Losing With Style: The Way of the GM

I've been GMing a looooong time. Somehow, even back when I was first introduced to D&D, I always gravitated to one side of the GM's screen. I loved telling stories, creating NPCs, and getting to play a variety of roles. (One reason I can never stick with a PC is because I get bored and want to try something new.)

All GMs go through several stages in their development. I'm sure that you've all played under the Newbie GM, the Rules Stickler GM, and, worst of all, the Adversarial GM.

The Newbie GM is just what it says, someone who's new to the realm behind the GM screen. They make a lot of mistakes and often say, "Just a moment, let me look up that rule." Still, ignorance and inexperience are not sins. They also tend to be self-correcting.

The Rules Stickler GM is so obsessed with control that he enforces every tiny aspect of the rules, afraid to deviate from them in the slightest. These are the guys that insist that you add up every ounce of encumbrance, and insist that you can't do anything that isn't covered by the rules. Rules Stickler GMs are often still uncertain of their skills, so they over compensate. Again, most GMs get past this stage, if for no other reason than it gets exhausting to keep track of all of that.

But the Adversarial GM is probably the worst. They are obsessed with "beating" their players. Under their regimes, no player will get an even break. They're the ones with the decapitation traps in the latrines and the assassins hiding behind every corner, to the point that a character couldn't go to a market for a jug of milk without risking life and limb. Every difficulty is magnified, every advantage is minimized, and the GM takes an unholy glee in the deaths of player characters. Sadly, these GMs can stay like this for a long time. Why is that, you ask?

Because it's insanely easy for a GM to kill the players.

Look at any game. Take a really close look at it. Can you find anything in it that truly prevents a GM from "killing" the player characters and "winning" the game?

That's why I take the stance that a GM's job is to lose, but to lose with style.

So what does "losing with style" mean? It's creating enough of a challenge to interest your players, while at the same time making sure that you won't kill the players' interest in the game. Unless your players are confirmed masochists, they won't like to be your punching bags. So, you let them win, but make it fun for everyone.

Easier said than done, right? Well, here are a few things I've found helpful:

1. Either Roll Dice or Say Yes: This advice is from Vincent Baker's Dogs in the Vineyard, and it's probably the most helpful advice I can give you. Only bring out the dice if the roll will be meaningful. If the players want to find the best inn in town, let them do it. If they want to shoe their horse, let them. You don't need to roll dice for simple things that have no bearing on the story.
2. Add Weird Stuff: When creating an encounter, add some weird stuff into the mix. Want some floating islands? Add them in. How about dragons with purple polka-dots that fart nerve gas? OK, that might be a bit over the top, but anything that evokes a sense of wonder in your party is a good thing. Don't worry if the rules don't say anything about it, just put it in there and watch your party ooh and ahh.
3. Make Failure Special: How often have you seen this: "I try to pick the lock." "You fail. The door remains locked." Pretty boring, right? Well, you can make failures more interesting. Burning Wheel offers a much more interesting example: "I try to pick the lock before the guards get here." "You fail, the guards arrive just as the lock clicks open." See, now isn't that more interesting? A failure has set up an interesting encounter, and the party isn't blocked. And if you can't think of something special, ask your players, "What if you fail? What happens then?"
4. Go Over the Top With NPCs: While you don't have to create a whole life story of your NPCs, you can quickly bring them to life with a few mannerisms. NPCs who yell curses at the PCs get more interest than the silent sorts. One trick that I've found useful is have an NPC develop a hatred for one particular PC. Having your NPC point at one of them (possibly the rogue who just backstabbed him or the wizard who fireballed him) and say, "I'm going to kill you!" makes it all the more interesting.
5. Make Death Count: Another trick I like to use is to embrace the idea of a "Boss Fight." In video games, boss fights are the big battles that mark the climax of a story. Keep a lot of your encounters simple and (relatively) pain-free... but when there's a boss fight, tell your players, "OK, this is a really important encounter. You could die here." This tells your players that it's going to be tough, but the encounter also means something to the story. If they die here, at least they died at the hands of the Big Bad. For some, that makes a lot of difference. Wouldn't you rather have your character killed by Darth Vader than some schmoe, if he has to die? And if you can, let them die in a glorious manner, maybe a last minute blow that weakens the bad guy so someone else can finish him off. Or let him realize what the Big Bad's weakness is, so he can tell the rest of the party before he dies.

If you use some of these tricks, and others, you can make things a lot more fun. Remember, talk to your players, make sure you understand what they want out of the game, and try to work with them to get it.