GMing Mistakes You’ve Made in the Past

[hawkeyefan]

I’m curious to hear about the lessons people have learned along the way as GMs.

Tell us about something you used to do that you have since determined was wrong/dissatisfying/mistaken.

How did you come to this realization?

What steps did you take to improve?

How have things gone since?

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Mine is a thankfully single-session anecdote, because if I'd done this twice it would be time to quit gaming in shame.

I once ran a demo game of D&D for some classmates, bringing along dice for everyone from the masses of them I'd accumulated from various boxed games over the years. Had pregens set up based on loose requests (I want to be a great swordfighter, can I cast spells, etc.) and a short adventure that started in media res with a simple chase, a quick fight, a social scene that might or might not lead to another fight, some investigation, and a final, slightly harder fight. Even with newbies it should wrap in under three hours, more likely two. All good, right?

Well, it mostly went fine, but one of the three players could not roll over a 10 on a d20 to save her life. I was having similar problems hitting her AC so she wasn't taking damage in return (she was atank, and I kept getting elevens and twelves) but I could see she was getting frustrated. Swapped dice with her around the one hour mark, just after they finished the optional second fight. She suddenly started doing better, and we eventually got to the finale battle - at which point I couldn't hit a thing, and failed a key save that made things much easier for the players. So it wound up being a bit of a fizzle, but they were polite about it and two of them (including the "unlucky" one) came back for a second try and eventually joined a group I was playing in.

So what did I do wrong? It was the early 1980s. A significant number of my twenty-siders were those godawful lumps that were numbered 1-10 twice, and needed to be half colored-in or used with another die to act as a real d20. One of them had gotten into my dice pile unmarked, and I accidentally grabbed it when building my die sets for the session. And then I proceeded not to notice it until after the game was over, despite having swapped it into my own set a good hour before the "jinxed" finale.

It's been more than forty years, and to this day I still still doublecheck every d20 before I roll. I'm so paranoid about them I subconsciously favor game systems that don't use them at all, from Traveller to Sentinel Comics. The early 2000s and the 3.0/d20 boom were a nightmare for me.

 

[zakael19]

Running things I wasn't personally passionate about, for players who weren't invested in the play.

Came to the realization because I'd end play mentally exhausted. Walked the length of sessions back some, but was still just tired and wasn't really looking forward to the effort of prep or GMing.

I think it took some time and experimentation to discover what I was passionate about, but now I largely have and that lets me structure my thoughts on what I think good play is when I put up solicitations or session 0 campaign expectations. Turns out part of what I really like are games that a) require little to no prep and b) allow the players to set goals so that they're actively moving the game forward.

Now I tend to end sessions buzzing with energy and excited for the next time. It's really been a revelation.

 

[Distracted DM]

I didn't pull a punch that I really wish I had.

New player, new to DnD, this was ~8yrs ago. We spent an hour making his character, dragonborn sorcerer.
First scene, dead horse in the road, 4 PCs, 2 goblins attack them. Goblin shoots an arrow, crits for max, instakills the sorcerer.

I never pull punches unless I think that I screwed something up... but with a new player.. man, I really wish I changed things so he wasn't instantly dead in the first round of combat of his first game.

 

[soviet]

I killed Moley the Moleman!

I was running a fantasy game. Moley the Moleman was one of the first of a new race themed around the Earth element. He wasn't called Moley, the group named him and really took to him when they met him. He was part of a small attacking force that was being sent to one battle while the PCs went to another, and as I was narrating the results of the battle (very narrow victory, resolved through conflict resolution) I said he'd been one of the many casualties. As soon as I said it I realised I'd made a mistake but what can you do, I couldn't really take it back. So Moley exited the game.

Not sure there's a big lesson here. Think before you speak maybe!

 

[soviet]

I didn't pull a punch that I really wish I had.

New player, new to DnD, this was ~8yrs ago. We spent an hour making his character, dragonborn sorcerer.
First scene, dead horse in the road, 4 PCs, 2 goblins attack them. Goblin shoots an arrow, crits for max, instakills the sorcerer.

I never pull punches unless I think that I screwed something up... but with a new player.. man, I really wish I changed things so he wasn't instantly dead in the first round of combat of his first game.

And the name of that new player? E Gary Gygax.

 

[overgeeked]

My first time running D&D was a wonderful disaster. Absolute learning & teaching moment.

I tried to run a module. I say tried because the players immediately zigged when they needed to zag. Immediately as in the first five minutes of the first session. All the money and time prepping it went out the window. I learned real quick to adapt and go with the flow. It was still an incredibly rough session, about four hours of improvising when I hadn’t planned on improvising at all.

The other (terrible) option is to force the players to follow the module, i.e. railroading. Which means I don’t need players at all. Which, to me, entirely defeats the point of running games.

The other (even worse) option is to force start games after any potentially catastrophic decision points. But that’s an even worse kind of railroading.

But still, lesson learned. Never again. No set story, no railroads, no story-based modules, no adventure paths, no illusionism. It’s all “prep situations not plots” and open-world sandboxes.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Running a game in a style I like but my players don't. I prefer a slow burn where the players direct much of the action, which when it happens can be quite dangerous. My players, on the other hand, are mostly either Hickman revolutionaries that want to explore their OC through heavy roleplay, or casual gamers with little patience for the speed, setting detail, lack of a clear adventure path and potential for PC hardship I prefer (or both). Not everyone wants something different than I'm offering, but my wife does, and she's not shy about expressing herself. Still trying to find a way for both of to enjoy the experience equally, but in the meantime I'm bowing to the popularity of her style.

 

[dragoner]

I have made plenty and will make more. None really stick out in my mind, mostly it is in the realm of "the little metal creature is 20cm long and weighs 2kg" and then the players question it's density. Or one wanted to build a hatch, and I had everyone go to a scrapyard where there was a fight with "scuffians" and most everyone had fun with that, except the player who want to get the hatch.

 

[Distracted DM]

I didn't pull a punch that I really wish I had.

New player, new to DnD, this was ~8yrs ago. We spent an hour making his character, dragonborn sorcerer.
First scene, dead horse in the road, 4 PCs, 2 goblins attack them. Goblin shoots an arrow, crits for max, instakills the sorcerer.

I never pull punches unless I think that I screwed something up... but with a new player.. man, I really wish I changed things so he wasn't instantly dead in the first round of combat of his first game.

I'll note, btw, that Level Up A5E solves this for me. It handles Massive Damage as such:

Massive damage can injure or kill you instantly. If you are reduced to 0 hit points after taking an amount of damage equal to or greater than 20 + three times your character level (or Hit Dice for creatures), you make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw . On a failure, you die instantly, while on a successful result you live, but suffer one level of fatigue and one level of strife.

For example, an 3rd-level cleric with 24 hit points is subjected to a black dragon’s acid breath, taking 54 acid damage and being reduced to 0 hit points. Because they took massive damage (29 or more), the cleric must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw to avoid instant death.

If the sorcerer had succeeded on their saving throw against the breath weapon to take half as much damage, or if they had had resistance to acid damage, they would have only taken 27 acid damage, and although still reduced to 0 hit points wouldn’t have taken massive damage (and so isn’t at risk of instant death).