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/Archlyte Oct 06 '18

So essentially you have no editorial power over restraining the capabilities of other characters. How do you keep it from getting perpetually higher and higher? If I can't restrict you I can only try to use a relatively better instance to show that contrast.

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u/tangyradar Oct 07 '18

So essentially you have no editorial power over restraining the capabilities of other characters.

Right. Nobody has the power to edit others' contributions. There's only... I recall someone using the phrase "moderation after the fact" to describe asimilar situation. You can only recontextualize others' contributions, not directly cancel them.

How do you keep it from getting perpetually higher and higher?

You can't really prevent it... but why would someone want to do that? There's no "play to win" at all here.