You volunteer to run a new game for your friends. You have an amazing story in mind that you can't wait to tell. You spend weeks or months prepping it. You're excited to debut it and you can't wait to see the look on your players' faces as they uncover its twists and turns.
But something goes wrong. The players aren't having fun! Maybe they're even bored, or angry! Maybe they just stop showing up and the whole thing falls apart, before you even get to the dramatic reveal that the town mayor was the villain all along!
How could it have gone so wrong?
This doesn't make any sense! What about your meticulously handcrafted narrative? What about the maps you spent weeks drawing? What about the fun you were supposed to have??
Don't worry. This kind of thing is extremely common. Games fall apart all the time for all kinds of reasons, oftentimes with nobody to blame.
However, sometimes games collapsing is preventable and avoidable. Most problems that occur can be solved with one simple technique, and we're going to teach you how to use it.
So are you ready? Here it is:
Communication
I know, I know. "You need to communicate with your players." The worst advice. I hate it when people tell me that.
But just because it's annoying doesn't mean it's not true. And if you want to keep playing, you need to learn how to communicate.
It can seem daunting. Having a frank conversation could involve hurt feelings or unwanted stress. It feels confrontational.
The good news is, it doesn't have to be. At the end of the day, you're playing D&D because you want to hang out with your friends, go on an adventure, and have fun. Everyone at the table feels the same way, and they all want the same things.
Maybe they like the story, but they felt very railroaded and pushed into making decisions that they didn't think their characters would make. That's a common mistake DMs make when they fall in love with their story, and it's very easily solvable!
Maybe they are enjoying their characters, but are confused about the plot or what they're expected to do next. This can be a major issue when the DM thinks it's "obvious" that the party needs to go find the missing wizard near the abandoned quarry, but the party instead wants to head back to town to gather more clues.
Imagine how much frustration could be solved by talking to your players out of game and giving them an opportunity to say "we're not really sure what we should be doing right now."
Communicate Early and Often
Sometimes problems can fester for a long time and grow out of proportion. If you've played D&D for long enough, I can almost guarantee you've been at a table where somebody got mad. Maybe it was you. Maybe it was a close friend. Maybe it even damaged a friendship.
This is always, always because of a lack of communication. If you think about it, it's incredibly silly, isn't it? D&D is a cooperative game. There's no reason - ever - to get mad... unless you let frustrations fester over weeks, months, years.
So bring up issues when you first experience them. When it's a small thing, it's easy for everyone to address and correct before they become a major problem.
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