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I was introduced to the game of Dungeons & Dragons in junior high. I played a little, and although I cannot remember doing so, I’ve been told I even DMed a bit. Life has a funny way or rerouting your interests, and as such, I didn’t pick pen an paper D&D back up until around 2003, when I started my own Greyhawk campaign.
Since that time, I’ve ran several campaigns and lots of 1-shot adventures. Invariably, a DM develops his or her own style of play. I lean toward dungeon crawls with light role-playing, as it seems to be what works for me as a DM and for most of my players, as well.
Over the past several years, I can count the number of players that have died in my games on one hand. I don’t consider myself a “Killer DM”. I consider it the DM’s job to build interesting encounters that push the characters to their limit without sending them over the edge. Most of the time, I feel like I do a pretty decent job at it—most of the time.
Last night I had my first TPK (total party kill). I don’t know whether it should be a badge of honor or shame. We were playtesting a new 1st-level adventure I had recently completed called “The Shadfly Tapestry”. It’s a straightforward adventure in which the PCs are caravan guards. While guarding the caravan, goblins attack and steal a wealthy lord’s tapestry. After the attack, the caravan master selects the PCs to retrieve the stolen property. Needless to say, the tapestry was not recovered. The party was wiped out about halfway through the adventure. I don’t want to give away specifics, because hopefully, I’ll be running the adventure again in the future with a different group.
So what went wrong? I wrote the adventure. Did I make it too hard? I’ve written lots of 1st level adventures (some might say too many). Was this one that much deadlier?
After the basement cleared out last night, I sat down and took a good look at the encounters in the beginning of the adventure. They’re not a cakewalk, but neither should they be as deadly as they played out. Why then?
I can attribute their deaths to a couple of things. The encounters were tough, not deadly, but tough. The players were running unfamiliar PCs from the newly released Player’s Handbook 2. Here was the roster.
Goliath Fighter – Defender
Half-orc Avenger – Striker
Shifter Shaman – Leader
Shifter Druid – Controller
Tiefling Sorcerer – Striker (died early on and was replaced by a dwarven cleric)
That’s a pretty well-rounded party. All these guys have played D&D before, but for many, this was their first crack at the new PH2 races and classes. I believe that was a big part of it, but not what caused their demise. The biggest problem was the dice.
As much as players sometimes like to praise their character building and playing abilities, D&D is still a dice-based game, and all the strategy in the world won’t help if you keep rolling 1s, 2s, and 3s. Couple the player’s cold dice with the fact that mine were hot, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.
In my opinion, the randomness of the dice is one of the things that make D&D such fun to play. There’s nothing like the high of rolling a 20 or the frustration of rolling a 1. It’s a emotional rollercoaster that, for me, makes the game interesting. It’s also one of the reason’s why I believe that rolling an actual die is more fun than using a dicebot. The feel of the d20 in your hand and the sound it makes on the table only serve to enhance the experience.
Am I right about the reason for the PC’s failure? I can say that they all played well. I can’t say that they rolled well, which leads me to think I am, but I can’t prove my theory; so I don’t know for certain. However, they did take the loss in stride and without hurt feelings, which, in my opinion, is a greater tribute to their gaming skills than if they had been victorious. In closing, I’d like to say that I put this on front page of the website because I thought it was worthy of the spot. I’ll be posting a copy in the forums as well so that the players get a chance to add their comments. |
