Wednesday, February 16, 2022

Turning a Misstep into a Twist

In the D&D game I ran tonight, I made a number of missteps. Without going into too much detail, I put too few monsters into an area that was supposedly overrun with them. But if the few hours since the D&D session ended, I thought of how I could turn that misstep into a twist. Yes, there are too few monsters in here. And there's a reason for that. That reason will turn into a plot hook, hopefully leading to another step in the adventure, where I can correct my previous mistake by having monsters aplenty in an area the players need to reach before it's too late.

There are plenty of common cliches that address the lesson I applied tonight. Look for opportunities amid challenges. Turn negatives into positives. Every setback is a chance to make a comeback. I think I even blogged about that last one some years ago. Tonight, I made a misstep, felt bad about it, and then figured out how to redeem myself by turning that misstep into a twist. I am now excited to explore the question of why there were so few monsters in this supposedly overrun area, because the answer is no longer "Because I messed up," but is rather something far more interesting and hopefully more fun.

We all suffer setbacks in life. We make mistakes. We face challenges. But if we look for opportunities to twist the negatives into positives, we can sometimes find them. Challenges can become opportunities to grow. Mistakes can become opportunities to learn. And setbacks can become opportunities to come back better than ever before.

I'm not just excited for D&D next week; I'm eager to show how this misstep of mine can actually be the next step in the party's epic adventure.

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