Times we have made mistake as DMs and how we would do things differently

[James Gasik]

So with the Deck of Many Things, it depends on your style of gaming. If you're trying to run a game where the characters are balanced against each other, one getting 50k xp and a magic item can be problematic.

If you're trying to run a game where players are invested in their characters, being killed by death, having your soul stolen, forced alignment change (where you can become EVIL, bwahahaha), trapped in an inescapable prison*- this can really derail a campaign when characters become unplayable.

But there are good cards too. The Knight, The Flames, The Key, The Throne- these can lead to new adventures. So it's a mixed bag. In my House of Cards revamp, I've been working on ways to make the cards less likely to wholly derail the adventure (since you have to draw each one to successfully complete the dungeon in the most heavy handed AD&D style).

*I will admit, I had an awesome solo adventure when I had a character draw the Donjon and the DM let me start a prison break to escape. I made a makeshift adventuring party of some messed-up weirdo NPC's and fought a 100' tall demon to escape (I made a Wish to bring him down to my size, and instead my character became 100' tall as well!).

 

[overgeeked]

*I will admit, I had an awesome solo adventure when I had a character draw the Donjon and the DM let me start a prison break to escape. I made a makeshift adventuring party of some messed-up weirdo NPC's and fought a 100' tall demon to escape (I made a Wish to bring him down to my size, and instead my character became 100' tall as well!).

Exactly. This is high fantasy. Death is not the end. Fight to recapture your soul. Stage a prison break. That sounds awesome.

 

[James Gasik]

Exactly. This is high fantasy. Death is not the end. Fight to recapture your soul. Stage a prison break. That sounds awesome.

The only problem being, you don't always have the opportunity or time to run solo adventures like that. The Deck can really split the party up in innumerable ways, which can lead to the game coming to a crashing halt and losing momentum if you're not careful.

Which is why I love the Deck. And hate the Deck, lol.

EDIT: and Bag of Beans, Wild Mages, Wands of Wonder...

 

[overgeeked]

The only problem being, you don't always have the opportunity or time to run solo adventures like that. The Deck can really split the party up in innumerable ways, which can lead to the game coming to a crashing halt and losing momentum if you're not careful.

Which is why I love the Deck. And hate the Deck, lol.

EDIT: and Bag of Beans, Wild Mages, Wands of Wonder...

So skip ahead to the epic fight scene and reunion. Nothing says you have to play out every second.

 

[aramis erak]

There has only really been one for me, but I should have walked away from the table. No fuss, no explanations, no ultimatums (eg "he goes or i go"). Just between sessions I should've said "Sorry guys this isn't working out for me."

I didn't have that option, seeing as I was the GM and host... He stormed off in a huff when the other PCs caught him mid-strike attempting to assassinate the dark-elf PC... via casting hold person. When the baron (a PC) witnesses the attempted murder, they Banished him.
The other chance? He ① altered his character sheet from what had been approved, ② got it proved because I'd photocopied everyone's sheets (mom had lent me a portable photocopier due to my college research) ③ then had his character attack the required party patron, a 600 point vampire with flame jet and Soul Jar at levels well over 20 (former PC of a player I'd lost touch with.)
I don't recall which was first. I do know he got no additional chances.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Let's just put this on the right thread this time...

There was that time in a high school AD&D game where I loaned a new player some dice from my Halloween Happy Meal dice bucket and they spent the entire evening unable to hit much of anything or make a save. It was really frustrating and he never played with us again until well after we'd all graduated from college. I discovered after the game that I'd handed him one of those accursed old-fashioned d10s that were actually a twenty-sider numbered 1-10 twice. How the blasted thing escaped getting half-colored with the rest of them (I must have had ten of them from various boxed RPGs and wargames over the years) I don't know, but we played for three hours and none of the experienced players at the table noticed the mistake. The new guy noticed it only went to ten, but thought that was normal since it still had twenty sides and he wasn't paying attention to other folks' rolls.

If I'd still had the fool thing when he finally came back to gaming with us I'd have let him smash it with a hammer or bean me in the head with it, as he preferred.

 

[MintRabbit]

In my very first game I made the mistake of basically dictating what I expected a player's character would look like. As soon as the words left my mouth I realized that I crossed a line. I was not quick to forget it.

 

[TheSword]

In my very first game I made the mistake of basically dictating what I expected a player's character would look like. As soon as the words left my mouth I realized that I crossed a line. I was not quick to forget it.

Such a good lesson!

 

[Bohandas]

Any basic people management course will tell you about the feedback look.

1 - Have a plan
2 - Have a go
3 - Reflect on what worked and what didn’t
4 - Make some changes… then go back to step 1

I definitely should have done step 1

 

[General_Tangent]

Back when I started I made a number of errors as a newbie GM.

I found myself in an adversarial situation with a couple of the players who seems to enjoy nothing more than trying to derail my games.

I did my best to try and keep them entertained but I reached a breaking point and we parted ways.

One of the funniest mistakes I ever made though was not quite understanding the game scale in D&D and when someone had a 1" protection nobody bothered to tell me it was a scale inch and not what I thought was a 1:1 inch!

These days I have a far more mature group of players to game with and I'm a lot less stressed as a result.