Have you ever completely failed as a DM?

[tedcahill2]

After a 6 week hiatus due to the holidays (we normally play every 3 weeks) my group got back together last weekend. I had left them with a pretty epic cliffhanger, they "travelled" back in time 1000 years to inhabit the bodies of the heroes that originally stopped the demon currently wreaking havoc in their lands.

The goal of the game was to provide background as to the "Why them?" question so many of them were asking. I had made it clear they were important to the plans the demon had, but none of them knew why.

What they learned was that they are the reincarnated souls of those heroes that vanquished the demon 1000 years ago.

Problem is, I completely and utterly failed at highlighting how weighty a realization this should have been. The entire game ended up consisting of 6 hours doing two fights and listening to me provide narrative details, with no meaningful roleplaying between the characters.

I have never felt like such a failure as a DM. The game I ran was garbage compared to the way it played out in my head.

Anyone have some tips on recovering from such a garbage game?

[skunk3]

If you group has a board somewhere, make a long post with a summary and important information that you feel they might not have fully understood.

[Crake]

I had a similar experience for my last session, the players have recently bought a boat, invested in sailing skills and have set out to build a high sails crew. Problem is it's an open world sandbox-y game, and my players often do a very poor job of informing me of their plans before a session, so I'm usually just doing it all on the fly, which I've gotten quite good at.... for land encounters. When it came to putting together an enemy pirate crew, the whole naval combat system in stormwrack, the effects of damage to ships, etc etc etc, everything was slow, everything was bogged down, the enemies were so obviously put together on the spot, i forgot half their abilities (gunslingers have quick clear, so why were the pirate gunslingers letting their muskets blow up in their face?) it was all just an unmitigated disaster with everyone feeling frustrated and annoyed by the end of it all.

[Dekion]

If the opportunity has passed to provide it in game, or to highlight its importance, I agree that you should find a way to directly communicate with the group and clear it up to the best of your ability. As far as the session, even if your players didn't think it was bad, you feel like you left something important out or didn't provide it in a way that was effective. As a DM, this is going to happen. We are human and make mistakes, despite our best intentions or how the mental image of the events play out in our heads. I have a pretty close knit group, and can just send a group email to do a temperature check or clarify something I think was too vague in the session if I have concerns. Only you can gauge the state of your group and take action if you feel you need to, but if you think that missing the importance of the details of the last session is too detrimental, don't just keep going without trying to fix it out of game if your in game opportunity is gone.

[Velaryon]

I can think of a few times that I felt like I failed as a DM.

There was one-time that I had planned a one-shot game set in a homebrew world, which was supposed to provide the backstory for a character I was using in my main Ravenloft campaign at the time. Unfortunately, when I sat down to plan out the session I went completely blank, so I decided to wing it... and completely failed. We ended up scrapping the game and playing Magic instead.

The second time was in my Star Wars d20 game. I can't remember the exact circumstances, but a situation ended up where I had to tell one of the players that if they wanted to do <whatever action it was>, I had no idea how to continue the campaign. So they changed what they were going to do, which allowed me to continue, but I felt really bad about having to do that.

The third and most memorable is probably when that same Star Wars game fractured down the middle, turning into a permanent party split in which half of the PCs became Rebels and half worked for the Empire. They enjoyed it so I ran with it, but the game ended in a TPK when the party Jedi ripped open the outer wall of the Death Star and exposed everyone (including Vader and Palpatine) to the vacuum of space. The players loved it but it went SO far away from what I was expecting that it still bugs me a little.

[atemu1234]

One time I put a party full of sixth-level adventurers up against a CR 9 creature. Not undoable, but then a couple things happened.

Of the eight PCs, only three showed up. This would be bad enough.
Because of a simple arithmetic error (and a poor understanding of the system, at the time) the CR 8 creature was actually CR 12.

The party, who then were only a Bard/Druid, a Fighter and a Rogue, all level 6 (well, the Bard Druid was a Bard 2/Druid 4) went up against a Half-Dragon Advanced Vaath (BoVD). They... managed to escape?
I'm glad they managed to forgive me, though.

[Falontani]

Honestly I feel like it happens all the time to me; I keep thinking I'm not a good DM because I build up my expectations and build up my expectations. I think my biggest failure was possibly the biggest fight I ever threw. My eberron group was going up against the most powerful known artificer in the world, Merrix d'Cannith. And I feel as though I botched it. I gave Merrix a 2M GP limit as a level 15 artificer to create all his own equipment, and all the other creatures in the fight. But when push comes to shove I have a hard time actually killing PCs, even though I had plenty of chances. (I mean seriously I forgot that the dread necromancer had enervation and forgot to give him Death Ward!)

But the takeaway here is; even though I feel like I'm failing as a DM all the time my group still meets weekly because I'm open with them, and they trust in me to get better. So learn from your mistakes and become a better DM than you were before! Don't dwell on mistakes and make further ones down the line.

[KillingAScarab]

...i forgot half their abilities (gunslingers have quick clear, so why were the pirate gunslingers letting their muskets blow up in their face?)...Because the pirates were being mind-controlled by a wizard on a nearby invisible island, who is the true master of this archipelago and the sea around it, of course!

[tadkins]

I probably would if I ever tried.

Hearing all those horror stories about "bad DMs" and that big thread we had here recently about "red flags for bad DMs" make me afraid to try.

[atemu1234]

I probably would if I ever tried.

Hearing all those horror stories about "bad DMs" and that big thread we had here recently about "red flags for bad DMs" make me afraid to try.

Honestly you should ignore those threads at first. The only red flag you need to worry about is if no one's having fun.

Seriously, give it a try. Maybe run a one-shot, or maybe write a campaign. It doesn't really matter - the fun's with the people involved, not the game itself.

[vasilidor]

yes, at the start of a new campaign, coming fresh off the heels of one that all my players called fun, I dropped the ball and realized I had no idea of what to do and I needed to take a break from running the game. then the entire group fell apart.

[KillingAScarab]

I probably would if I ever tried.

Hearing all those horror stories about "bad DMs" and that big thread we had here recently about "red flags for bad DMs" make me afraid to try.tadkins, you came up with a Necromancer Archeologist (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?482375-Necromancer-Archaeologist). That seems like a green flag for creativity, to me.


Honestly you should ignore those threads at first. The only red flag you need to worry about is if no one's having fun.

Seriously, give it a try. Maybe run a one-shot, or maybe write a campaign. It doesn't really matter - the fun's with the people involved, not the game itself.I will second that.


yes, at the start of a new campaign, coming fresh off the heels of one that all my players called fun, I dropped the ball and realized I had no idea of what to do and I needed to take a break from running the game. then the entire group fell apart.You make plans, then life happens.

[weckar]

I once filled my session 0 with red herrings, and continued to throw a group into a sandbox while all they wanted were nicely laid rails.

It did not last long, and involved several desperate moves on my part to have even the semblance of a game going.

[Grod_The_Giant]

I think most of my failures lately can be summed up as "didn't have a clear idea of where things were going and the game died after a few sessions."


I probably would if I ever tried.

Hearing all those horror stories about "bad DMs" and that big thread we had here recently about "red flags for bad DMs" make me afraid to try.
About 95% of bad DMing stories boil down to "yeah, they were a domineering jerk." If that doesn't describe you, you're good to go.

[Hellpyre]

I once filled my session 0 with red herrings,

That seems like it should have stuck out to you as a bad idea on its own. Having a session built around communicating expectations and background is good; using that session to deceive your players is a bad, bad precedent to set for a campaign.

[tadkins]

Honestly you should ignore those threads at first. The only red flag you need to worry about is if no one's having fun.

Seriously, give it a try. Maybe run a one-shot, or maybe write a campaign. It doesn't really matter - the fun's with the people involved, not the game itself.

Eh, perhaps! Thanks for the vote of confidence folks. I do have this world I've been brewing in my head (just haven't committed it to paper yet), maybe at some point I'll give it a go. It's just the actual game mechanics I think i'd need to master, as well as the natural flow of a typical game.


tadkins, you came up with a Necromancer Archeologist (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?482375-Necromancer-Archaeologist). That seems like a green flag for creativity, to me.


Hehe, thanks. :) I do have some stranger ideas I'd use in a campaign.


About 95% of bad DMing stories boil down to "yeah, they were a domineering jerk." If that doesn't describe you, you're good to go.

Oh, that helps a bit. My intention would be to mostly let players do what they want. If they would find it fun, I would try to accommodate. I've had some very strict, very domineering DMs in the past. One of them, not even kidding, took away my cleric powers for just *saying* something my god may or may not have even agreed with. Yeah, I would do my best to not make them feel uncomfortable like that. xD

[weckar]

That seems like it should have stuck out to you as a bad idea on its own. Having a session built around communicating expectations and background is good; using that session to deceive your players is a bad, bad precedent to set for a campaign.

I... did put this in a thread about complete failures, did I not?

[jdizzlean]

the first time i ever tried DM'ing 3.5...

I built an entire world, several civilizations with full histories and backgrounds and different governments. mapped out all the rivers and oceans, mountains, caves, wonders. built an entire campaign from scratch full of monsters, bosses, and quests.

then completely failed to have any kind of back up in place when the party didn't follow my meticulously planned path. so i railroaded them "because magic, you can't save against it".

and thus ended that game with me as DM.

it was a good learning experience once i got over it. makes me appreciate my dm these days when we blow his plans out of the water, and he still has something for us to do :)

[thorr-kan]

I once filled my session 0 with red herrings, and continued to throw a group into a sandbox while all they wanted were nicely laid rails.
"It's not railroading if the players buy tickets!" (I'm paraphrasing an In Nomine GM, but the advice stands.)

Player/DM communication is crucial in managing the participants' expectations. Any mismatch will lead to trouble.

[atemu1234]

"It's not railroading if the players buy tickets!" (I'm paraphrasing an In Nomine GM, but the advice stands.)

Player/DM communication is crucial in managing the participants' expectations. Any mismatch will lead to trouble.

Yeah, in essence one needs to give the players options, but at least hint to them what they should be doing. And don't do the 'all roads lead to rome' thing with your plot, that gets boring quickly.

[thorr-kan]

Yeah, in essence one needs to give the players options, but at least hint to them what they should be doing. And don't do the 'all roads lead to rome' thing with your plot, that gets boring quickly.
In the Friday Night Gaming Group, there ain't none of us under 40, and some of us will never see 50 again. We get maybe 3hrs every 2wks to play. In the words of one player, "Railroad us. We don't have *time* for subtlety!"

It works for us.