Let them lose | DM's tips & tricks #3

Let Them Lose - Creating Drama in Dungeons and Dragons

Throughout history, literature has been filled with wondrous, suspenseful dramas. However, those never include a protagonist or anti-hero who is victorious at all times. Gilgamesh was rising up from the flood that destroyed his home, and was badly bloodied by Enkidu before his eventual victory. Beowulf failed to slay the beast with a borrowed sword before finding a way to victory. Vader removed Luke's hand, and Luke suffered at the hands of the Emperor before he knew he has become a Jedi. In fact, when there is no low to the story, we usually refer to it as a comedy, and not a drama. This demonstrates that in your role as a storyteller trying to keep your audience (the players) engaged, you have to allow them to lose.

Sometimes You're the Hammer; Sometimes the Nail.

As a dungeon master, you're just as caught up in the game as the players are. If you weren't having fun, you wouldn't keep showing up to the table. That can make it really tempting to always allow the payers to succeed, out of an effort to continue riding the high of victories from session to session.

Unfortunately, you can't let that happen and expect everyone to have as much fun 20 sessions in as they did in their first time at the table. At some point, you have to take something away. The first, most impact-full reason is the establishment of suspense, and the seeding of the idea in your players that there is something to lose here. Whether it is a favorite magical item, their ship, the trust of their lord or high priest, or the character's life, something has to remain at risk to make the victories, when they do happen, more enjoyable. Simply put, the heights of your campaign will not be as high without a valley, a low to compare it against.

Level the Playing Field

Players do become too powerful. Whether through wealth, magical items, or even simply a party with too many over-powered characters, it is necessary to stop that to continue a balanced game. Loss doesn't always have to include a character death, it could be an injury that requires a character to retire for the remainder of a dungeon (like a broken leg), thus weakening the party. Or perhaps you construct a way to damage a powerful magical item; like a wild-mage casting some type of heat metal against magical items causes them to melt and fizzle their power out. Or perhaps the players have to run overland, and leave their boat behind, or their ship is attacked by pirates while they are ashore. In any case, it is very likely that your party will grow too strong, and you may need to identify a way to remedy that.

All isn't lost, though, as there is often a good side to forcing your characters to weaken.

Using Your Players' Animosity

As if making the victories more fulfilling wasn't enough, you as the dungeon master have even more reasons to let your players lose once and a while. You can also use it as character and story-building. When a character is forced into retreat, or loses a sack of coin, or worse, a favorite weapon or item, they often grow to resent whichever story element caused the loss.

Imagine, a dwarf who was defeated by a goblin shaman, and dragged away from the scene of battle unconscious by his companions. In their haste, they didn't retrieve his father's axe. When he awakens, his normal distrust for goblinkind has matured into a raging hatred. From then on, the player has the opportunity to add this as a part of his role playing, and you, the dungeon master, has the opportunity to use the retrieval of this family heirloom as yet another session to be played in the future (perhaps once the dwarf has gained enough experience to fend off the shaman's devotees).

This doesn't only apply to battles either. Consider a thief, who was at no point fighting an opponent, but fell from the wall he was scaling, and when he awoke the next morning, found himself in a cramped, damp, mold-infested dungeon cell. How interesting will his escape adventure be? How much fun will you have watching him find his way out of your prison?

Stop Kicking in Doors!

Another great lesson to be taught is to use loss to encourage more role-playing, or more critical thinking. If the party has established a habit of kicking in the door, charging forth without a care int he world, perhaps it is time to show them that there are severe risks in the world, and have the mage on the other side of the door begin his round with a fireball the moment the door is kicked down. Not only does this reinforce the first point, that not all conflicts can be won, but it will help your players think about changing their routines, and keep your well-crafted adventure from falling into monotony.

Victory, at Last!

Perhaps a re-hashing of the point that drama has to happen as a series of peaks and valleys, consider how sweet the victory will be when it is against an opponent that had previously defeated them! In the future, I will be posting about the usefulness of recurring villains, and how they should survive as often as possible, but imagine the recurring villain that was once more powerful than the party, and forced them to retreat, perhaps even slaying a few of their number. If one day, the party rises up, and it is that villain who has to limp away cursing his nemeses, how wide will your players' smiles be?

This doesn't only apply to combat either. The thief, from the earlier example, may some day finish scaling that wall, and finally succeed at that burglary. Or if the pirates lost their boat, how much sweeter will it be to get it back, or to attain a new one?

Letting your players lose once and a while may be painful for all of you. But in the end, when the adventure continues, you will all be glad that it happened.