Adversarial GMing - It happens to the best of us
Today, I want to talk about something that might creep up on some of us without meaning to. Being an adversarial GM.. I know that’s a term that sort of harkens back to a different era of gaming, like some grognardy throwback. But I’ve caught myself in some habits lately that made me pause and think. And because I think they’re worth examining, I figured they may be worth sharing.
And before I proceed, I want to be clear: This isn’t about calling anyone out. These are patterns I’ve caught myself doing, and maybe I’m not alone. Let’s all just have a gentle nonjudgemental checkin. No shame, no blame - just awareness and observation giving us an opportunity for reflection.
1. Prioritizing the Story Over Player Choices
I am so guilty of this. You’ve done the prep. You’ve got this incredible plot thing planned, or a really powerful scene you’ve been building toward. And then the players zig when you expected them to zag.
It’s so tempting to steer them back - to protect the story you’ve worked so hard on. But sometimes, in doing that, we end up closing off the most creative, unexpected play at the table just because it doesn’t fit the original plan.
If that’s ever happened at your table, you’re not alone. It’s worth asking: is the story more important than the collaboration? Or can the story flex to make room for what they’re bringing to it?
2. Accidentally creating unsolveable mysteries
You’ve presented a great mystery. But the players are stuck. They’re spinning their wheels. And maybe part of you thinks, “They’re just not getting it. It’s clear as day if they just focussed!”
This is such an easy trap to fall into because the clues and logic and links make total sense to you so sometimes, we hide the solution without meaning to. Or we assume a connection is obvious.
It’s not about dumbing things down - it’s about making sure there’s a real path forward. Ideally more than one. If you’ve ever seen those long silences around the table, that might be what’s happening.
3. “Huh. Well that was anticlimactic.”
The players breeze through an encounter that you thought would be tough, whether a mental challenge or a physical one. And you catch yourself thinking of the way they beat it or how easily they beat it - basically their success - as a problem.
And then you sort of instinctively reach for ways to correct success to keep things “challenging.” But this kind of success is a hell of a reward for the challenges you’ve already put in front of them. So it’s a testament to how powerful they’re getting. Or their dice were on fire. Either way - That’s not only okay, that’s good.
If you recognized yourself in any of this - fuck, it’s nice to not feel alone.
We’ve all heard about those horror stories where the GMs see players as people to out-think and ‘beat’. Obviously nobody is sitting there twirling your mustache and tying players to railway tracks and being so villainous but like.. These are all the modern, subtle version of putting your shit ahead of the players’. And it doesn’t mean you failed as a GM. It means there are quantifiable areas to improve in, especially when we’re trying to run something ambitious or meaningful. And like, you don’t have to ‘do’ anything - just start noticing when you slip into this stuff. And the more we notice, the more we can adjust. And the game gets better for everyone around the table.
