Why Players Never Solve The Plot

[themidnightgirl]

Ten common misconceptions, mistakes, derailments and items of downright idiocy.


I have been responsible, personally, for committing at least five of these.

1) There is only one plot.
The unshakeable conviction that all events are related to one plot. Apparently
based on some belief that all life is interconnected. Fine for zen mysticism,
not so good when the Hunters and the mysterious spirit-entity are not actually
in cahoots.

2) Credulous fools.
Most players seem unable to realise that, on occasion, (whisper it) NPC's lie.
They'll take anything an NPC says and believe it. Even if the NPC has a proven
track record of lying. And a soupy grin plastered all over his face. PC :
"But...but...
you lied!" NPC : "Excuse me...evil demon here...not Salvation Army band leader"

3) Inability to determine 'good' and 'evil'.
So there are two NPC's, antagonistic towards each other. One is on the side
of the PC's, the other isn't. Nine times out of ten, the PC's will off the 'good'
one.

4) The Traitor.
There's always one who delights in being 'clever' and 'evil' and will sidle
up to the big bad and sell out his mates for the promise of power beyond imagination.
In films, this is the weasely bloke who whines "You promised me I would be king!"
as the demon disembowels him because 'his usefulness is at an end'.

5) The Who?
Players' memories. How can they resolve the plot, when they can't even remember
the name of the big bad NPC? "You know...the tall bloke....threatened us a bit..."

6) The What?
They have the macguffin! Yay! All they need to do is read the scroll and we
can get rid of this stupid plot. Wait! They've dropped the scroll in the waste
chute and walked off with a small packet of Maltesers and a map of the London
Underground. Noooooo!!!

7) The Where?
Nothing matches the players belief that if they sit in the caern/freehold/court
long enough, the plot will come to them, even though they know that it's going
to happen elsewhere. Leaves you no option but to...oh...they're right on this
one.

8) The Shady Git.
Closely related to "the traitor", the shady git will hold on to something until
he believes it's in his interest to sell it or use it. Even if that means killing
every PC in the place, probably including himself. "OK. they have the two ray
guns, all they need to do is cross the beams next month and...oh...he's just
sold one of the ray guns to Steve from Madagascar. Help! My plot is going
to Madagascar! Come back!"

9) The Diversion,
Especially noticeable in Changeling, for some reason. If A is the source of
the plot, then the PC's will spend inordinate amounts of time inspecting B,
the Burger King Employee. "Oooh! Shiny!"

10) The Ultimate "They're doing WHAT??"
Given three logical, rational courses of action, all of which have a decent
chance of working, the PC's will open a chain of all night guitar shops. When
asked why, the explanation will take three hours and contain more twists than
"The Best of Chubby Checker."

Comments

number 2..

[borange.livejournal.com]

this works for PC's as well...

more than a few times I've seen people confused because Tchoron has lied to them..

*sheesh* he's only Clan Head Ravnos for gawds sake ;o)

then again of course people are always 'pleased to meet you Tchoron' - yeah right!!!! HELLO!!!

[funky-peacenik.livejournal.com]

"But...but...you lied!" NPC : "Excuse me...evil demon here...not Salvation Army band leader">>>

THIS WAS FUNNY AS SHIT!!! DO you mind if I qoute ya and use it as my tag line- here in the great Dark heartland we have a ton of that-

Hell NPC's many people can't get over that characters lie!!!

sure....

[borusa.livejournal.com]

Use whatever you like....um...if you use (3)...can you correct to "off the 'good' one"....

Robert

Hehe, so true

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

5) is applicable to STs as well, though, especially if they're minor NPCs or random names from blind rumours or newsletter articles (not that I would ever do such a thing ;o)

Player: "I'm checking what Max Entropy is up to" ST: "Who?"

Reminds me, I finally need to create that NPC database I've been talking about...

-----------
or downtime plot solutions like "I'm doing what the Prince told me to"...
(one famous actual downtime I had once)

Re: Hehe, so true

[sesquipedality.livejournal.com]

Erm, Max Entropy is mine. It's not surprising if Andy forgets who he is from time to time.

Re: Hehe, so true

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Andy's not to blame here, though.
It came up during a Vamp game.
This is exactly why we are now creating a combined NPC database.

Re: Hehe, so true

[raggedyman.livejournal.com]

I know who Max is! I keep on coming up with some bots for him (which Christi will now claim I never have).

[crocodilewings.livejournal.com]

This is one of the reasons why sitting down and mapping out a plot, with all its intricate possibilities and potential climaxes is often far inferior to simply coming up with several simple plot devices and dropping them all over the place.

Players do what they want with them. You just keep tabs on them, and the players make the plot for you. It's less structured, doesn't rely on all those coincidences, and means that the players do all your work for you.

heh heh.

Applause

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

exactly
Or, you put in a random rumour to round off the list and players make a plot out of it... ;o)
Anglia Biolabs (a rumour which went regional) and Bradley Inks spring to mind.

[(Anonymous)]

Robert,

SOOOOOOOOOO Right!

But don't giove away all the secrets, and at lest your players WILL chase your plot to madagascar.

All I gt from my tabletop plaers is;
"awww damn, oh well lets go mug someone."
Be glad, your players sometimes want to get rid of those plots.

Alex Grant

[sherbetsaucers.livejournal.com]

IC objectives and checklist:

1. Meet other nobles from a kingdom not yet visited. Check.
2. Be polite and try not to make an ass of ones self. Check.
3. Erm... that's it.

Well, looks like I did just fine. I get quite enough plot at my home game thank you very much!

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Given three logical, rational courses of action, all of which have a decent chance of working, the PC's will open a chain of all night guitar shops.

keyboard!

[lonemagpie.livejournal.com]

Sometimes they also like to second-guess a GM whom they assume must be up to no good. I remember once having an NPC mention a group of horsemen (whom the playrs should be interested in) and the players then taking the word "horsemen" too literally - they started trying to interrogate every horse in town, assuming they were were-horses...

[ex-thankyouk577.livejournal.com]

Oh, so true... every last one.

It would require a lot of audacity for anyone among my former players to claim that this was not what happened in Runnymede Camarilla / Anarch. The one about bad guys lying happened almost word for word.

The Prince (about Carter Marwood): "He LIED?!"

The rest of the court: "Well, DUH!" *spontaneous applause*

[the-maenad.livejournal.com]

Thank you for reminding me why I'm currently not LARPing.

[borusa.livejournal.com]

Why? Because players are idiots? Sometimes. Because some plots aren't very good? Because I write humorous and caricatured articles?

You might as well be saying "This is why I don't RP any more", but I know that's not true. There are LARPs with stupid, obvious plots, there are LARPs that are very plot-lite, there are ones at all stations in between. Just like tabletop games, or online RP games, really.

[the-maenad.livejournal.com]

OK, I stand convicted of hyperbole. Take me down, throw me in the darkest prison cell you have... but I'll still maintain to my dying day, eppur si muove!...

Seriously, I have found it harder -- much harder -- to find LARPs that appeal to me of late than tabletop or online RPs. This says as much about me, or more, as it does about the LARPs.

[borusa.livejournal.com]

I've told you a million times in a thousand places not to go in for hyperbole!

And I hate _all_ sweeping generalisations too.

I think there is an issue with compromise in LARP, but I'll muse on that at a later point.