Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rune" data-source="post: 5711042" data-attributes="member: 67">I think you (and your group) would benefit greatly from a shift in philosophy.  It seems to me that both you and your players have developed a set of assumptions about the game and these assumptions came into conflict in this session.You seem bound to the script you have prepared for the session; your players seem to think they have you pegged.  This leads to a certain inflexibility on your part in adjusting to the players' decisions.  On the other hand, your players appear to be trying to game your expectations--trying to throw you curve-balls and getting upset when they don't fundamentally change the game (as with encounters 2 and 3) or assuming they know your script and getting upset when it turns out they don't (as in encounter 4).You and the players are no longer playing the same game.  You are playing your script and they are playing against it.  This is the problem with railroading; it may be necessary to guide your players along for a while, but, sooner or later, they're going to feel as if they play no important role in the game--whether or not their PCs do.Learn to be flexible and incorporate your players' decisions into your game--even if (when) they wreck your plot.  When you are planning, plan contingencies, but be aware that you can't plan for everything.When your players go off-script, consider how this will change things in the world and then roll with it.  If the actions of their PCs make things in the world get worse, well, that's just one more mess for them to have to clean up later.</blockquote>

Verification