"Plan A is a dog....What's your Plan B?"

[cignus_pfaccari]

Our group is doing good to have a mission statement, let alone a plan.

Actually, one of the players in our Planescape group (who happens to be the DM of the al Qadim game) really enjoys planning. He sometimes gets a bit carried away with the plan, though, and gets upset if we change it when it becomes obvious it's not working. ("Okay, Yuri, trying to take down the Aspect of Orcus with rifle fire WHEN IT JUST HEALED EVERY POINT OF DAMAGE WE INFLICTED ON IT isn't gonna work." "But, if we go up and melee it, Orcus will know who we are!")

One nice thing is that we've been playing long enough that we can handle unexpected encounters pretty well; for example, in our last session of Planescape, the rogue ran into undead. While he ran like hell, the fighter and the druid came up to engage. My al Qadim warmage knows who he can drop fireballs on for close support, and who not to, and so on.

It's just getting intelligence on a planned encounter, and then acting on it, that's our failing.

Brad

 

[frankthedm]

I am the tactician, 1/2 my players can't plan, the other half don't bother [ the dwarf player left the table last week because the feindish centaurs archers wouldn't let him beat them to death in melee

]. We go through a lot of character sheets.

 

[Stone Angel]

I am the tactician and no one else seems to have any forsight so when I DM there plan is usually run attack and then usually one of them dies.


The Seraph of Earth and Stone

 

[The Shaman]

No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy.

Everything that actually happens is Plan B.

 

[Grishnak]

As a DM, I expect my players to plan. Carefully. And the power of negative reinforcement ensures that they learn to do so.

As a player, I always play characters who would want to plan the same way. Warrior? Tactician. Spellcaster? Scholar of military history or tactical genius. Rogue? Canny bugger with an eye for detail.

Unfortunately, I often find other players less inclined to plan. Eventually, the near-TPKs that my PCs survive convince some of them to try my suggestions...

And in playing each character this way pretty much means your playing the same character with a different abilities and I'm not saying its wrong but not all warriors are tacticians, some are just about rushing in and doing as much damage as possible (Barbarian), the thinking is left to the more intelligent person in the group not every rogue has an eye for detail (Footpad) & not all wizards train for battlefield tactics. I'm currently playing an alignment that I've never played before (Gnome LG Illusionist) and its made me play a character totally different than I usually do (Prefer N or CG Rogues/Warriors)

My group like to plan and sometimes have a backup but also in certain situations you can never plan such as in an ambush situation. If my group do have knowledge of the area, troops, escape routes etc then we will plan away.

 

[The_Universe]

I will tell my players that their plan is utter nonsense if and when that would be obvious to their characters (e.g. most, if not all TPK-worthy moments). But still, there are situations when I'm sitting behind my screen and getting a headache .. by just listening.

Also, I've got a player that combines your #1 and #5, Universe.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't know what that's like. I try to tell them when they're chasing after the proverbial wild goose, but sometimes they will take that advice and twist it because they assume I am lying to them.

I have actually heard the words, "He'd never tell us not to pursue it if it wasn't the lynchpin of the campaign!" and "This army seems unbeatable. More like a plot device than an actual foe. That probably just means we're missing something. Let's stay here and see if we can learn more."

 

[Rel]

There's a saying among my players (though I'm pretty sure they cribbed it from somewhere else): There is no Plan B. That would distract us from Plan A.

And, while silly, it holds rather true. I am the biggest Tactician in the group. The result is that they know that some of the encounters they run up against require good planning to succeed. And what I've seen happen very often in the past is that they make a sound (if not flawless) plan, based on the information they have at the time, which may or may not be very accurate.

The problem comes in the execution. At the slightest hint of anything going wrong, half the group will abandon the plan and try something else and the other half will steadfastly stick to the plan on the basis that "it's our PLAN". Neither sub-group will succeed very well and then things will turn very badly and they will improvise in a third direction entirely, acting as a group out of desperation.

This has happened enough times that when there is a plan nowadays, they practically swear a blood oath not to go off and do anything besides what was planned, UNLESS they all agree on a new plan (which could be as simple as "RUN!") and it is communicated to everyone involved.

So I guess they are adherents to that old maxim about how "A mediocre plan properly executed is better than no plan at all".

Of course "An awful plan properly executed usually leads to a quick TPK and then we have time to make new characters or play on the X-Box." so it's all good.

 

[jasper]

My group does plan but it very strange. As soon as it starts working well someone changes it in the middle of it leading to something bad happening. Quote from one the players, "Next time I don't care if I die, we are sticking to the plan and NO changes"

 

[diaglo]

For us, Plan B is usually fighting. Plan A is some more convoluted thing.

ditto.


however, since all of the players have their own idea about how the rest of the group should act we usually end up running plan B.

i tend to pester/nag/bug/rant about what resources we have at our disposal and what we lack or need to make up for... the logistics guy. another player has a very good grasp of the rules concerning magic... so he tends to propose using everyone else's items/spells.... another player likes to be the mouthpiece even tho he refuses to take the resposibility of leading the party... another player just likes to stir up the party to see what makes them tick and the last player is our booming spellcaster who keeps a low profile.

since most of them wouldn't listen to my character anyway. i tend to convertly steer them according to my plans.. (just don't tell them )

last session, i wanted to scout the area around our main objective, the drow city of Maerimydra... i am the ranger... so i led us down a couple side tunnels in the Underdark... my intention was to look for alternate escape routes or possible enemies... i made it look like i inadvertently held the map upside down. ) the other players/their PCs and the DM all fell for it hook, line, and sinker. of course, it served the purpose and exposed the BBEG i thought would be troublesome for us... unfortunately, it also killed one of the party.

 

[the Jester]

The epic party imc plans very well, but they have an epic-level diviner amongst them.

The halfling low-mid level group, on the other hand, is much less organized.