Plot Twist!, For DMsRichard OstranderAugust 21, 2021Adventures, Story, Player Choice, DM, Dungeon MasterComment

Plot Twist! Avoiding The Railroad

Plot Twist!, For DMsRichard OstranderAugust 21, 2021Adventures, Story, Player Choice, DM, Dungeon MasterComment

So you need your players to confront Torquil the Craven in the fallen ourt of the Church of Night. This is the destination. It is where the journey that is their adventure comes to an end. So how do you get them there?

For many dungeon master’s, especially those that are running an adventure straight out of a book, the journey is achieved by having them work through a series of events in a specific order. They will A. Be given the clue of an armored gauntlet, B. Find the blacksmith that crafted the gauntlet, C. Save said blacksmith from bandits attempting to rob him, D. converse with the smith to find out it was made for the Duvall family, E. Travel to the Duval estate. F. Use a perception check to find the dilapidated church hidden on their lands, G. Fight through the catacombs beneath the church, H. Confront the villain.

This linear structure is what’s known as “The Railroad”. Your players get on at the first stop, and don’t get off until they have worked through every station and reached their destination. Choo, Choo, indeed.

In most cases the “railroad”, or being “railroaded” or playing an adventure “on rails” is not a good thing. Not because items A through H are bad in and of themselves, but because for this adventure, they are the only letters in the alphabet, and each must be run through in a specific sequence. Sometime a railroad style adventures works out ok, after all, those might be the letters the players themselves want to tackle, and perhaps they come in an order that seems natural to them. But most games…no.

In most games, my players come up with some pretty amazing ideas, often ones that I would never expect or plan for. And in these cases, by disallowing their amazing ideas, or forcing them to make predictable choices, you make it obvious that they have no free will, and in fact are riding in a rather drab train set upon fixed and immobile tracks. So let’s fix this.

But first, before we do that, a warning… fixing this takes work and it takes skill. Work in the form of adventure notes and details you might never use, and skill in the form of your own ability to improvise. But it will be worth it. I promise. Now on to the steps!

Step 1.

Seed your story.

So in our original example, we have a gauntlet as a clue. If you board the railroad, you MUST find the blacksmith to proceed to the next stop. Our goal is to instead give players multiple ways to reach their destination. So starting simple, perhaps we have three different ways to reach the blacksmith. First is to simply spot the glove on the floor, using a perception check. The second could be an investigation check that shows the damage to the room was done by an unusual weapon, a weapon the blacksmith just happens to specialize in. The third could be an inept local sheriff, ready to be persuaded, deceived, or intimidated into revealing that the blacksmith makes money on the side selling gear to the local bandits, and that it looks like his work.

With these multiple paths all leading to the blacksmith, now we need to come up with some new routes of investigation. Perhaps a quick conversation will reveal that the victim was seen arguing at the local bank, and a teller there will reveal that the victim had refused to sell Lord Duvall a plot of land, and the two had fought about it in public. Or perhaps the players could speak to the victims relative’s, who reveal that they possessed a crude map. A visit to the local cartographer will reveal it to be of the old catacombs beneath the Duvall Estate.

When possible, always seed your story with at least two alternate ways to get to the next story point, or perhaps something that skips over a story point entirely.

Step 2.

Let your players offer up their best ideas… and their worst.

Often my players come up with crazy good ideas I had not even considered. Maybe they have a spell that can radically change the circumstances of a plot point, or they speak to an NPC who was never intended to have a speaking role. In one of my adventures, players started out being driven to a village in a wagon. The driver of that wagon had no name or identity until one of my players asked him who he was. Suddenly I had named him Old Bill, and given him a generic backstory. For no apparent reason this made one of my players immediately suspicious of him. By the end of our adventure Old Bill had double crossed the party and revealed himself to be the brother of the main villain. This stunned and delighted the players, and was never part of the original story.

Also make sure to equally embrace their WORST ideas. Sometimes my players innocently ask to do something which I know will have disastrous consequences. What’s that, you want throw a burst of flame at someone in an enclosed space surrounded by flammable objects? Of course you can! Often these disasters don’t movie the story forward, but they almost always create a memorable moment that the players will never forget.

But be aware, whether their ideas are crazy good or crazy bad, you will need to be ready to improvise.

Step 3.

Offer alternatives.

I always plan moments in my adventures where combat will ensue. They are points in the story where creatures with hostile intent intend to cause the party harm. Despite this, there is absolutely no reason the party has to fight them. Perhaps they could build a trap that kills them all at a distance. Maybe a persuasion check can turn them against their employer. While I always intend for there to be combat, I never require it.

The same can also be said of the opposite. I’ve never met a peaceful encounter that my players couldn’t turn hostile. Now that does not mean I let the party run around town killing indiscriminately, but it does mean that if my party jokingly threatens the bartender, there’s a good chance he might try to cave their skull in. It’s not that I planned for him to be aggressive, but more that I like to keep my player’s aggression in check. It also leads to some fairly hilarious moments, ones that I can later make plot elements. What’s that, the now unconscious bartender has a note in his pocket telling him to put any nosy do-gooders in their place? It’s just signed with a D? I wonder if anyone in town can recognize the handwriting?

Using these three steps can easy convert your adventure into a non-linear web of plot points that still gets characters where they need to go. Yes, it’s more work, but it’s very worth it.

And with that,

Happy roleplaying, and may the dice be ever in your favor.