JohnnFour
Game Master
Staff member
Adamantium WoA
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Gamer Lifestyle
Demonplague Author
Borderland Explorer
Here's a tip I received from Jeremy Brown:
It’s happened to every GM. Your players do something unexpected or unprecedented. It might be as simple as refusing a hook, going to a different place than you had thought, or using novel tactics to solve a conflict. There’s a few winning strategies for these situations. There’s also a couple of things to avoid.
First, let’s talk about things to avoid. Do not try and herd your players back to a choice they don’t want to make. Players resent this sort of behavior, and it usually causes bad blood. Secondly, don’t give the illusion of choice then ham-handedly force the PC’s into whatever you’d planned for in advance. This is almost as bad as railroading the game. Finally, don’t panic.
The first thing to do when thrown this sort of monkey wrench is to step away from the table for a few minutes, get some quiet, and think over the situation. A five minute break is never a big deal. Fifteen minutes is not much more of a big deal. A little quiet time to think gives a GM a wonderful perspective on their issues. First, consider if you can salvage anything you’d planned for the situation at hand. If so, quietly, and where appropriate work it back in. I hear the cries of but you said don’t do that just one paragraph before. I did, but I specified ham-handedly jamming the preplanned material into the game. This is a hard line to judge, but essentially, if the players won’t ever know the change and switch have occurred, go with it. If it’s too obvious, or doesn’t work, discard it and use it later.
If the preplanned material does not work, consider the ramifications of the players’ recent actions and their choices. Who might respond to these actions and choices? How might they respond. If the players are going somewhere different, what conflicts might arise by going to that different place. In short, who might be angry, irritated, or wary of the PC’s and their actions and wish to warn, attack, or avoid them. These ruminations make it possible to determine what will happen when the players do whatever it is.
Third, if the problem is more immediate such as the players have figured out a foolproof way to disarm the doomsday machine you didn’t think of, they kill the villain, they manage to convince the king that really their possession of the Westmarch won’t break the kingdom, then go with it. This sounds scary to newer GM’s, but it is often a way to generate far more adventures. Villains can be resurrected just as PC’s can be. Stopping the Doomsday machine foils one plan, but perhaps the villain had a plan B. The king might wish to get rid of the Westmarch precisely because that’s where all the rebellious barons are, or it’s a monster infested cess pit. Allowing the PC’s to succeed with their wild schemes on occasion gives them a feeling of fairness at the table, and it gives you new perspectives on how your players think and what to plan for in future. Further, it deepens your campaign world. If the players think, we slew the Red Lord, now we can move on, and they then must contend with a lieutenant of the Red Lord that is far more cunning and diabolical, it shows that actions have consequences.
Finally, don’t underestimate the power of relaxing to the inevitable. If your party is going to go to a bar and have a bar fight, let them. It avoids side comments, sullen silence, and upset at the table for one. Secondly, as stated before, consequences are a bear: that bar fight might lead to terrible results. They may have killed a famous playwright a la the death of Christopher Marlowe in 1593. They might have gained the attention of authorities who wish to use such obstreperous adventurers as an answer to a horrid dragon. By saying yes, admiring your players’ ingenuity, and capitalizing on it, you not only make the most stressful moment in a GM’s career look easy, but you turn it into an adventure seed gold mine.
It’s happened to every GM. Your players do something unexpected or unprecedented. It might be as simple as refusing a hook, going to a different place than you had thought, or using novel tactics to solve a conflict. There’s a few winning strategies for these situations. There’s also a couple of things to avoid.
First, let’s talk about things to avoid. Do not try and herd your players back to a choice they don’t want to make. Players resent this sort of behavior, and it usually causes bad blood. Secondly, don’t give the illusion of choice then ham-handedly force the PC’s into whatever you’d planned for in advance. This is almost as bad as railroading the game. Finally, don’t panic.
The first thing to do when thrown this sort of monkey wrench is to step away from the table for a few minutes, get some quiet, and think over the situation. A five minute break is never a big deal. Fifteen minutes is not much more of a big deal. A little quiet time to think gives a GM a wonderful perspective on their issues. First, consider if you can salvage anything you’d planned for the situation at hand. If so, quietly, and where appropriate work it back in. I hear the cries of but you said don’t do that just one paragraph before. I did, but I specified ham-handedly jamming the preplanned material into the game. This is a hard line to judge, but essentially, if the players won’t ever know the change and switch have occurred, go with it. If it’s too obvious, or doesn’t work, discard it and use it later.
If the preplanned material does not work, consider the ramifications of the players’ recent actions and their choices. Who might respond to these actions and choices? How might they respond. If the players are going somewhere different, what conflicts might arise by going to that different place. In short, who might be angry, irritated, or wary of the PC’s and their actions and wish to warn, attack, or avoid them. These ruminations make it possible to determine what will happen when the players do whatever it is.
Third, if the problem is more immediate such as the players have figured out a foolproof way to disarm the doomsday machine you didn’t think of, they kill the villain, they manage to convince the king that really their possession of the Westmarch won’t break the kingdom, then go with it. This sounds scary to newer GM’s, but it is often a way to generate far more adventures. Villains can be resurrected just as PC’s can be. Stopping the Doomsday machine foils one plan, but perhaps the villain had a plan B. The king might wish to get rid of the Westmarch precisely because that’s where all the rebellious barons are, or it’s a monster infested cess pit. Allowing the PC’s to succeed with their wild schemes on occasion gives them a feeling of fairness at the table, and it gives you new perspectives on how your players think and what to plan for in future. Further, it deepens your campaign world. If the players think, we slew the Red Lord, now we can move on, and they then must contend with a lieutenant of the Red Lord that is far more cunning and diabolical, it shows that actions have consequences.
Finally, don’t underestimate the power of relaxing to the inevitable. If your party is going to go to a bar and have a bar fight, let them. It avoids side comments, sullen silence, and upset at the table for one. Secondly, as stated before, consequences are a bear: that bar fight might lead to terrible results. They may have killed a famous playwright a la the death of Christopher Marlowe in 1593. They might have gained the attention of authorities who wish to use such obstreperous adventurers as an answer to a horrid dragon. By saying yes, admiring your players’ ingenuity, and capitalizing on it, you not only make the most stressful moment in a GM’s career look easy, but you turn it into an adventure seed gold mine.