PC actions vs. DM expectations

[The Shaman]

So since you assume they won't do as you assume, and they usually don't do as you assume, does that mean that the players usually do as you assume?

Uh-oh...brain cramp...BRAIN CRAMP!



I don't know if I'm just really lucky, or if my hooks are just baited with something irresistible, but my D&D and d20 Modern players seem to bite pretty consistently - I rarely have an adventure plot go south on me due to players picking a completely different and seemingly (to me) arbitrary direction, though "variations on a theme" are pretty common.

That said, generally speaking I prefer the same approach as BiggusGeekus: the setting is filled with opprotunities for adventure that the players can follow (or not) at their discretion.

My lone exception to this is my Modern military game - the player characters are new recruits, so they go where the sergeant says to go, do what the sergeant says to do. The trick is to make the more-limited choices open to them meaningful - so far it seems to be going okay.

 

[RFisher]

I intentionally try to set up situations in which I don't have any idea of how the PCs are going to react. I want to challenge them, & I want to be impressed by their creativity.

I always chuckle a bit to myself when one of the players asks what they were "suppossed to do".

That said, when I do have expectations, I am right sometimes.

 

[Wombat]

So since you assume they won't do as you assume, and they usually don't do as you assume, does that mean that the players usually do as you assume? Ow, I think I hurt something thinking about that...

Yeah, they kinda do that to me, too

Sometimes, at least

 

[barsoomcore]

"No adventure outline ever survives contact with the players."

 

[deltadave]

This should be GM law number 2 - the players never ever do or react they way you expect or planned for.

 

[nopantsyet]

I usually prepare for a few possibilities, and most of the time I'm pretty close with one of them. And at any rate, having thought through multiple possibilities makes you much more prepared to improvise something else.

But I wasn't always able to do this; it took getting to know the players, and getting to know their characters before I could predict their moves.

That's not to say they don't surprise me. It happens with just enough regularity to keep it surprising. And usually in big, campaign-altering ways. It's a big rush at the gaming table, because everybody knows something big just happened, and nobody's quite certain what's going to happen next.

But it's just as fun when you make the unlikely call. Just this last session I actually prepared a plane on the off chance they would follow multiple unlikely paths in sequence and end up there. They did. It was surprising. But I was prepared. It was a great session!

 

[Acid_crash]

Yeah, I know the feeling. Sometimes the players do something so unexpected that you have to stop the game just thinking about what they plan on doing. That's happened to me a couple times.

 

[Piratecat]

My favorite part of being a DM is when the players completely surprise me and ruin my craftily laid-out plans. I live for those moments.

 

[Stormborn]

Once upon a time I, as a player, misread a bit of flavor inserted by the GM as "A CLUE" and led the other PCs to go to the Belgian Congo rather than through the portal to the ancient Old One city in the artic. (CoC game ofcourse) The GM was the type to let us do whatever we wanted, so rather than saying "you can't get a boat" or "you have a dream..." we weant to the Belgian Congo, where he had to totally wing the final encounter, scrapping the whole thing about the ancient city.

So now anytime PCs significantly derail the direction of the campaign we call it "going to the Belgian Congo" and it happens, alot, no matter who is running the game.

Personally, I try to figure out ways in game to shift focus back the way I want it to go and not let PCs run off to the Belgian Congo. But in some situations that isn't easy. I think its best to always try and anticipate the PCs, even anticipate that you can't anticipate what they will do, and build adaptability into the game by allowing things to happen in any number of ways. But again, 't'aint always easy.

 

[barsoomcore]

My favorite part of being a DM is when the players completely surprise me and ruin my craftily laid-out plans. I live for those moments.

Couple of Barsoom sessions ago one of my players botched a roll and keeled over dead. The PCs decided that the obvious thing to do was to get him turned into a vampire. So now I've got to make up Barsoom-quality "How To Make A Vampire" rules on the spot. Whee!

Reacting to player creativity is the big fun of this game for me. That's what face-to-face, pen n paper gaming is ALL about. You can't get that rush any other way. It's like improvisational theatre in its panic-inducing thrills, and every bit as addictive.

I suspect a big part of DM burnout comes from running too many sessions where this DOESN'T happen. I mean, far worse than your players entirely circumventing your plot and cutting straight to the bad guy in the first five minutes is your players sitting around doing NOTHING, or just following your instructions and completing the tasks of the adventure.

When I want to write a story, I write a story and everything happens just the way I planned it (well, sort of). DMing is ALL ABOUT those crazy moments where all my planning flies out the window and I have to invent stuff on the fly, in front of people, and convince them I had it all planned all along. Or at least convince them enough that they don't lose their suspension of disbelief.