Chaotek Thoughts

I am currently working on finishing the campaign log for a recently ended Dark Sun game I ran. As I’m writing it, I’m reminded that this campaign included one of my favorite moments as a dungeon master. This moment was a massive plot twist, that had caught the players completely by surprise.

In the game, the heroes learned that there was an artifact called the Chrono Rod, which could allow them to travel in time. The group planned to travel back in time, and kill Rajaat, the man most responsible for the post-apocalyptic setting of Dark Sun. The group was fired up to activate the rod and do this great deed. To activate the rod, the rod had to be placed in the hand of a certain statue. As the rod was activated, the group was ready to charge through the portal to kill Rajaat. Well, it didn’t quite go that way. Time had taken its toll on prophesy, and what the rod really did was awaken a champion of Rajaat who was still very loyal to his master. Instead of stopping Rajaat in the past, they were now looking at the possibility of bringing Rajaat back into the current world so that he could finish the job.

There was a moment as the champion of Rajaat was awakening, where I was looking at the players and you could see the brimming excitement suddenly get crushed by the reality of what was really occurring. This might sound a little sadistic, but the point is that the game completely changed direction in an instant. Sure, the players were pissed, though not at me. They were fired up by the situation.

What makes the story one of my favorites is that the players had become so deeply invested in the story. This wasn’t a plot twist, it was a reality twist. As a game master, the most you can hope for is to develop a plot deep enough that the players immerse themselves in the story–and this game was a great example. It is a rare game where I get that kind of energy from the players, making the experience of this campaign one of my best experiences behind the DM screen.

Now, I don’t expect that every campaign should have such a big plot twist. But I definitely encourage other game masters to develop stories and worlds which draw in players. In other games it’s been a reoccurring villain that the players hate with a passion, or an NPC that the players love to interact with. I’m specifically referencing the difference between an in-character reaction and a player reaction. If the players are not invested in the story, then you’re not much better than a video game. The goal of role playing is to develop stories and characters which allow the gamers to suspend their disbelief and feel like a part of that world.