In Dungeons & Dragons there are some unwritten rules that establish themselves sooner or later in every group. One action can ruin a campaign for a group. Therefore, the party’s cleric seeks advice from the community.
How did the group make the campaign harder? Reddit user Miserable_Yoghurt160 shares his tale of suffering in his thread. He plays a cleric who is primarily pacifistic and has a problem. His group was faced with an NPC who appeared helpless under the influence of red smoke and got involved in a fight.
He suggested disabling the machine that the supposedly guilty smoke was coming from with water – but this was not to be. His companions did not heed his plan. Instead, they continued to beat on the opponent, causing him to die before Miserable_Yoghurt160 even got a turn with his cleric.
Days later, their game master told him that this NPC was one of the most important in the entire campaign and that the party had made everything ten times harder with his death. He would have provided assistance with important puzzles and moved the story forward. If the group had planned ahead and communicated properly, instead of acting immediately and entering into conflict, this could have been avoided – a rule that quickly establishes itself in most groups.
However, the community sees another problem in the whole situation that weighs far heavier than the simple “think first, then act”.
“If the NPC hasn’t done anything, he’s not the most important NPC”
Where does the community see the problem? Under the thread are nearly 500 comments discussing the situation (as of: 12.01.2026, 11:15 AM). Most users do not primarily see the problem in the behavior of the group, even though that certainly plays a role.
The much bigger problem is that the game master likely made several cardinal mistakes:
- The group wasn’t clear that this NPC was so important; otherwise, they probably would have acted differently in the story.
- The game master should have indicated to the group that their actions would have such far-reaching consequences so that they would have the chance to change it if they wanted.
- Instead of “punishing” the group with such a drastic increase in difficulty, the game master should have enabled the group to return to the “normal” difficulty level with some kind of substitute NPC.
Commentators point out that the game master literally has the course in his hands. He has all the tools and options to direct the events and influence the gameplay or adjust the difficulty fluidly. Instead of punishing the group for something they likely weren’t fully aware of, the game master should look for alternatives that he can offer them.
He can also learn from this that he should let NPCs, who are supposed to play an important role, be more active and react more agilely to situations, as yesat explains in his comment: “If the NPC hasn’t done anything, he’s not the most important NPC. First rule of being a DM. If the PC really needs help, the DM can simply add another NPC that fulfills all requirements. This is not a video game where the developers have to plan everything in advance.”
That the game master has a really important role outside of storytelling is shown repeatedly in various situations. He must also act as a diplomat and rules enforcer and find solutions for difficult situations, as the following story shows. Because in another group, the players also took out a character, but he belonged to their own party: New player is so mean in Dungeons & Dragons that his own group takes him out in the first session, even though they didn’t intend to
