as the old programmer joke goes:
a programmer walks into a bar, he asks for:
-> 2 beers please
-> 9999 beers please
-> -5 beers please
-> π beers please
satisfied with the results he leaves and invites the first normal user. The normal user goes up to the barman and asks:
“sorry where is the bathroom?”
the bar explodes
This has been animated on Youtube several times, so instead of linking to a video, here’s a search for all of them.
A long time ago a fellow GM taught me a great rule: Every problem that you introduce should have at least three possible solutions; two that you came up with yourself, and one that your players will find, and which you could never have imagined.
Players: “What about that item you gave us in the third session but never used? This must be what it was for all along, right?”
DM to self: What the hell are they talking about?
DM to players: I knew you were clever enough to figure it out! Good job
This is the correct answer.
DM to self: fuck fuck fuck think of a solution fast!
So one night we’re playing a modern era game and the BBEG and her husband are “holding court” at a very expensive night club. So all the PCs get dressed fancy, rent a limo, and bribe the bouncer heftily to let us in. A quick persuasion check and we’re in and snooping around. The GM wads up about a whole notebook. “I had plans for you to come in through the skylight, sneak through the kitchen, break in through the fire exit, even find a secret door to the basement. I never thought you’d just go in through the front door.”
So sometimes it’s the GM that fails to plan the simple solution.
I play Seven Days To Die (a zombie apocalypse game) and there are quests like clear out all the zombies in this place.
Some places show you the main loot room through an armoured window will before you can get to it legitimately. There will be an armoured door with half a million hit points to tell you not to bother.
So in one such game I dug through the 1000 hit point wall next to the armoured door, looted the loot, and did the zombie extermination path backwards
This is usually Glock 9’s approach if just trying to speedily loot.
When your group is sure the DM is walking you into a trap but they were just curating a pleasant experience.
