Recently I've been thinking about how I give players choices in my games, and my desire to give more meaningful choices in the future.
Right now, most of my game is focused around tabletop combat. I set up three rooms, they go through the three rooms, they collect loot and exp. There's an overarching story and often I do give them choices, but not as often as I like.
Warning - Trollhaunt spoilers ahead
So we've begun Trollhaunt Warrens and the group just got to the entrance. I plan on railroading the encounters because I don't want the party to skip any of these awesome battles and I can't really set up all the possible options using Dwarven Forge. So instead i set up three rooms at a time.
I don't think it matters much that I railroad the dungeon. It isn't like "go left" or "go right" are very interesting options. Without any real data, the party is just randomly picking a direction.
Instead, I want to offer meaningful choices without pre-determined outcomes. Once in a while, I'd like to give them a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" choice like the choice in the middle part of Fable 2 where you are really screwed either way.
In Trollhaunt, I filled out the initial Oni mage a bit to make him more of a memorable NPC instead of just a guy the PCs kill. He's assassinating people back in Moonstair while the PCs are battling through the Trollhaunt. I think there are some options for the PCs there, but I don't know what yet.
I also have an assassin hunting down one of the PCs. I think there are some options there too, but I need to fill them out.
So what do you guys do to stick meaningful options into your games?
Right now, most of my game is focused around tabletop combat. I set up three rooms, they go through the three rooms, they collect loot and exp. There's an overarching story and often I do give them choices, but not as often as I like.
Warning - Trollhaunt spoilers ahead
So we've begun Trollhaunt Warrens and the group just got to the entrance. I plan on railroading the encounters because I don't want the party to skip any of these awesome battles and I can't really set up all the possible options using Dwarven Forge. So instead i set up three rooms at a time.
I don't think it matters much that I railroad the dungeon. It isn't like "go left" or "go right" are very interesting options. Without any real data, the party is just randomly picking a direction.
Instead, I want to offer meaningful choices without pre-determined outcomes. Once in a while, I'd like to give them a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" choice like the choice in the middle part of Fable 2 where you are really screwed either way.
In Trollhaunt, I filled out the initial Oni mage a bit to make him more of a memorable NPC instead of just a guy the PCs kill. He's assassinating people back in Moonstair while the PCs are battling through the Trollhaunt. I think there are some options for the PCs there, but I don't know what yet.
I also have an assassin hunting down one of the PCs. I think there are some options there too, but I need to fill them out.
So what do you guys do to stick meaningful options into your games?