I ran Death on the Wall again last night. Death is a Season 3 Adventurers League scenario by Greg Marks, which I’ve now DMed four times and previously reviewed. This wasn’t the most memorable playing of it, except for one thing.

And that was the players arguing about what to do.

The situation is this: Lord Torin and his court have come to the ruined city of Yulash. The players are sent to assassinate or otherwise overcome him and the members of his court. It’s a tricky situation, but there are several ways of doing it.

My players came up with a feasible plan: Poison the food and escort it into the First Lord’s tent. Unfortunately, once they were in the tent, they began to argue about what to do next. They were a little surprised when the people they were trying to poison attacked them.

Tip for players: If you’re discussing things amongst yourselves, you’re doing so out loud. The other monsters and characters present can hear you.

This would have been avoided if they’d thought things through a little more!

When you’re making a plan, work out its implications, and then try to stick to it. Don’t improvise unless you have to. This group had to fight with their barbarian still far away (as he was creating a diversion on the far side of the compound), and they hadn’t worked out a way to get him back before they initiated combat.

This plan had other problems, which started with “we take the food in ourselves.” Let’s look at what I, as the DM, considered the “best” plan:

• The servers come into the tent
• The servers deliver the food
• The servers leave
• The members of the court eat the food
• The court become poisoned and vulnerable.
• The characters return and overcome their enemies.

The players missed the third point in their planning session. They stayed after they delivered the food, and the lords had a lot of time to look at the well-armoured servers, who stood around waiting for their targets to eat the food! This wasn’t something that the members of Torin’s court would allow. Of course, the players derailed any response the lords would make by beginning their argument immediately after they delivered the food – thus it was never eaten!

I find it a good idea to run any plan you come up with by the DM before you try it. Although some DMs are of the “try it and see” mold, many will offer helpful suggestions, and point out flaws that your characters would notice, based on things of which the players are unaware.

Of course, plans rarely survive once they come in contact with the enemy, but that’s why you try to come up with contingencies for things going wrong.

A quick list of things to consider when you make a plan:

• What resources do you have? (Character skills, abilities, spells and equipment).
  • Do you have allies who can help?
• What information do you have about the situation?
  • What information can you gather before putting the plan into action?
• When you initiate the plan, what actions are the enemies likely to take?
  • What can you do to hinder those actions?
• What are the steps in the plan?
  • Make sure everyone in the group knows what it is!
• What happens if something goes wrong?
  • How do you escape?
  • How do you recover?

Above all, it’s very important to stick with the plan as long as possible. If one player goes off-script for selfish reasons, then everything can fall apart. Remember that you’re playing a team game!