The Retrospective Campaign: Its Not As Bad As It Seems

Another major take away from the campaign I learned, or rather relearned is that well.. The players don’t see the flaws, just the product.

There was a part where my players were racing through the darkened corridors of an ancient starship, forced to fight through legions of evil weapon-ghosts while pursued by a being of pure hate and needing to contend against technological horrors before finally coming to grips against the dueteroantagonist and the worse-than-demon evil creature that was assisting her.

In my head I was picturing the dark corridors, a mixture of agoraphobically open and surrounded by the press of enemies and the necrotic flesh of the betrayed dreamers of ages past, or racing through narrow corridors fighting the corpse lit atrocities of past weapon wielders in tiny, dark chambers.

And it turned into well..

Me having to make maps using the Dark Omen set from Chrono Trigger, a few odd tokens here and there, and people making Ultima references when one of the opponents (A Pathfinder Gray Goo) was construed as them being attacked by THE FLOOR.

The battles were tough, but overcome. And when the bad guy was defeated through a mixture of weathering her nonsense and making appropriate conversation checks and I felt defeated. I was worried I hadn’t properly conveyed what I wanted to. My reach exceeded my grasp! My animation budget ran out and I had to use quick shots of Japanese kanji and have two of my characters stand on an elevator for two minutes without a frame change.

The players loved it though. Unironically. They loved the fight with the floor. They loved being chased up an elevator shaft by a Nightshade. They liked the pressure of a certain number of turns ‘til disaster.

They felt the final battle was climactic and awesome.

And the reason for this came from one of my players. They weren’t inside my head. They didn’t see what I failed to accomplish. They only saw what was actually there.

The important take away on this is that while you shouldn’t cut corners, the players will appreciate what you do give them. You want to give them the Michellin star treatment, but you’re not that good. Not everyone has the time, budget and like to give the Hollywood D&D experience. You need, as a DM, to learn to not only incite, but also trust in your players’ imaginations.