6 Legendary GMs and their Epic Failures

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#1 Aabria Iyengar

One of the biggest complaints I see online about Aabria is her tendency to tell players what their characters are thinking or feeling. When she stepped in as DM for Critical Role: Exandria Unlimited, it was one of the first things that my friend Ed noticed about her GMing style. And it can be seen on other shows that she’s GMed as well.

This is how I see it. It’s okay for a GM to tell a player that their character is afraid of something if the player just failed a saving throw against a fear affect, but just telling the players how they feel or what their characters are thinking as part of the description or narration of a scene steals the agency of the players. Why? Because it forces them to either cede control to the DM or interrupt the narrative to argue differently.

Effectively, this is stealing players’ agency. As a game master, you should limit your control and draw the line at the players’ characters.

#2 Matt Colville

As part of his ‘Strongholds and Followers’ Kickstarter, Colville promised his fans a streaming game. This resulted in “The Chain,” a home game featuring non-celebrity players (Matt’s friends) that would feel like the real thing and show how Matt ran games. The show ran for 28 episodes and then... just ended. There was no resolution and the continual promises to return never bore fruit.

At the end of episode 28, Matt told the players that the next adventure would be a heist and that they’d be playing different characters. They would be members of their main characters’ mercenary company and would be doing a “side quest” for the main characters while they were off doing more important things. There were going to be character creation episodes, the heist itself, and then the show would get back to the main characters. None of this ever happened.

At different times, Matt gave a number of reasons for this. The adventure wasn’t ready yet. They were taking a short break while they got the next Kickstarter together. Scheduling. COVID. The players (normal people) weren’t happy playing on camera and getting online attention. Whatever the reason, the game never continued, on or (from all reports) off camera. The game just died.

Now, if the players weren’t happy being filmed, I get it... but the fact that the players never even got to continue a game they were clearly enjoying was a shame. Regardless of the reason, the game hit a wall and, rather than finding a way for it to continue – whether that be offline, a different format, or whatever – the game just stalled and died on the vine.

And the solution if this happens in your game? The GM should work with the players to find out whether to continue with the game or move on to something else. If the game isn’t working, that’s fine... but just letting it stagnate and stall indefinitely isn’t the solution.

#3 Matt Mercer

Episode 27 of Critical Role’s first campaign is painful to watch. My friend Ed tried rewatching it while doing research for this topic and had to stop because of the overwhelming awkwardness of it. While the problem player talked, the other players were avoiding eye contact, providing the occasional snide comeback to him, and just looking like they’d rather be anywhere else.

Orion Acaba was an original member of the cast of CR. A lot has been written about him and the circumstances leading up to his removal, but here are the high points:

First, arguing with the DM on air. One of the best known examples was when Orion’s character decided to buy thousands of mirrors to use against a vampire without telling Matt; he then complained when Matt said that there weren’t “that many mirrors available” in the entire city. Orion basically argued that since he had the money, he should be able to get them... even if it meant waiting weeks of in game time to have them made.

Next, cheating on die rolls. The viewer can’t see his die rolls, but other players have come clean about it, and if you watch him roll, it’s obvious that there is a lot of shady stuff going on there.

Then there was creative problem solving by just adding things to his backstory and character’s resources. In episode 27, he announces that he’s an ambassador to his nation and could just get them an army to help them invade Whitestone and face the vampire. He does this without consulting the DM, and this idea got several of the other players to chime in with sarcastic comebacks.

And worst problem of all is one that I don’t feel comfortable talking about in a public venue like this, so I’m just gonna leave it right there.

The fact is, Orion’s presence could have ended the most popular actual play show on the internet in its infancy. The other players were frustrated and, in some cases, angry, and it was hurting the group, the show, and risking everything.

And why? Matt allowed a toxic player to stay in the game for far too long. Now, I suppose the blame shouldn’t lay entirely on his shoulders; the other players were grown adults and allowed it as well. This is just me spit balling, but I imagine they had several conversations about this but decided not to do anything until, well, they finally did.

The solution, of course, was simple: kick the toxic player out of the group before it comes to a head and nearly destroys your gaming group. Fortunately for Critical Role fans, this step was finally taken.

#4 Troy Lavalee

Unlike most of the mistakes mentioned here, this GM mistake specifically involves running a published adventure.

So, Troy is running Pathfinder’s “Gatewalkers” for the Glass Cannon Podcast, and because he has five players, he assumes that if he doesn’t make any changes, the adventure should be relatively easy for them. And by the numbers, it should.

This became an issue recently, though, then a combat turned into an absolute slog. A large creature was trapped in a small room, and the characters needed to rescue someone from that room. Unfortunately, the room barely had room for the monster and a couple of characters, so the characters had to waste most of their actions moving into and out of the room.

This by itself isn’t a problem, but the creature also had a lot of damage resistance (it was a construct with a Hardness score per PF2 rules) so the fact that players could only get off one attack action if they were lucky was dragging the combat on for far too long. Add to it that the creature hit hard but couldn’t get to them most of the time and it was a literally an “immovable object meets an irresistible force” situation.

Ultimately, Troy stopped the game, explained how this was going to be an utter slog if they kept going, and said “you kill it” so that the story could move on. The players were happy to be done with the frustration, and Troy handled it very well IMO, but it could have been avoided with a little forethought.

So, what’s the solution? Remember that just because a game company published it doesn’t mean that it’s perfect “as is.” You need to look ahead and try to see problems coming before they hit. If Troy had changed the map to provide more room to maneuver five characters into the combat or changed the encounter so that the construct would leave the building – busting through a wall if it had to – in order to provide a better battleground, it might have kept the fight from becoming a slog in the first place.

#5 Brennan Lee Mulligan

Rolling dice is fun, and Brennan has been playing D&D for a long time. This leads to an “old school” attitude towards rolling dice where you roll for “everything.” This results in a couple of things during Brennan’s games.

First, it often results with him asking for die rolls on information checks, the player rolling a terrible result, and Brennan giving them the information anyway. Often, you can see that he’s disappointed with the roll and working out a reason that the roll should succeed... justifying why a “9” is “good enough.”

Secondly, it occasionally results in Brennan giving a little info and asking for another roll. They then repeat this action until they finally roll well enough to get all the information that he wants to give them. This results in having them stumble down a “roll train” until they finally succeed.

However, when the DM needs the characters to succeed, they shouldn’t trust the dice to be on their side. So, the solution is simple. If you need to give the players information, or if the characters need to notice something, don’t have them roll! Just tell them! Especially if there is no consequence if they fail. The GM should never trust the dice to do what they need them to do.

#6 Adam Koebel

A lot has been said on this topic, but Koebel clearly crossed the line. He took agency from a player and forced their character into a sexual situation that was
1. Outside of the player’s boundaries, and
2. Super uncomfortable for the other players that were present

Essentially, he broke trust with his players, his fans, and the entire TTRPG Online community. And then afterwards, instead of apologizing and admitting he was in the wrong, he claimed that the issue was really that they weren’t using proper safety protocols and consent tools. At least, that’s what I remember watching; if he has since admitted responsibility and apologized, I missed it.

Now, it’s quite possible to recover from every other mistake on this list, but there’s no coming back from this. If you break your players’ trust, if you show them that you don’t respect their boundaries, it’s probably over.

The solution is to understand and respect your players’ boundaries. Use safety tools if the group wants to have them in place. Ask your players where they draw the line, and then DON’T CROSS IT!