RPG MUSINGS Play The Game You Want To Play

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Even if we set aside the question of whether or not a player can actually win D&D, the title of this post makes a strong statement.  Today’s post is about the perils of invoking a railroad in order to tell a story you want the players to experience, and then letting the players win so that they feel triumphant.

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The Situation

We are playing in a deadly 4e D&D Dark Sun campaign.  My PC, let’s call him Conan, was down for the 3rd time and he had no surges left (and no way to activate them even if he had).  This was an arena battle, so his death would not cause a TPK.  Conan’s opponent was awaiting the judges’ ruling on whether to let him live or perform the coup de grace.

To my mind, there was no good reason for the Arena Judge to let Conan live. I felt like he would have had a courageous death and I was okay with having to roll up another PC. [Aside: One of my own personal house-rules is that resurrection doesn’t exist in my 4e games because I think it takes the gravitas out of death] The next thing I know, the DM* says that Conan unexpectedly lifts up his sword and impales his opponent – sword right through the throat – and then Conan miraculously stands up, barely alive. Apparently the DM had planned this all along so that Conan would go down only to be miraculously reborn… The problem? I didn’t feel that it was an epic cinematic scene – it felt like he was letting us win.  Like he was modeling the game so that it gave us the story he wanted it to give us, rather than letting us contribute to the story.

Recurring items in a game produce a fine line.  A recurring idea, event, or stylistic theme may help the players get familiar with the campaign, ultimately leading to more involved and excited players, or it may lead to repetitiveness and stale story-lines.  Sometimes it is good to walk that line and venture into the stale territory – making mistakes and realizing it makes anyone a better DM.

Some Solutions

1) Try to stay near the middle of the railroad continuum. Railroading is not a yes or no activity, like a light switch with two settings; on and off. Instead, railroading runs along a continuum. The levels of railroading go from 100% determinism in the story, to giving players limited choices, to having a completely freeform campaign with players determining 100% of what the party does next. DMs run their games somewhere on this continuum and their style can fluctuate over the span of a campaign. Too much choice often gives players analysis paralysis.  Too little choice may lead to players feeling like everything is determined beforehand and their action don’t matter.

2) Don’t plan every single piece of the story ahead of time. If you want to manipulate the players into doing something or going somewhere specific, motivate them by including their backgrounds in the story.  Nothing motivates a PC, or gets a player more involved in the story, than making it relevant specifically to that PC.

3) Make sure you take the time to put the spotlight on each PC, giving their player a chance to make their PC important to the story and the rest of the party. Not every PC has to shine in every session, but each player should come to feel that their PC is important to the game as a whole. Avoid focusing on only one character in the story for too long because it reduces the other PCs to supporting roles.  I try to run a game in which everyone gets their own spotlight time.

4) Never let them win. The PCs should earn it when they win, and the collateral bonus is that the victory will seem worth it to the players (especially if it was challenging).  If the PCs die and then suddenly come back to life it is actually not fun for them because they didn’t earn it.  It cheapens the accomplishment of beating the bad guys.

5) Don’t plan every awesome moment of the game – let them happen naturally. The desire for a cool story is a big one for most DMs, but DMing and adventure creation is not the same as novel writing.  If you insist on planning every single story point, you may as well narrate everything to the players, including combat. Instead, let your players contribute to the story and make decisions about the world in which they adventure.  This cuts down on the DM workload and also encourages player participation.

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Overall – make sure that everyone at the table is having fun.  That is the most important rule of all.

*This DM is a friend of mine.  I’ve played 4e with him for a couple of years now and he is a very good DM.  But he was trying a new style in his game.

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Hopefully this article gives you some valuable tips that you can use in your game to increase the fun.

Until next time, I wish you good gaming.

~DM Samuel

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Gladiator fight image subject to creative commons attribution, was taken off of Flickr on 10/29/2010 and is property of hans s and the Arena image subject to creative commons attribution, was taken off of Flickr on 10/29/2010 and is property of Allie_Caulfield