Misadventures as a GM.

[Whisper-Kitten]

If, as a GM, you have ever screwed up royally, had a major "Whoops, I did not expect that to happen moment.", or simply forgot a characters name then this thread is for you. Let me take you back in time when a much less grey Whisper-Kitten had a major "Whoops" moment. So I am running a campaign where the players are mercenaries that choose quests off of a battle board. It was super fun, and everyone was having a ball. So they are fighting some red mantis and I hit one player with a strong crit. He is nearly dead so I bring in the npc healer, that they wanted me to run for some reason. Big mistake on their part. The Cleric is lvl 13, and has the healing domain. So I cast cure critical, and "Bam!" nearly heal for max on my rule. Great huh? Except for one problem; that I would have known I of carefully read his backstory. He was a Dhampir =X . My "Whoops!" moment.

 

[Umbran]

The whoops I most remember (and cringe at) was not really just a moment, but the concept of an entire session.

For a gameday, I stepped up to run an example session of "Bubblegumshoe".

The whoops? The players were expecting Scooby Doo, Nancy Drew, or Encyclopedia Brown. I built a session with themes more appropriate for Veronica Mars.

 

[MGibster]

I was running a post-apocalyptic game where one of my players' character was a former hit-man from back before civilizaition fell. An NPCs from his past arrived and offered him money in exchange for killing an important NPC. This NPC was an important leader for their settlement and someone who specifically helped the PCs on multiple occasions throughout the campaign. What did I think was going to happen? Well I didn't think the PC would say yes and kill the NPC. The PC ended up failing to get away and was gunned down by several concerned citizens as well as his fellow PCs. What I expected to happen was the PC would warn the others there was a plot to kill the beloved NPC. That was totally my fault for making assumptions.

While it didn't derail the campaign, it was a big factor in the city falling at the end of the campaign.

 

[Deset Gled]

The biggest mistake I have ever made as a GM is one I have repeated multiple times. Some variant of "I never should have brought this person to play with that group." I first screwed it up as a kid, I have flubbed it as an adult, and it occasionally still rears it's head as an older adult.

People are complicated. And no amount of positive thinking or friendly actions can force a group into cohesion.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I ran an entire campaign centered around a homebrewed demonic species that had an additional weakness (magical light of ANY kind) and an additional power (attribute reduction). On paper, they were pretty scary. In practice, they were slightly better than speed bumps.

The main problem? I was running them stupidly. The warriors were terrified ad getting their physical abilities drained. The spellcasters? Not so much. But as written, the demons could reduce ANY attribute- I just didn’t have the demons reduce any of the mental (casting) stats. Not only would that have made it more difficult for them to cast spells, Int or Wis drain would have reduced the likelihood that they’d pick the best spells to cast.

The epiphany came about 5 minutes after we finished wrapping up the campaign- the heroes won- and I apologized to my players right then, explaining my error.

There was a chorus of “OoooOOOOhhhhh!”

 

[plecostomus]

I've had a self-inflicted comedy of errors involving the star in the Infinite Staircase module When A Star Falls.

It started when instead of the star being an object, I gave it the Empyrean Iota stat block and let it goof around in a fight with the derro that the party needed to "rescue" it from. The players didn't actually consider that this was the star they had come to the derro lair to find, and they killed it.

I gave the party some stardust so they could still complete the quest, but I went back and forth on whether or not they should get the full reward for the star plotline, which is a helping of fire resistance right before the party fights a young red dragon. I decided they could still have fire resistance, but I would provide it via Potions of Fire Resistance from a friendly NPC, and do something else for the star trade.

The NPC gave the party their fire resistance potions, and within the same session a player sold the potions. I did get her to not sell every single one, which was her original plan.

More recently I attempted to add some Dragonlance gnomes from Monstrous Compendium Volume 2 to the otherwise fairly harmless Griswill Garrison in the module. The players rolled initiative at the very end of the session, and then 2 of them told me they would be absent for the combat itself in the next session. Rather than cancelling, I am doing my best to remove the higher CR gnomes the party doesn't know about yet, and give the 2 remaining players a chance to escape the situation. We'll see how that goes.

The good news: I've already prepped the module after this one, and I haven't made any adjustments aside from how the party gets to the quest, so there is no way for me to screw everything up. Right? I am swearing off homebrew!

...at least until Pharaoh, where I will give the party a chance to fight Amun Sa instead of helping him.

 

[Reynard]

One Sunday morning game at a con, I was so hung over that I forgot how damage was rolled in Savage Worlds.

Luckily, my players all knew me and told me to go wash my face and get a cup of coffee. 15 minutes later, everything was smooth sailing.

 

[sevenbastard]

A old classic. Back in high school I built an adventure that could only be completed by finding the secret door. Then the game grind to a halt when the dice didn't let them find it.

 

[Thierry-Advent]

Symbaroum: New system, new group, didn't master encounter challenge vs PC power level. TPK on the first fight after two rounds of combat. Killed the game for them. Tried to do a rewind and redo the battle but the players didn't want to. $150 on hardcover books wasted.

 

[Reynard]

Symbaroum: New system, new group, didn't master encounter challenge vs PC power level. TPK on the first fight after two rounds of combat. Killed the game for them. Tried to do a rewind and redo the battle but the players didn't want to. $150 on hardcover books wasted.

I have it under good authority that you don't need encounter design systems.

Joking aside -- I'm sorry your players reacted that way. That seems quite inconsiderate.