Players Going Off The Rails Does Not Ruin Your TTRPG Campaign

I knew I was going to have a hot take when I saw the video title “When Players Ruin Your DnD Campaign“. And, even though it’s an ad, I indeed do have a hot take. Not about the supplement, but the advertisement. DM: I spent 18 hours designing this political intrigue storyline. Secret alliances, betrayal, hidden motives. PLAYER 1: Meh. PLAYER 2: That sounds lame. PLAYER 3: I stab the bartender. PLAYER 4: I hit on the waitress. Can I roll athletics for that? Just in case it wasn’t clear that “ruining the campaign” is the same as “the players deciding they wanted to do something different,” the commercial makes it very clear: DM: Well, do [these supplements] have something for players ruining my campaign? NARRATOR: Indeed. Especially for that. It’s something that GM’s have faced for a long time: What happens when the players decide they want to do something that you didn’t expect? Hell, it happened with the very first D&D campaign I played in last century. It can be inconvenient. It can…