Murphy’s Law - RPG edition!
Posted by Maikl on May 6, 2008
Most DMs know (from experience) Murphy’s Law. It states that if anything can go wrong, it will. These Murphy’s Laws of roleplaying games are brought to you by Maikl of RPG Thoughts, and confirm the inevitability of some things in RPGs, as suggested by yours truly (Immutable D&D Laws) and Stupid Ranger (Some things are inevitable).
- The time you spent on preparing a scene is inversely proportional
to the time it will last during the actual game. - Players stupidity raises proportionally to the number of hints you give them.
- The players will remember all the in-game mechanics as long as they
are not invented by you. - There is always at least one pencil, dice or character sheet missing.
- If nothing is missing, one of the players is going to be late.
- The chance that someone will forget about a session raises with the
number of reminders. - No reminders does not guarantee everyone will be present.
- Players will always try to kill the friendliest NPC.
- If the game goes smoothly and without any problems, it means you
have lost some of your notes. - If a fight runs smoothly it means your session is not going the way
you planned. - In the room you are playing it is always too warm or too cold.
- All the mechanics seem quick and simple until the time they are used.
- The rulebook is full of useful hints, rules and tables except the
ones you are looking for. - The number of great props is inversely proportional to players’
involvement in the game. - GM’s involvement in the session is inversely proportional to
players’ involvement. - Players’ opinion about the session has nothing to do with the
quality of adventure and storytelling. - Players’ opinion is based on number of XP and chips.
- There are two kinds of gaming tables you can use: too big and too small.
- You can never sit in a way to see all the players.
- Changing the way you are sitting only makes the situation worse.
How has disaster struck your gaming sessions? Leave a comment!
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One for those of us doing long distance gaming… Skype will always drop out at the most inopportune moment.
[...] I am happy to inform that I wrote a guest post on http://www.DungeonMastering.com , so be sure to check out Murphy’s Law - RPG edition! [...]
Excellent stuff. All very true! :)
I especially like the “if the fight runs smoothly you’re in trouble”. It’s so hard to guess the difficulty of an encounter sometimes.
What about this one: A DM who plans only for the worse - because of the murphys law - will see his game run smoothly, which he is not prepared for.
The only person with a house big enough for the group will have a pet that someone in the group is deathly allergic to.
For the session when you plan a very personal adventure dealing with one particular PC’s backstory…he will call and say he can’t make it…at the last minute.
nice! and true…. especially #2 & #18 :D
can I add: The players wil engage _everyone_ in conversation except the person with the information….who they will kill.
Glad you like them. Keep more laws coming!
If there is a empty cave with nothing of interest players will spend hours exploring it for hidden doors or traps. While if the cave is important and full of stuff they will skip it all together.
@Hoss99: So true. It hurts.
I was in a game at my friends house and we searched for a Holy Sword in purple worm puke, as opposed to the sacred altar directly behind us. The DM got frustrated and just stuck the sword in the puke. :)
“you spend hours coming up with a very cool “hook” to introduce a new character/player into a long standing group, only to have this person never show up again for your game.”
our past session went like this:
character camp out for the night. one pc goes for more firewood on his first shift night watch, only to disturb a badger in the process (note: all char. are 1st lvl.) that PC tries to fight off the 1/2 CR badger only to have his ass totally handed to him (thanks low rolls) and reduce him to 1 HP before nailing the badger. the following day….all 3 PCs disturb a family of wild boar and badger boy gets killed in the ensuing battle..
….didnt see THAT coming ;P
Badger and boars. Gotta love the first level experience!
I enjoy Orcs’ 1d12 axes on lvl. 1 :)
Enjoy? You must be an evil DM!
“The implausible red herring inevitably catches more attention than the realistic, straight forward clue.”
[...] GMs to be more precise, but everyone will have fun reading. See here for part. [...]
[...] so true: They’re is a Murphy’s Law to DMing and D&D. My favorite it number No.8: Players will always try to kill the friendliest [...]