Re: Suggestions for GM Error

Ah, such is the trail of a newbie GM. They typically bend over backwards 
to please everyone, and, when problems occur, end up pleasing no one.

The GM got in this position because, as new GM's often are, he was very 
sensitive to criticism and reacted quickly to try and quell same. If the 
GM can quickly develop the necessary thick skin, it would seem best to 
simply say to Italy, darn, I'm really really sorry, but the results are 
out and re-doing it really screws things up far far more. Terribly 
terribly sorry, I will do my best to be more inattentive and tardy in 
the future. :) (Sarcasm emoticon in effect)



Charles Louis Steinhardt wrote:
> There's a (non-Cat23) judge game in which the following happened.
> 
> There are seven people playing that all know each other outside the game,
> and a newbie GM.  A number of players have requested deadlines, and this
> has been frustrating various people in the game.
> 
> So in a Fall turn, England requested a deadline extension at the last
> minute, and was given a one-day extension.  He then submitted orders
> without setting wait, but three other powers (IGT) all had the wait flag
> set.
> 
> The next morning, a number of players complained vocally about the delay,
> and so the GM noticed that all orders were in and rather than waiting
> until the deadline, force-processed the game.  Unfortunately, Italy had
> apparently been in the midst of changing his orders, was shocked by the
> processing, and submitted orders that he claims were not his intent.
> These orders did actually result in a two-center stab for the Italian
> (successful), but Italy still insisted that he had not actually wanted to
> make the stab.
> 
> The GM then decided without really consulting anybody to rollback the
> turn, which now leads to the usual godawful mess that happens when you
> rollback a turn.
> 
> What is the best thing to do in this case in order to be maximally fair to
> all players?  The game had been essentially a six-power stalemate and four
> different powers chose to stab during this turn, so a rollback causes
> quite a number of problems.  On the other hand, it was also unfair to
> Italy that he was forced to submit the wrong orders because the GM
> preprocessed after extending the deadline.  But we have to deal with the
> situation as it is, rather than as it should be, so I'd like to get your
> opinion on the right way to proceed from here.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> 	-Charles (who is neither a player nor the GM, and might I add is
> not the GM, but an interested observer that knows all parties involved)
> 
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