Free Will and Choices

A question for the DMs out there:

How much free will do your PCs actually have? Do their choices matter all that much?

I read a comic that seemed so point to this very issue: A DM is sitting at the table, the PC have been presented with two doors. The DM is thinking: Choose door one, choose door one, I have created the best trap ever and it is on door one. The PC pick door two, and after a moments hesitation on the DMs part he says "You open door two and a trap goes off". In other words it did not matter all that much which door they picked.

So I was wondering how many DMs do that? I know I have, I have a module I want to run, so no matter which way they go, they run into the lead to the next module.

Mt PCs have total free will. In fact, I encourage them to do what they want. I mighyt prepare them to defend a village, but the PCs are free to leave it to go elsewhere. It helps that I don't prepare things like that. My encounters that I design that I really want the PCs to do are more role playing oriented then anything.

A question for the DMs out there:

How much free will do your PCs actually have? Do their choices matter all that much?

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In my games I give players an enormous amount of latitude. For instance, I'll throw out 10-15 game hooks and let the players choose whichever ones they want to investigate. This was actually disturbing for a couple of players who were used to playing dungeon crawls (I think they've played dungeon crawls exclusively). When I explained they really had a choice and had gotten over the shock, they were more enthusiastic.

I'll tie some things together in order to tell the story, but I won't force an issue on the players. If there is something I want to emphasize, it'll appear. My outlook is simple: I will freeform the game in order to make in enjoyable if players are willing to overlook the occasional inconsistency. I put quite a bit of detail into the setting and the possibilities in order to try and keep inconsistencies to a minimum, but they occasionally happen.

I agree with Crothian -- I give total free will. PCs should think of my world like they'd think of any other persistant world.

It's like Everquest done right.

That's not to say I won't have things that have to happen, it's just that the PCs get to pick when, how, and usually, if.

I try to give them free will in advance - I ask them as the session ends for as much of a clue as they can give me about what they'd like to do next session. If they, as often happens, still do something unpredictable, I wing it, and draw from the large folder of as yet un-met NPCs, villages, encounters, etc. that I keep around for the purpose.

Emerald said:

I read a comic that seemed so point to this very issue: A DM is sitting at the table, the PC have been presented with two doors. The DM is thinking: Choose door one, choose door one, I have created the best trap ever and it is on door one. The PC pick door two, and after a moments hesitation on the DMs part he says "You open door two and a trap goes off". In other words it did not matter all that much which door they picked.

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Chugga-chugga-choo-choo!

I deftly skirt the whole free-will question by not running cliche adventures where one door leads to instant death and one door leads to a +1 sword.

I hate hate HATE modules like that. You can have so much more fun with traps than "Let's screw over the characters".

I used to run pure open games where the PCs could do anything they wanted and appropriate things would happen (well, at least to the best of my ability).

The problem I had with this, though, is that despite throwing out 25 different generic plot hooks that raged from money to morals, the group often didn't bite. I even had one group that was so apathetic that when asked point-blank what their characters' goals were, couldn't come up with a single answer between them.

This happened with a couple of different groups and with both D&D and WoD. I basically found a whole bunch of people looking for a leader. *sigh*

Last game I ran, I used the Adventure Path modules to "get used to" 3E. There was some leadership there. I'll be taking the helm of the same group again in a couple of months, so I've got great hopes.

Mercule said:

I used to run pure open games where the PCs could do anything they wanted and appropriate things would happen (well, at least to the best of my ability).

The problem I had with this, though, is that despite throwing out 25 different generic plot hooks that raged from money to morals, the group often didn't bite.

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Been there, done that! *laugh*

Players: "So, what's today's adventure?!"

Me: "What do you guys want to do?"

Players: [confused pause] "Today's adventure!"

So, I have things happening in the background, stuff that will come to (evil) fruition if the PCs don't do anything, but whatever the players happen to get interested in becomes the "central" plot.

After talking to them about it, I discovered they liked having some boundaries to work within and that the "complete free-will" presented far too many options ("So many options, they become limitations." was what was said.) for them to decide what to do. I've got a group of seven players, so it is sometimes hard for them all to focus on one thing that interests all of them.

Fortunately, they all seem taken with the next big plot, so I should be good for a while... *laugh*

My game is currently in the middle of a fight. When the fight is done, I'm not sure what's going to happen. Depends if they win or lose (the fight was set up to be iffy that way) and what they want to do. Other than some planned events, which will happen pretty much no matter what, though they don't directly affect the PCs, it's all pretty much up to them. Playing PbP lets me get away with that more easily though, I think.

My philosophy is "you can't ruin plans that don't exist." So, what I do in prepairing for a session is simply stat out ~5-6 major NPCs and have the opening scene in mind. The entire rest of the game depends on what the PCs do. Sometimes I have a few plot mini-archs or set pieces in mind that I might subtly work towards, but I ignore them for something cooler that strikes me on the spot as often as not.