Game Masters Shouldn't Leave Players Twisting in The Breeze

I've been a gamer for many years now, and over that time I've accumulated a list of red flags that I keep a close eye on whenever I'm thinking about joining a new game. This particular story happened at a Werewolf: The Apocalypse LARP I was part of, and it is a perfect illustration of one of the bigger warning signs that a lot of folks don't keep an eye out for.

Namely that if the person running the game seems to be just sitting back and watching you all chase your tails for their own amusement, it's not a game that's going anywhere.

For more gaming stories like this one, don't forget to check out the full Table Talk list over on my gaming blog Improved Initiative! And if you just want more fun gaming content in general, make sure you look through my full Vocal archive as well.

A Perfect Setup

To set the scene, this LARP chronicle had been going on for some time. Player characters were well established, and there were several active threats and plots going on at the time. However, because there had been a recent change in the head storyteller, this session was supposed to be an easy game. A beach episode, for all the anime fans out there. Because it was the turning of the seasons, and it was spring time, we had an Easter egg hunt.

Point of advice for any aspiring LARP storytellers out there; stuff like this is amazing fodder to get players involved in a game. Any time there's an activity that requires full participation, where you can have relatively cheap props, and where everyone can participate, you have the makings of a solid gold session.

Unless, that is, you were this particular ST.

The Hitch

Ideally a hunt with a bunch of garou is a slam dunk. And if you've got props for it, hoo boy, you just had an easy win as an ST. And at first this seemed like the kind of light-but-fun fare we were getting. Most of the eggs we found had some candy in them, and it was going well.

I say most, because this is where the problem truly began.

After the hunt had been going on for a bit, people started finding messages in their eggs. Then a key. Now, before this story goes any further, understand that the ST had no plan for these items. They were not tied to a plot, there was no significance to them, they were just random bric-a-brac thrown in for variety so that there was more than just candy in the eggs.

The problem was that of the 12-20 some odd players there, three of them had mechanical issues that this triggered. One was an Uktena, who could not let a mystery go. The other was a Stargazer, who had the same mechanical drawback. The third was a Get of Fenris with the Curious flaw. And because there seemed to be some kind of pattern here, this rapidly became a situation that spiraled out of control... a situation the ST could easily have resolved, but chose not to.

So What Happened?

The trouble started when the three players in question (myself included) came upon the notes. They were a strange mystery, and we started putting our heads together over it. Then we found the key, and started really ratcheting up our efforts. With two theurges (the magically-inclined spirit speakers for those not familiar with the game) and a ragabash (werewolf rogues), we had all sorts of ideas.

Some of the things we tried included:

- Summoning the spirits of the items in question to find out their purpose.

- Utilizing online communities who specialized in tracking down stolen items and solving riddles.

- Conducting large-scale searches of the hunting grounds, and the surrounding territory.

- Making deals with spirits to help us track down answers to what these things meant.

Every single one of these solutions had to be brought to the new ST for approval and results. As a piece of advice, if you're a storyteller and your players grow fixated on something that you created as a throwaway gag or a piece of set dressing you only have two options worth pursuing. One, tell your players they are barking up the wrong tree, and they aren't going to find anything pursuing this. Or two, buy yourself some time to make the "mystery" in question into something meaningful so that your players feel smart and capable for having solved it.

And because the ST didn't hold up a hand and tell us there was no mystery to be solved (especially when we pointed out that we three were mechanically unable to drop this until we had an answer, even if that answer was "there's no mystery here"), we assumed that if there was no plot behind it that the ST was off making up something for us to follow. Even if it was just something small or innocuous that wouldn't have any sort of long-lasting effect, but which would give the event some closure. Because if we were in their shoes, that's what we would have done.

As you can surmise from the title of this story, that isn't what was happening.

What was actually happening was the ST was just standing there, laughing up their sleeve at us while we chased our tails. Since they kept acting as if we could make progress, we kept trying to make progress, assuming we would get somewhere eventually. By the end of that session we had roped in something like three-quarters of the players who'd attended game that day, each of us proposing concepts and ideas as to what these clues might mean, looking for hidden patterns, and grasping at straws as we tried to find some common thread.

The ST could have picked any of the theories we'd come up with, made that canon (or at least modified it slightly) and given us some kind of payoff. They could have stopped us when they saw it was getting out of hand, and now a majority of the rest of the venue was getting in on this idea. Instead they chose to do nothing until game was called, and then to laugh at the players for being so ridiculous for thinking a storyteller would actually introduce plot as part of something as silly as an Easter egg hunt.

Another Nail In The Coffin

It wasn't that the ST in question should have felt compelled to alter the plan of the day to serve the players seeing patterns that weren't there. It wasn't the idea that players should always be rewarded for taking initiative and interacting with the game. It was the attitude from the ST, knowing they had let us chase our tails for 4 hours, wasting the time and energy of a dozen people who had all traveled and paid a fee to be part of this game, all for their own personal amusement that made it clear exactly the kind of plots (or non-plots) they intended to run.

I didn't show up for the rest of that ST's time in their position. I was not alone. While the game survived a little while longer, there was a decided expediency to finding a fresh replacement because literally anyone would have been better suited to the role than this person was.

When you're running a game, you want to keep your players engaged. You want them to interact with the world you're creating, as well as with each other. If your players feel like they're just talking to a wall, they're going to stop showing up to your game sooner rather than later.

For more reading on the subject, check out the following post:

Dungeon Masters, If Your Players Focus on Something Make it Matter

Tune In Next Time on Table Talk!

As I said in my last Table Talk installment, I'm trying something a little different with my recent updates on my group's run through the Hell's Rebels adventure path. Rather than going through a roll-by-roll break down of each session, I'll be putting together snacky, pulpy stories that bring readers on the adventure with me. This week's post is something of a break from that campaign, but you should take a moment to check it out:

- Part One: Devil's Night

- Part Two: From The Ashes

- Part Three: The Raven's Nest

So if you want to see more, make sure you share these stories on your social media feeds so I can keep the campaign going! And if you're looking for some additional reading in the mean time don't forget to check out my full Vocal archive, as well as some of my other stories linked below!

- The Irregulars: My official contribution to the Pathfinder Tales, The Irregulars follows an Andoran unit as they throw a wrench into the gears of Molthune's war machine.

- Waking Dogs- A World Eaters Tale: For my fans of Warhammer 40K, this is a story I felt compelled to tell about one of the infamous World Eaters remembering who he once was. It was also dramatized by the channel A Vox in The Void, for those who enjoy audio renditions.

- Crier's Knife: My sword and sorcery novel, we follow Dirk Crier as he sets out to collect his wayward cousin from parts unknown. Dark tidings lie ahead, but those who stand in his way will learn why the mountain folk say only a dead man crosses a Crier.

- Marked Territory and Painted Cats: Join Leo as he gets roped into other people's problems on the mean streets of NYC. A Maine coon with a bad habit of getting curious, explore the world of street beasts in these nasty little noir mysteries!

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