Free Will and Choices

[Elder-Basilisk]

When I run a game, my players have plenty of free will. Every round of combat they can choose one move action, one standard action, and as many free actions as they can think of. They can move, they can full attack, they can cast spells, they can sunder, they can even try talking the other side out of fighting. If that's not free will, what is?

I'm only joking.

A year ago, when I was running a campaign, I tried giving the players absolute free will. They could take the hooks I'd built into the world and run with them. Lift the curse of the cursed lands? Go for it. Root out the cult of the devourer in Hightower? Go for it. Whatever. Unfortunately, "whatever" was my players' reaction. They wandered around helpless and confused until they bumped into an NPC with the "Plot hook" icon on him (a paladin saying "I'm looking for someone to accompany me on a quest, a horde of skeletons led by an evil priest, or something equally obvious).

As a player in a wide open campaign, I found myself in a similar situation. Unless the DM provides detailed information about the world, it's hard to come up with a motivation. And, the more specific your motivation is, the less likely it is to be shared by the rest of your companions. In general, I find that characters develop and interact most believably when they are created with similar goals in mind (either because the campaign is one where characters' goals are determined by their environment (little freedom) or because they were created with ties to each other). The more freedom that is available in game, the less freedom is proper in character creation. And vise versa.

As far as modules go, I actually find that straight up no-holds barred dungeon crawls actually seem to offer the most freedom of action. In RttToEE, it felt like my characters were more in charge of their destiny than in any "role-playing" mod I've played. So, maybe there's something to my joke at the beginning after all.

 

[jasamcarl]

When I run a game, my players have plenty of free will. Every round of combat they can choose one move action, one standard action, and as many free actions as they can think of. They can move, they can full attack, they can cast spells, they can sunder, they can even try talking the other side out of fighting. If that's not free will, what is?

I'm only joking.

A year ago, when I was running a campaign, I tried giving the players absolute free will. They could take the hooks I'd built into the world and run with them. Lift the curse of the cursed lands? Go for it. Root out the cult of the devourer in Hightower? Go for it. Whatever. Unfortunately, "whatever" was my players' reaction. They wandered around helpless and confused until they bumped into an NPC with the "Plot hook" icon on him (a paladin saying "I'm looking for someone to accompany me on a quest, a horde of skeletons led by an evil priest, or something equally obvious).

As a player in a wide open campaign, I found myself in a similar situation. Unless the DM provides detailed information about the world, it's hard to come up with a motivation. And, the more specific your motivation is, the less likely it is to be shared by the rest of your companions. In general, I find that characters develop and interact most believably when they are created with similar goals in mind (either because the campaign is one where characters' goals are determined by their environment (little freedom) or because they were created with ties to each other). The more freedom that is available in game, the less freedom is proper in character creation. And vise versa.

As far as modules go, I actually find that straight up no-holds barred dungeon crawls actually seem to offer the most freedom of action. In RttToEE, it felt like my characters were more in charge of their destiny than in any "role-playing" mod I've played. So, maybe there's something to my joke at the beginning after all.

This i mostly agree with. I suspect its one of the reasons many groups adopt FR as their setting of choice. Players have enough 'objective' detail on the world to feel they have a stake. Its also easier to build some dramatic tension in this case, because your players have a better sense of the 'big picture.' Thus, despite the nay-sayers, I think it would be easier to develop intricate plots in the Realms in which the turn of events evoke something for the players and is more than a dm's wet dream.

In terms of homebrew or non-specific setting, I think the easiest way to get around this would be to allow the players to make the details themselves. Take a session to brainstorm, have them shoot you the ideas, flesh out the details so that their are some surprises, and go with it. This of course works best when the other players have dm experience. But a custom setting needs, moreso than published settings to be player-centric if is to work.

 

[Arnwyn]

Thus, despite the nay-sayers, I think it would be easier to develop intricate plots in the Realms in which the turn of events evoke something for the players and is more than a dm's wet dream.

That's been my experience.

 

[Pants]

I try to give free will to my players. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I don't. However sometimes I think that every campaign needs a little railroading every once in a while. For example, if you start up a new campaign with 1st level characters are you going to give them total free will? I seriously doubt that even veteran RPers would even know what to do at that point. They're still in the process of fleshing out their characters and they've been given total free will? Massive railroading is bad, but a little never really hurts.

Yet, when the characters get into the higher levels (12ish), they have access to all sorts of Divinations, Teleportations, insane skill checks, and magical items and I think that the campaign has to become more free form as very few DM's can plan for every single contingent.

Just two Saturdays ago, this sort of thing came up. Upon starting the quest for the night, the players (around level 12/13) had recently eradicated a local Thieves Guild.
I said to the players, "So, you defeated Arbanior's Guild, what are you doing now?"
One of the players said to me, "What do you have planned?" which I responded with, "What do YOU want to do?"
The players were currently involved in a massive plot thread in which they were petitioning to the different kingdom's on the continent for aid against the Undead Horde of the Lich King. They had a pretty good outlook on the world and its politics as they had been to most of the cities in the world so they pretty much knew where things stood. If they didn't, I'd either A) Tell them or B) Smile knowingly and make them uncomfortable.
The only time I really prepare anymore is if I need to stat out enemies and since most of them are fairly High Level, winging it is almost impossible.

Another fun story is when the PC's were involved in a plan to destroy several (large) shipments of cursed magic weapons. They managed to dump a good deal of the weapons, but after a particularly vicious battle, they gave up and returned home. Since then they have made no moves against the masters of the plan and have been content to deal with his underlings. I've tried to get the point across that 'he's bad news for the world,' but they ignore it. Thus, they've been attacked on their home turf several times by his minions.