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Monday, February 21, 2011

Cardinal Sins of GM's Everywhere

I think that I have committed the cardinal sin of GMs everywhere, relying on the team to press the story further. I poorly planed my game and payed the price when the gamers looked at me and said what next? I thought to myself "OH CRAP!". Part of my mind was scrambling to move the story while the other said that we had a time limit and to introduce what I has wanted to, was going to push too far into the night and that it was a not a good idea to go there. So what do I do? Stall for time (one of those, next week will be better, things). I should not have. I should of pressed forward and presented the new villain (makes for a better cliff hanger then what I did).

Sometimes we need to be brave even when we think that we are going to do something that is going to push us into the night or into a hospital. Bravery is a key element to a great story and I think that the guys would of forgiven me with a cliff hanger then with a somewhat ending with closure. There was the issue that a villain was still not fleshed out but thats another blog. Reminds me about the adventure where I had a plan. You know the saying "Man makes plans and God laughs"? Well this story has a similar incident. The heroes were going after a villain that I had planned out and the story was solid. The heroes took a turn in their own direction and I wanted to get them to go in the correct course, so I invented Geeves, a blood hound mutant that had a impeccable sense of smell. He sniffed out the heroes and got his two goons Oingo and Boingo (mutant Gorillas) to shoot in the heroes direction to get them to run to the villain. I had not fleshed out Geeves and suddenly I had a case on my hands as the heroes chased after Geeves and the goons. The villain was now less important in the game at the moment, but with great improvisation I worked around the story and Geeves got away. I didn't have to flesh out Geeves but should of as he was now a key player in the game and fun to play because of the impulsiveness that was needed to use him.

We all have heroes and villains that we had no intention of making key in our stories but if we do something to the story that impacts the characters it good to have a plan when something like this happens. Jump in with booth feet.