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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Thombolism" data-source="post: 7399165" data-attributes="member: 6949342">Bwuh. Finishing the first arc in the first home brew campaign I’d ever run for 5e a few years back:  the characters found out that their ally- who had just betrayed them by secretly working for the crimeboss they just took down- was the daughter of one of the masters of the adventuring guild they had just joined. My characters asked her, under Zone of Truth, why she turned against the organization, and I basically played it out as a sort of “F*** you, dad!” sort of deal. The players took everything she said about her “awful dad” to heart, and immediately started plotting ways of taking down the guild...I immediately panicked, thinking my huge and world shaking main quest line is in serious jeopardy if they turn against the guild, and start spouting things off like, “Their true identities are well guarded secrets,” and “Of the thirteen guild masters, no two of them are ever in the same city at once,” but of course this is just stoking the fire and getting them excited for the challenge. Eventually one of the more experienced players could tell I was flailing, and coralled the rest of the party into sleeping on it. We ended the session, and I flat out told the players that “wasn’t the story I had planned for the game.”Looking back, it’s my greatest failure as a GM. The players had found a story line they found compelling, organically, and were excited to tackle it! That’s the holy grail! But I was too taken with “My Precious Story Syndrome”, and denied them the opportunity to explore a sweet campaign in favour of getting them back on the rails of the story I had originally intended. Today, I try to be way more flexible, and always listen to my players. My GM philosophy nowadays can be boiled down to this: prepare the setting, prepare a dozen plot hooks and important NPC’s, but above all else let the PC’s dictate the course of the campaign.</blockquote>

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