Sacrificing verisimilitude or adventure

[LostSoul]

DM's: Have you ever sacrificed cause and effect to prevent the derailment of a game?

Yeah, but not in the way you mean (I don't think). I rewound time once to prevent a TPK: oh, you turned off the tap in room #113! There is no poison in this room, so... let's just start the encounter from the beginning.

The example that you give about the dwarf fighter derailing the adventure - I don't think he did at all. Why not come up with adventure relating to the town guard, breaking out of town, etc. Put your planned notes off to the side and run off the cuff for a while.

(That while is as long as the players are having fun.)

 

[Aaron L]

When something like that happens, Ill actually try to tie things together. If the players decide theres a connection between two totally unrelated people? Well, I might just decide thats a pretty cool Idea and absorb it into my plans. I like to play off of them. Especially in a Call of Cthulhu game, half of my game sessions are spun off of paranoid feras expressed by the players, and when a lot of teh things they come up with turn out to be right they get even more paranoid that EVERYONE is out to get them (works great in a Delta Green game) But sometimes Ill go the opposite direction and have the opposite of what they feared happen, or if they suspect one person out to get them Ill have the suspect actually be working to AID them while their supposed friends are actually opposing them.

Then again, Im lousy at planning adventures and horrible at organization, so even if I have a great game planned out I cant even keep it straight, so I just go with what the players are thinking, because I can always come up with far better plans by playing off of them then I can all by myself. A sure way for me to run a truly hideous game is to try to stick to something I have written down. I just make sure to have a monster manual at hand for whatever turn of events may come up. Sometimes it gets close to completely off the top of my head and based mostly on what the players do.


But Ill be the first to admit that Im a horrible GM in any system save CoC.

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

Yup, I did this recently when the pc foolishly murdered a cleric. Instead of following through with a thorough investigation I had the report half completed & gathering dust in some archive; if otoh the issue came up again there are enough leads there to have the pc summarily hanged - & the other players said their pcs wouldn't act to help him as well!

I guess I'm more into looking for alternate possibilities to maintain verisimilitude that let the adventure continue; but at some point the pc could paint themself into a corner & just have to suck it up.

 

[Aeric]

I have yet to encounter a situation, as a player or a GM, where cause-and-effect has derailed a game. Unless the entire party is comprised of low-Wisdom troublemakers, somebody is bound to survive to continue on with the campaign.

Re: skittish adventurers - If the PCs steadfastly refuse to travel down an avenue of investigation based on their beliefs, either present more compelling evidence for them to travel down that avenue or let their decision stand and let them bear witness to the consequences.

Re: bar fight killing - I would deal with the PCs' actions first, then deal with the scheduled dungeon. After all, the dungeon will (presumably) still be there after the PCs get out of trouble (or find a new travelling companion), and it's that much less future adventure preparation you have to worry about.

Re: BBEG on hold - if it's the difference between the PCs saving the world and the BBEG destroying it, then put the BBEG's plans on hold. Otherwise, let the chips fall where they may. The PCs don't have to win every battle, just so long as they win the war.

Just remember - The GM's job is to provide a fun and believable world for the players to muck around in. The player's job is to ignore plot hooks and go off on crazy tangents to drive the GM bonkers.

 

[the Jester]

Hmm, this reminds me of a recent (well, reasonably recent) event where one of the epic pcs (or nigh-epic- iirc he was 20th) caused a ruckus in a society run by wizards and, rather than backing down, kept making a ruckus.

He's been locked in a terrible prison ever since.

Meanwhile, the player has brought in another pc....

 

[ThirdWizard]

Re: BBEG on hold - if it's the difference between the PCs saving the world and the BBEG destroying it, then put the BBEG's plans on hold. Otherwise, let the chips fall where they may. The PCs don't have to win every battle, just so long as they win the war.

I'd totally end the world. They all die. Ignoring a BBEG who is trying to destroy the world? They deserve that fate. Time to roll up new characters.

Either that or have some other group kill the BBEG, get all the credit and reward, and make them look like idiots. It depends on if this other adventuring group has already been introduced as having the same goal. If there's no preestablished competition for them, though, bye bye world.

 

[The Grackle]

I'm quite happy to stretch reality in the name of fun... Don't like reworking things the players have 'seen', but will readily change 'unseen' plot elements.

Yeah, that's pretty much how I do it. Anything not yet committed to film can be rewritten.

As far as delaying a villain- sure, unless I've already clearly set some sort of countdown/deadline.

 

[the Jester]

I'd totally end the world. They all die.

Did this when the pcs failed to stop the BBEG. It led shortly to my current homebrewed campaign- which I've run, and found extremely satisftying, for well over a decade now.