Lessons from the Table - Missing Out on Plot

So I've been around for awhile and have encountered many things in my time as both a player and a DM, and I continue to run into things that often trip up newer DMs. I thought I'd take the opportunity presented to me in a recent session of my Sat group (Order of Cross & Axe) so that I can show ways to handle it. One of the things I want to do with this blog is provide the resources for DMs to grow and learn so if you have any situations at your table as a player or a DM please feel free to pop over to my Contact page and ask!

You've been leading the players to this big reveal or an important plot point in your campaign and~... they just blow by it without a second glance back. Okay well lets try and just nudge them- and now the town is on fire coolcoolcoolcool. Maybe if I just- and now they are all wanted by the city guard for crimes against the state. Yup.

Now that exact scenario may or may not happen to you but we've all been in similar circumstances. How do you know when the info is important enough to redirect somewhere in your campaign? If it is important how do you work it back into the hands of the players? If it isn't how do we learn to let go even if it was really fucking cool and you and all of your players would have had just so much fun if they'd just talked to the dark mysterious figure very obviously trying to get their attention? This game of balancing story elements needed within the campaign and letting your players have some free will is one as old as time. We want our players invested, we want them to feel powerful. But there are also machinations and things we as DMs have set up in the background to make that happen, to feed motivation to the players and to make the world feel real. Let's tackle these questions before I wax poetic about the philosophies behind all of this shall we.

How do you know when the info is important enough to redirect somewhere in your campaign? By this I mean how do we tell the difference between what we think would be a really cool moment and what is actually propelling the players. This can often be a tough question for a DM, especially a new DM, to answer honestly. We think that everything we have mapped out crazy string theory style is a foundational block of our campaign without which the pillars of our story would crumble and everyone would hate us for running a terrible game. But let me hit you with the first hard truth - most of those are superfluous, extra bonus things your players don't NEED but that you WANT them to find and enjoy. Now before you grab those pitchforks just because they are extra doesn't mean they aren't fun, engaging or any of that other goodness we work really hard to bring to the table for our players. What it means is that without it the game would not stop, the campaign world would not break, and the players wouldn't be screwed over by not knowing it. After I have mapped out a campaign I know its not going to survive its encounter with my players. People are a fundamental part of running a TTRPG, and people are these wonderfully unpredictable things. So when I'm looking at the mass of red string mapping out my campaign I do what I call slice the dice and the rule of three. First I cut half of my red strings - does that break my game? Second I cut half of my red strings again - did what I do the first time shore up any major gaps of knowledge or story my players would need? By this point you should have a handful or less of story important things, they don't need to even be super specific at this point, these are the ones that if missed you'll need to adjust and make sure your players get that info. Lastly you'll want to take these handful of things and ask yourself - Then how can I account for that? What things do I need to have on hand or make sure can appear in multiple places to make sure my players get the info they need? Do new ones pop up that I need to account for like I did the first time? What you are looking to do here is make sure each item or thing you are trying to let your players learn has at least 3 touch points, or ways they can learn about them in the game. Now there is always the possibility that your players will still blow by all 3 of these things but this exercise gives you an idea of different ways you can work it in so that if they do you know what hooks you need to keep the story rolling forward. Instead of a town guard telling them about the mysterious tower that radiates magic its a patron at a tavern, or maybe while they are traveling through the woods they are attacked by magic things that lead them to it.

If it is important how do you work it back into the hands of the players? So I told you to the thing which is all well and good but how do you actually DO THE THING KAY HUH!? HUH!!!!!!!? Yes yes, I guess telling you the things is why you are here. How do we build these touchstones for our campaign important things? When I talk about the rule of 3, I'm kind of but not really talking about the storytelling thing that we use in controlled narrative things. Movies, games, books, etc. Human process information through pattern recognition, the smallest number we recognize for a pattern is 3. Think of the story of 'The 3 Little Pigs' there is a pattern built there on what happens when the wolf comes to a pig's house. Now this is an over simplification so don't come for me lit or film students, but you can see how in the story you recognize that pattern. However what we deal in with a TTRPG and live human interaction is not a controlled narrative thing, what we as DMs run is a collaborative interaction experience. Players effecting story, story leading players, and the DM guiding things along. We can't set up a rule of 3 in the same way most media can but we can use it to make sure that information is found. Let's say my campaign important item is that the missing people come back different. I'm not really going to explain that in more detail because I don't really need to for this example. But I need to make sure its something that my players realize - so I take a moment and think about 3 ways the story and NPCs can interact with the players that might lead to this information being learned. Maybe the first is that the jolly tavern owner who greeted them so warmly the night before is missing in the morning but is discovered wandering back in that night. When they try to talk to the tavern owner its to a blank staring emotionless robotic version of the person they had encountered. Okay that's weird but it might trigger off the investigation or raise their hackles, its possible its missed or that the players end up camping out instead to save money. Maybe you do the same with an animal. A dog that was excited and tried to play with the party when they first arrived when they run into it again that night seems mechanical and not quite right, its not acting like an animal much less the hyper pup they ran into. (Fun fact I find making it about an animal or something the group can adopt tends to drag them into the drama, its just how our brains are wired) Let's say they camped out so no tavern owner, and they ignored the dog because they hate animals. My 3rd thing is going to be what I refer to as a hard hook - something its really really really tough for the players to ignore. The tavern owner and dog are softer hooks that allow the players to explore things on their own time, a hard hook is used when you need to rouse them to action. I prefer to bring in beloved NPCs for these it makes things seem a lot more invested. It can be harder to play off but once you get a feel for how best to do it with your group the pay off is worth it. My NPCs are often out traveling and things just like the players and run into them on the regular. Obviously not like shop owners (although sometimes yes because how do you think I get all these ingredients) but that Ranger NPC they fought those giant spiders with? Yeah they take bounties and things all the time so they are traveling just as much. So this NPC that normally jokes with them, picks on the Rogue and laughs loud enough to draw attention passes the group or is spotted by them. But when approached doesn't act like they know they for a moment before replying 'hello friend' in a deadpan hollow voice devoid of emotion before attempting to continue on their way. As a mentioned before these are just your starters your players could always ignore all of these but now you are use to thinking of multiple ways to tie it in so it will be easier to do in between sessions, or once you get enough practice in on the fly in session.

If it isn't how do we learn to let go? This is honestly hard even for vet DMs. We spend so much time building the world, the lore, the people. Things that our players will probably never see or ask about but that we've created just in case. Heck I literally have like 10 countries including an island nation and 2 oversea that my players will probably never interact with. But they are all unique in culture, religion, social hierarchy, etc and provide flavored NPCs for the group to run into. All this extra work we pour ourselves into often make the world seem alive for our players. But it can make us a little 'my precious' with it as well. It can be hard to wrap our heads around it not belonging to just us anymore the second the players step into it. We have to remember the first rule of running TTRPGs - its just a game. A collaborative, storytelling game exploring a world the DM has set up for everyone to play in. Now this does mean that on both sides of the table there is a certain understanding of respect for the work that goes into it. But it doesn't mean choice is taken out of the game, or that as human as we all our we just don't get the hints you as the DM are dropping. IDK about ya'll but I've missed some big things dropped by DMs that if I had been on the other side of that table I'd probably had pulled my hair out over how obvious it was. At the end of the day if it doesn't break your game you need to take a deep breath and let it go if the players pass over it. Save it for later. Make it an optional quest down the line, have them overhear a tavern story about what happened when another group encountered it, or have them find a book telling the story of the once proud prince's decent into madness. If nothing else as a DM you will reuse things you don't use in the game. Even if it isn't in that particular campaign you can always reuse it in another or even in a one shot focused on it to still give that information out. It might not be used but it isn't forgotten. So deep breath in, slowly release it and let it go.

With that little rambling over with, I’m JustKay your regular DM Dalliance on the web and I’ll see you next post.