A Good Hour of Nothing

After a (brief) conversation over on the rainbow OSR discord server on the amount we talk as GMs, I started thinking on my own place at the table. From what I can hazard to recall, I'm a fairly active GM who generally leads the conversation. This isn't always the case, though, and I started reminiscing on a good hour long block of time where I said very little and Nothing Really Happened.

The setup is this: the party went up north to troll-town with the purpose of finding a group of foolish young people who travelled there on a dare to deliver some flowers to the leader of the trolls (as everyone knows, trolls hate flowers). The relationship between Troll-town and Sha, the city-state around which the campaign is centered, is neutral but tenuous due to the trolls mostly keeping to themselves.

Originally, this was meant to be an investigation of sorts. When I was planning it, however, I forgot that one of my players had rolled up a troll. Incredible prep skills, I must say.

Nevertheless, this was no setback. In fact, it became a boon and a start to a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

I told him everything. The trolls had welcomed the group of youngins, albeit with frustration. They warned them to not go to a specific area. Of course, they went there and were thoroughly eaten by a cave troll named Tooth. I probably stole this from Glorantha, but my trolls lock up their mutated cave cousins so that they are not a danger to others. Killing them would be an outrageous rejection of compassion.

What followed was an hour of conversation between the troll pc and the party in which he tried to hide these details from them, to protect his allegiance to the trolls. The deception didn't last the entire time, but it provided a really fun dimension to the game as non-troll members would suggest options that obviously wouldn't work in the situation, while our troll (Drix Drax Drux) tried to guide the planning towards better options. The clash between multiple allegiances and great foresight led to this long hour being one of my favorite moments in the campaign.

Here, I felt like I was truly within the archetypal role of a GM. My communications were brief and either A) answering a player-directed question or B) suggesting other avenues of thought (what would happen if...) while pondering the possible ramifications in each new path they explored. Usually, I'm a very action-oriented GM who wants to move the game along. Often doing nothing for an hour is the cause of goal-less roleplay or long crunchy combat. This was a better experience, though, one I crave more and more as I continually gain experience. These experiences feel like the height of what I want in my games, interesting situations leading to interesting decisions. I thank my players for the opportunity.