GM plot devices

[Tech]

In an upcoming gaming episode I'm taking my time putting together, one of the facets I've enjoyed creating is a special sword for one of the characters. The sword's abilities go beyond the normal scope of the limits generally enforced for the campaign. When it's time, the player will be able to use the sword for the episode, which I doubt will go to two episodes. It'll be fun to see the player's eyes bulge when I suddenly hand this sword to him to use at the appropriate time and the 'gaks!' from the other players.

 

Now, I'll get to my point: this will not be the first time I hand out a free GM plot device to a player, generally beyond the campaign limits or player's ability to pay the points for. (The sword's Real cost is about 200 pts total). Does any other GM give out plot devices free-of-charge? Do you give players beyond-campaign-rules devices at all? I don't mean the character can use the blaster rifle Mister Agent just dropped. I refer to planning ahead to actually give the player something you'd forbid normally.

 

If anyone's interested in seeing the sword's capabilities, you'll have to ask nice - I'll have to do it from memory.

[JohnOSpencer]

Oh yeah, I give out plenty of free GM plot devices. My last group got free Force Field belts made by the old man they rescued. Little did they know he actually a villian, who only had temporary amnesia, and as soon as it wore off they were in for a world of hurt, as they had come to rely on the belts and of course they wouldn't work against him.

 

John Spencer

[pinecone]

Not all the time but now and again ...yes and often with a stinger like above

[Killer Shrike]

When it is warranted, provisionally & perhaps.

 

The important thing about 'plot devices' of the sort you are talking about (weapons or items that they can use frex) is that they are little different than pure dues ex machina. By giving them these items you are enabling the characters to succeed regardless of thier own merit. It encourages lazy role playing (no worries, the GM will bail us out to save his campaign!), and skews the versimilitude of the game. It provides characters with crutches.

 

Particularly if you give such items out to each character. Much like a mathematical equation, if you give all the characters a certain capability, you might as well give none of them that capability.

 

In the Force Belt example above, giving an entire party an item that provides X DEF is similar to subtracting X Damage from all enemies.

 

The only time where this is really a good practice is as a campaign enabler. If you wanted a campaign to occur underwater forexample, it would be appropriate (and smart) to provide characters with some means to breath underwater. If you want to run a campaign in the 'Cloud Kingdoms' floating high above the surface of a planet, then some means of aerial travel should be made available, etc. In many cases such a hedge is one of the principle defining characteristics of the campaign. Perhaps the most common example is the space-faring campaign wherein the characters have a means of travel through space, and that means of travel also marks them out as special/noteworthy and leads to adventures (ala Farscape).

 

IMO, YMMV etc

[Cap'n D]

Originally posted by Killer Shrike

...encourages lazy role playing

...provides characters with crutches.

...if you give all the characters a certain capability, you might as well give none of them that capability.

 

In the midst of a D&D classic, The Giant Series, our party got to the Fire Giant dungeons of King Snur and rescued a Titan. (20th Level Priest, in D&D terms.) Our DM confided in me that he was agonizing over what to do. The module said the Titan would stay and fight, but the DM thought it was flatly absurd that we should go from a party of 8-9th level players to all of a sudden having a 20th Level Cleric on our side! I said, "well, you could take him away from us... OR... you could let us have him for a bit... but MAKE us NEED him!"

 

I don't think any of the other players would have appreciated seeing the Evil DM flames spark up in his eyes, but being an Evil DM myself, I think it can be fun when the heat is turned up.

 

That doesn't just go for hacking and slashing either. And it doesn't mean that the new-found tool/clue will allow the players step over everything you had worked so hard to plan. In Evil DM speak, "Make them need it" should also imply "Make them use it wisely"!

 

MWWWAAA-HA-Ha-haaaaaaaaaaa!

[PhilFleischmann]

This is a very interesting and important question, that all good GM's have to struggle with a little: the fine line between a plot device that enables an adventure, and a deus-ex-machina device that ensures an outcome.

 

Two examples from my GMing experience:

 

The party has to go retrieve a very powerful magic sword from the demons who stole it. Of course, they're allowed to use it to fight their way out, but they will have to turn it over to its rightful owner once they get back home. They'll be rewarded appropriately.

 

The team is hired to infiltrate a criminal organization. The FBI *lends* them some high-tech equipment (mostly for surveilance and transportation), and grants them *temporary* law-enforcement privileges, only for the purpose of completing this mission.

[austenandrews]

I've never been one to fret about point totals and whatnot. Writers don't. They do anything that makes the story more entertaining. My advice is, if it makes the game more fun, go for it.

 

-AA

[Insaniac99]

Originally posted by austenandrews

I've never been one to fret about point totals and whatnot. Writers don't. They do anything that makes the story more entertaining. My advice is, if it makes the game more fun, go for it.

 

-AA

 

agreed, i haven't written up the PCs base, their Vehicle (that they don't even know they have) , and most otehr things, i have just statted a few villians, though i even have soem that i don't have written dow, though that is mainly becasue i consider him an unstoppable force and the PCs need to trick him, not just pile on with all the weapons...

[Mr Mole]

I hand out free equipment and the occassional temporary power boost from time to time... But only if I'm almost certain they're gonna *NEED* them. If they don't end up needing them, I either take them away, or see to it that they *DO* need them.

 

Bases & Vehicles are a great example. I generally donate a decent Base and/or Vehicle to encourage the "team" theme, and I try to scale them to fit the campaign. A fully staffed, orbital space station, with a full sensor array, communications equipment, transporters, and stasis cells for prisoners tends to tip the scales rather dramatically in favor of the PCs.

 

The *BEST* part about handing out freebies to PCs? I don't feel at all bad about taking it away again... Or having the Bad Guys use their toys against them... Just to knock them totally off-balance.

 

The better the toy, the more strings are attached.

[Mr Mole]

In a sense, none of it is "free"... Rather like having a Mystery Disadvantage.

[kirakane]

Lesser beings having a powerful artifact is a classic fantasy situation though. Frodo for instance does not know all the true powers of the One Ring and it would be folly for him to try to find out.

 

So having an item and using to its full potential could be quite diffrent things. Perhaps a quest is necessary to unlock the full potential of an ancestral sword. Or that staff of power's other fucntions.

 

Powerful artifacts can be a powerful a metaphor for self discovery and internal growth rather than the trite "lighning bolt on a stick."

[Baneon]

Originally posted by JohnOSpencer

Oh yeah, I give out plenty of free GM plot devices. My last group got free Force Field belts made by the old man they rescued. Little did they know he actually a villian, who only had temporary amnesia, and as soon as it wore off they were in for a world of hurt, as they had come to rely on the belts and of course they wouldn't work against him.

 

John Spencer

 

 

What your saying Sparky's Evil? Oooooo the humanity lol this is too good.

[KarinsDad]

I think it is dependent on the campaign and situation, but I tend to frown both as a player and as a GM on freebies, even if they are used to enhance the story.

 

Like Killer Shrike, I see it as potentially encouraging lazy roleplaying (and also lazy tactics).

 

Two examples from our GURPS game from last night:

 

Our GURPS GM dusted off a year old portion of his campaign due to the fact that one of the players would be unavailable for the campaign we had been playing. However, two of the four players had very powerful characters that they had been playing for years (320 point range with many powerful magic items) whereas two of us were playing a lot less powerful characters (215 point range with no magic except that given to us by the powerful PCs).

 

These two powerful PCs were nearly invulnerable to the scenario due to being built up for a very long time. So, extreme laziness occurred.

 

1) The one PC allowed himself to be fairly well surrounded, although he did not have to. Because of that, he ended up having more attacks per round against his character and eventually, the GM pulled off some good tactics, the player missed a Dodge roll on a head shot, missed a death roll, and the PC died.

 

2) The GM later on had a dragon that had been encountered much earlier in the campaign (but was not really part of the current scenario) fly off with this PC. The result of that will be that the PC will be resurrected (being a staple PC of the campaign for many years), and will probably have to go off on some quest or something to pay for it.

 

The point is that the player was extremely caviler with his PCs tactics in combat since statistically, it was extremely difficult to injure, let alone kill his character.

 

This was followed up by the knowledge that the player is not really going to have to pay for that, at least not significantly (at least this is my impression based on the conversation by the GM later on). The PC will eventually be alive again and will probably not pay a serious price for his laisse faire attitude.

 

To me, freebies such as this (i.e. allowing items in a campaign in the first place that make characters nearly invulnerable and flying dragons in that were not in the original scenario to resurrect longstanding PCs) are problematic at best.

 

Hence, the concept of allowing mega-items in a campaign, even if just as a story element, and then taking them away again is distasteful to me both as a player and as a GM. I have just seen too many campaigns go south or have to be forcibly yanked back into place by the GM because of it. Of course, YMMV.

[Tech]

Killer Shrike, I simutaneously agree and disagree with you. A plot device is generally given by me (and these are rare) when the scenario calls for something the characters will need in the course of an adventure which they cannot and/or will not ordinarily have with them. As GM, to set up an adventure without giving them the tools to continue through it, it is pointless and most likely, frustrating for the players.

 

Yes, it can be dangerous to hand them out, if done unwisely or handing them commonplace. However, in all the times that I've given out plot devices, not once has it ever led to sloppy or lazy roleplaying in the campaign. It is not a crutch to the players but a rare opportunity for the hero to extend him or herself beyond their normal limitations and to do heroic actions not normally possible. The hero still must go through the episode and reap the consequences of their actions, win or fail.

 

In every case that I handle this plot device, deux ex machina is not what it comes off as. In a campaign where Dr. Destroyer (as presented in The Island of Dr. Destroyer) is one of the top menaces of the world, a plot device to bring the hero to that level of power is a fascinating and rare privilege due to game balance. It allows the player to fight on an equal footing one on one with an enemy no one could normally do. Carefully created, a huge plot device, such as the sword I mentioned, gives incredibly enhanced abilities but always leave the hero so that whereas they can now do enormous amounts of damage, the character can still be rendered unconscious if hit sufficient times. The plot device brings the hero up to the challenge, it doesn't overwhelm the challenge.

 

As mentioned by others, it depends on the what episode is and what is required that determines whether or not a plot device should be given by the GM to the player. Properly handed out, it enhances an episode and gives unique roleplaying opportunities.

[Ghost Archer]

I think the closest thing to a this type of plot device that I have is my team's base and its teleporter. Now, understand, I didn't GIVE anything to the players. They paid the points and designed it. The thing is, since my campaign is two decades old, the original members that PAID for the place are all but gone. Only five remain and of those, only two are active. The new members, at first, got the benefit of their forerunners but I realized how . . . unfair this was, to not only past members, but the new members. They never had the same opportunities to build from scratch. Soooo . . . I seperated them from the base by moving them out of the Bay Area to Seattle. Even now they try to find reasons to use the facilities. The new team had to create their own transportation system and their resident kid genius did just that.

 

The closest thing I have to 'freebies' is a little package I have for new members. Police powers, radio, stuff like that. I think it comes to about ten points but those are the first 10 XP they earn so they pay even for that.

 

As a player I have, one time, been the recipient of a GM 'freebie' and I hated it. The GM gave it to me because he didn't feel like running the upcoming battle. I wanted that fight, damn it, I earned it.

[Killer Shrike]

If you hand out the campaign enablers like you are talking about, all you are really doing is destablizing the game, more times than not. Rather than justify handing out such enablers because you made the threat to great, instead balance the encounters to the PCs capabilities. In the long run they will be much more satisfied with a victory they earned with thier own capabilities than with a cheap/easy victory that they only got because the GM gave them an item or some other freebie, even if it were only situational or temporary.

 

Dont get me wrong; Ive done it in the past too. When you are hard up against the GM screen and realize that the PCs just arent going to make it, deus ex machina is mighty tempting. Like everything else, the devil is in the details.

 

Ive managed to pull off some sweet plants, slipping an item or a lead, or foreshadowing an NPC or some other form of d.e.m. in my time; that sort of chicanery is standard GM-Trix fare. When the party realizes that the way out of a bind is via some bit introduced 12 sessions back that they just never picked up on, you end up looking like Nostradamus. But its tricky, tricky tricky and just as liable to flop. That sort of thing works out ok if it is completely secondary to the main event, but handing out toys and whistles to powerup a party is something else all together. What you are basically telling the players, whether you realize it or not, is that their characters are special. They have PC stamped across thier forehead. They are singled out for free stuff and get-out-of-jail-free-cards. It encourages players to not sweat the small stuff; the GM is thier buddy and is going to hook them up with the good stuff.

 

Its the exact opposite of the antagonistic or "Killer GM", and not really any better. IMO, the GM needs to be impartial. PCs are just people in the campaign setting. They dont have it any better than anyone else of equivalent experience. They dont get freebie superswords handed out to them, and they dont have a secret guardian angel of infinite power and patience lurking for the opportunity to bail them out of a jam.

 

 

When the players realize that thier actions have consequences and causality is being enforced, they will take thier characters much more seriously and appreciate thier victories all the more.

 

If you must hand out items that are needed for adventure accomplishment, make that part of the adventure. Do the PCs pick up the clues, follow up on the matter, and discover they probably need this item and then go get it as a quest/adventure unto itself or do they not? To avoid left door/right door blind choices, provide at least 1 other reliable means of success as well. Regardless, make them struggle to get the item and then allow them to use it; its lost in the final struggle somehow, of course. This sort of tactic works if you really must do the Megaitem schtick, but can get old fast if overused (like almost all GM gimmicks).

 

IMO YMMV of course

[Tech]

Y'know, it's kinda funny. I can see what you're saying but it hasn't happened in my campaign. I think part of it is that I have veteran players who are more interested in playing characters than getting points. The points you make I'm sure are valid, Killer Shrike, for a lot of GM's. I'm glad to say I've never had to worry about it. I'm not saying the campaign's perfect. I am saying, however, that the players have left behind point-grabbing & munchkinism, instead concentrating on what the character is like, so forth and so on. As I already mentioned, the players already know their actions carry consequences.

 

Your point about 'the characters aren't gonna make it - hand out Deux Ex Machina' is not what I'm talking about, nor do I do that. I have, once in very long while, create an episode which is obviously beyond the character's abilities. My players know that at this point, that the GM's up to something and to trust him. Deux Ex Machine means that the character can do anything. Not so with my plot devices - they bring a character up to the level but the fight only begins then. As for a cheap/easy victory, it doesn't happen. No easy fights for them even with GM plot devices (which I again reiterate only happen once in a long blue moon), the characters must think or else. I'm not sure but I'm guessing you're hinting that I do this often, or that the players aren't being challenged in most of my episodes. Rest assured, they are. If it's easy, it's well-deserved because they made it easy by outwitting or thinking through the episode. If I'm mistaken about your p.o.v., it's only me guessing. I am putting an emphasis on the one rare episode here, not all the time.