“What were the mistakes you made as a group in that situation?”

Sometimes as GM there is a necessity, especially with newer players, to invite them to reflect on what went wrong in-character. Without these moments of reflection it’s my experience that players can end up in a loop of repeating similar errors with broadly negative outcomes.

“I should have brought a weapon,” said the (now dead) Magic-user’s player.

“We should have spent some time working out how many of those creatures were in the dungeon. Maybe scouting it out would be a good plan,” said the Fighter’s player.

“We should have worked together as a team, you know, and put together a plan instead of hanging back and arguing.”

They had entered a dungeon and headed into new territory, one torch up front carried by the Magic-user. The Thief and the Cleric were next in line, side by side in the 10-foot wide passageways. Behind them were the other Thief and then the Fighter at the back.

They had spotted a barricade across a corridor and the Magic-user had peeked around the corner to see two short figures with grey skin and pot helms. As he scooted across the T-junction to get past them the Magic-user (now alone) got shot at with arrows.

The party had dithered. They had argued about what to do – very loudly. Their light gave away their position, their noisiness and delay allowed the creatures to blow their ram’s horn. The alarm was raised! Within a couple of minutes, six more armed creatures were charging at them.

It wasn’t quite a TPK but only Harald (the Cleric) got away alive.

“We should definitely should have retreated. Maybe we should have tried to see if they would talk,” said the player of the Cleric.

Blundering around in the dark was a vital lesson for these neophyte players of Dungeons & Dragons. We talked over some different ways of approaching that situation as they rolled up their new characters. It was all smiles and discussion but it was learning too.

Sometimes there is a necessity, especially with newer players, to invite them to reflect on what went wrong. That way they learn to play better.

Game on!