On special Day 21 of the RPGaDAY 2025 Challenge we get to talk about the ‘unexpected’. I specifically wanted to talk about keeping things unexpected for the players so that they can experience the storyline that the GM has planned for them. Yes, a proper RPG session is a joint storytelling experience, but the GM still works out the appropriate plot points ahead of time.
To quote River Song from Doctor Who: “Spoilers” (wicked grin). Spoilers in a game can be a bad thing. We hate spoilers for the latest TV episodes and movies. And it should be the same for gaming. Seeing the look on the players faces as they figure out the clues (or completely miss it all together). That is part of the fun of the game.
I recall two things about this from my past. When I was early into the RPG hobby, I remember being at a local gaming store talking about some of the modules that were for sale. I wondered about players buying the module that the GM was going to run to know the story ahead of time. This is probably why I preferred to homebrew my adventures and gaming world to keep this from happening. I remember the person I was talking with making the statement that he could (and had) changed the module to fit his campaign needs. Even to the point of just keeping the module title to present the unexpected to his players.
Recently at a SaltCON event, I signed up to play a one-shot of the Fallout RPG. One of my kids was in attendance and really wanted to play a session with her Father. At the table I quickly realized that I had already played this one-shot at a previous convention. So in order to not spoil the other players fun, I did not say or do anything about the knowledge I already had on the plot. It was actually to my benefit as we got farther along the plot on this session than we had previously.
I’ve also blogged about the multi-year Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 campaign that I played with some friends. While talking with the DM, I mentioned that I was going through some older Dragon Magazine articles looking for some research information. He cautioned me about reading some of the older adventures found in the magazines as he was currently using one for the campaign. I was glad that he had warned me, just in case as I wanted to feel the thrill of the unexpected.
What do you do to keep things unexpected in your game? Would you make drastic changes to the characters or plot? Have you found yourself at a table where you knew the adventure? How did you handle it? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.