How To Avoid Decision Paralysis Among Your Players (The 3 Choices Method)

Generally speaking, as a Game Master, you want your players to have a good experience playing with you. And it's not really controversial to say that most players want to feel like they have input in how a game is run, and that the decisions their characters make really matter. However, it's one thing to say that you want freedom, and to do whatever you want in a game... but it's another matter entirely to actually exercise that freedom in a way that helps build a story.

And while you don't want to impose your will on the table as a Game Master, sometimes you have to facilitate swifter decision making, and you have to support your players. Which is why I'd suggest taking the following tips to heart!

All right, so, let's work on a combined vision, shall we?

But before I get into the meat of today's post, remember, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

The 3 Choices Method

Too often we end up with either a completely scripted plot that the Game Master wants the players to follow, or the Game Master spreads the world out at the players' feet and waits for them to choose the direction they want to head off in. This puts the onus entirely on the Game Master, or on the players, when the game should be a collaboration between both sides of the screen.

Which is why I recommend what I call the 3 Choices Method.

This inspiration partially came from my 3 Solutions Strategy which I recommend for the World and Chronicles of Darkness. That strategy, for those who didn't watch the video, boils down to making sure there's a Physical, Social, and Mental way to solve most situations that players are faced with. The idea is that everyone at the table should have something they can do to help advance the plot with the options in front of them.

The 3 Choices Method is meant to provide enough options that players feel like they have real choices, but to stop them from overanalyzing and second guessing themselves as they're overwhelmed by being able to choose anything.

For example, you know what game system you want to run, and the table is all in agreement. You know what world you want to run your campaign in. But where in the setting should you explore? While you could leave this decision up to the players to figure out, it's often faster to provide 3 choices for the players to pick from. Those choices should be different enough that the distinction feels meaningful, but they should all be options that you are willing to follow through with as the Game Master. The same is true when it comes to the genre of plot you offer your players (say a Dungeon Crawl, Political Intrigue, or Kingdom Building plot); they should be distinct enough to be different, but you need to be willing to follow through on whatever the table picks.

This isn't just for the foundational stages of making your new campaign, either; it can be used for major decisions throughout the game as well. For example, if there are large organizations or patrons vying for the characters' services, it's a good idea to give your players 3 viable options to choose from. This makes it feel like they have more than just a binary choice, but it stops them from being paralyzed by too many paths to pick from. If they finish one arc of a campaign, and they're deciding where to go next, providing 3 choices can cut down on deliberation so that decisions can be made relatively quickly. Even if you're snatching rumors and plot hooks out of a supplement like 100 Ads and Announcements To Find on a Village Noticeboard, giving 3 to follow up on gives your players choices, without giving them room to spiral.

Now, the key here is to think of this method in terms of a road trip. There are several different routes that will get your party to their destination... but you're letting them choose the forks in the road. They choose where they're going, who's going to sit where, and who's going to be in charge of what responsibilities, but after that they can only exercise their choices when there's a turn to be made. If you got on the freeway, you need to see that choice through until to find a turnoff to a different path if you want to change. If you opted for the back roads, you've got to keep following them until you intersect with a highway, and you can make a choice to take an alternate route. And so on, and so forth.

There are many roads in your campaign, and your players should have a lot of say in which route they take to get where they're going, and how they deal with the hazards or threats in their way. This takes a little more prep on your part as a Storyteller, but it can be really worth it in the end!

Lastly, don't forget to check out some of my other advice in my Electrum bestseller 100 Tips And Tricks For Being a Better Game Master, as well as the Silver-selling sequel 100 Tips And Tricks For Being a Better RPG Player... both of them are jammed full of all kinds of things that will make your games go more smoothly from both ends of the screen!

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Blue Sky, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

Make Sure You Have A Story To Tell (Whether You're A Player Or The Game Master)

Roleplaying games, generally speaking, come in two parts. One part is the game, where you roll your dice, add up the numbers, cast your spells, swing your swords, and determine whether you succeed or fail in the task you wanted to complete. The other half of the game, though, is the roleplaying. It's creating unique characters, and telling their stories as they attempt to achieve their goals, whether it's something as grand as saving the world from the threat of extinction, or as relatively small as solving a murder and catching the person responsible.

However, too many of us think that the responsibility of story rests with either the players or the Game Master. This week I wanted to remind folks that, just as the GM is also a player at the table, so too they should be a part of the collaborative storytelling exercise you're all participating in.

It's all about give and take.

As always, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

Everyone Should Be Contributing

One of the primary mistakes that I see at tables is that either the players will assume that all story needs to come from the Game Master (and so they bring only bare bones archetypes, rather than fully fleshed-out characters with their own histories, goals, etc.), or the Game Master will assume that the players are here to drive the story, and so they sit back and wait for the table to pursue leads and make decisions that are important to the characters (a mistake that has sunk more than a few attempts from GMs to run sandbox-style games).

However, as with almost everything else at the table, this effort needs to be a cooperative one. Players and GMs shouldn't be dictating the story to one another, insisting that X, Y, or Z events need to happen. It's more like moving a couch. Each of you picks up your end of things, and you move it along a path, calling out warnings to one another as necessary, and trying to avoid as many hazards as possible.

You don't want one person carrying, and the other one sitting on the couch asking them why they aren't making progress.

Hey... how come we aren't getting anywhere?

If you're a player at the table, you should have a character who is willing to participate as part of a team (as TTRPGs tend to be team-focused activities), and who is willing to follow plot hooks as they're dropped. However, you should also have a character who has a history, who has goals, and who has a story both for who they were before the game started, but who also has a story of their own you want to tell with them as the game goes on. Whether they're a masked vigilante looking to topple a fascist regime, a farmgirl hero who wants to prove herself worthy of knighthood, or a government experiment who is trying to find their origin while escaping from their handlers, your character should have a story of their own you want to tell.

The Game Master should also have a story they're looking to tell as part of this campaign. This story might be how a gang of brigands and thieves became the heroes of the land when they helped overthrow a corrupt monarch, or it might be how a band of noble warriors stood against the lich king when no others would. It might be the story of Project Apotheosis, who tried to unlock superhuman powers in unwilling candidates, or it might be the story of how a generation ship floundering in the deep black was brought back online, and an entire generation of colonists were saved.

The key is that everyone on both sides of the screen should be helping tell both their own stories, and those of other people around the table. To do this we need to be open with our Game Masters and our players about the kinds of stories we want to tell, and to offer to integrate our stories together as part of the exercise.

That sounds simple enough, but it's something that takes practice.

For example, say you have two players who want to enmesh their stories together. One player is a holy warrior who is looking for a sibling they lost while they were in the orphanage, but who has also set their sights on being knighted for their efforts. We have a rogue who ran with a street gang as a child when they ran away from the orphanage, and then became a bandit when they got older and had to duck the law or wind up in prison. They've amassed quite a bounty on their head, and this life has caused them to grow hard over the years, though they often wonder what might have been.

Those two players could decide to wind their stories together. Maybe the brother was too young to come with, and the older sister promised she'd come back for him, but she never could. Plucked up by the church, he was trained to fight, to read, and to pray, while she led a hardscrabble life. They may not recognize one another at first, but they slowly begin to change each other's black-and-white views, and to grow closer. He begins to realize there are shades of gray in the world, and to be more flexible, while she learns that her skills can be used for good ends, and there really are people out there who care about her, and who will protect her if she'll just let down her guard enough to let it happen.

And then the Game Master could take that combined story, and weave it into the story they're telling. For example, was their mother slaughtered by the warlord who is currently conquering the northern fold, which is why they were in an orphanage in the first place? Is that warlord the father of these two characters, and their mother spirited them away to try to hide them from what being the heirs apparent to a kingdom of blood would do to them? And will they attempt to save their father, end him for what he's done, or will they join with him in hopes to achieve their own goals, twisted or otherwise?

I never had a chance to be other than I am... neither did you. Will you change that?

There are, of course, a variety of considerations to keep in mind. Whether it's dedicating too much involvement or story to too few players, ensuring everyone gets adequate time in the spotlight, etc. However, the basic idea shown here is that all of you should have different threads of story when you come to the table... and all of you should participate in weaving those disparate elements together to create a single, more cohesive, whole!

Need Help With The Heavy Lifting?

Coming up with all the different story elements isn't easy, especially for those of us who aren't used to building bigger, more involved stories, consider trying out some of the following tools:

- 100 Character Goals and Motivations: If you need a list of things to help make your character's journey stand out, and to help you shape their story, check these ideas out!

- 100 Dark Secrets: Everyone has secrets... and these secrets can make an excellent basis for your story. Both as a player and as a Game Master.

- 100 Questions To Ask About Your Characters: Sometimes it helps to look at our characters from perspectives we didn't previously consider, whatever side of the GM screen you're on.

- 100 Fantasy Professions (That Aren't "Adventurer"): It helps to mix it up from time to time, and your professional handle can say a lot about who you are, and what you do.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

Game Masters, Make Sure The Villains Aren't Just Sitting Around Waiting

There are a lot of names for it. I've seen it called dungeon scumming. I've seen it called Skyrimming (suggestive tone optional). I'm sure there are terms that other Game Masters have heard of that I wouldn't recognize without some explanation. At the end of the day, though, all of these terms refer to a specific kind of behavior from the players. In short, they go into the plot-relevant situation (assaulting the villain's keep, kicking in the door of the dungeon, etc.) and blow all their big resources up-front. The barbarian roars through their rages, the spellcasters empty their slots, daily charges of magic items are used, and as soon as the party gets too low, too hurt, or things don't go their way, they pull out. Not just from the fight, but from the entire situation, backing off a safe distance so they can heal up, recover their resources, and come in hot again.

However, this kind of behavior only works if you treat your NPCs like they're in a video game, rather than a living, breathing world. Which is why, if you want to create dynamic challenge, remember that whatever your players are doing (or not doing), they aren't the only ones in the setting who are moving. Your villains have better things to do than just sit around, waiting for the heroes to show up and thwart their plans!

All right, men, we've been discovered. Move the treasure to a safe location!

As always, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

Your Antagonists Are Characters, Too

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, or so the science tells us. However, when it comes to your story, both actions taken and not taken should have an effect on the plot either for good, or for ill. And as the Game Master you should encourage the game to feel organic, and to act like a living, breathing thing.

Take one of the examples above; the party tasked with getting rid of a bandit gang in the woods that have been harassing people on the roads. These bandits shouldn't just be a series of encounters waiting to go off until your players find the bandit lord, get their loot, and turn in the quest. These NPCs should be living, breathing parts of your game world, and they should react to what happens (or doesn't happen) in your game based on the actions taken by the party.

How are you going to persuade the highwaymen to turn over a new leaf?

As an example, say your players locate the stronghold deep in the woods used as a base of operations by these bandits. They raid that stronghold, going in with spells flying and powers going off every round, but it's not enough. Before the bandits can bring them down, the party retreats out into the forest to rest and recuperate, getting back their hit points and spells to come back and do it all again... but what did the bandits do in the 8-10 hours between the party's raid, and them coming back for round 2?

Do the bulk of the remaining forces abandon the fortress, rigging it with boobytraps and just leaving a skeleton crew behind to ambush the party before leading them in deeper? Do they reinforce their positions instead, and send out word to their forces, bringing reinforcements back to the fort so the party now faces more enemies than before, all of whom are now ready for a fight? Does the bandit lord pack up the treasure the party is hoping to reclaim, sending it out with trusted lieutenants to take it to a safer location that the party will now have to track down again if they want to get back the stolen goods? Or do the bandits regroup, and come after the party in the woods, staging a midnight counterattack with all their numbers while the party is weakened, and may not be as ready to fight?

There are, of course, going to be situations where things remain static in the PCs' absence. If they're going through an abandoned ruin that's guarded only by constructs, mindless undead, and traps, then none of those things are going to deviate from the orders they were already given. In some situations it may be legitimately impossible for them to leave their posts, or to pursue the party beyond a certain point, making them very much a static, somewhat predictable force. But if the antagonists your party is facing are sentient, and if they have plans that are already in motion, then they need to be able to react to what your party is doing... or if your party opts to not do something, then you need to know what stage the antagonists' plans are at.

Let's return to the bandits in the forest. Perhaps, instead of trying to track down their hideout, the party just escorted merchants back and forth along the highways to ensure they weren't attacked. Or maybe they started taking out the bandits a few at a time, trying to catch them out in small teams in the woods, away from their hideout, and their support. If the bandit lord and their men find out what the party is doing, what preparations will they make? Will they start terrorizing the town as a way to try to get the PCs to back off? Do they form assault teams meant to take the party out at a time and place of the bandits' choosing? Will they disperse, fading away into the woods and finding a new place to ply their trade, believing it's better to live to fight another day? Or do the bandits reach out to another faction, such as the necromancer or devil-worshiping cult that was going to be the next antagonist, joining forces with them to try to defeat the party?

Nothing happens in a vacuum, and to make your game feel like a living thing, make sure that your villains are acting to reach their goals just as surely as the party is trying to reach theirs.

Additional Resources

If you want a little help with your antagonists, consider checking out a few of my supplements that are designed to do at least some of the heavy lifting for you!

- 100 Random Bandits To Meet

- 100 Prisoners For a Fantasy Jail

- 100 Gangs For Your Urban Campaigns

- 100 Cults To Encounter

- 13 Fiends: A Baker's Dozen of Devils

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

A "Chronicles of Darkness" Mortals Game, With a Twist!

I tend to give a lot of advice for Game Masters and Storytellers on my Monday posts. That wasn't what I originally intended this slot to be for, but it seems popular, so I try to go with the flow when it comes to what readers want to see more of. And as the holidays close in on us, and many of us are spending time with folks we may not get to see that often, I thought I'd share an idea for a Chronicles of Darkness chronicle that I had forever and a day ago, but which I've never had the time to actually run.

For ease of discussion, let's call it a Faces of Death campaign, as PCs dying is when things get interesting.

It might be hard to convince your players, but it may be worth the effort.

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron!

Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Worse Things Than Death Lurk in The Shadows

As a quick note before we get started, this strategy can be use for both World of Darkness games as well as New World of Darkness (or Chronicles 1st Edition, if you prefer) games. But for simplicity's sake, I'm just going to stick to discussing the one edition, and the options it presents you as a Storyteller.

Now then, on to the idea!

To begin with, have your players put together a group of mortal characters. I recommend keeping special abilities or powers (like one might find in Second Sight) off the table... initially, at least. You can even run this as an avatar game setup (where players make game versions of themselves) if you want to. That might add a little spice to the game once the twist comes, but it won't be for everyone.

So what's the twist, already?

There is no fixed plot for the initial game. Whether your players are private investigators looking into missing persons cases, or they're small time hoods just trying to make a living on the streets, or there's a bizarre, occult conspiracy that has sucked them all up, the initial plot is not what matters. What matters is what happens when one of the PCs dies, or appears to die.

At that moment, you invoke the shadows of the setting, and some supernatural force manifests to bring the character back as a member of one of the spheres of the other CoD lines.

Let's say, for example, that the gang was selling drugs in a vampire's territory. Shot full of holes, they're going to die... until a figure in black grabs them, and offers them a drink of their blood. Either becoming a ghoul, or a full-on newly-forged vampire, gives the character a new lease on life. Perhaps it's the vampire whose territory the gang was unknowingly operating in, or one of that vampire's rivals eager to turn the PCs into weapons in a territorial dispute, the reason is up to you. Alternatively, perhaps the danger, fear, and injury triggers one character's latent werewolf heritage, and they undergo their first change, healing rapidly from the wounds that should have killed them. The character might take a final level of damage, and collapse into a pile of leaves and twine, as it turns out they were a fetch the entire time, and now the player gets to re-make their character as a recently-escaped changeling. The dying mortal might hear the whispers of a Geist offering to keep them from shuffling off the mortal coil, or they might actually die, only to awaken as a recently-made Promethean whose memories of the past are... fragmentary, to say the least.

Maintaining Power Level, and Avoiding ST-Assisted Death

A Faces of Death game is, in short, a way for an ST to either slowly induct the party into a given sphere of the Chronicles of Darkness setting, or to create a troupe game with everyone finding their own way into one of the various game lines. Personally, I recommend using this for a troupe game, because I feel that it provides the most varied options, and it helps you find ways to maintain power level and challenge when it comes to the ongoing chronicle.

There's a lot in there, so let me unpack it.

First of all, let's discuss power dynamics. Because it's true that whoever it is that dies first is going to wind up with a leg up over the rest of the folks in the game in some ways. Whether they become a full-on supernatural creature, or they end up with a lesser template as a ghoul, an ensorcelled mortal, etc., they're going to have access to resources and abilities that the rest of the table may not have. However, to counter that, it's important to also provide additional complications and limitations that the rest of the table doesn't have to deal with (but which could act as additional plot fodder).

For example, let's say that one character did become a vampire. Now they have to follow the rules of the masquerade, and they have to do what they can to exist in the world of the night. They might have new powers they can use, such as moving faster or becoming stronger, but their powers shouldn't immediately fix problems presented in the chronicle. The mortal hacker, or the socialite with connections among the business community, are still going to be useful when it comes to investigating mysteries and solving crimes, even if the group's bruiser no longer has a pulse and has to drink blood, for example. Most importantly, though, one character becoming a vampire now means you can bring in the lore, enemies, and plots involving those monsters going forward. And every time you bring in a new creature or game line, the amount of stuff you can call on just gets bigger.

Additionally, as the game goes on, your players have to deal with the competing interests of the different factions they belong to, and they have to choose sides in what's happening. As an example, if one of the other party members becomes a changeling, does their assistance with someone else's vampire have political ramifications? Can the werewolf and the promethean still work together, or does the werewolf risk ostracization from their community if they don't destroy something that unnatural? What kind of political points can be scored by forging alliances, or toppling existing rulers? These are the sorts of opportunities a Faces of Death game can present, if you choose to pursue them.

What was that last part, though?

Once players realize that they get an upgrade when they die (assuming you didn't start the game off explaining this twist), it's possible that folks begin taking on suicidal acts hoping that this is the time they get their monster badge. It's important for you, as the ST, to discourage this behavior up-front by explaining that purposefully putting your character in danger for the hope of more power, rather than for story purposes or because of the roll of the dice, won't result in a positive outcome.

However, if someone's mortal character doesn't die, make it clear that they can still get their own upgrades so they don't feel like the token PC in the monster chronicle.

Characters who manage to outlive their compatriots might find themselves awakening as Mages simply from the constant exposure to all of the supernatural goings-on around them. They might end up becoming a part of a Hunter faction, gaining access to the gear, resources, etc., of those who bump off the things that go bump in the night. They could also combine the various boons that can be given to mortals, such as drinking blood from a vampire to become a ghoul, swearing an oath with a changeling to gain additional skills and power, etc. You can even break out books like Second Sight, granting them their own set of powers they can use to keep up with the rest of the table.

Final Recommendations and Challenges

A lot of the following pieces of advice are going to depend on your table, and your players. It's also going to depend how much they trust you. Generally speaking, though, these are areas you should address before you begin.

- Would your table react well to the twist being secret? Some players would think this was an awesome continuation of a character, while others might think this was a big manipulation. If you're not sure you can always err on the middle ground of telling your players there's going to be a twist, but asking if they want you to spoil it for them or not.

- Ensure that players are onboard with roleplaying the transformation and understanding of a monster's new life. Part of the fun of this change is seeing characters alter and adjust to their new life situation. How do they deal with their new urges, their altered perceptions on morality, or the new responsibilities they now have to deal with? Even if we, as players, know the mythos and the ins-and-outs of the monsters, playing them from the perspective of an established character who has to see it all with fresh eyes is part of the challenge.

- Ask yourself (if not your players directly) what kind of monster they would most enjoy playing (or which ones they definitely don't want to play). This is another that's going to vary by player and table. Part of the challenge of a Faces of Death game is that the specific monster the PCs end up becoming should vary by plot and circumstances. For example, if you're doing a vampire arc, then becoming a ghoul or a vampire is the most thematically-appropriate option. However, if you know a given player really doesn't care for vampires, and wouldn't enjoy playing one, then perhaps they're approached by a Geist that was a victim of that same kindred in the past. Maybe this is where their latent werewolf heritage comes out. Even if you want to give your players input on what kinds of monsters they'd like to become, consider a ranked-choice system, or a general template, but not giving them specifics. A player might pick "vampire" as their creature, but surprise them with the particular clan they're turned by, for example.

- Remember to include the mortal side of things, as well as the supernatural. As I said back in World of Darkness Storytellers, Don't Forget The Mortal Side of Things, but it bears repeating. All the supernatural wooge in the world does you no good if you have to blend in and mix with the normal folk in order to complete the plot, so keep that in mind when you're designing your challenges.

Additional Resources

Regular readers know I've been making WoD/CoD content for a while now, and I've got an RPG pin board with the 30+ supplements I've made for Werewolf, Vampire, and Changeling. However, some supplements that will be most useful for populating a Faces of Death Game include:

- Deadly Country: 100 NPCs of Central Florida: While this one is location-specific, the characters can easily be shifted to most other parts of the country, as the Storyteller needs.

- 100 Ensorcelled Mortals: A Changeling: The Lost supplement, this one is quite useful if you want at least one member of your chronicle to have a brush with the world of the fae.

- New World Shadows: 100 Ghouls For The American Sabbat and New World Nights: 100 Ghouls For The American Camarilla: While originally written for Vampire: The Masquerade, these NPCs can be easily shifted and re-imagined for whatever edition of the setting you happen to be using.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

Game Masters, Don't Make Your Players Hold The Idiot Ball

If you've watched any long-running TV show, or even most popular movies, then you're passingly familiar with the idea of an idiot plot. These are, in the broad strokes, plots that only happen because someone (or everyone) abandoned critical thinking and good sense for no apparent reason, thus letting things spiral out of control to create the plot. Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them is an obvious modern example, where a supposed professional and expert in the field of magical beasts has to make so many amateurish mistakes and poor decisions for the film to happen that it beggars belief he would ever be allowed to work in a pet store, much less near genuinely dangerous magical creatures.

Ooooh... I wonder what this one does?

We see this kind of plot over all sorts of different media. James Bond gets captured because he walks face first into obvious traps that any experienced spy should have seen coming. Batman, supposedly the world's greatest detective, goes haring off on a wild goose chase because he didn't do the most basic bit of proper deduction. John Q. Normal nearly destroys his one chance with his dream partner because none of his friends slapped him, and pointed out all the massive, obvious mistakes he was making that are necessary for this romantic comedy to be longer than 5 minutes as they clear up a silly misunderstanding.

If you're a game master, it's all too easy to rely on idiot plots to get your party involved in the game. In the name of making sure no one around the table feels like they're being railroaded or talked down to, do not force your players to pick up the idiot ball.

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Playing Catch With The Idiot Ball

The idiot ball is a term for when a character who is normally rational and competent suddenly and inexplicably throws their knowledge, experience, and good sense out the window so that plot can happen. Thought of another way, you throw the idiot ball at a character, and when it hits them they make inexplicably bad decisions due to the impact rattling their brains.

Too often a GM will build an entire game around expecting the party to suddenly set aside good sense and rationality in order to get on board the plot bus. And when they don't do it, a lot of GMs will exasperatedly try to force the characters to make objectively bad or unwise decisions just to move the story along.

Don't do that.

Yeah... why are we doing this, exactly?

Firstly, Create Proper Motivation

Let's use an example here so we're all on the same page. Let's say your party's path goes through an old, abandoned mining village. They're heard rumors about this town, and the supposed haunts that lurk within it. The fastest way to get to their destination is to just ride right through the town, but giving it a wide berth would be smarter and safer. So your players choose to do that, adding half a day or so onto their travel time.

As the GM, you may have that entire camp drawn out and prepped up, filled with zombie hordes, and haunts, angry ghosts, and maybe a necromancer in the depths of the abandoned mine. But with the scenario given, there is absolutely no reason for the party to put themselves directly in harm's way if all their expertise tells them to just go around and avoid stepping in the bear trap.

Don't cut off their escape routes and force them to go through the town just because it's what you had prepped to go. Respect their decision to take the safer road. And then, if you really want them to go back to that mining town, figure out a logical, sensical way to motivate these particular characters to go kick in the door on their own.

I remember that place. Supposed to be treasure in those tunnels, you believe the legends.

For example, if the party was trying to get to the next town over to deliver a package, let them accomplish that goal. Then, once they've finished, drop a fresh hook to go back to the haunted camp. Somebody in town looking for bodyguards on an expedition? Did a contact they were supposed to meet go to the camp and not return? Was the Blood Brand gang, whom the fighter has a grudge against, supposedly holed up in that place, using its reputation to keep people away? Does the dwarven rogue overhear a myth about veins of silver and gold left untapped, speculating that it could be enough to pay off the massive debts they owe while retiring from this adventuring life?

It doesn't matter what reason you use to get the party to want to go to the location you have prepped... but you need to make it their decision to chase the carrot you're dangling. It's why if you read any of my modules like False Valor, The Curse of Sapphire Lake, or even Ghosts of Sorrow Marsh, the first section after the intro is a note to the GM about ensuring the PCs all have proper motivation to be part of this plot. Because without that motivation, there's nothing to stop them from riding right on past.

Secondly, Respect Player Agency and Decision-Making

Even if you get your players to go to the place you want them to go to (which isn't always easy), there's still a chance that they manage to just avoid everything you had planned out.

Again, examples work best here.

Guys... please just step in it? Please? I worked really hard on it...

Let's say the party goes to the camp to look down the tunnel to find treasure. Now, part of the challenge you have is that there are traps and haunts in the various out buildings, and your plan is for the party to trigger enough of them to wear them down a bit. However, the party glances through windows, or peers in through doors, and when they don't see anyone or anything in there that would pose a threat to them, they shrug and move on. As such, they don't trigger any of your carefully laid threats, and they walk right into the main tunnel completely unscathed after using no spells, potions, or special abilities to overcome your threats.

As the GM, this really screws with your plans because you were expecting those hazards to become an issue. But the players doing things the smart way (or just being lucky that they were focused on the mine and indifferent to other areas that actually contained hazards) should be rewarded. Trying to come up with a contrived or flimsy excuse to get the PCs to go into those outbuildings is basically hurling the idiot ball at their head and demanding they go into a place for no apparent reason when they have a necessary goal somewhere else.

Like I said in The Best Zombie Game I Ever Played (Where Nothing Happened), the best thing you can do as the GM is to respect your players' autonomy and decision-making, even when it messes with your plan or your plot. Don't force your players to go down particular paths, or try to dictate what happens. Instead, make sure you know the goal you want them to reach, and let them figure out how they're going to get there on their own. It makes for a smoother, more enjoyable game at the end of the day.

There's a reason this tip made it into my supplement 100 Tips and Tricks For Being a Better Game Master, after all!

Additional Reading

If this week's post struck a chord with you, I wanted to point out some of my other posts on similar subjects that might be of interest too!

- 10 Unique Prompts For Your Next Campaign: If you're just not sure what you want your next game to be about, but you want something that will really grab your players' attention, then you might want to check out a couple of entries off this list.

- Onion Plots, An Alternative to Linear Storytelling For Game Masters: Something I put out only a few weeks ago, this one made quite a splash. It touched on similar themes, but was more about overall plot and campaign construction.

- 3 Ways To Spice Up Combat in RPGs: Combat can often become a boring, repetitive slog if you aren't careful. These suggestions offer alternatives that can change up a fight, and inject some additional challenge back into things.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my cat noir thriller Marked Territory, its sequel Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

What Keeps Your Character Traveling?

There's a reason so many tales begin in the tavern... it's usually the one place that travelers gather to wile away the evening hours before they have to get back out on the road. And while there are some games where the party members are local to the area, those tend to be fairly few and far between. Heroes (and villains, for evil games) tend to come from afar, walking into whatever danger and adventure awaits them in the place where their adventure begins.

Before you put together another traveling adventurer with worn down bootheels and a cloak that's just getting ragged around the edges, take a moment to consider just how many reasons there are to be on the road. Because a lot of us only seem to think of the same handful to be from home when the plot thickens.

Also, road is sort of a loose term in this instance.

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Professional Reasons

The most common reasons you find PCs located far away from home when we first meet them is because they're looking for work... but that work is almost universally A) as a wandering sellsword, or B) as a traveling bard.

And there are some characters who tend to be a bit of both.

While there's nothing wrong with either of these reasons (and you can improve them by lifting some content from 100 Random Mercenary Companies as well as 100 Fantasy Bands by yours truly if you'd like), there are so many other options out there!

For example, consider the fantasy teamster. With her wagon and her mule she runs goods all over the region, and any trouble she meets out on the road gets a quarrel between the eyes from the crossbow she keeps locked up by her seat. Traveling peddlers, river boatmen, and sailors can also fall into this category. Or consider the barber surgeon, who can cut hair, stitch wounds, set bones, and pull teeth, but who tends to make rounds to a wider area in order to help as many people as possible while collecting modest fees. There's the treasure hunter who's always looking for that next big score, the forest ranger acting as a freelance guide, the cartographer who is making new, updated maps of the region, and the historian who's attempting to piece together parts of the past to provide a window onto what came before.

The key for characters who are traveling for professional reasons is that you need to give them a pressing enough reason to be on the move, but not something so pressing that they end up ignoring the adventure hook in favor of their personal travel plans. If the drunken master monk is a roadie/bodyguard for touring musicians, for example, you don't want them to be so committed to that role that they refuse to go check out the troll caves, or to stick around and help protect the town against bandit raids.

It's all about balance, and flexibility.

Personal Reasons

Much like the above section we see plenty of personal reasons for travel among PCs... but a lot of them tend to fall into the same, very broad categories. The most common examples I've seen of this are, A) Looking for revenge, B) Running from debts/commitments C) Some kind of rite of passage.

You met a man with three fingers on his left hand? Which way did he go?

Again, because I cannot stress this enough, there is nothing wrong with those reasons. They're old fall back positions, the same as the paladin that's a knight in shining armor, or the wizard that's an old gray-bearded sage. But they aren't the only options you have, and you can get a lot out of stretching your creativity in this case.

For instance, is your character having a mid-life crisis, so they decide to leave behind a steady trade or a growing business to go out and make their name as a hero? Are they hounded by visions and prophecies, driven toward certain places by the will of inscrutable gods (whether or not they're divine caster classes)? Did they want to get out of their small town to see the world before settling down to have kids? Are they looking for a long-lost friend, family member, or rightful owner of a strange ring they found that draws them on like an iron filing to a lodestone? Are they a really dedicated foodie determined to try all the strange dishes and unusual customs found in 100 Fantasy Foods?

There are hundreds of different reasons someone might find themselves on the road, far away from home. The advantage of personal reasons to travel, though, is that a good GM can take them, and weave them into the ongoing plot in order to hook a PC into said plot to satisfy the player's personal arc. Whether it's deciding to Don Quixote their way through a goblin siege on their old plow horse, or traveling to the capitol to taste the finest viands while also solving the murder of the duchess, players with personal reasons to be out and about can often be easily directed toward the plot with a dangling carrot.

Additional Resources and Inspiration

If you're going to be running a game that takes place out in the open world, and your PCs are going to be doing a great deal of traveling, then I would suggest checking out some of the following supplements for extra inspiration!

- 100 Random Taverns: One of my bestselling supplements, it's gone Electrum at time of writing. Whether you need a sports bar hung with regalia of tourney knights, a clockwork brewery, or a hole-in-the-wall run by kobolds, this supplement has you covered!

- 10 Fantasy Villages: Whether you need a place for your PC to be from, or you need unique locations for the party to stop in, this supplement has everything you need. Maps, histories, rumors, notable places, NPCs, and more can be found between these pages.

- 100 Encounters in a Fey Forest: Traveling through a fey forest is a unique kind of danger... people who are actually from such places might be seen as touched in the head by the rest of the world. For those looking for specific lists there's both a Pathfinder Classic version as well as a DND 5E version.

- 100 Encounters For on The Road or in The Wilderness: From road construction, to guard patrols, to mating wolves, and strange discoveries, there's no reason your PCs should ever have a dull moment when getting from point A to point B. And like the previous supplement this one comes in both a Pathfinder Classic version as well as a DND 5E version.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Fluff post!

For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my alley cat thriller Marked Territory, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my recent short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

That One Time I Single-Handedly Screwed Up a Vampire/Changeling Crossover Event

In addition to being a regular tabletop player, I'm usually down for a good LARP (before we were surviving a global pandemic, anyway), and though Changeling: The Lost was always my favorite game to attend, the organization I was part of also ran Vampire: The Requiem games. Since they were often held on the same day, in the same location, I tended to stick around and just make a full day out of it.

This is a tale of how I unknowingly turned myself into a monkey wrench, and screwed up something like 6 months worth of behind-the-scenes setup and planning with little more than malice, and a phone call.

When the stranger calls, nothing good will happen.

For those who are curious, this game was run using the Chronicles of Darkness Mind's Eye Theatre system, and all of those books are currently for sale in a bundle on Drive Thru RPG! Also, for those who don't want to miss any of my further updates, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my freshest content sent straight to your inbox.

And now, on with the story...

The Doctor and The Monster

One of my favorite character archetypes to play is an homage to Jekyll and Hyde, and for the vampire game I'd had Dr. Henry Marks approved by the organization. Henry had the unique mutation of the Malkovian bloodline, and he would have occasional black outs where he couldn't remember what had been happening. A clinical psychiatrist, his creator had hoped that his knowledge would be a boon to understanding what had gone wrong within the bloodline, and how they could fix it. Quickly recruited into the Ordo Dracul, Henry spent his every waking hour attempting to understand the nuances and limitations of the unlife he found himself living.

Edward, on the other hand, had his own perverse interest in Henry's work. For while Henry wouldn't acknowledge him, Edward peered from behind Henry's eyes. He took the findings of the doctor, and applied them to his (often brutal) activities.

Murder is so banal... I call it "field research".

If this unlikely duo sounds familiar, it's because I told a story about them several months back in That One Time I Shocked Storytellers By Solving Vampire Plot With Violence.

A Strange Set of Circumstances

Henry and Edward had been doing their bloody dance for some time when a strange phenomenon began to occur in the city. The Elysium, which was typically safeguarded mystically as well as physically, had been... exposed. The protections that typically kept them hidden in plain sight had vanished. That was distressing in and of itself, but what prompted Henry to call it an early evening while Edward shouldered himself into the driver's seat was that the sheriff and his staff seemed completely indifferent to the massive hole in the Elysium's security.

Which is why Edward decided to have a bit of fun.

The first thing he did, just to test the limits, was to Obfuscate his way into the Elysium. This normally would have been prevented by the wards, but since they were down it allowed him to start some minor mischief. Mostly just to amuse himself, and to see just how lethargic the guards were. He kept escalating, but there was no push back of any kind. No one told him to stop... or attempted to make him stop.

That was frustrating, but since I had to call it an early night to drive back home, I laid down one last card. Elysium that night was being held in one of Chicago's museums in a private party. The theme was a murder mystery, but vampires being vampires they were using real blood, and authentic body parts. It was a grisly scene... and Edward simply dropped a quarter and made a call to the police from one of the museum's few remaining pay phones. He told the police there were bodies, blood everywhere, and maybe two dozen people; hard to tell if they were the killers, witnesses, or something else. He gave the address, then hung up the phone and walked into the night laughing at his own practical joke.

The Massive (Unexpected) Fallout

Because this was a Vampire game, and several players had their characters in the city's influence circles, I had assumed this last trick would be a minor inconvenience. Someone would get a phone call tipping them off that the cops were inbound, the gathered kindred could put together a plan, and either bribe, bully, or use their unique powers to "convince" the police it was all a false alarm. Just someone trying to cause trouble. A little evening excitement, but nothing more.

Hoo boy was I wrong on that score.

What do you mean that was a load-bearing plot?

It seems that, despite the amount of opulent wealth and underworld ties among the kindred populace, none of them had actually bought and paid for the police. None of them owned the district attorney's office, and it seemed none of them had the proper disciplines or skill set to take a handful of mortal cops (tooled up for a raid as they were), and bend their minds to seeing things the kindreds' way.

So what should have been a minor inconvenience blew up the entire venue for the night!

A handful of kindred actually surrendered, going to jail for several hours. Others fled, using their disciplines to shift forms and escape the net closing around the museum. All in all, about half the venue got away and reconvened elsewhere, forming a plan to spring the rest out of jail before the sun came up and seriously complicated things for maintaining the masquerade.

But that was only a part of what was going on.

Unbeknownst to me, the heads of the Vampire and Changeling venues had been trying to work out some crossover plot for months at that point. The irregularities in the protections of Elysium was one of the signs of the two spheres coming too close to one another and causing disruptions. There were upcoming plots that were planned for Changeling that involved the museums, weak points between reality and the Hedge, and agents of the true fae... and those were going to bleed over (pun very much intended) into Vampire.

Or at least they were going to, until I unknowingly set the charges and blew all that up with a touch of chaos.

Lessons Learned

As I've said before, communication is the most important part of running a game... doubly so for running LARPs where there are multiple storytellers and all kinds of plot plates spinning on sticks. And from what I heard in the post-action from the ST staff, one reason everything slid so far out of control was that not everyone was briefed on what was happening, so they didn't know they were supposed to be trying to preserve this scene to act as the linchpin for the plan... and by the time I'd unknowingly kicked the plan in the nuts, it was too late to ret con it without causing even further problems.

I would like to believe that had all storytellers been given a briefing on the import of that night's planned events, then the NPC who took my call at the police station would have just rolled their eyes, and written it off as a prank call. Maybe sent around a single squad car to poke around before filing it away as a false report. As a player, I would have been more than all right with an action that would have been hugely disruptive getting set aside if it meant the big plan could come to fruition that evening.

Looking back on it, this is one of the only actions I wish I hadn't taken during that chronicle. Because I was one of the most vocal players about how crossover games would be great... and nobody took me aside and told me to keep my hands in my pockets for an evening to make that happen. So storytellers, be advised, don't play things too close to the chest if you want to avoid problems; keeping folks on the same page is important for getting the game to progress in the direction you're hoping.

What's Next on Table Talk?

That's it for this installment of Table Talk! Hopefully other folks learn a lesson or two from this one.

For more of my work, check out my Vocal archives, as well as the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio where I help out from time to time. Or, to check out books like my hard-boiled cat noir novel Marked Territory, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my recent short story collection The Rejects, head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter, as well as on Pinterest where I'm building all sorts of boards dedicated to my books, RPG supplements, and greatest hits. Lastly, to help support me and my work, consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron! Even a little donation can have a big impact.

Want To Get Your Character Involved in Plot? Remember Rule 303

One of the biggest issues I've seen around a gaming table is actually getting characters involved in the unfolding plot. Typically once everyone finds a reason to get involved, or a plot hook they're comfortable biting on, the game will be off to the races... but sometimes getting over that early hurdle can be a frustration.

For GMs and players alike.

Ogre raids? Sounds like a whole lot of not my problem.

That's why this week I'd like to introduce a concept that can really help make a game go more smoothly. Some folks might be familiar with it, but for those who aren't the term is Rule 303.

For those looking for another useful term, check out "Force Multiplication" is a Useful Idea For RPGs. And to make sure you don't miss out on any of my releases, consider signing up for my weekly newsletter!

Means, Opportunity, and Responsibility

The short version, according to Beau of The Fifth Column, is that Rule 303 means that if you have the means to hand, and the ability to help, then that implies you have a duty to get yourself involved in a situation. The term sees a lot of use among military contractors, as well as active duty folks, but you can apply it much more broadly than just in the profession of arms. If you see someone choking in a restaurant, and you know the Heimlich maneuver, you go over and help them expel the blockage. If you're a tall person and you see someone shorter struggling to reach a top shelf, you offer to get the thing down for them.

If you're a musclebound barbarian with a greatsword, and you're on-hand when bugbears are raiding the countryside, you unsheathe that beast and go to work.

Something else to remember is that this trait can manifest itself in a variety of different ways. For example, a character might be genuinely altruistic, and their desire to help people means they can't just walk on by if there's a serious problem that they have the means to fix. A character might be getting involved because it's a good excuse to show off, or because they think there could be a reward in it for them. It might coincide with a vow they took, or a core tenet of their faith.

At the end of the day, though, the player should ask themselves the first two questions of the formula. Because if you have the means to help, and you have the ability to help, then that suggests you also have the responsibility to get yourself involved in whatever nonsense is going down. Justification beyond that can't hurt, but if you jump in with both feet it makes the game go a lot smoother for everyone concerned.

And for those who are looking for some inspiration for characters who may have sworn oaths, accepted contracts, or who are simply part of an organization that would make them getting involved in solving problems easier for you to spin as a player, you might find some inspiration in some of my following supplements:

- 100 Random Mercenary Companies: From disciplined ranks of sellswords, to free-wheeling soldiers of fortune, those who want to embody the origins of Rule 303 can find plenty of inspiration in these free companies.

- 100 Knightly Orders: Whether you're a protector of the realm, or you're a wandering knight errant seeking to help the needy and protect the weak, this collection is full of orders you can swear your service to.

- 100 Secret Societies: The world at large doesn't need to know why you're helping out in this matter. And if you want to have a little cloak-and-dagger fun, these secret societies are always a ball to add into your history, and your game.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my cat noir thriller Marked Territory, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!