GM forgets that she’s Playing Both Characters in a Conversation

Players were left waiting for Dungeon Master Stacia Cromwell to realize that she was waiting for a response from herself during last night’s game. We were first alerted to the situation when Haley Baker, one of the players, was able to quietly excuse herself to the bathroom. “This all started when we were getting a quest from the mayor of this village, and the mayor turned to Jerome the gnome, the guide we picked up a few sessions back. The mayor asked him where they were from, and if they had heard any news from the south. Stacia was really into the character, and had this great accent going that was kind of French, kind of German, and was even physically acting out his kind of pompous attitude. But then when she finally finished her part, it was like she couldn’t leave it. She was just staring off into space, waiting for Jerome to answer.”

Onlookers say it took 40 minutes to convince Cromwell that she was the one who would have to respond. “Normally, I’m glad that Stacia gives us the space to think up a response,” said Gabby Miller, another player. “But she kept shushing us when we tried to interject, telling us not to rush it. I was only able to break her out of her reverie when I said I was thinking about retiring my character.”

Afterwards, Cromwell told us that might have been the only thing to shock her out of her unknowing spiral. “We had literally just started a whole about her paladin’s order and the corruption in it, and the idea that we suddenly weren’t going to have any characters who cared about it was maddening.” When asked about any precautions she might take to avoid this situation in the future, Cromwell said she was going to cut down on NPCs. “I’m still deciding whether Jerome will leave the party reunited with his long-lost family, or violently murdering him to show that the new villains are a serious threat.”