Why DMs should embrace when their Players wreck their encounters.
Written by: Trip
Let me paint a picture for all you DMs out there: You’ve designed a cool boss fight, named the NPC and his minions, gave him a backstory and motivations that put him at odds with the Party, and you’re expecting the fight to last maybe 3 or so Rounds and be a fairly challenging but not too-deadly fight.
You roll Initiative. The Players go first.
And the Goblin Barbarian/Fighter rolls like a god on all his attacks and one-shots your boss in a single turn.
We’ve all been there. This exact scenario happened to me in a campaign I was running several years ago. Talk about anticlimactic, right? But while a lot of DMs would respond to this turn of events by, say, doubling the boss’s HP or adding some kind of Phase 2 where the *real* boss shows up, I had an entirely different reaction that led to this anticlimactic fight being one of the most-memorable moments in any game I’ve been in.
After Binbom Goldentooth–the aforementioned Barbarian/Fighter–reduced the boss’s 150ish hit points to 0 in a single turn, I was, quite literally, dumbstruck. This wasn’t the first time I misjudged my players’ power level in their favor. It wasn’t even the first time in this *campaign* that they’d managed to trivialize an encounter I meticulously designed. And yet here I was, completely stunned by this sudden turn of events.
My Players immediately saw the look on my face and were already starting to celebrate their easy victory. I tried to think of a way to salvage this encounter. Maybe I could buff-up his right-hand lackey to make him a bit more formidable? Perhaps the archer ambush I had planned for Round 2 could have poisoned arrows?
And then it hit me… Instead of scrambling to find a way to undermine my Party’s victory, why not lean into it and celebrate *with* them?
I had the right-hand lackey immediately drop his weapon and surrender, and the archers hiding in the nearby treeline all fled the scene in terror. They earned this victory fair and square. Sure, the other two Players didn’t really get a chance to shine, but there would be time for that later. Today was Binbom’s day.
And what were the repercussions of this event? Well, the Party successfully took over the town (the boss was the mayor, who hated adventurers and tried to frame the Party for murder), and with the entire Party feeling like Binbom was an unstoppable force of nature after his violent victory, they set their sights on taking over the big city to the north, using the town they just seized as a base of operations to get Binbom’s goblin buddies from the south, further up into the territory they currently occupied. They were gonna start a full-on gang war for power and money, all because a certain little Goblin got it in his head that he was unstoppable.
And it was gonna be awesome.
About the Author:
My name is Trip and game design is my passion. I started out with D&D about 10 years ago, but have played a few other systems like Fellowship and Monster of the Week. I’ve even tried my hand at designing my own TTRPG a few times (maybe one of these days I’ll actually finish one?) I love both playing and running games, but I also love the oft-overlooked joy of learning new game systems. It always sparks my imagination seeing a new take on mechanics and rules, and I’m always excited to test the boundaries of those rules to see if they work as-intended and whether they can be improved upon. And who knows? Maybe someday I’ll successfully create my own game and become a household name in the TTRPG sphere? A boy can dream. 😅e if they work as-intended and whether they can be improved upon. And who knows? Maybe someday I’ll successfully create my own game and become a household name in the TTRPG sphere? A boy can dream. 😅
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