Aubrey the Malformed wrote: cranewings wrote: Aubrey the Malformed wrote: Actually, I don't think he is saying that. What he's saying is that the overall aim of the campaign should not be wilfully (or even unwittingly) derailed by player actions. If there is a timed situation, and the players decide to chill instead, there will be a noticable consequence. But that should be explained to them, either in game through a mouthpiece NPC, so they know - so that if they decide to chill, it's not because they didn't know what the potential consequences might be as players. I know it isn't railroading, but this has always bothered me a little. Why explain it to them? What's the point?
Having an obvious best solution or course of action, especially when you have players whose characters you can count on to do the right thing, really sort of forces the plot train down a certain tunnel. For example, the party knows about a bad guy. The bad guy has a minion that gets captured and lets the PCs know his master is going to town X. Odd to the players, no one knows why he would go there, not even the mook. At this point, the party could go investigate the town or go do a dungeon for fun. If the mook says, "he is going to kill everyone in that town to make a point," I think it helps with PC decision making too much to be done all the time.
For me, the game is a lot more fun if not everything is on the table. The players have to be proactive in getting information in character or else things they wouldn't want to happen, happen before they know it. That way, there is a level of something extra to think about, "what do you think is going to happen?" Well, the main point of being reasonably explicit is so when you subsequently turn round and say, "Well, you didn't do X, so now Y has happened and you have to fight the summoned Horde of Dread when you could have just fought the evil wizard's henchmen," and they say "Well, how was I supposed to know that?" you have a leg to stand on. A tactic I like to use when I'm running games is to give foreshadowing by combining clues of different types. For example, during game one, I might have an NPC say, "I would go to any length to kill the Sheriff of Nottingham." Then in the next game, I might have a rumor that there is a dungeons housing a powerful cursed artifact. The third game, I might mention that angry NPC has gone on a trip. If questioned, his family might say he went to find a treasure in some area dungeon.
Three games, three weeks, three clues. I tell my players to write things down if they seem important. Important things include NPCs and open quests. If in a game or two I pop out this bad guy with a major evil artifact and wreck the PC group with a killer CR +4 or +5 fight, it isn't because I'm trying to be competitive or that I'm trying to punish them - I just think this is the nature of the game. By not spelling every little thing out to them, I give them room to figure things out or make their own way. Just because this villain pops up doesn't mean they have to get in his way - just that if they do it will probably kill some of them.
one thing that I've always noticed about PC groups no matter the system, creative in combat, creative to get their way, creative to achieve whatever goal they have set. Clueless when confronted by the plot.
As long as you know how the story progresses if they do or do not follow your clues, I think you're just fine. Just imagine when the PCs finally do figure something out early and stop a problem before it begins...
Zerombr wrote: one thing that I've always noticed about PC groups no matter the system, creative in combat, creative to get their way, creative to achieve whatever goal they have set. Clueless when confronted by the plot.
As long as you know how the story progresses if they do or do not follow your clues, I think you're just fine. Just imagine when the PCs finally do figure something out early and stop a problem before it begins...
I have one player who is especially good at this. He always makes fun of the follow-up campaign we played where he solved all the party's problems in a month and a half.
and therein is another issue. Players stopping a campaign before it starts! It reminds me of Knights of the Dinner Table.
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