Tonight I’ve run Dw (not really my first time, I’ve had another couple of one shot game before), but I think I’ve messed up!
During character creation the players established that they were escorting a caravan, that The job was very well payed but they didn’t trust theyr employers, because part of the job (what do they hide in the wagon) was kept secret.
And here I messed things up. Sigh.
I tell them that during the journey the caravan was attacked and many were killed or driven off.
They were forced to flee, pushed toward a fetid swamp.
And then I asked: what do you do now?
So they start looking for a way to leave the swamp, facing the danger posed by the swamp itself (a malevolent-magic-sentient enviroment) and fight with some cultists (the cult was established by the players by rolling moves and asking them questions).
I just wanted to put them in a tense situation from the beginning (no prep at all) but the problem is that I feel I’ve ignored theyr first input (the escorting job, remember?).
So what now?
they discover that the cultists were in league with those who sacked the caravan and now they have the secret thing it was carrying?
Kudos to you for being sensitive to this!
So what now?
Is anyone else disenchanted by the game? If everyone’s having fun, then there’s no harm and no foul. Keep going and chalk this up to experience.
If people aren’t happy, explain your mistake and collaborate on a solution. Maybe you can reboot the game?
Alessandro Gianni it’s a valid option, but I feel guilty the same 🙂
Some of the caravaners could have been captured, or there could have been a mole among them who planned the attack. Maybe there was a particular item the caravan was transporting that the characters weren’t told about.
Yeah, just reincorporate. Make a front that ties together The Thing In The Wagon, The Person That Hired Them And Is Now Angry, The Cult, and likely The Sapient Swamp
Thank you guys for your support!
Anyway, everyone had a lot of fun playing the game.
Some cool things happened…
The druid was blinded by a magic gliph.
Few moments later, while they were following some tracks through an area were the vegetation was very thick, I told them that they felt as the plant were sucking life out of them. They decided to proceed anyway.
So, I had them defy the malevolent influence of the swamp and the druid (who was shapeshifted in bat form in that moment) got an other partial success. I tell her that switching back to her natural form would have required a certain effort (defy danger) because of life drain.
Later, in the middle of a combat she forced herself to switch back to it’s human form, she rolled partial success, and I told her that something didn’t worked completely and that now she has a bat wing instead of an harm and the senses of the bat….good for her since she was blind!
Tie the secret of the caravan with the swamp in some way, perhaps the swamp is sentient and malevolent because an ancient demon is imprisoned within and unknownigly they were taking an artifact that is a key to releasing it.
Lenny Pacelli I have never (ever ever) GM’ed a session, where I didn’t think “crap, I should have done X instead of Y” afterwards. You simply learn from your mistakes.
The bad news is that you didn’t seize the chance to use what the players gave you. The good news is that the chance isn’t lost. As Aaron Friesen said, just reincorporate it!
In fact, you have to accept to lose grip on things. Get focused on your front (what happen around), and everything will be okay.
And yeah, I often say “I should have done this or that”, but it’s of no real importance…
Raoni Monteiro I was just thinking to something close to what you suggested!
Since we established that the cultist are followers of a demon prince banished from the material plane, mayeb the “secret” of the caravan may be some sort of key to release the demon prince. Might be an artifact, a person or creatuere.
We did have a lot of fun indeed, and everything went pretry well.
It was just once we ended the session that I found my self thinking “oh, But what about the caravan now?!”.