Greetings and salutations, students. Professor Crunch here to talk about Wrought Iron Episode 4 and discuss what happened during my preparation and what changed as we sat down at the game table.
As I mentioned before, my plans for Wrought Iron started with the opening scene. The events of this episode are the culmination of my vision. Keep this in mind as we go forward, because nothing happened like I expected.
The majority of this episode was focused on combat and a very small dungeon crawl. We’ve discussed on the podcast before how combat encounters can be used to develop characters and move the story forward. I think that these principles are demonstrated quite well in this episode. I am very lucky to have players that are so skilled at getting into character, making choices as their characters, and playing off of each other’s decisions. I knew that tossing a combat-focused session at these guys would not only be entertaining, but still allow them to deliver the role playing necessary to advance the story. I am very happy with their performance in this session.
Speaking of that combat, you’ll probably notice that most of what happened after the characters had rolled initiative was somewhat unstructured. Obviously, we do not play around a physical table, so it’s more difficult to run a detailed, tactical combat. Furthermore, 5E is less of a tactical game than previous editions. Lastly, I trust my players to make the best, most entertaining choices during combat. Thus, I let combat take on a more narrative and free-form feel. I think that this happened well, and that it also let the players come up with creative solutions to the challenge presented by combat.
I also tried my best to respond to the players’ creativity and narrative choices. In my younger, more inexperienced days, I probably would’ve been more restrictive in my decisions, especially in the fight against the large swarm of insects. However, I’ve learned that it’s less important to mark each monster off my list than to let the players have fun. So I did things like translate a critical hit into clearing away a crowd of monsters. I used the fail forward principle when an attack roll failed to keep the momentum of the combat and the story moving. I’m very happy with how everything turned out.
What I’m not happy with, however, is the dungeon itself. I’m sure you noticed that this was less of a dungeon and more of two rooms that the party moved through. To reveal a guilty secret, I’m very bad a designing dungeons. This is something I’m working on. However, in my defense, the dungeon here was simply a vehicle to move the story forward. I was not focused on an entertaining and challenging crawl. I was focused on getting the players through the cave to the climax of this session. So while this was a very I satisfying dungeon, it did what I needed it to do. And I am already working on designing the true dungeons that will show up later.
In case anyone is wondering, I did not use anything out of the Monster Manual for the PCs’ opponents. I did this mostly to save time and facilitate the narrative flow of the combat.
The climax of the session is something that I am still debating. To be honest, I considered re-recording the ending. About halfway through the combat, I said to myself, “what’s happening? This isn’t going like I planned.” However, I pushed forward and adjusted my plans on the fly. After we wrapped up the game, I reflected on what had happened. It was very different than what I had thought would happen.
Let’s break down the events.
First off, there’s that mysterious figure in the cloak. Pulling back the curtain, the players never could’ve gotten a successful attack. Some might think that this is unfair. However, the ultimate point of this encounter was to introduce this character and then remove it from the game. Part of my issue with this session was that the players kept choosing to attack this figure. I did my best to describe the failures of their attacks. I thought that the players would figure out that their efforts were best spent elsewhere. However, as I thought about this, I realized that they were making decisions as their characters would. Plus, the constant failure heightened the drama of the moment and will make the eventual showdown (whoops, that’s a spoiler) all the sweeter.
Then there was the fight with the insect-covered Tobin. This was not part of my original plan. But it developed and I ran with it. I wish I had better incorporated the challenge of a giant monster with the goal of rescuing the kids. Tobin was never a main part of the story, so I don’t mind his fate. But if I was watching the movie or TV show of this game, I would’ve felt that his treatment was a little cheap.
Lastly, there’s the kids. Ultimately, I wanted the players to be heroes and save the kids. I’ve said several times recently that in my games, I want players to experience big, heroic moments. But the biggest thing that hit me during this game was how long it was taking to get the kids to safety. I also had a flashback to several guests on the podcast who had talked about consequences of actions. Even though I wanted the kids to be saved, what was the point of the danger if there was never a risk of failure? Of course, I didn’t remember this until we were halfway through this combat. I tried to adjust my tactics to reflect this. I made a snap decision and said (to myself) that after a certain number of rounds the kids would zap away like the mysterious figure.
Luckily, the creativity of the players won the day. How could I say no to a fastball special?
So basically, I like how this session resolved, and this is all owed to my players. I had a clear visual in my head but the events didn’t quite match that picture. I think I could’ve done better with more preparation. But what would’ve been the better story? I realized that my thoughts of possibly re-recording were to get back to my original idea. Thus, I knew that I couldn’t go through with it. The impact of my players’ decisions was too important to reverse.
And after some thought, I figured out a way more interesting way to make use of these new elements.
So there’s a lot to learn from this episode. But everything revolves around flexibility. Being flexible and adaptable allows the input from the players to shine through and the best possible story to develop. It’s not easy to learn this lesson. As a GM, the first instinct is to be in charge of the story. There are situations where this is fine. And there are plenty of great game and great GMs that run like this. Remember that ultimately, you need to do what is fun at your table. However, when everyone at the table can participate equally, a better story develops. As GM, our job is to lead the story, not tell the story.
As we move forward we are entering uncharted territory. This is the part of the game where I don’t have anything planned and am reacting to what the players throw back at me. Since we’ve already recorded the next few games, I can tell you that I did not expect anything that’s about to happen.
