C is for Choices, Context, and Consequence (Part II)
Created: 2025-02-08
“Decision Paralysis” occurs in a role-playing game when a player (or group thereof) simply cannot decide what to do. The character may have many available choices, but the player cannot seem to make any of them meaningful within the context of the game. The problem is almost always rooted in context or consequence.
See in context at C is for Choices, Context, and Consequence (Part II)
Created: 2025-02-08
If the problem is rooted within context, there are two potential problems. The first is that the player(s) involved lack enough context to make a meaningful choice. The second is that the player(s) have context, but there is no clear advantage to any choice that can be made.
See in context at C is for Choices, Context, and Consequence (Part II)
Created: 2025-02-08
we need to be careful not to add information in such a way as to bias their choices. Usurping player choices – or, worse yet, getting the players to rely upon you to tell them what choices they should make – is one of the worst things you can do as a Game Master.
See in context at C is for Choices, Context, and Consequence (Part II)
Created: 2025-02-08
First off, wait. We have been told so often in recent years that the GM is in charge of pacing, that some of us have forgotten that this is untrue. Pacing is created through an amalgam of player decisions and GM-enforced consequences to those decisions. If the players decide to spend their time wondering what to do, or discussing their options, that is a valid decision. The GM must accept that not deciding – or not deciding right away – is also a choice, and should be treated like any other.
See in context at C is for Choices, Context, and Consequence (Part II)
Created: 2025-02-08
one of the players will have his character look down both hallways, to see if there is anything he can see. The wise GM knows that what the player is really looking for is more context, with which to make a decision. And the wise GM also supplies that context, but not in a way that makes the decision for the player(s).
See in context at C is for Choices, Context, and Consequence (Part II)
Created: 2025-02-08
Not every detail is context. Context is detail that is relevant to making meaningful decisions. As you develop your dungeons, populate your strongholds, and devise your wilderness areas, never be afraid to include too much context. Instead, you should be thinking, “How can I telegraph this encounter?” “What footprint should this creature be leaving in the area?” “What clues can I give to hint at this secret?”
See in context at C is for Choices, Context, and Consequence (Part II)
Created: 2025-02-08
be wary of having NPCs that usurp player choices. NPCs should always act from their own motives, and from their own limited information. Rather than have a Council of Elrond that tells the players what must be done, have NPCs who urge the players in this direction and that….some offering good suggestions, others offering less good, all from the basis of their own goals and understanding.
See in context at C is for Choices, Context, and Consequence (Part II)
Created: 2025-02-08
Players get used to the idea that, if an NPC wants to hire them, this is “the plot hook”, and it should be taken. If you want a living game, based on player choices, you need to break that cycle. In minor ways at first, and then more strongly, have NPCs offer jobs that are not suited to the PCs. They might be boring, and so glossed over, or they might be jobs that the PCs are outmatched or undermatched. You must make certain that the players come to understand that NPCs are not the GM. What they want is not what the GM wants. They must be taken on their own terms.
See in context at C is for Choices, Context, and Consequence (Part II)