if you fail, the whole country/world/Material Plane is gonna go to the dogs and be utterly destroyed" plots, which has the final encounter/adventure/what not, and they may fail that.</p><p></p><p>Now, beyond that ending the PC's will not fail; they may die (usually multiple times), they may have some major set-backs, they may cause a ton of collateral damage and destruction, but ultimately they will not fail, as they are the stars of the show. And this is not to say that they always are successful with side quests and the like, simply that I always have a Plan B, C, D, and E ready for them, so that they don't simply fail everything if they miss one little thing, or they fail to defeat one little foe, or something along those lines.</p><p></p><p>Granted, I have no idea as to what your campaign (or premade adventure as it looks like) was like, so I can't comment too specifically on it, but does this BBEG getting his hands on this artifact result in world-ending catastrophe? If so, did the PCs know this? If so, well, you lose some and you win some and at least you had a good ride. However, it seems like it isn't quite so final with your group, so how does their failure impact the world? Does the BBEG begin to scour the face of the world, and drain it of its energy? Does he ascend to godhood and proceed to wreck havoc on a cosmic scale? Or does he just have a really cool new toy to play with? In my eyes, all of these things would be considered and weighed in order to see what direction the PCs go now.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="ffanxii4ever, post: 5283197, member: 85809"] Personally, I approach my job as DM when planning the game as this: The PC's will rarely, if ever fail. The only time that they risk actually failing (as in "good try, game's over, you lost" as it seems what happened with your group) is at the absolute end of the campaign. Because of the style of game that I like to run, I tend to do very "yeah, if you fail, the whole country/world/Material Plane is gonna go to the dogs and be utterly destroyed" plots, which has the final encounter/adventure/what not, and they may fail that. Now, beyond that ending the PC's will not fail; they may die (usually multiple times), they may have some major set-backs, they may cause a ton of collateral damage and destruction, but ultimately they will not fail, as they are the stars of the show. And this is not to say that they always are successful with side quests and the like, simply that I always have a Plan B, C, D, and E ready for them, so that they don't simply fail everything if they miss one little thing, or they fail to defeat one little foe, or something along those lines. Granted, I have no idea as to what your campaign (or premade adventure as it looks like) was like, so I can't comment too specifically on it, but does this BBEG getting his hands on this artifact result in world-ending catastrophe? If so, did the PCs know this? If so, well, you lose some and you win some and at least you had a good ride. However, it seems like it isn't quite so final with your group, so how does their failure impact the world? Does the BBEG begin to scour the face of the world, and drain it of its energy? Does he ascend to godhood and proceed to wreck havoc on a cosmic scale? Or does he just have a really cool new toy to play with? In my eyes, all of these things would be considered and weighed in order to see what direction the PCs go now. [/QUOTE]
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