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Can't Find Trees- Damn Forest. Secret of Good DM'ing?
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<blockquote data-quote="Nareau" data-source="post: 1804541" data-attributes="member: 969"><p>Not that I'm just playing Devil's Advocate or anything...</p><p></p><p>Railroad your players. Yep, you heard me. Tell them what to do, and make sure they do it. Don't give them a bunch of "options" or "choices". DM's don't have time to try and predict every crazy little thing the PC's might want to do.</p><p></p><p>There are 2 tricks to successful railroading:</p><p>The "Shrodinger" trick:</p><p>OK, so the PC's need to encounter El Bob, the mexican necromancer, in order for the story to advance. They're in town, and they decide -- out of the blue -- to go hang out by the docks. Coincidentally, El Bob is also down at the docks today, <i>at this very moment</i>! The players get to do what they want (hang out at docks), and you can have the plot waiting there for them. If you're good at it, they'll never know the difference.</p><p></p><p>The "Big Boss" trick:</p><p>Not so much a trick, as a campaign structure. I'd highly recommend newbie DM's talk with their players about playing a group of old friends who have enlisted in the city guard. Or the military. Or as special ops for the crown. This will allow you to give the PC's assignments, which overcomes the terrible issues of player motivation, plot movement, etc. The railroading can be macroscopic (allowing the PC's to choose the path to thier goal, but not the goal itself).</p><p></p><p>As far as "multiple solution" problems go: another way of looking at is to create "no solution" problems. Come up with some challenge, have a rough idea of what kinds of things will overcome it, and don't worry about the specifics. For example:</p><p>One of the first adventures I ever DM'd (it was a homebrew prologue to RttToEE) found the PC's wandering through caverns, hot on the trail of some priests of water. In one big chamber, they found a dead priest (with his gear). He was draped across a rocky outcropping in the middle of the room. The entire floor was filled with water, getting about 4' deep in the middle, and being about 10' across. The only exit was on the other side of the room. And the water contained a couple of tough elementals.</p><p>The idea here was that the priest had been killed by the elementals after losing control of them. He still had some Dust of Dessication (or whatever) with him, that he had planned on using to defend himself. The elementals planned on laying in wait for any interlopers, and then drowning whomever tried to cross.</p><p>I didn't know how the low-level PC's would fare here. They had Water Breathing cast on them, so drowning wasn't a major concern. If they could get to the DoD, they'd stand a good chance against the elementals. But they didn't even know it was there. They might be able to jump over the water, but certainly not all of them. Maybe someone could distract the elementals long enough for the others to cross. Maybe they could use a rope somehow. But straight-out fighting the elementals would be bad, and I let them know that by various clues.</p><p>I still remember that scene because of all the open-ended problem solving the players got to do. They tried a few things, made some good checks, and managed to make it across. Ever since then, I've tried to make sure that most situations like that could have many solutions.</p><p></p><p>More recently, I just ran a short story arc where the PC's were trying to free some eskimo-type tribe from the rule of an evil, vampire-like lord (and his many guards). I had figured that the PC's would assess the situation, beef up, and go in for a "surgical strike" type attack. Instead, they decided to rally the neighboring tribes (who had been at war with the first tribe for decades), gather a small army, and storm the castle. It turned out to be way cooler than what I had in mind. There was some great role-playing as they tried to convince the other tribal leaders to join their cause. There was some fun combat as their forces clashed against the evil lord's. There was some great planning as the party worked out their best route of assault. All in all, it was a lot of fun.</p><p></p><p>On a somewhat related note, I think it's often good to talk with the players about what they'd like to see for the game/their character. More specifically, I've come up with a few scenes where 1 or more of the PC's are "in on it". If you "need" something to happen, you can often talk with a player before the game and say, "Hey...El Bob is going to be down at the docks today; remember how your character loves fish? Why don't you get everyone to go down to the docks with you sometime early in the session."</p><p></p><p></p><p>Spider</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Nareau, post: 1804541, member: 969"] Not that I'm just playing Devil's Advocate or anything... Railroad your players. Yep, you heard me. Tell them what to do, and make sure they do it. Don't give them a bunch of "options" or "choices". DM's don't have time to try and predict every crazy little thing the PC's might want to do. There are 2 tricks to successful railroading: The "Shrodinger" trick: OK, so the PC's need to encounter El Bob, the mexican necromancer, in order for the story to advance. They're in town, and they decide -- out of the blue -- to go hang out by the docks. Coincidentally, El Bob is also down at the docks today, <i>at this very moment</i>! The players get to do what they want (hang out at docks), and you can have the plot waiting there for them. If you're good at it, they'll never know the difference. The "Big Boss" trick: Not so much a trick, as a campaign structure. I'd highly recommend newbie DM's talk with their players about playing a group of old friends who have enlisted in the city guard. Or the military. Or as special ops for the crown. This will allow you to give the PC's assignments, which overcomes the terrible issues of player motivation, plot movement, etc. The railroading can be macroscopic (allowing the PC's to choose the path to thier goal, but not the goal itself). As far as "multiple solution" problems go: another way of looking at is to create "no solution" problems. Come up with some challenge, have a rough idea of what kinds of things will overcome it, and don't worry about the specifics. For example: One of the first adventures I ever DM'd (it was a homebrew prologue to RttToEE) found the PC's wandering through caverns, hot on the trail of some priests of water. In one big chamber, they found a dead priest (with his gear). He was draped across a rocky outcropping in the middle of the room. The entire floor was filled with water, getting about 4' deep in the middle, and being about 10' across. The only exit was on the other side of the room. And the water contained a couple of tough elementals. The idea here was that the priest had been killed by the elementals after losing control of them. He still had some Dust of Dessication (or whatever) with him, that he had planned on using to defend himself. The elementals planned on laying in wait for any interlopers, and then drowning whomever tried to cross. I didn't know how the low-level PC's would fare here. They had Water Breathing cast on them, so drowning wasn't a major concern. If they could get to the DoD, they'd stand a good chance against the elementals. But they didn't even know it was there. They might be able to jump over the water, but certainly not all of them. Maybe someone could distract the elementals long enough for the others to cross. Maybe they could use a rope somehow. But straight-out fighting the elementals would be bad, and I let them know that by various clues. I still remember that scene because of all the open-ended problem solving the players got to do. They tried a few things, made some good checks, and managed to make it across. Ever since then, I've tried to make sure that most situations like that could have many solutions. More recently, I just ran a short story arc where the PC's were trying to free some eskimo-type tribe from the rule of an evil, vampire-like lord (and his many guards). I had figured that the PC's would assess the situation, beef up, and go in for a "surgical strike" type attack. Instead, they decided to rally the neighboring tribes (who had been at war with the first tribe for decades), gather a small army, and storm the castle. It turned out to be way cooler than what I had in mind. There was some great role-playing as they tried to convince the other tribal leaders to join their cause. There was some fun combat as their forces clashed against the evil lord's. There was some great planning as the party worked out their best route of assault. All in all, it was a lot of fun. On a somewhat related note, I think it's often good to talk with the players about what they'd like to see for the game/their character. More specifically, I've come up with a few scenes where 1 or more of the PC's are "in on it". If you "need" something to happen, you can often talk with a player before the game and say, "Hey...El Bob is going to be down at the docks today; remember how your character loves fish? Why don't you get everyone to go down to the docks with you sometime early in the session." Spider [/QUOTE]
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