Being a Dungeon Master for aDungeons & Dragonscampaign is hard work, but what makes it particularly harder is the absurd freedom of choice the players have in what they do. Players don’t always plan to create chaos in your world and not follow any plot hooks, but sometimes, it is just what their character would do.
For such occasions, Dungeon Masters need to be ready to face a near-infinite number of outcomes, often armed with only a few post-it notes and their imagination. With only a few tips, you too will be able to answer nearly anything your players throw at you, planned or not.
The Problem Tends To Be Who They Fight
Often, what you haven’t prepared for is the aggressiveness your players might show towards authority figures, rude shopkeepers, or any random passersby. You don’t really need a character sheet for every single citizen of your setting, but if a given NPC is meant to be menacing, then they should put up a fight.
Ideally, you want three token archetypes in the backburner: a spellcaster, a tank, and a long-range unit. It doesn’t matter if they are goblins or drow; you canflavor them to be anything, and with those three archetypes, you’ll have nearly any random encounter covered.
They Won’t Notice Either Way
Sometimes, the path your players choose seems more dramatic than what it actually is, particularly if you are the only one on the table with the world map printed in your brain. If they head north instead of south, then simply put their next objective on their way without being too rigid about dungeon placement.
This, of course, only works if your players lack a world map or specific direction of where they are meant to go. It is an ideal technique for when players are wandering aimlessly, with you handing them their next adventure on a silver platter.
5Make The Same Result Happen
You Decide The Consequences After All
A deviation from a plan can happen in any number of ways; the players might have killeda key NPC for the next plot, or maybe they stole the artifact needed to keep peace in the realms. Whatever they do, their chaotic meddling won’t often have such great ramifications that you may’t just have the same outcome happen either way.
Of course, this is not something you should disclose to your players since they should feel like they earned each outcome that happens. Especially if their deviation happens at the end of a session, you have quite a lot of time to figure out how the plot can move forward without much hassle.
4Make The Plot Go To Them
They Can’t Ignore What Is In Front Of Them
When players don’t follow your carefully laid-out plans, it often isn’t because they are trying to be mean to you; it is just that they didn’t notice the hook toward adventure. While we all enjoy subtle hints towards a greater goal, there are times when subtlety has to be thrown out the window.
Instead of the players seeing smoke in the distance, have a villager ask for their help directly, or if they don’t check out the bounty board in a tavern, make a noble approach them with the job directly. Each party needs its own approach, so be sure to apply the right one for your group.
3Use Magic Or Divine Intervention To Your Advantage
Some Things Can’t Be Trifled With
All this is well and good for minor deviations, but at the higher levels of play, the party might get into somemultiversal shenanigansthat could threaten the fabric of creation. If your plot is headed that way, consider this: there is always a force greater than the players.
Even the 2024 Player’s Handbook suggests answers like this when players have too much power, as is the case with the Wish spell. Its description states that any attempt to mess with the multiverse will have the Lady of Pain intervene with a simple ‘no.’
2Ask For Time If The Deviation Is Too Drastic
Your Players Will Understand
There are times when your creative juices are just not in it, or maybe you are a Dungeon Master who is too reliant on your notes, and improvising is not in your nature. This is perfectly fine, but if you are not sure about how to continue a session, the best course of action is to communicate that to your players.
Communication is key in Dungeons & Dragons, and without it, we wouldn’t get anywhere. If you need time to collect your thoughts and have the session end early, your party will understand, and they might even be able to aid you in deciding how the adventure continues forward.
1Embrace The Deviation
It Happened For A Reason
While you might have a detailed plan of how things should play out, at the end of the day, the protagonists are your players. If they have a clear idea of what they want to do, but that doesn’t fit within your plans, look at the bright side: they are still engaging with your world.
As such, while you should have an overall plot for your campaign, you shouldn’t design more than one adventure at a time, maybe two. This way, you give yourself and the players room to explore and experiment in different ways, and who knows, maybe it is you that deviates from the plan in the future.
