The Best Laid Plans of Mice and GMs...

[Severus Snape]

...often go awry.

This thread is based entirely upon a discussion in a thread in the PFRPG forum. Someone asked about campaigns, and we started devolving into a series of "Well, I planned THIS, but the players went in THAT direction".

Example: AD&D 1st Edition campaign I was in we were hired to take out this wizard. High-level power campaign. GM thought that we would have to do all kinds of research and what-not before getting close to the tower that the wizard was in. Nope. The 20th level mage cast "Wish" to find out the precise location of the tower, and then teleported all of us 20 feet in front of it. The tower was supposed to be guarded by all kinds of nasty beasts, with multiple levels, and the wizard was at the top of it. We tried the door - didn't work. So the 17th level monk (look up monks in 1st edition AD&D - they are down-right game-killers) decided he was going to "knock" on the door with his death palm strike. Natural 20. The door and the tower were allowed a saving throw to resist the effects. Natural 1. The GM's eyes were like this: The tower collapsed. Completely collapsed. He decided to see if the wizard could get off a teleport spell to get out of there, and checked against intelligence to see if he could keep concentration. Natural 20 (ability checks, as you know, are rolled under the ability). He died in the collapse. GM was irritated. We told him to fudge the die rolls, and make it so time twisted and we couldn't teleport there, and yada yada. Nope. He said "That's what happened" and never GMed again with our group.

So tell me: What plans have you made that the PCs completely ignored or totally screwed up for you? Any game-enders that you weren't prepared for or happened to early? Fights that ended in 1 round of combat? Player tangents that took forever to resolve (in game - like you want them to go to the bar, but they end up hiring themselves on a boat and going to sea for 18 months)?

[Blindscout]

Weeeeell

So the players in my BTS game are tracking down a werewolf that has been slaughtering hikers, woodsman, and the like. I had been leading up to the confrontation for a while and I had intended it to be a fairly brutal combat. They ended up using one of the NPCs for bait to lure it out and when it went after they NPC they opened fire on it. Both the two players and the NPC rolled higher on initiative than the werewolf. Then both PCs proceeded to roll Natural 20 called shots to the head as the NPC shot in the chest with another Natural 20........dead wolf.

Fast forward a few months to this last Sunday. Same game, I had been setting up an evil Arcanist villain for a while and gave them a chance at him. I fully expected them to try and whack him (their usual modus operandi for evil stuffs), instead they decide to enter into some kind of head game with him. The Arcanist PC is now trying to become the bad guys apprentice so they will have an easier time getting to him. So now they are doing this crazy double agent act being the bad guy's buddy while trying to find out his secrets for their own personal power/good of mankind. I was totally unprepared for this, my bad really, but it's been a heck of a lot of fun playing the story by ear while trying to think plan ahead again .

[Killer Cyborg]

So, Blindscout.... Split Second fan?

[Galroth]

One Cyberpunk campaign I played in the GM gave us the job of abducting a young girl who had escaped from a Corp. We were dropping off the girl when our contact told us to just kill her, she had seen too much. (We were supposed to feel bad and rebel against the evil Corporation) The character holding the girl took out a gun and shot her point blank in the head. We collected our money and left, although no one trusted that guy again... even though he was our Med-tech. The look on the GM's face was priceless and still something we talk about many years later.

[Long Shadow]

In a Phase campaign, the characters were pitted against an evil empire ruled by a royal group of 17 Lords. They planned to assasinate one of them when he was inspecting a city on a planet. They even managed to shadow his ship and was just in time to see his shuttle land on the planet. So opportunity was there that they could sneak on the planet and take him out where he was relatively vunerable. I had planned out the entire lot, even to the rogue socieites on the planet.

But then they figured their ship was much smaller than the capital ship and moved in as close as possible and waited it out. A few hours later the Lord's shuttle met with the forward cannon of a stealthed space-ship. :<

[dragonfett]

So I was starting a new game and was going to run them through the ARCHIE 3 scenario from Sourcebook 1 but I had to figure out how to get the party together. So most of the party was in a bar in a wilderness town (the third member was flying around above the town) when it came under attack by a light Dog Boy S&D squad. They were able to easily defeat the squad, killing all but one (he would have died if the good aligned character didn't decide he was going to take the shot that would have killed off that last remaining dog boy). They interrogated him and to learn where the dog boy squad was dispatched from and they get it in their heads that they are going to go destroy the Coalition Base that the S&D squad was dispatched from (there were only three of them, mind you). They eventually made it to the outer walls and saw that they simply didn't have enough manpower or firepower to take on an entire CS base.

[Blindscout]

Weeeeell Mr. Cyborg,

I just might, maybe, happen to be a fan of that most epic of films, but I suppose we shall never know for sure!
I don't know of a mere 30 post D-bee such as myself is allowed to hand out cool points, but if I may...+20 to you, sir!

[Shorty Lickens]

If you find yourself busting your ass to make a huge, epic adventure, it may also be a good idea to spend some time thinking about the worst case scenario, and then making a little adventure to run if that should happen. You dont need to flesh out all the details, just a basic outline of what you think could happen and then add any new NPC's that may become involved, if any.

In my Mechanoids campaign I already had it set up that if the PC's failed, the CS or Atlanteans would somehow swoop in at the last second and save the day. BUT, in the process the party may lose several allies and possibly make a few enemies. Since this did not involve any new sides to the game, I didnt have to make any new NPC's.

Actually, thats a great general rule in any campaign in any system:
Let the PC's fail, and let them make enemies. Thats good role-playing.

[Vrykolas2k]

One time playing Mechwarrior, we were all supposed to get captured by some House noble and made to switch allegiance; the noble in question was pretty well equipped with a Lance of med. 'mechs with some tanks and the like, whereas we had my Marauder (named Balor), a Phoenix Hawk, a Locust, and an Archer.
We basically fell for the initial trap, went to the rooms that were prepared, but me being the overly paranoid type that I am, kept two hold-out needlers in my sleeves. The knock came at the door, I opened it, saw what was there, shot the five guys they had for me, and ran. It turned into a running fire-fight to the 'mech bay (the gm hadn't thought to have more than the standard guard ready, made it to my 'mech, shook off two stun guns of some sort, powered up, and proceeded to trash everything before their pilots could get mounted.
The other guys had been captured (it was one of those take people out of the room type scenarios), and the Noble and I had an impasse; he said he'd kill my comrades if I didn't stand down, but he knew I could easily destroy him and his little minions (I'd already stomped most of his infantry into paste, as well as disabling his 'mechs and tanks). That's where the session ended sadly; most of us went to the field the next day, so it didn't get continued....

[TheGameMaster]

A friend of mine had spen weeks planing a huge campaign, when he and his friends finally got together they started out in the town he had planed, and that is when everything went to hell. One character found out the town leader was afraid of chickens, there happened to be a chicken farm not away, another character could control animals. They ended up taking over the town with an army of chickens!

[Johnathan]

In a High-Powered Multi-Dimensional RIFTS campaign I used to play in the PC group was going up against a group of Villians that served Ya-Blik (An Old One from Palladium Fantasy). It was a long running campaign (over ten years and still going on, though I am no longer able to play in it), that had the characters built up to impressive levels (they all started off at level one and are now either level ten or higher, or have multiple OCCs in the mid to high level range).

Anyway, long story short, the group goes up against the main villian, and he presents them with a dilemna (as was his nature): "Strike at me and any damage done to me, will be done to the attacker. If you manage to kill me, this entire village of peace-loving people, who have the potential to bring peace and prosperity wherever they go, die horrible and are wiped out of existence."

Long story short, the battle lasted one attack. One of the PCs used Finger Snap on him, paralyzed him and decapitated him with a well placed strike. Another PC (The Arch-Mage of the group), casted To Hell and Back on his head (thus stopping him from dying via decapitation), and the group managed to stop the whole village from going up in flames. It all took less than 15 seconds to do.

The GM actually commented that he had planned for the battle to go so many different ways, so many different variables taken into account for each way, etc. etc. etc. and the PCs had just... waltzed right through it, avoiding every plan he had made... They all got a huge EXP bonus for out manuevering the GM and taking down the bad guy that had been ten years in the making... in essentially less than 15 seconds.

[Spinachcat]

This is why GMs shouldn't make plans. Make ideas instead and go with the flow of the players.

Never get frustrated because the players don't follow your railroad. Instead, stop making railroads.

[t0m]

i dont really make plans for my players, i just react to them. 1 hit boss fights, on the other hand, happen to me once in a while. a few years ago i ran an 'evil' campaign. one of the players was a witch. she was getting pretty wild and reckless with her attempts to please her patron and showing her power, so i created a witch hunter. i foreshadowed the encounter for many game sessions and built up some real tension. on their way back home from the gersidi tombs adventure, they finally encountered her. the rest of the group pretty much stepped back and let the two duke it out. i thought it was going to be an epic battle. the witch hunter was tailor made to fight the witch. she had a tiger familiar to fight the witches abnormally large dog/beast, she had a witch bottle and other gear to help against the witches magic, and she dual wielded a sword and shield so she was technically better in melee.

during the gersidi tomb adventure, the witch took a liking to the doubling sword of chaos because it looked like a wooden toy sword. she hadnt even used it yet (didnt know its stats or powers). she drew it in a mocking/arrogant/over confidant gesture as if it say 'ill kill you with my toy sword'. she hit the witch hunter with a natural 20 and rolled max damage, for a total of about 140 damage on the first hit of the fight. i couldnt believe it. she looks at me with this smug look on her face, but doesnt say anything. i was silent for a few seconds, slack-jawed, trying to figure out what to do. i just started laughing and congratulated her.

[Dog_O_War]

So tell me: What plans have you made that the PCs completely ignored or totally screwed up for you? Any game-enders that you weren't prepared for or happened to early? Fights that ended in 1 round of combat? Player tangents that took forever to resolve (in game - like you want them to go to the bar, but they end up hiring themselves on a boat and going to sea for 18 months)?

Okay, so me and two friends were playing 3.0 D&D, just before 3.5 came out. They were both 4th level, and as apart of the realm they were in (I call it the Cross Roads), they wake up on a road at night in the middle of a rainstorm. The last things they remember were typically some dangerous event, like fighting a Yuan-Ti Halfblood wielding a greataxe, and the axe is coming down on him.

Anyways, they begin walking along the road - time passes, the storm eases and the sun rises. They arrive in a town and ask as to where they are. The town, and all the locations around it are both unfamiliar and suspiciously named given their current situation. The townsfolk play off the suspicion and suggest that they look to the temple to the south for answers. It's a few days' journey so they'll need provisions. As I don't like the idea of the JRPG weapons/item/armour/accessories shop, I tend to use suitable fantasy trades to buy things like cobblers, bakers, and butchers.

Salted pork. Ten pounds.

These two distinctive phrases ground the game to an end. It basically ended up as a laugh-fest as we compared the weapons these guys were carrying to ten pounds of salted pork; did you know that's as much as a greatclub weighs?
It's like using a sap sized for giants, except that you can eat it.
Salted Pork does 1d10 meat damage to the game. The game dies.
It was funny, but I've had to nip buying bulk meat-orders in the bud ever since then.

[TheGameMaster]

Another plan gone wrong in a different game that my buddy wasn't G.M.ing was; the G.M. had been leading them through a underground passage or something and they came to this door that required a lever be pulled to open it. One problem, no lever to be pulled just an empty socket. the G.M. had planned that the quest would take up alot of time searching the other passages for the lever handel. My friend's Character however had taken a likeing to collecting lever handels in previous adventures, he thought they had many different uses; pluging holes that darts shot out of, kindeling, he could even use them as a weapon if need be, etc. Completly by chance he happen to have a lever handel left over from a previous adventure. It happened to fit the socket and therefore they were able to skip the needle in the haystack search. The G.M. wasn't happy but they continued on.

[kogwar]

I was playing a dark herasy game my bud gmed we had just reached where the base of the enamy was supposed to be with my charis hover craft ( my guy was a noble) when we got there we just found a house so i assumed it must eb under ground so i had a servator start digging he kept diging till the gm says he foudn a large heat signature ( plasma reactors of the hidden base) I said for him to keep diging as we flew away. I killed a whole army in that oen move killign half of the gms campaign and he had to rework it on the spot.