DM's: You player just had a great idea...

[Quasqueton]

Interestingly, I have a completely different take on this.

Usually my plots are planned pretty far through -- I'm not claiming them to be perfect, just thought through past the current BBEG (and the next BBEG, too). So if a Player thinks of a devious plot point that I had not thought of, I'll file the concept away and perhaps use it in a future campaign or adventure. But I won't change the current plot to match what the Players come up with.

I have three reasons for this:

The first reason is because of the Rule One concept. I want my Players to discuss the campaign, the plots, and their thinking at the table. I want to know what they are thinking, which dots they are connecting, and what things are sticking out as items to note.

This gives me satisfaction to know that my plot points and clues are being picked up on and noted -- knowing what the Players note and ignore helps me run the game better.

This tells me when I've inadvertantly screwed up and confused a plot -- "The last two guys we fought were wearing red shoes. I bet the king's cobbler is behind some of this." I think, oops, the red shoes were just window dressing; I didn't realize I had two guys in a row wearing them. I'll make sure no one else is wearing red shoes, so the Players can let go of that accidental plot hook.

The second reason is because changing a plot in mid stream is not easy. Does the new plot fit all the evidence the Players have seen so far? Do I have to change the bad guys around to fit the new plot? Will the next idea the Players have pull the rug out from under this new plot? "The king's cobbler couldn't have been behind this, because remember that we found. . ." Etc. The less I have to think on the fly, the better for my game.

The third reason is because it keeps the trust between Players and DM. Just like upping the BBEG's hit points in mid battle because the PC fighter scored a critical and would end the encounter "too soon", changing the plot in mid adventure because the Players came up with a better idea undermines the Players' efforts in the game.

Quasqueton

 

[Siridar]

I use my player's suggestions all the time and my players know it. In fact they try and keep quiet, but someone always manages to let an idea out and usually results in that player getting thwapped in the head by the others. "Stop giving him ideas!"

I won't alter a long-running plot, but I would include a new side plot or villain that takes off on the idea.

 

[Wombat]

Well, since the games I run are very specifically not "Mine", but rather "Ours", I would incorporate any fiendish notion the players are willing to come up with.

This simply balances the ideas they come up with that are directly to their benefit

 

[Darklone]

I use that stuff. Sometimes I tell them it was their idea, sometimes not.

My players didn't start their own Yahoo group yet... but it can't take much longer

 

[Zappo]

Occasionally. Once, I was DMing Planescape, and I had a bunch of tanar'ri slowly build a wall of dark stone around... xaos, IIRC. I can't quite remember what I intended them to use it for, but one of the players suddenly said "Oh my God! I know what they are going to do! The entire city will be gated to the Abyss, and swap places with a tanar'ri fortress! They'll gather thousands of souls and place a huge foothold on the Outlands in one blow!"

Now, what was I supposed to do, keep up my (forgotten but undoubtedly lame) original idea?

 

[WayneLigon]

Now comes the hard part: do you use the idea that one of your players just gave to you, even though he didn't really mean to? It was just one of those "what if" comments that come up every now and then.

My players are some pretty paranoid people. Playing Call of Cthulhu together for about ten years in a row will do that to you So they will sometimes reel off suppositions and plotlines and put together isolated incidents in ways I would not forsee at all. More than once I've changed the entire direction of a campaign based on one of these flights of fantasy. Sometimes they have got it figured out, and sometimes it's something better than I'd come up with. So they get the immense satisfaction of 'having puzzled out the bad guy's plans'. And I get weeks worth of adventure hooks handed to me.

When the players do this, there is only one reaction. Smile and say no more.

 

[Arnwyn]

Do you, as a DM, implement your players ideas into the game world?

Yes, yes I do - all the time, for much the same reasons everyone else has posted.

 

[ciaran00]

I wouldn't use the idea, though I would give the player a lot of crap for giving me a good idea (make him sweat it until the next game hehe). Basically it's players against DM. It's a nice feeling. Heck, you would feel pretty leery giving your players the major weakness of your BBEG, right? Nonetheless, as a DM you can always afford to lose NPCs... so you have a few higher standards (like sticking to your guns even though out of NPC-character you know it's bad).

Also, you wouldn't expect anything less of the player...

ciaran

 

[Hjorimir]

The famous rule one violation. I tend not to, but only because I usually plan things out pretty clearly ahead of time. But there isn't anything wrong with it. Especially if the BBEG in question is extremely intelligent or wise.

 

[WanderingMonster]

Now comes the hard part: do you use the idea that one of your players just gave to you, even though he didn't really mean to? It was just one of those "what if" comments that come up every now and then.

Do you, as a DM, implement your players ideas into the game world?

I couldn't DM if I didn't. They know and understand Rule #1, but they also know that they play a role in campaign development outside of what their characters do.

Not being anal-retentive about certain story elements gives me freedom to explore my own whims and the player's greatest fears.

I am a Rat-Bastard DM.