Captain Anorak's
Guide to Gaming
Styles of Play: Forced Plots
Forced plots are those plots in which the characters must choose a certain course
of action for the game to work. The opposite of this is to write a game that will work
whatever the players do. The classic example of a forced plot is where the characters
are offered a job, and the scenario is entirely written around them doing that job, so if
they don't take it there will be no scenario. That's really just a bit of forced plot to set up
the game situation. In another league is the forced plot in the middle of a game, where
the players have to make a certain decision for the game to carry on, and it's not
necessarily the decision that their characters would naturally make.
Many players accept forced plots as a necessity of gaming, saying 'I'm prepared
to go along with this to create an enjoyable game for everyone.' This is a noble
sentiment but can lead to friction. There are other players who get really annoyed if
their freedom of action is cut into in a major way, saying 'Well my character wouldn't do
that.' I tend to come down in favour of the latter attitude. One good roleplayer I know
sums it up like this: in a roleplaying game you're supposed to be able to choose what
your character does. If you can't do that you might as well be reading a book.
Another major problem with forced plots is recognising them. This can lead to two
problems: (1) the GM expects the characters to act in a certain way, but they don't
realise that they're supposed to, so they don't; (2) the players think they've spotted a
forced plot so they act in accordance with what they think the GM wants them to do,
but in fact there was no such forced plot in the game so they do something out of
character, possibly completely stupid or ridiculous, for no good reason.
Here are a few examples:
Once is a game of Dragon Warriors our characters had to go and see a wizard
because we wanted something from him. He was a powerful local bigwig, owning
extensive estates and slave-worked mines. We went to see him and he pushed us
around, didn't give us what we wanted and set his giant attack
lizards on me at one point.
We then became very humble and said 'Sorry to have bothered you, Sir' and
scuttled off with our tails between our legs,
counting ourselves lucky that we got out alive. The GM was horrified at our actions and
said we'd ruined her scenario. She explained that what we were supposed to do was stand up
to this man, who would have his guards drag us off and throw us in the slave mines. The
scenario would then be about us escaping from the mines or starting a slave revolt.
'Well we were scared of him,' we said. 'That's not how fantasy heroes are supposed to
behave!' she fumed. The whole gaming session only lasted half an hour as she hadn't taken
this possibility into account, so there was no scenario left to run.
In a game of GURPS Blake's 7 which I didn't play in but heard about from the GM,
the player characters were going to meet some people and had worked out that this was a
trap. They said to each other, 'Ah, the scenario obviously needs us to fall into this
trap to work,' so they went along anyway and got captured. However, the scenario had been
written on the assumption that the players would work out that it was a trap and would
avoid getting caught, so when they blithely walked into it the whole scenario went
sadly wrong.
In a Vampire scenario, the PCs (a pack of vampires) get an invitation to turn
up at a certain place, which is outside, at 6:00AM. Now this is just before dawn, and
vampires don't like sunlight, so you would expect them to be a little suspicious of this,
but the scenario expects them to just turn up like good little sheep. If they do, they
find a building with a big steel door. A voice from inside tells them that they must
choose one member of their pack to die. Otherwise the sun will come up with them outside,
and they'll all fry.
The scenario assumes that they'll make this difficult moral choice. It neglects the
possibility that they will use their super-hard vampire powers to overcome this obstacle.
'I use my Potence ability to rip the steel door off its hinges!'
'I use my Protean ability to meld with the earth and avoid the sunlight!'
'I use my Dominate ability to make whoever's inside open the door!'
Or they could use the best one of all:
'So what? My vampire body is in a heavily defended bunker several miles away. This body
is simply one of the many mortal pawns which I control with my Dominate ability.
Such pawns are both disposable and undamaged by sunlight.'
In a Tales from the Floating Vagabond scenario, there's a scene with a mould-creature.
This mould-creature is struck by love at first sight on seeing one of the player characters,
and immediately jumps out and declares its love for said PC. According to the scenario, this
PC is supposed to roleplay gently explaining to the mould-creature how their love, though true,
can never be. How can any scenario writer possibly expect that this is how player characters
will behave when confronted with such a situation?
I can foresee two ways this would really turn out:
1.
GM: A huge, vaguely humanoid mass of mould shambles toward you out of the shadows. 'My
darling!' it cries out. 'I love you with all my heart! Let's run away together!'
Player: Fuck off! You're a disgusting, hideous mould creature! It makes me sick to look
at you!
GM: Err... the mould creature bursts into tears and runs off sobbing.
Player: That was a really starnge encounter. Have you been drinking lighter fluid again?
2.
GM: A huge, vaguely humanoid mass of mould shambles toward you out of the shadows. 'My
darling!' it cries out. 'I love you with all my heart! Let's run away together!'
Player: Eugh! There's a mould-creature after my body! I draw my blaster and blow it away!
(Dice are rolled.)
GM: Okay... it's dead.
Player: You sick bastard! You tried to have a mould-creature tap off with me! That was
completely disgusting, you perverted freak!
As you can see from these situations, running games with forced plots can lead to
disasters. Also, there are many GMs including me who feel insulted when players say
'Oh we'll have to do this because it's obviously in the plot.' I can write scenarios
better than that.
I was particularly annoyed once when a player had to make a big
decision about which way she wanted to go, and she asked me (the GM)
what she was supposed to do. I said 'It's a roleplaying game - you
decide.' She said 'No, really - I don't know which way I should choose.
Tell me what's best for your scenario.' Again I explained that it was
her free choice, but I had to tell her this several times before she
would make her own mind up. I found this behaviour quite unbelievable.
For these reasons my usual line on forced plots is this: I don't normally use them,
and if I do use them I'll make it clear to the players that I'm doing so. The one main
exception to this is that if the characters have a job to do, and don't have good reasons
not to do it, then they'll do it. For instance, if the player characters are police
detectives whose job is to investigate a crime, they will investigate it.