#RPGaDAY2020 Day 30 Portal

In the last but one game session I ran before lock down I game the characters some choices.

1. Shift the dark, bloodstained altar and confront the slurping beast heard beneath.
2. Step through the magic mirror and confront the tentacles Sea monster that had reached through and tried to grab one of them.
3. Step through a portal to a far away land of sun, sand and palaces ruled by a lich queen.

All of these seemed like fine adventures for brave heroes.

The players chose none of them, they used a teleport item they had to retreat to a safe place.

This wasn’t a problem as I was quite pleased to have that item used up and out of the game.

What is odd about this group is that they are completely risk averse. Collectively they see adventures or problems as something to be sidestepped or circumvented. It make the players an interesting, and challenging, group to plot for.

Outside the game they are all high performing professionals in their own fields, and the game is meant to be a break from all of that. Instead, you can almost see them trying to monitor their own performance indicators!

I spoke to each player individually after the session about why they didn’t take any of the portals that had come up in the session. In each case it boiled down to they didn’t have enough information to assess the risks and benefits of going on any of the potential adventures.

I honestly believe that if there was a spreadsheet spell all of these characters would have it.

The odd thing is that the actual role play is great, they also ask for high adventure, but everything gets treated like a annual performance review.

Which just goes to prove that:

1. a GM can never take anything for granted.
2. People can be odd, players doubly so.