When Players Outsmart the GM

As a GM, I love when the players are smarter than me. I love when they openly discuss what they think I’m going to do next in front of them, and I go with what they suggested as if it really was my own idea because it’s so much better than what I actually planned. I love when the players solve puzzles in ways that I never anticipated. But most of all, I love when they outsmart me.

The FFG Star Wars system uses tokens, white on one side and black on the other, to show the will of the Force. Players can use the tokens when they’re on the white side to change their fortunes by improving their dice or changing critical elements of a scene. They then flip them over, and when they’re on the dark side, I can use them myself to do the same.

During a game of Age of Rebellion, the players were negotiating with Bossk the bounty hunter who was pursuing them. He had been sent by the Empire to capture them, but they were in the middle of offering him the artifact they had in exchange for their freedom. This was taking place next to Bossk’s ship.

It was at this point I had to get up and go to the bathroom. I stepped out momentarily. When I came back, the players told me they were handing over the bag. I told them Bossk took it from them, and the players immediately announced they were running away. I looked confused. They pointed at the table that had the force tokens. “We flipped one of the tokens while you were in the bathroom. The bag is full of activated thermal detonators.”

I froze. Technically, this is way outside the rules. Token flipping is always done with everyone’s awareness. However, the players were so tickled with their cleverness, and were tricking me in the same way that they would have tricked Bossk, that I just had to go with it. The bag detonated, engulfing Bossk, and blowing the whole front off of his ship while they made their escape. This was fantastic roleplaying, and I just had to hand it to them.

A couple of weeks ago on Critical Role, which I only recently got into listening to as a podcast, Laura Bailey who plays Jester Lavorre, a tiefling cleric, outstmarted Matt Mercer the DM, in the most brilliant way. The group was meeting with a hag, who was willing to break a curse in exchange for someone giving up something big. She fed on suffering, so the players were trying to one up each other by offering more drastic things they could give her. One offered to help ignite a war, another offered to leave the party forever and live as a hermit. Then Jester stepped into the hut to talk to the hag.

Now, Jester is a very happy, peppy character, whose spiritual weapon is a giant lollipop. She also has a very whimsical eastern European accent. She sat down with the hag, and offered to give up her hands in exchange. She’s an artist, and so she’d be losing her ability to create art and also, like, feed herself easily, so it would cause a lot of hardship for her.

The hag agreed, and Jester, while beginning to pathetically whimper, asked if she could eat one last cupcake she had baked before she lost her ability to use her hands to feed herself. She pulled a blueberry cupcake out of her bag, and offered half to the hag. The hag took it and ate it, and then…

Laura (while still using her whimpering Jester voice,) mentioned the cupcake had the Dust of Deliciousness on it. Like 50 episodes before, she had acquired this dust, which causes the eater to get disadvantage on Wisdom saving throws. She then cast Modify Memory, the hag failed her saving throw, and Jester told her that her memory was that she had such a delightful time having tea with Jester, that she decided to lift the curse without needing a sacrifice.

It was a brilliant an jaw-dropping moment that caused everyone to gasp. She had completely outsmarted the DM. I was out delivering my route, and had to stop, my mouth hanging open and just appreciate it. The DM completely forgot about the dust, and never even considered that she’d use it like that.

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So, after those two stories, let’s talk some advice.

1. Go with it. If the players have figured out a REALLY clever way to outsmart you, just go with it. When they blew up Bossk, I had to sit there with a frustrated look, but I really appreciated what they pulled off. It was clever and so underhanded in the best way. There’s no downside to rolling with it. It created a great story and made everyone feel great.
2. Be careful. You don’t want players to feel like they can do this all the time. I told the players afterward that while it was brilliant, from here on out, the tokens have to be flipped only in my presence with me knowing it. I’d have maybe allowed the players to do the same to Bossk if I had been at the table, but them doing it in secret was just too clever to not let happen.
3. What goes around comes around. The players crowed for quite a while about outsmarting me, but I knew this was an opportunity to eventually do some major outsmarting of my own. You don’t ever want make the players feel like you can just GM fiat a situation to put them in a bad place, but after their clever move, they knew that they’d eventually find themselves in a situation with a much more clever adversary and the tables would turn. This isn’t a GM/PC revenge thing, but the players knowing that narratively, things could bite them in the back. Over on Critical Role, they’re all anticipating the point at which the hag may realize what happened, and hell is going to rain down on the PCs.

This was a long one! I hope you take this advice and run with it. As a player, find clever ways to outsmart the GM without doing so maliciously, and as a GM, revel in the times the players get one up on you.

Featured art is Jester and the Hag by Matthew Johnson.