Heavy Handed DM = BAD

So, after a three month hiatus, my regular DnD group got back together. I think the break was good for me to relax a bit about needing to play. Now I'm in more of a wanting to play mindframe, and it feels much better. Anywho, what did I set up for the first session after a long break? A BATTLE. It had:

1. Heroscape terrain! (everybody loves Heroscape)
2. Lot of puny minions for the heroes to crush! (smashing bad guys is fun)
3. A tough jerk or two for the Strikers to strike! (but it's nice to do more than 1 damage)
4. Non-standard victory conditions! (hmmm...it seemed like a good idea)

It didn't go so well. In fact, it pretty much sucked from my point of view.

The setup was that the party had opened up a small school for rich kids to be trained by our now famous (locally at least) heroes. One day, a heavily armored man marches out from the surrounding woods and declares that the party must give him Lucius (one of the kids) or die. I thought the party would laugh at the loser and fight, but be eventually overwhelmed by the never ending stream of minions I sent their way. Then I hoped they would hole up in the outpost and eventually try to escape, setting up my plans for the next encounter. It all seemed so simple in my head, and I thought it would be real fun to play.

In reality, the never ending stream of minions did NOT bother them, and they rushed out to destroy the enemies they quite correctly perceived as leaders, hoping to end the stream of baddies. At this point I should have let this happen. I should have rolled with it and let them win, and modified my future plans in between encounters. Heck, now that I think of it, that would have been super fun! Man. Anyway, what I did do was throw more minions at them. LOTS more minions. I figured I could scare them back in that way. Nope. I did make them all start playing with their cell phones though. Guess it sucks to wait for me to move 40 freakin guys (note to self, this sucks for me too). Anyway, awesome slayers that they are, they nova'd my boss with dailies and encounters and then Jesse and Katrina pulled off a combo ghost sound/intimidate move that sent a large majority of the army running. Did I give up and let them go the way they were heading then? No, of course not!

No no no, I had to have my stupid way. Now I had some cavalry dudes ride in and try to carry off the kid so the heroes would have to give chase. Bleh. At this point it got kind of cool as the party rallied to protect the kid and Carolyn took advantage of the opportunity to give up a standard action to control all 5 kids. After I had the Lucius lead the kids off on horseback so the villians (and perhaps the heroes, if they decide they care) can chase after them next time.

In retrospect, the encounter plays out as a really cool story, but it just wasn't that fun to actually play. From now on I'll stick to fewer baddies for sure, and I will definitely pay more attention to where the players are taking the game. Because THAT is the fun! Seeing what happens! Not making everyone do what I want.