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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ThoughtBubble" data-source="post: 2150516" data-attributes="member: 9723">Interesting thread.I'm reminded of two sets of issues that tanked the last game I was DMing. One was the moral choices made by the party. It was a 'take the high road' sort of game. They tended to avoid the high road. It wasn't until later that I was able to admit that most of it was because I made the high road difficult. That's one lesson I've carried with me for the last year. I need to reward the players for making the sorts of decisions that work for the game.The second issue came up after one of the PC's died after the party charged into an ambush. The game was created and annunced as a heroic tactical game with meatgrinderish potential. Into a set of goblin caves, they triggered an alarm, separated, got surrounded by greater numbers and lost a party member before managing to kill the last of the monsers. There was some complaining about losing a character which I transitioned into a discussion about tactics. The discussion led to me getting explosively angry and storming out. What happened? Two of the players expressed the sentiment that "There was absolutely nothing we could have done better. Every decision we made was the best decision possible." And THAT set me off. After that comment, it became me trying to get it through to them that they could indeed do better. While I was citing specific examples from the combat, they were saying "Nope. That wouldn't have helped. We did the best thing possible." Finally, I got so fed up that I blew up. The fact that they flat out refused to acknowledge my opinion as valid on the matter just really jabbed a fork in my already stressed set of emotions. And that was the beginning of the end of that game.There is this parallel of me stomping out in a rage, wating a few days, then sending out a still angry but less than murderous e-mail to the group. And your descriptions of the emotions you felt seem similar to mine over most of the timespan. Due to that, I'll offer the idea that you may have felt something similar. Is it possible that you weren't just angry about the Character's actions? Could you have been equally or more upset by the way the players defended those actions?The reason I ask is that my current game is set up with the idea that my players can make whatever moral decisions they want. If the decision is there to be made, any decision made is a valid one (like killing my favorite NPCs). I like to think that I took some of the stuff I messed up on and matured with it. But, despite that, a situation like the above would still set me off. On moral issues: I kind of feel like, if the choice is there, any answer is acceptable. If I'm not prepared for the players to f*** it up, I don't put it in the game. Any specific decision can be acceptable for the situation. But certain patterns of decisions may not be acceptable for the game. The paladin ruthlessly killed some guy who didn't deserve it, ok, maybe he starts to get a little feedback (noise in the speakers, if you will). The paladin ruthlessly and habitually kills people who don't deserve it? Now that's a problem.But looking over all of this says one thing to me.I need to prepare for the possiblity that the characters in my game don't choose to save the world.</blockquote>

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