Messing Up As a GM

There is an incredible amount of pressure placed on the Gamemaster in a tabletop roleplaying game group. The GM wears a lot of hats: from storyteller to referee to improviser and many others. When anyone is juggling that many plates, eventually they will drop one, splattering the folks watching and making a big old mess. GMs are human, and humans are imperfect creatures. That doesn’t mean the campaign or even the session is ruined, it just means that you have to pick yourself up and get back to it. No one is the perfect GM all the time, it doesn’t matter how much experience or how much trust your players have in you. I actually messed up in our Netherwar series recently, and I figured it would be helpful to GMs out there to hear what happened and what steps I took to address the issue that I caused.

Let me start by briefly summarizing what happened and explaining how I really stepped in it this time. At the end of Episode 71: Drop the Jupiter, I left my heroes on a cliffhanger. This isn’t unusual for my GM style, and I was heading to New Orleans for my honeymoon the following week, so I really wanted to stick them with something juicy. I had the episode end with Andy’s character Resonant learning that her mother was in trouble in her home dimension of Leifandi and with Jonesy’s character Mortis learning that his fiancé Nick was seemingly taken by force from their home. As a storyteller, I thought this would create an interesting dynamic in the group where they would have to tackle the emotional stakes of who they would help first or force them to split up to try and do both at the same time. I thought that would be a spicy story with lots of potential drama and roleplaying, and that would have been fine if I were writing a book.

Unfortunately, what works when you’re writing a book, doesn’t always come out that way in a group storytelling situation. So I stuck this grenade in their laps and went away for my honeymoon, none the wiser.

When I got back, I settled in to plan out the next stages of the story, thinking about the various ways the heroes might attempt to solve the problem I’d placed before them. I planned possible NPCs that the heroes might enlist to pad out their numbers in case they wanted to split up. I also wrote out some consequences for following either of the leads in different orders. Not with the intention of harming one of the beloved NPCs, but ways that the investigations would be more difficult for whomever was chosen second. Unfortunately, this whole session was going to be tougher than I thought, and was not my best work.

Thirty minutes before the session began, as we were doing our audio/video checks, one of the players said to me that they were frustrated as a player, not as a character. That was not my intention with the split. It is never my intention to frustrate the players. At the end of the day gaming is meant to be a fun escape and chance to tell stories with your friends. What they said really struck me. The player elaborated, stating that they were upset that their character wouldn’t be able to see all of the story beats if they decided to split up. The party would be separated and wouldn’t get to see the insight into either Resonant or Mortis’ backstory, and they believed that what was at stake was forcing them to have to split up.

That all made sense to me, so at that moment I started devising a way that everyone could be in two places at once. We’re playing a magic super hero game, anything can be possible. This was an important decision, because it showcases one of the things I always stress to GMs. Don’t fall so in love with your story that you deprive your players of agency. I could have told the player, I’m sorry, but this is what I have planned, suck it up. But that wouldn’t have resolved the issue, and could have affected that player’s trust in me. So, I came up with a way to progress the story so everyone could see every plot point, but I added a consequence to this solution.

The heroes uncovered a spell that could duplicate them, allowing two parties of PCs to head after both leads at the same time. However one of those groups was Freaky Friday-ed. They had swapped bodies so when we get to that group, they will be playing with one another’s powers, which I think is going to be a blast.

Improvising and adapting to the player’s mood is so crucial as a GM. At the end of the day, if your players are having fun you are doing your job as a GM. I took a situation that was frustrating and I turned it into an opportunity for a fun story beat. The way to do this is by saying “Yes, and” or “No, but” more often than you say no. Don’t be afraid of the ideas that come out of the void and trust in your creativity. Some of my favorite moments in gaming have been off the cuff sparks of inspiration. Improvisation is actually how I got my start working in the TTRPG industry as a writer, but that’s a story for another time.

Unfortunately, the disastrous cliffhanger wasn’t the only issue I had while running the game that night. As I said, it was not my best work as a GM. When we eventually went to Leifandi, I felt personally that I let Andy down. He wrote an amazing blog post about Leifandi which you can find here. A blog post which I should have read closer when I was doing my preparation for the adventure that week. I stress all the time that GMs should include their players in the world-building for the campaign. It helps build player investment in the story and the world, but that only works if you take what they give you and learn it. Ask questions, look for clarification, and do it before you get to the table.

In that session, I leaned on Andy, asking him to describe things, partially because I wanted to give him a chance to show off this shiny thing he made, but also because I didn’t know the material as well as I should. I also got the names incorrect on a few major NPCs which added to this feeling of indifference on my part. I felt after the session that Andy was offended, and rightly so. This leads to the next lesson in cleaning up GM messes, communication and accountability.

In the days after that session, I reached out to Andy so we could have a one on one video chat, so I could A.) Apologize and B.) Get clarification of details so I could fulfil my responsibilities as GM and write accurate flavor text/plotlines. There’s a lot of ego tied up in being a Gamemaster, and you can use that ego to go on a power trip with your friends, or you can admit when you’re wrong and take steps to correct it. Andy was very generous with me, giving me information that I needed and brainstorming the trajectory of the Leifandi story arc that we’re still playing through.

Your players want to have a good time, just as much as you, and it is never you against them as a GM. That little bit of communication and owning the mistake prevented the situation from spiraling further, and I think in the subsequent Leifandi adventures, we’ve hit our stride again as a group. More importantly, I think I have maintained the trust of my players, which is paramount when running an ongoing campaign. I hope my example can help you, if you’re going through a tough time as a GM. Thank you for reading and may your hits always be crits.