By Jason Campbell
In the Numenera campaign I’m running we had an interesting encounter that underscores how players and game masters can view a scene completely differently. That can give us some insight into planning TTRPGs.
The Scenario
The characters were heading through the wilderness on their mechanical wagon when they came across a large deep pit. They investigated and found a thin, frail man trapped at the bottom of an 80’ pit. They began rescuing the man with lengths of rope which they tied to their wagon, when a loud crashing sound came from the far side of the wagon. The wagon was struck by a grotesque 15’ tall humanoid, who immediately attacked the group. The characters fought and found the giant was a powerful foe.
Turning Point of the Battle
One of the characters drove the wagon at the giant, hitting him and knocking him into the pit. The giant lay at the bottom of the pit, alive but injured. Meanwhile the other characters had rescued the frail man. The characters looked down to find that the giant was asleep on the floor of the pit.
GM’s View
What the players did not know yet was that the pit had the magical effect of putting anyone in it to sleep for a random amount of time, and on waking the affected creature would take psychic damage from the horrific dreams they were subjected to.
I assumed that the battle was over at this point. The characters had accomplished their goal of getting past the pit, and rescuing a poor soul on the way, while a villain lay wounded and sleeping at the bottom of a deep pit. The characters would be able to go on with their mission with little fear.
Players’ View
The players feared leaving the enemy giant behind them, even if it was injured and sleeping. One character prepared to fire their heavy crossbow when another character grabbed their javelin and dove into the pit, hoping to land on the giant, critically stabbing him.
The jumping character landed at the bottom of the pit without damage thanks to a hover ability and immediately fell asleep beside the giant. Fortunately the jumping character was tied to a rope, the other end held by a strong character. The other character managed to drag the sleeping character up to safety. As soon as the sleeping character was clear of the pit he woke, disturbed by the dreams but alive. The giant slept a few more rounds, giving enough time for the characters to kill it with ranged weapons. The characters moved on with their mission.
Conclusion
Every scene looks different to players than it does to the GM. As the scene unfolded I thought it was clear that the safest move would be to continue on, leaving the sleeping giant trapped. The players had no way of knowing about the sleeping effect of the pit. The man they rescued had damaged memory that left him unaffected by the dreams which would torture anyone else, and the characters hadn’t had enough time to get that explanation from the man.
In the case described above the players and I saw the situation differently, but it wasn’t a critical misunderstanding and it made the encounter more interesting. But there’s a lesson we can draw from scenes like this. GMs should not assume that the players will assess any situation as the GM understands it. This idea is what leads to valuable advice such as Justin Alexander’s Three Clue Rule.
What do you think? Have you ever had a situation like this as a player or GM?
About The Author
Great story, and point!