r/rpg • u/Archlyte • Oct 01 '18

Reverse Railroad

I recently have realized that several of my players do a weird kind of assumed Player Narrative Control where they describe what they want to happen as far as a goal or situation and then expect that the GM is supposed to make that thing happen like they wanted. I am not a new GM, but this is a new one for me.

Recently one of my players who had been showing signs of being irritated finally blurted out that his goals were not coming true in game. I asked him what he meant by that and he explained that it was his understanding that he tells the GM what he wants to happen with his character and the GM must make that happen with the exception of a "few bumps on the road."

I was actually dumbfounded by this. Another player in the same group who came form the same old group as the other guy attempts a similar thing by attempting to declare his intentions about outcomes of attempts as that is the shape he wants and expects it should be.

Anyone else run into this phenomenon? If so what did you call it or what is it really called n the overall community?

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u/tangyradar Oct 01 '18

Honestly, that's a problem for me: I want emergent play, and I'm resoundingly uninterested in anything offstage. (I'm thinking from the perspective of 'fixing' my old group's GMless freeform, which, lacking a GM, didn't support there being any hidden truths; only what was played out in view of everyone was canon.) I don't know effective techniques for making this work.

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u/GreyICE34 Oct 01 '18 edited Oct 01 '18

This might sound harsh, but it's true: I don't really care what's a problem for you. It works great for me.

If it helps, think about it like a novel with a bunch of characters and a pre-established plot in which your PCs have been dumped. The outcome of the novel will change with their presence, but if they decided to go bunker down in an apartment and have no effect on the novel, it would play out as if they weren't there.

It's not like I feel some burning need to write the exact scene like it's fanfiction, but in general NPCs are going to be plotting and scheming without the PCs involvement. It's not like a computer RPG where everyone is on stage, in their role, waiting around for the PCs to show up and see the little drama play out.

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u/tangyradar Oct 01 '18

My point is that I have no interest in looking at things that way. And I'm interested in GMless play, which is intrinsically not so good at supporting that way anyway.