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

[Shallown]

This happens in my games as well. Often though after I apply the BBEG personality/style to the idea it might not work or there might be a big twist to it. If it fits then use it, as long as you don't have to retro anything the players know about. Sometimes the players brilliant ideas are perfect but the villian isn't and he missed that chance to be perfect. I like the villians with flaws and having commited to something else.

Also even if the player is wrong often these brilliant deductions can be used to show the players why the BBEG is acting a certain way. If the players question why he didn't follow the perfect plan it may give them insight into the BBEG plans/motivations, that can be a reward for thinking up something cool.

later

 

[Deadguy]

I'm a huge fan of throwing a whole mess of plot lines into a campaign and letting the players come up with theories on how they all tie togeher. Then I adopt whichever theory I like the best and the players (i) are pleased they figured it out and (ii) think I'm a great DM for giving them just enough information for them to figure it out without making it obvious.

Ahh, a DM after my own heart, Dingleberry!

I guess it's the benefit of more heads, that the players come up with such wonderful ideas. Particularly when they start kicking them around amongst themselves. Of course they can sometimes go terribly 'weird' and make the typical conspiracy theory seem tame, but I like to give them this opportunity.

As others have said - use your players' ideas. They feel gratified and you produce a far cleverer campaign than you thought possible.

Tied with this is the idea: don't over plan your BBEGs. Given time, your cogitations and those of the players produce a far better plan. When I ran Vampire I recognised that I couldn't plan like a 600-year-old Elder, so I let ideas percolate through my brain. When I startes that particular campaign I just had a cliche struggle of the Tremere versus the Ventrue Prince of London. By the end, with the ideas of my players, I had a plot spanning centuries, a prince prepared to go to any lengths to keep himself safe, and an appreciation of just how subtle the Tremere leadership could actually be...

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

I'm a huge fan of throwing a whole mess of plot lines into a campaign and letting the players come up with theories on how they all tie togeher. Then I adopt whichever theory I like the best and the players (i) are pleased they figured it out and (ii) think I'm a great DM for giving them just enough information for them to figure it out without making it obvious.

This is pretty much what I do. Not all the time, though. What this does is creates a sense that the players/characters actually can figure things out. It takes a great deal of flexibility on the part of the GM but I think in hindsight it makes things very rewarding - so long as the players never know you did it.

I certainly don't do this all the time - maybe 30% of the time.

 

[Henry]

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

Welcome to the Loyal order of Rat bastard DM's. With this final initiation test complete, you are now a full member of the exclusive order of professional DM's. Here's your key to the washroom, the page with the secret handshake, and your decoder ring.

This particular trick was the one I learned that got some people fooled into thinking I'm a good DM.

 

[Ylis]

We refer to this as "Rule One."

Rule One: never give the DM any ideas.

Hey, that's our Rule One, too, lol

 

[Mystery Man]

Rule One: never give the DM any ideas.

Not to toot my own horn...
My poker face is a thing of legend, (and this has been told to me by several people including my players) my players would never know if I took one of their ideas if they wrote it in a letter and mailed it to me.

That being said, if you can pull it off, doo eet.

 

[shilsen]

Anything you say can, and will be used against you in a game of Dungeons.

To be precise, anything you say* can and will be held against you in a game of D&D.


* Especially if what you say involves oozes, green slime, creatures with spikes or anything with Improved Grab or Swallow Whole abilities (preferably more than one of the above).

 

[WizarDru]

We refer to this as "Rule One."

Rule One: never give the DM any ideas.

Damn straight. I will readily go with an idea my player had, if it sounds better and makes more sense than mine does.

D&D is, for us, a collective story. If a player's idea is more satisfying and internally consistent than mine, then I'll gladly use it. That said, my players have often claimed that I have some serendiptous power to select things that have more relevance than I initially think they do.....and I'm OK with that, too.

 

[JimAde]

I sometimes go a step farther. I will occasionally just throw random events at the PCs and listen to their guesses as to what's really going on. One of them is usually sufficiently plausible. I try to pick a theory that is put forward but not the front-runner in people's minds.

This is especially useful in SF campaigns, but works in D&D too.

 

[swrushing]

The first check is for continuity... does it fit in as well or better with all the other stuff that has come up?

The second check is for focus... Does it highlight PC characters as much as what i had already planned, show off their stuff, and not make them seem irrelevent?

if the answer to both is YES then unless something screams at me as to say "no, dont do this" like pacing or scheduling, then absolutely i will use it. There are two obvious reasons why...

1. Well to start with, its a better story.
2. More importantly, its a story the PC will see as "i figured it out." and as it unravels the player(s) will feel that they were on to it and figured it out and that will make them enjoy the game even more.

However, i cannot ever let them know.

So, you are running a game of D&D, and suddenly one of the players gets a scared look on his face. He calls for attention and then relates a truly horrible possibility, that you as the DM haven't really thought about. After a moment of consideration you note that the idea is actually very good, and the BBEG would probably do it, if he thought of it. The sessions ends, you hand out XP and everyone goes home.

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?