Meaningful decisions are at the heart of role playing.
Player agency, not railroading and predefined plot
RPGs are games, not stories told by the GM. Stories might develop from play, but setting forth a complex storyline that the characters must needs follow in order to succeed, and suit the hubris of the frustrated novelist cum GM, is right out. RPG campaigns and novels are polar opposites. That should be self evident. Suffice to say that the participants should not be playing scripted characters following the course set forth by the GM's "storyline." A bit of backstory to ground the players in the setting and give them an idea of what is currently happening is sufficient direction. From there on it must be up to them. #6761
I don't ever think of myself as a "storyteller." that role is fulfilled in the course of play through the combination of the GM and the players, each doing their part to develop and bring to fruition, the basic outline of the episode #287
I consider any game where the players' characters are not fully able to impact the environment, direct their action, determine the outcome of events in which they play a part, and know that what actions their characters are taking have a probability of success and failure that can be determined by random means, cards or dice rather then the whim of the GM, is something other than an RPG. Authors of fiction, screen plays, and playwrights create stories. GMs direct game play and in conjunction with the players this generates a story whose outcome is not prescribed. #611
Writing fiction and game mastering are not at all similar. In the former the author relates a story from beginning to end, and the reader is a spectator to events given in the work. Game mastering requires a setting and an initial plot line, players to take the roles of the protagonists, NPCs and monsters to be the adversaries. From that beginning the players direct the action, create new plots, alter the setting by their actions, give the basis for an ex post facto story. #6230
You are correct, amateur theater is not popular with me, as I think that the story in a RPG campaign needs to be outlined by the DM, then "written" by him and the players' characters in interaction with the campaign environment, so that the events that take place are unknown until they have taken place. #1432
"Storytelling" games are not RPGs. Neither are "diceless" games. An RPG creates a story, does not follow a script. That's a play, possibly improv theater. In a real RPG the GM develops a backstory and plot, sets the scenes, and then the PCs interact with those and by their actions create the actual tale, the events and conclusion of which are indeterminate until that occurs. #1731
The GM is to provide the environment, the plot (mostly unrevealed initially) and backstory for it, including why the PC team is there. The GM also supplies and acts for all of the NPC, allowing the players to sort out the friends, neutrals, and antagonists. The players' PC then interact with the environment and the characters therein so as to create a story based on what they did or didn't do. The quality of the resulting tale, retold or not, is dependant on the information supplied by the GM and the actions of the player groups' characters interacting with the enviroment. #6908
Characters should have as much free will as possible in an RPG, don't you agree? The concept of the DM banning them from class-bestowed activity is odious. [11]
I have long held that an RPG based in a work of fiction is not going to be much in the way of a game, but that modules utilizing such works absed on an established RPG system are likely to be interesting indeed as demi-campaigns. [11]
I do not, and I stress NOT, believe that the RPG is "storytelling" in the way that is usually presented. If there is a story to be told, it comes from the interaction of all participants, not merely the Game Master--who should not a "Storyteller" but a narrator and co-player! The players are not acting out roles designed for them by the GM, they are acting in character to create the story, and that tale is told as the game unfolds, and as directed by their actions, with random factors that even the GM can't predict possibly altering the course of things. Storytelling is what novelists, screenwriters, and playwrights do. It has little or no connection to the RPG, which differs in all aspects from the entertainment forms such authors create for. [36]
How to offer interesting adventures, when the players go off track?
If the players have full freedom to go and do whatever they desire, they can of course easily opt to not play the adventure the DM has prepared, and go somewhere else. In Gygax campaign, his players got out of the Vault of the Drow ASAP, much to his chagrin.
One answer of course is improvisation. Or pull out another adventure that is formatted well enough to be used without much prep.
Another is to take a step back and talk with the players, outside of the game. There should be a willingess by the players to cooperate and not rejecting an adventure you took the effort to prepare for them without good reason. It the style or content of the adventure is something they really dislike, you also should take this to heart and provide something more to their liking next time.
As for me, if I have gone to the trouble of preparing something for the group, they play it or else. The enjoyment of the campaign is a two way street, and that of the GM is equal to that of the player group, for he does all the grunt work to amuse them. Now if it is just a seat-of-the-pants session, I have no problem shifting gears and dangling another carrot for the lads to chase after. #6921
Rules help to make the world real
Why do you need rules? Why not just narrate what happens?
Rules that quantify abilities, difficulties and probabilities of success make a role-playing game different from improv theater. They give players agency, because they allow them to estimate chances of success and failure for their actions, and they help create an environment, where neither the players, not the DM can know the outcome of an action beforehand, keeping the tension up.
Yes, when variables and outcomes are known, and the random number generation is done so all can see, there is no railroading -- make that GM fudging -- possible in regards the probabilities and the outcome. When the GM is able to pull "results" out of thin air, there goes a structured game. #619
Rules are necessary for a structured game, doubly so when it is based on fantasy where no real facts are available to the participants. then the structure becomes the major feature of play, though, then it is at least as onerous as roll-playing, so both terms are equally damning. If a game is nothing but role-playing, then it is not really a RPG, but some form of improvisational theater, for the game form includes far more than acting out assumed roles. #1301
On the other hand, Gary went on record many a time and stated, that he as DM ignored, threw out or overrode the rules, where they did not seem to fit or got in the way of the action he wanted to see. This gets dangerously into railroading territory, and as GM you have to be honest to yourself and refrain from pushing things in a direction you want (unless maybe it is to have mercy with an unlucky PC). Light rules are best, if you want to avoid breaking immersion by looking them up or discussing them.
Death to all rule-players and rules lawyers [
11]
The original games of D&D and AD&D were about imagination, choosing an archetype to use as a vehicle for role-playing adventure, innovative play and PC group cooperation. The sole arbiter of such play was the DM, and rules lawyers were anathema #6741
Players should be concentrating on enacting the role of their in-game persona. not looking at charts and tables to study probabilities. The game form is about that, not combat simulation [11]
Rules Improvisation
When I was introduced to the game the rules were up in the air. The rules books gave the initiate a sense of the mechanics, like a script outlines a movie, yet can say nothing about the effect of the final performance or directing. Back in the day, the script/rules were under constant change in order to better accommodate the actors and directors. The rules were a tool that could be rearranged rapidly and easily, to greater dramatic effect. [41, RN Shook]
When I GM I prefer to "wing it" much of the time, and ignore rules that get in the way of the flow of the adventure. The same is true when I play a character, prefering to use logic and imagination in preference to hunting up rules. In short, I do not like rules-heavy systems. Rule-playing is worse than roll-playing. I can enjoy a good deal of hack & slash, but even a bit of rules lawyering makes me want to go and find something else to do. #1743
My belief is that the rules for an RPG should facilitate the enjoyment of the game for all concerned. If they get in the way then they are no good. #530
How often I have ignored my own in the PHB, DMG, and more recent systems' core rules books would make a rules lawyer's head spin. As if one can not amend one's thinking due to experience and to simplify the complicated [11]
To adhere to rules that do not further the game enjoyment is contrary to the purpose of the whole. The game must be entertaining and enjoyable. [11]
When climbing or some like activity, was required for a group, I set a probability for all non-thieves, and had each player roll for his PC. The check might have been on any die; for example jumping over a crevasse might use d6, a 6 meaning a failure, or a d10 with 9-0 or only 0 a failure. Again, arbitrary perhaps, but based on common sense. The main idea was to convey the sense of danger with a reasonable chance for success, perhaps a more than reasonable one for the sake of the game #2015
I've always "winged" much of the play, ignoring rules and skimping on DM duties so I could have fun in the adventure too #884
Of course when I was DMing the rules were highly flexible and nor necsessarily what was written in the books... #5869
Generally, I just DMed on the fly, so to speak, and didn't use the rules books except for random encounters, monster stats, and treasure. #692
Fact is, i have a lot of fun just playing and "winging it." If the players aren't lost in known rules they tend to have more fun that way, and the sense of wonder comes back... #892
Players who attempt to use the rules as a stick to beat players, or the GM, the latter thus enhancing their character in the game, are anathema to me. Hells bells! If some player in a game I am running demonstrates to me that some rule I have written makes no sense in the situation at hand. or I happen to discern that without such "encouragement," I toss the book out the proverbial window for the case at hand, and likely take a hard look at the material for continued application. #530
I never did create house rules, but I seldom open a book either. I create much material and referee on the fly as the players have their characters interact with the game environment. #3098
I guess if you wrote the game, any rule is a house rule. He did use rules
deviant from the pulished ones and later on also defined house rules to codify some of these deviations.
Now, either the DM follows the rules, or the DM calls whatever is right for the situation, but that again makes the outcome close to DM fiat. Having rules and then not following them is arbitrary, and appears to give the DM leave to justify whatever he prefers at the moment.
To resolve the contradiction, consider the goal: allow characters to drive their actions, and provide them with likelihood of success for them. Keep things going. It is less important, that the resolutions follows a pre-catalogued rulebook.
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