We can trust our players to find solutions to in-game problems. Therefore, we don’t have worry about the solutions too much. When preparing for our RPG game, we can focus on creating situations, obstacles, and complications for the characters to overcome. And that’s even if we have no idea how they’re going to overcome them.

There are two reasons why we prepare problems and not solutions. First, players are unpredictable. The things that players come up with will surprise us even if we spend a lot of time thinking about possible solutions to a situation. The open nature of our D&D game makes it so that the paths which players can take are so varied that it becomes nearly impossible to predict which one they’ll take.

Secondly, when we think about the players’ solutions too much, we narrow our own expectations about the game. However, our DM minds should stay as flexible as possible. When we expect certain outcomes we’re less likely to embrace the unorthodox solutions the players come up with. We’re more likely to railroad the players into pursuing the solutions we thought of.

The situations, obstacles, and complications we think of can appear very difficult—even impossible to overcome. But we can trust the players to find their way through the situation nonetheless. As a group, they’ll often find unique approaches. A situation-based DM mindset, which doesn’t plan solutions, is open to the players’ strangest ideas. Know your situation, or problem, well, and then be ready to roll with what the players come up with. During the game, we work with the players to run their attempted solutions.

It boils down to this. During game preparation, we think through the situations and problems the characters might face, but not the solutions. Then, we keep an open mind towards the unorthodox approaches the players come up with. Lastly, we use the rules of the game to let players attempt their own solutions.