One of the things that can be frustrating to players is that they simply get stuff that they don’t need or want for their characters.  Either the magic items simply aren’t useful or they don’t have the right potions or they simply prefer using an axe to a magic sword.  By the same token as a DM it can be really frustrating when the players just don’t have what they need to perform well in the dungeon that you have spent forever planning.

Putting some time into the shops in your world can go a long way towards solving these problems, depending on your players.  If you play with the kind of folks who will kill anything they see that has anything of value then you can more or less ignore this entire article because the players will more than likely just try to steal everything rather than trade for it.

But, assuming that your players are willing to trade - you can add a shop just about anywhere in your game.  This can be as simply as a merchant who has stopped in town for a day to a halfling caravan along the road to an old man found in the woods who happens to have a solution to fire resistance but could really use a healing potion in exchange.

If you’ve been listening to the players’ gripes then you should have a pretty good idea what they want and what they have that they don’t want.  Often they will end up with gear that they don’t want but which they hesitate to sell at PHB prices because of the expense.  Allowing them to trade (sometimes) for an item of equal or lesser value can go a long way towards helping them get the equipment they need and want.

But this sort of thing has to have boundaries or it will get out of hand very fast.

1 - the items available must be specific.  You can’t have a merchant out there traveling around with all magic items levels 6 thru 10.  If there is that much variety available then use the standard pricing system and have the players trade in gold, and it should probably be an established shop with all the regular guards and precautions.

2 - limit the quantities.  Just like the selection the total number of items avaiable should be limited to one or two.  If a wandering druid just happens to have the eight items that the party wants it will seem strange at the very least and most likely the druid will be robbed and/or stabbed in his sleep.

3 - limit the amount of time the items are avaiable in the game.  Once that druid has moved out of sight of the party he should vanish from the game.  This keeps him safe from those characters who will want to circle back and slaughter him for the little gold he still has as well as make him avaialbe for future use.

Finally, I suggest re-using the same “shops” from time to time.  This will make it obvious to the players what you are trying to do without screwing with the suspension of disbelief too much.  If there is a clear signal of “trade with this guy” then the players will be more likely to trade and less likely to do anything else.

If you do include regular magic shops with a large selection of items, allowing the occaisional one for one trade without penalty can also be useful, but the same rules apply.  This should be for specific items in limited quantities and for a limited time.  The shop may be in dire need of a bag of holding and willing to trade that super special sword for it, but only just this once and only because they haven’t been able to sell that sword anyway.  If the players come back tomorrow they may just discover that someone else sold them a bag of holding and they don’t really need theirs so badly so the trade deal is off.

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So the party decided to go off in a completely unexpected direction.  Is this the end of the world?  No.  Is it inconvenient?  Maybe.  Can it be solved easily?  Yes.

Remember that in a game as open ended as Dungeons and Dragons, there is no such thing as the “wrong way.”  There are unexpected directions and events.  There are unplanned and unprepared areas, but there is not a “wrong way.”

Dealing with the unexpected is an art that can really only be learned by doing, but it isn’t that difficult to get the hang of it.  Understanding the elements of an encounter can help.

Encounters have 4 essential components.

-People
-Place
-Thing

So far sounds like the elementary school definition of a noun.  But the fourth element is probably the most important.

-Purpose

Getting the people, places, and things together are the bits that make encounters difficult.  These have to be prepared ahead of time.  It takes too much game time and effort to pull together the statistics of monsters on the fly.  Players can get bored pretty quickly while they are waiting for you to pull together the stats of that big red dragon.

So prepare ahead of time.

There are some things you can prepare ahead of time and some things you can’t.  In the manufacturing world there are things that can be done while the machine is running and things that can’t – this is referred to as internal and external setup for those of you keeping tabs.  The idea is the same in a game situation.  There are things you can prepare ahead of time and some things you can’t.  Doing as much ahead of time as possible will save you headaches later.

So what can you prepare ahead of time?

-Purpose.  This is crucial.  There had better be a purpose to whatever happens, and it is up to the DM to decide this.  So figure it out ahead of time.  Without this you are just playing a mini’s battle game, not an RPG.
-Things.  The stuff that the NPC’s have.  All of the key items – the stuff relating to the purpose should also be prepared ahead of time.  In most cases things won’t alter the people they are with.  Just stick it in a trapped box and the box then can be put in any encounter you want.
-Place.  You don’t get to pick the place.  The players do.  But you do get to pick which choices the players have.  I generally divide my encounters into a couple of categories.  Either they will happen in a dungeon, outdoors, or in a town.  What do I prepare ahead of time?  The dungeon map, a couple of outdoor encounter maps, and the town.  In any given session (even a really long session) it is pretty difficult for a party to visit more than one dungeon or town and do much more than knock on a few doors.

That leaves us with people.  Some people are more key than others.  Random XP fodder can be prepared pretty easily.  Use the monster manual or download monster cards and there you have it.  Make sure that the encounter fits your purpose and you have it.

Some people need more details.  These are the key NPC’s that you spend time crafting and really want the characters to interact with.  Generally when a party goes “the wrong way” it means that they have chosen not to meet the NPC’s you wanted them to meet in the place you wanted them to meet at the time you wanted them to meet.  Get over it.

If you really want the interaction of those NPC’s, then move the people to a different place.  Keep the purpose and the things the same and the players will not know the difference.

The trick here is that the 4 elements of an encounter can all be swapped out at any time.  An encounter’s purpose can be altered simply by the actions of the NPC’s.  The people can be altered by swapping out one stack of stat cards with another.  The things can be swapped out just as easily.

Make sure that all of the elements are prepared individually, without context, and add the context during the game.  The end result will be encounters that do not lack crucial elements and that don’t take extensive time to set up during the game.

If you happen to be lucky enough to have your players right where you want them, then even better.  No changes are necessary and you get to enjoy everything just the way you planned it!

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