Sometimes we encounter failure you matter how harder we try. When this happens we go into “Damage Control” and to salvage the situation as best we can.
Today we’re going to be looking at what I feel was a failure on my part and a look at what I did to salvage the situation.
In my most recent Wednesday Dungeons & Dragons games the party was making their first real foray into a new area. They had been tasked with disrupting the infrastructure of this country. The reason was this country is invading its southern neighbor after apparently being dormant for hundreds or thousands of years.
The party had spent the night in a wooden fort they had cleared of some undead. In the morning they made their way toward one of the cities they had on their map. On the way they saw a mysterious figure and a stone lectern with a metal plaque attached to it.
While they were reading the plaque, they were attacked by group of heavily armed men. This encounter was to be tough. I had planned on it to lower most of them to below half health, emphasizing unit tactics by their enemy rather than just mad dashes.
The initial areas of the combat went rather well. the front line and side troops encompassed the party. But instead of being able to use the reach weapons of the second line as I intended they were tied up by the Balgura demon the fighter/warlock summoned.
I had forgotten my party was known for summoning a large number of creatures to aid them. They might have only five members in the group but they can field almost twenty or more forces in a matter of turns.
Combine this with their abilities to absolutely chisel out ten to twenty damage per attack round for each of them. They are also rather hard to hit. This last one is more my fault, I like making them capable but I have a hard time gauging how capable.
I have to balance trying to kill them and making it impossible for them to win. The roll of the die can cause their deaths but I want it to be a risk, not a certainty. I came very close knocking down the barbarian of the party, but almost no one else was damaged to a worrying degree.
The powerful spell caster I had the enemy had was cut down much sooner than I expected. The front line were engulfed in summoned raptors (it’s a long story) and the second line was too pre-occupied to work in the plan that I had. In short everything was going down the tubes.
So I tried to salvage the situation. What could happen than not only added to the story and made it more plausible for them to face tougher enemies? I had a pair of archer’s as support for the front ranks. So it made sense that they might be more likely to be used as messengers. I decided that they would have sending stones (magical walkie-talkies) and call back to wherever they had come from in order to warn them of the party.
This makes it easier and more plausible that tougher enemies are available to find the party. It also helps put stress on the party, giving them a sense of urgency.
So while my encounter was a bit too under powered, it helped progress the story and set up for future encounters.
Sometimes we need to turn a less than ideal turn of events into a beneficial circumstance. You are only limited by your ability to use the tools you have at hand. Some people can make a lot from the worst possible tools. Others can’t see the forest through the trees and think they can do nothing with a situation.
A small shift in believing you can make a bad situation better can open your eyes to the possibilities available to you.
Think about it.
Sincerely,
The Irreverent Gentleman
gentlemansuniversityofmanliness 