As always, this is for Dungeon Masters only. Team X members, please do not read this, or else you will assuredly meet Jubilex. And you don’t want that. Nobody wants that.

S03 E02 - Arrival Part 2

Fun and storytelling are the only true win conditions in D&D.

I really had to do some tap dancing on Sunday.

I had two goals for the game:

1. Get the party into the giant stronghold

2. Give them more information about BBEG

My goal in this session was to get the main group (Eno, Dren, and Thunuk) into the stone giant compound, and to have Hugon infiltrate the same compound from another entrance. My hope was that they would each have different information: the main group would have what the head stone giant was telling them (that they meant no harm, that their “captives” had agreed to stay for protection), while Hugon would get a different story from Thunuk’s brother Crokk (that the stone giants were keeping his family captive, that they were planning something big).

Well, it just didn’t play that way, now did it? I mean, sure, the party went into the compound, but under duress and highly suspicious.

Now, part of this was because they all (except for Thunuk) made their Charisma saving throws against the Stone Giant Dreamwalker’s charm aura. (See Volo’s Guide to Monsters.)

What I also didn’t expect was that Eno would outright attack the Dreamwalker and initiate combat. You would think that they wouldn’t start a fight in the middle of a dungeon with a ton of stone giants right there, but, well, here we are.

You can never plan for every eventuality. I’ve tried. The players will always find the one scenario or solution that you didn’t think of. The only thing you can do is roll with it.

Another point: character death. Four level 9 characters have started a fight with a clan of stone giants. By every calculation, the projection here is TPK. My players have a way of cheating death and dealing out punishment to monsters in spades, but TPK is definitely a possibility here, and one that I didn’t force them into.

Now, I could have, as the DM, just had the hall they were in fill up with stone giants who decide to go ape on the party, and boom, no more Team X. That’ll learn ‘em, right? And that’s logically what would happen in a giant stronghold.

But as the DM, I had to make a call, and I decided that it wouldn’t be the best choice to completely unload on the party. They weren’t fresh, they had already used up some spell slots, and frankly, there was no way for them to win that fight.

I opted to have the fight stay between Eno and the Dreamwalker, as he attacked the giant with Dissonant Whispers, a psychic attack, which wouldn’t be obvious to the other giants nearby. By roleplaying the giant’s response after making his saving throws and taking only half damage, it evolved into more of a battle of wits, which was ultimately more entertaining and could still achieve either party’s ends without resorting to bloody combat.

That said, open hostilities did break out. Death is still an option.

On that note, I have had discussions with my players about character death. I have assured them that

1. I would never kill their characters punitively

2. I would never permanently kill their character without their consent

3. That death is just another doorway to stories and adventure (anyone want to go to Avernus?)

It’s important that your players know how you will handle character death before the campaign starts. For everyone to have fun, the players need to trust the DM, and vice versa. If the players are constantly worried that the characters that they have lovingly crafted and built up and diligently roleplayed will be permanently removed from the game due to an errant roll or the DMs whim, then it will limit their ability to have fun and tell the best story they can. Fun and storytelling are the only true win conditions in D&D.

Another little jig I had to do:

Yes, I had to figure out the HP of a rock floor.

Who the hell attacks a floor? My players do.

This was fun, and thank the gods for the internet.

Now, I could have been a hardass and denied Dren the ability to cast Shatter on the floor. I’m sure that there is some rule somewhere that would prevent her from being able to cast that spell 10’ into a rock floor. But you know what?

Everyone had fun with this, and the rules should never get in the way of fun.

What’s also fun for me is that I get to draw the actual hall they are fighting in next week. With Dren’s attacks on the floor being successful and caving a section of it in, the structural integrity of the floor is now compromised, which is going to lead to some fun environmentally-influenced combat next game. You know those video game levels where you need to out run something that is chewing up the level behind you? Yeah, we’re going there. Fun!

But where was Hugon in all of this?

He did exactly as I thought he would: he didn’t run into combat, and decided to take the back entrance in. He’s decided to go after the Dreamwalker’s “power source” so to speak, something that I didn’t initially count on, but ultimately it helps me achieve goal #2 (info about BBEG). Hugon’s never been a stealthy character, preferring to take most enemies and obstacles head-on with overwhelming force, so this tactic was an interesting change.

Now, this is where planning comes in handy. While my notes basically contained the two points listed at the beginning of this post, I did have in my head the reasons why the giants were there, and what the Dreamwalker’s plans were.

This is the challenge in being a DM: finding the balance between planning too much (where you spend hours planning the game and making notes and legendariums, only for the players to thwart you with their shenanigans) and playing a completely improvised game (where it’s difficult to keep things moving and the players get frustrated from a complete lack of direction).

Understanding NPC motivations, and having a rough sketch in your mind of how they will achieve their goals is the key, in my opinion, to being able to adapt on the fly to your players.

Because I knew the basic layout of the giant’s compound, what the Dreamwalker is attempting to do, and how he’s doing it, it’s not a problem when Hugon decides to infiltrate the “command center” before I was ready for him to. If the game had played out differently and he got to the Dreamwalker’s inner sanctum before we ended, I would have been able to roll with that.

I will say that I think this is something I’ve gotten better at. My notes for the first Team X game were extensive. And we barely used any of them. (But! They have helped inform other parts of the game, so it wasn’t completely for naught.) And I’ve gone the other direction, allowing them a completely open world to explore with very little direction, but that leads to a stagnant game. I feel as though I’ve gotten better at that balancing act over the last 2 years, though I still want to get better and making the best game possible for our little group.

Another note that I’ve made to myself is regarding Hugon’s use of the mask, Delotha. It gives him some advantages in combat (darkvision, bonuses to intimidation) but through discussions with Gideon (Gideon Rhys, Hugon’s player) we’ve also discussed the potential influence that the mask is exterting over him.

In previous games (the Season 2 finale, and in Arrivals Part 2) we’ve seen Hugon’s reaction to people questioning his use of the mask, and of his overall outlook towards life. It’s piqued my interest, and given me an idea for a later story arc.

Frankly, all of the players do this, either on purpose as a part of their character creation, or by accident in the moment when they mention things in character as the game continues. I always keep note of those little crumbs so that we can look at them later; in the end, it isn’t just my story that we are telling.

The DM creates the meta story, the world in which the characters exist, but the players have the ability to shape that world. Denying them that to further the story that was written for them takes away their agency, and unless that’s the game they signed up for, it doesn’t lead to engaged players.

So what’s in store for next week? Well, Team X is now in a compound with compromised structural integrity surrounded by stone giants…so, I have no idea what they will do. But I will have fun drawing that map. Check out how this plays out on Sunday at 4 pm Eastern on EatDrinkRoll’s Twitch channel.