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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Joker" data-source="post: 3241068" data-attributes="member: 826">Right off the bat, I'll tell you I am not an experienced DM.  I have DM'd less than a dozen sessions and some were mediocre, some were crap and some went really well.The case in point was something of an experimental campaign.  We were running a round robin style campaign (5th level) which meant everyone took turns DM'ing after a concluded scene.I first DM'd this campaign on a Friday night, which is our usual gaming night.  And it went f-ing perfect.  I had in my head a series of events (combat and non-combat alike) that would happen but other than a few basic stats of opponents (levels and class) I winged the entire thing.  That's not saying that I wasn't prepared.  I ran descriptions and conversations through my head throughout the preceding week.  I made, all humility aside, an adventure that managed to perfectly enthrall the players and challenge them to the utmost, creating an almost euphoric feeling upon being victorious over two opponents of their CR.  Their words, not mine (apart from the CR).Now here comes what happened on that following sunday.  We planned on continuing with me as DM to further the story.  Eventually they lost but before I get even more ahead of myself, let me tell you what the objective was of the quest they were on.It was a very basic, stop the ritual or bad things will happen scenario.  They came to a point where they heard that there were captives, sacrifices they found out.  They set upon rescuing them.What follows is a series of bad DM wingings (I swear to Buddha it's a word), poor decisions and ridiculous unluck for the players.-Guards saw them, several of them fought the PC's to hold them off so two others could execute the prisoners.-Eventually (1 round I think) the PC's defeated the interfering guards and set out to stop the executioners.-By the time they catch up with them, the guards were about to start a coup-de-grace on the prisoners (4 in total).-The party runs into the room and starts attacking the guards (who were of course so fanatical that they ignored the PC's and continued the CDG's)-The following was so unbelievable I wrote it down.  The PC's missed every single attack in two rounds.  That is 6 melee attacks and 5 AoO's.  They missed them all.Anyway, I'm not gonna continue this much longer.  To make a long story short, the series of unfortunate circumstances continued and they failed to stop the ritual which brought doom and gloom upon the world.  Note, none of the PC's died in this.  Yet everyone in the group felt cheated somehow because I made it really hard for them to win the situation.There are some things that I should note, though.  Everyone, especially me, was tired.  I hadn't gone to bed until that morning at 0400 and had woken up at 8 or so to start gaming at 1100.The Friday before was hard to life up to.My group in it's 8 years has never been subjected to a TPK or more than one character death at a time.  Though character deaths do happen relatively regurlarly.The moon was in the way of my positive Jupiter rays.I know I haven't very clearly explained what happened that sunday. But in retrospect it's not really relevant.  What is relevant is the concept that there should always be a "way out" or a way in which to win for players.  I thought at the time that there are things that there are things that happen in the gameworld that are simply beyond the players' control.  And while I did envision ways for them to stop the ritual I didn't think them likely and would have required some sound tactical and some very difficult moral decisions.  Though in retrospect since I put them there I probably should have made it easier or...actually I don't know.  Like I said, I'm new at this game.So, if you're still with me, is it acceptable for DM's to create very difficult situations, even impossible ones if they serve the story?That's such a better and more succinct way of putting it.  I need sleep.</blockquote>

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