The Dialogue of Challenge (Because It Should Be a Back-And-Forth Between Players and The DM)

Challenge is one of those elements that has to be present for there to be any satisfaction in an RPG. Whether it's a monster who forces you to get creative with your strategy, a mystery you need to wrack your brain to solve, or a complicated heist you need to pull off, there is something your characters need to overcome in order for the story to have a real, meaningful payoff.

And creating that challenge is, mostly, the dungeon master's job.

It's not an easy job, but somebody's got to do it.

What a lot of us forget about challenge, though, is that it's not supposed to be a static thing. Challenge is supposed to change based on who is around your table, what characters they bring, and what actions they try to take. And challenge is supposed to be a two-way street; it's a communication. If all you're doing is talking, but not listening, then you're missing half the conversation.

Before we move on, I had two other updates I figured readers might be interested in. The first, Table Attorneys VS Rules Lawyers: How To Be Fair Without Bogging Down Your Game might be worth reading over if you find yourself in a position as a DM and you want to be fair to your table. The second, Partners and Polycules: Polyamorous Designations Based Off Dungeons and Dragons Dice is just a bit of fun. If you haven't seen it, and you could use a chuckle, go give it a read!

 

Are You And Your Players Communicating With Each Other?

 

I'd like to start this section with a story. It's a story I bet a lot of folks reading this have heard before, and maybe one you've told before. If so, stick with me while I go over it for everyone else.

The DM has put together a challenging scene. The skill checks are tough, the enemies are dangerous, and the party has little time to prepare for what they're facing. As the scene progresses, one player finds their character really isn't geared for the challenge that's going on. They're more of a smarts and social-based character who has nothing to contribute here. So on their turn they make a suggestion to the DM of how they could use their abilities to assist their fellow party members. They believe that by using their knowledge of a creature they should be able to make a distraction that will give their allies an opening. The DM agrees to let them try, and demands several, rigorous skill checks. Skill checks that, if the character failed, could have resulted in injury, or even death. The player manages to make these checks, and their character succeeds by the skin of their teeth.

Then, after accomplishing the very dangerous task, the DM informs the player, "You manage to avoid hurting yourself, but nothing you did makes a difference."

Then why did you bother wasting my time?

There are several instances here of a DM who isn't listening to their players when it comes to challenges. The biggest sins to keep in mind are:

- Setting a Challenge That Doesn't Reflect The Party: Purists will argue that if the DM makes a dungeon crawl plot, or a fight-all-the-monsters game, then it's the players' fault for not putting together a heist-based party, or Seal Team Six. But the DM is the one who approves characters, and you should ensure the character fits your game, or that your game fits the characters.

- Wasting a Player's Time: If a player asks you if taking X action will lead to Y result upon success, and you tell them yes, you've entered into an agreement regarding what will happen if they pull it off. Taking away a success (especially if it was a serious risk) is bad form in the extreme. If the player succeeds, give them a cookie for it. Even if it's a small cookie, it will let them participate, and that's what you want. And if they can't succeed, don't waste their time by making them roll meaninglessly.

- Rigid Solution: The biggest issue, and one that crops up a great deal when discussing challenge, is when a DM will allow only one solution to work. Even if by the book other ways should solve a challenge, or at least contribute to a solution. The monster must be fought, for instance, and cannot be bargained with, cannot be mind controlled, and cannot be stealthed past. No matter what other tools or strategies the party has access to, only the proscribed solution will work... even if it is something the characters are not equipped to do.

The important thing to remember is that the party, and the characters in the party, need to actually fit the game they're in. Not just thematically and lore-wise, but challenge wise. If you're running a game that expects the party to be the A-Team, then you can't take a group of combat-averse scoundrels and get the proper results; that's trying to put a square peg into a round hole. All that's going to do is frustrate both you and your players because you're not talking to each other... you're talking past one another.

Instead, you need to find a solution.

The Fluid Nature of Challenge

There's an old saying that the most perfect battle plan will never survive first contact with the enemy. In much the same way there is no module out there, and no plan you could compose as a dungeon master, that will ever survive first contact with the party.

The dungeon master must wear many masks.

The thing to remember is that you should watch your players, and talk to them. Collect their opinions, and find out what they like, what they don't like, and what is frustrating them. Most importantly, understand what their characters are actually capable of, and shift the game to suit them and what they're trying to do in order to keep things moving forward.

For instance, you might have designed your dungeon to be a slog through traps, guards, and with a huge combat at the end. If your party clearly wants to turn it into a Mission Impossible style scenario, and that's the sort of thing their characters are geared for, then change gears to keep the ball rolling. If you really wanted the party to get into the subtlety and political machinations at the duke's ball, but they aren't exactly the socially-skilled sort, then throw them a bone and liven things up! Maybe a noble gets into an argument, and the fighter volunteers to stand for him in a duel. Perhaps a gang of brigands breaks in expecting a bunch of soft lords and ladies, only to get one-two punched by the monk and the barbarian. By doing what they do best they'll have earned allies and admirers (and perhaps foiled the plans of your villains) without trying to contort themselves to handle a challenge they really were not meant for in the first place. Best of all, you can use the NPCs and general scenario you already had, but tweaked to get more of the table involved!

The thing you should keep firmly in mind is that the party are the main characters of the story you're trying to tell. They should struggle, and they should work, but make sure that you're actually giving them the sort of challenge they're here to achieve. And to do that you need to talk to your players, and watch how they react to things they encounter. Read the room, ask for input, and (when necessary) make alterations to the game so that the square pegs have actual square holes to fit through. They don't need to fit easily, but at the end of the day they do need to be able to squeeze through and participate in the story.

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That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday!

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