Dungeon Master Basics: How to Trick Your Players


by Phillip Tucker - Date: 2010-07-16 - Word Count: 707 Share This!

We all have particular qualities we want our perfect DM to possess: illimitable imagination, the desire to slave away at creating the perfect world, the ability to play a thousand different NPC's convincingly, a vested interest in out having fun, and more. Yet one quality few mention is the ability to deceive us, trick us, manipulate us. This is a more advanced talent, yet one that can take a game from great to excellent. What do I mean by that? Read on to find out!

Let's start with a basic example. Jim the DM is leading his players through the ruins of a watchtower. It's rumored to be haunted, and Jim's been doing an excellent job of creating a spooky atmosphere. He's been describing how impenetrable the inky shadows are, the strange creaks and groans of the ancient structure, the spider webs that the players run into and more. He knows that the ghouls are located in the lowest basement, but rather than just have the players wander down there, he decides to up the ante by having each of them roll a D20, and shaking his head grimly if any of them roll high. Why is he having them roll the die? No reason. There's nothing to check for, but the players don't know that. The ones who rolled high will now be even more paranoid, looking everywhere for danger, sure that something is about to happen, even if nothing is.

That's an example of using your players expectations against them. As the DM, you have all the cards. The players will do their best to predict what you're up to, striving to guess where the plot is going, which NPC's they can trust, how much danger they're in and how well they're doing. A good and tricky DM will key into these expectations and learn to use them against the players. Recognizing what the players expect, fear or trust is a good way to heighten the tension, drama and conflict of your game.

Some more concrete examples. Say you have a complex plot, and the evidence the players have thus far uncovered lends itself to multiple interpretations. They sit around brainstorming for awhile, and finally hit upon an ingenious explanation of the facts that you hadn't thought of. Really proud of their explanation, they set off on the rest of the adventure. You are suddenly faced with two choices: allow them to run nose first into the reality of the situation, or reward them for being so creative and change the 'reality' of your plot to accommodate their new ideas. Why would you change the plot on the fly like that? The players will suddenly feel really smart for having 'figured out' such a complex plot, not knowing that they were simply being rewarded for being creative. In effect, you're tricking them into thinking they uncovered the plot through intuition and smarts, and the result will be your players being really pleased with themselves.

Another way to use player expectations against them is to detect which NPC's they find exciting, boring, whatever, and play up those aspects so that the players are either surprised or their original feeling is deepened. Say they absolutely love to hate the dock master who makes their lives hell. Instead of leaving him a minor character, play him up, give him greater importance in your game so that the players can continue to enjoy hating him. Or say they find the local Baron to be a boring and minor NPC that they only use for his men. Have him turn on them, go from being a nice guy they find uninteresting to a sudden and unexpected thorn in their side.

Now, of great importance is to not overdo this technique. They players will enjoy a world if they find it to be consistent and real, and not utterly reactive to their every desire or whim. So don't have every NPC or moment be manipulated in said fashion; rather, simply pay attention to the player's expectations, and find interesting ways to either surprise them with twists, or reward them for creative thinking. They players will find the world you've created much more engrossing and intriguing as a result, as they find themselves personally connecting with it.


Check out more DMing tips at DMing Basics. Or get ripped like your heroes and try an Insanity Workout, burning that fat in two months through intense cardio. Or get more intense with the new Turbo Fire workout!n
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