Players That Make You Go Buh...
Jun. 28th, 2005 05:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
orikesOkay, so one of the things I’ve always heard said about running a roleplaying game is to ‘expect the unexpected’. In other words, your players will always confound you with things you did not expect them to do. I heard these words, but I never really, truly understood them. Until now.
I’ve outlined the game I’m running before. My second session was this past Saturday. The pcs were still working their way through the underwater base, trying to find a way out. I knew they could get through the base several different ways, so had arranged a flexible way to still get them into the encounter I had planned for them. See, they were going to run into Phase Three and get their first taste of super hero combat.
Phase Three was the first semi-successful phase of the E.G.O. Project. Four of the six initial subjects survived, but each was deformed in some way by the genetic re-engineering that had been done on them. None of them would ever fully fit into society again, but they did have super powers and were working for the bad guys!
So, the players have their first run in with Phase Three. They’re going into one room and Hippo, the big muscleman of Phase Three is coming through the other door. My players panic and run the other way. This is typical of this group of players. If we’re good at anything, it’s avoiding combat. Eitherway, I had planned for this. I knew how to get around it.
Eventually the players made their way to the hangar bay where the submarines were. Throughout the course of the session, I came to the realization that Phase Three had been left behind and they were really just trying to beat the PC’s to the last submarine. Once one of my players also realized this, he forced the combat into a stalemate...
... and offered Phase Three a job with his security firm.
Well, he did make sure they just trying to get out and that their loyalty wasn’t with the Eclipse Order, but .. well.. he stopped combat by offering them jobs. For a moment, I just stared at him. To me, it felt like an eternity, but the players said it seemed like I had planned it all to work out like that it ended up happening so smoothly.
So, now my PC’s are free of the base and have the four living members of Phase Three tagging along in the hopes of having some semblance of a normal life again, along with an income that doesn’t require them to work for the Eclipse Order or start robbing banks. Well. Robbing banks illegally. The PC that offered to hire them is a security specialist who tests security systems by breaking into them.
Anyway. I now have had my very first experience with players making me go "Buh…"
I’ve outlined the game I’m running before. My second session was this past Saturday. The pcs were still working their way through the underwater base, trying to find a way out. I knew they could get through the base several different ways, so had arranged a flexible way to still get them into the encounter I had planned for them. See, they were going to run into Phase Three and get their first taste of super hero combat.
Phase Three was the first semi-successful phase of the E.G.O. Project. Four of the six initial subjects survived, but each was deformed in some way by the genetic re-engineering that had been done on them. None of them would ever fully fit into society again, but they did have super powers and were working for the bad guys!
So, the players have their first run in with Phase Three. They’re going into one room and Hippo, the big muscleman of Phase Three is coming through the other door. My players panic and run the other way. This is typical of this group of players. If we’re good at anything, it’s avoiding combat. Eitherway, I had planned for this. I knew how to get around it.
Eventually the players made their way to the hangar bay where the submarines were. Throughout the course of the session, I came to the realization that Phase Three had been left behind and they were really just trying to beat the PC’s to the last submarine. Once one of my players also realized this, he forced the combat into a stalemate...
... and offered Phase Three a job with his security firm.
Well, he did make sure they just trying to get out and that their loyalty wasn’t with the Eclipse Order, but .. well.. he stopped combat by offering them jobs. For a moment, I just stared at him. To me, it felt like an eternity, but the players said it seemed like I had planned it all to work out like that it ended up happening so smoothly.
So, now my PC’s are free of the base and have the four living members of Phase Three tagging along in the hopes of having some semblance of a normal life again, along with an income that doesn’t require them to work for the Eclipse Order or start robbing banks. Well. Robbing banks illegally. The PC that offered to hire them is a security specialist who tests security systems by breaking into them.
Anyway. I now have had my very first experience with players making me go "Buh…"
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(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-28 09:39 pm (UTC)My whole GMing style changed based on the actions of a single player many moons ago. I had made a super villain stronghold, also underwater as it happens. Anyway, I had mapped it out to the extent that I had color-coded the fields of fire of the defensive weapons emplacements, and had a topographical map of the environs around the base.
*sagenods*
What does the hero do? He goes to the top of the base, picks a random section and cuts through the hull. He just happens to pick the command center (located off center in the base, so there was nothing to indicate where it was).
He takes out the mooks running the show, and then takes out the villains by turning the base defenses against them. :) I /never/ prepared that much again. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-28 09:43 pm (UTC)Yeah, as it stands, the players skipped most of the base I'd designed by going through the ceiling and along the residential floor to get closer to the hangar bay and avoid Phase Three.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-28 10:31 pm (UTC)It is really fun when things go like you said though, when they don't realize you /didn't/ plan it all. :) That's great; everyone wins...they have fun, you have fun, you look good. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-29 06:40 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-29 10:36 am (UTC)All I can say is that 'God' was very angry with them. I miss PnP RP. It's so much fun. But yeah. I had lots of plots set up for my players, and they.. blew up the world instead.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-29 05:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-29 08:03 pm (UTC)