Ask The GMs: PC Choices and Consequences
How can you make the players feel like their actions have an impact on the world?
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Mike’s Answer: Every stone makes ripples in the pond
The title of this answer says it all very succinctly – everything the PCs do ultimately has an impact on the game world, or it should. Nothing occurs in isolation; it always has a context, and it is impossible to observe an event without interacting with it – and that interaction has consequences that the context defines.
Even if your campaign is nothing but a series of dungeon crawls in which the party invades some collection of lairs and kills or drives off the inhabitants, it does not exist in isolation. The (intelligent) escapees are far more likely to get out, and will spread word of the prowess of the party; when they enter a subsequent dungeon, they will be recognised and NPCs/intelligent creatures will react – either with stronger and more determined attacks that are targeted against the PCs known or imagined vulnerabilities, or by setting up traps to delay the party while the monsters sneak out the back door – with their loot, thank you very much – and go somewhere else.
Eventually, alliances will be forged with the sole purpose of curbing this danger, and acts will become more desperate and dangerous; kobolds will summon devils and pledge themselves to dark service if the devils will only deal with this terrible threat.
The next step up in campaign sophistication is to have the PCs interact with someone outside the dungeon in some limited way – they might stay at inns, buy products and services, sell unwanted goodies, and so on. The people they trade with will do their best to operate at a profit, so some of them will grow rich, and some of those who do will start doing things with their money.
Other businesses of the type the PCs are dealing with will spring up in competition with those already established; established businesses will trade hands; businessmen will start dabbling with political ambitions; others will oppose these newcomers, and may even target the PCs that are the source of all this wealth (since money equals power); some traders will get greedy, and try to gouge the PCs. There will be people who want a share of the wealth, earned or otherwise, either as an act of charity, or from an act of deception. Initially, these will be local effects, but in time they will grow.
A further step in sophistication, and dungeons begin to fade or even vanish as a source of adventures. The PCs get involved in local politics and whole scenarios take place above ground. Instead of being sources of great wealth per se, the PCs become the world’s problem solvers, dealing with Orc Raiding Parties and Thieves Guilds and Corrupt Nobles and so on.
Always, the trend here is for bigger campaign worlds and more involvement with the bigger picture – and that means bigger and splashier consequences. Ultimately, at higher levels, a careless word can influence commodity markets and political systems. Some people will become self-appointed champions of the ’causes’ the PCs espouse, and some of them will go too far. The PCs will be treated like rock stars, and everybody knows that they never have problems!
Determining the consequences
Every action has someone beyond the PCs who benefits, and someone who is disadvantaged. There will be those who agree with what the PCs have done and those who don’t. There will be those who want to take advantage of what the PCs have done, and those who want to stop them, and those who want to take revenge for past acts. And always, there will be the growing reputation and wealth to consider.
Identify all of these, decide how they would go about trying to achieve those goals, and then look at how these NPC actions will impact the PCs. Because nothing shows players that their characters are having an impact on the world better than the world having an impact on the PCs.
Revealing the consequences
Not all of the consequences will have a direct affect on the PCs. Not all of them will make an immediate difference. Sometimes, the relationship between cause and effect will be distant and obscure.
The most immediate impacts should be fairly obvious, and might even be mundane or trivial. If a character buys a meal from a particular trader on their way to the dungeon and tips well, there might be two or three traders offering the same meal when he emerges. The following trip, there are half-a-dozen traders, and they start elbowing each other and fighting amongst themselves to be in the best position.
The time after that, the trader that the PC has bought from most often has a sign up describing his wares as the PC’s favorites. The time after that, and that business has expanded, and put on more staff, and people start going to that establishment to meet the PC. The time after that, and a number of rival businesses have closed, and one that’s struggling has hired someone to burn down the ‘favored business’.
The time after that, and security guards have been added and the PC has a ‘reserved section’ just for him. A bard tries to curry favour by forcible serenading the character with a song he’s written about his favorite food. The time after that, and a rival ambushes the PC. The time after that, a punk kid looking to make a reputation shows up to challenge the PC. The time after that, and the businessman is complaining about all the tax increases that have been aimed at his business since it has become so prosperous. The time after that, perhaps some ‘businessmen’ are insisting that the merchant join their ‘insurance’ scam. The time after that, and a young female shows up, insisting that the PC is the father of her child. And on and on and on….
You might have to spell it out the first time for the PC, but it will soon become a running gag within the campaign, and something that the players will even look forward to – especially if you (usually) play it as not-quite-deadly-serious, or even outright as light relief.
The more distant and obscure the relationship between action and reaction, the more the GM has to sell the relationship to the PCs. If that means that the NPC involved has to spell it out (“You didn’t really think that you could interfere with the Brewer’s Alliance and get away with it, did you? Selling the Flask Of Never-ending Amber Fluid was the last straw…”), then that’s what he should do.
It only takes a couple of running gags and a persistent background ‘hum’ of other consequences, and the players will have absolutely no doubt that they are having an impact. With more experience and practice at it, you will start seeing these consequences as ‘blatantly obvious’ and start linking them together to form a more substantial structure:
- Act 1
- Consequence 1 of Act 1
- Consequence 2 of Act 1, plus Reaction 1 to Consequence 1…
… and so on, while at the same time, you also have
- –
- Act 2
- Consequence 1 of Act 2
… and so on again, each act adding ripples of consequence and reaction until the accumulated effects completely alter the campaign.
Keeping It Practical
The easiest way to keep all this practical is to let those consequences and reactions that don’t offer the GM interesting opportunities to affect the campaign fade away into insignificance. Limit the scope of the effects according to their level of interest to you, in other words.
The more groups you have predefined, the easier it is to run down the list and pick out those that are most likely to have an interest in any given PC act; if you also keep that list fairly generic but pick out one or two specific example(s) to take action, you start populating the world with specific groups with the potential to interact with the PCs.
Some of these groups will appear, do their thing, and then vanish, never to be heard from again; but the outcome of that confrontation will start its own ripples. Other groups might become a persistent thorn in the PCs sides, or a piece of omnipresent campaign colour, if more ideas about how to use them come to mind. I’ll generally put any group to one side once I’m finished with it, but every now and then I’ll run over the list of such groups to see if any new ideas for using them occur to me.
The Effect On Campaign Design
When most GMs first start to design campaigns, they set up a magnificent structure with everything predefined and predestined and packaged and labelled and in it’s place. They then can’t bear to see their grand plans fail to come to fruition, and the result is a series of plot trains.
With more experience at consequences, and a little more thought, A GM can learn to design campaigns that are like supersaturated solutions – campaigns that consist of nothing but opportunities for the PCs to cause someone to react in an interesting manner, to cause something to crystallise out. The campaign itself becomes an environmental landscape, a backdrop against which the choices of the players and the characters that they control define the adventures that will take place. Every action, and every failure to act, simply defines a future scenario. And every such scenario brings with it new opportunities to act, or fail to act…
Johnn’s Answer
How can you make the players feel like their actions have an impact on the world?
Whew, that’s a big question. As Mike alluded to, I would decide right now if you are a hard core world builder. If you have the time and passion for extensive world design, then I would take a simulation approach to this question.
Build a detailed world
To know what impact the PCs will have you need to know what there is to impact. In the simulation approach, you need to build up the details of your world to create an inventory of potential consequences for PC actions.
Go play the Civilization video game for several hours. Get a feel for the rhythms of change and what types of things change. See how the physical, political, and economic worlds change. Watch how cities change. Look at the impact of technology and world wonders.
After playing Civ for awhile, look at your own world through the same lens. Get out your maps of civilized areas and see how they might interact. Look at your pantheons and see how they interact. Get a grasp of the economics and resources of your world and determine how things are currently balanced.
With the big picture stuff out of the way (I brushed over a lot of stuff there – quest for more world building advice online) focus on the adventuring area. Put detail into the power structure: authority, resources and wealth, military and muscle, the leaders and power brokers.
Then use a local area world building process to flesh out the adventuring area so you will know what is in play and at stake when the PCs start to create their ripples and waves.
You should also check out resources such as A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe to help build the pond the PCs are in.
Stick with what is in the spotlight
If you are not a hard core world builder, because it does not interest you or you do not have time, then you should narrow planning down to the pond the PCs are playing in. Forget the ocean.
Pick two notable events and one minor event
After each session note the events that occurred in the game. Key in on events that involve the outside world – NPCs, locations, items.
For example, last session the PCs in my game had some intra-party conflict. A cursed sword and barbaric code is causing one PC to descend into madness, and the savage warrior and civilized wizard nearly came to blows. However, all events were contained within the party. So, the world does not need to react to this. Perhaps if an NPC was spying on the PCs and he reported back to his master, then the world might indeed react to this information. But that wasn’t the case.
With a list of events in hand, pick two significant ones and a seemingly insignificant one. Figure out cause and effect for just these three events. If you have time you could tangle with more events the PCs were involved in, but three gives you a nice number.
Use the 5 Ws
As discussed in a recent issue of Roleplaying Tips, take each event and run it through a series of questions using Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How. Write down ideas that come to mind.
Use encounters to broadcast changes
Interacting with repercussions is the best way to show the PCs how they are having an effect in the game world. Turn answers to your 5 W questions into encounter seeds. Run encounters as they trigger.
If encounters do not trigger then let some expire (see Close loops quickly, below). Let others merge into new encounter seeds (i.e. the situations evolve and develop without further PC interference).
Use NPCs to broadcast changes
Within encounters, the best way to communicate how the PCs have changed the world is through NPCs. Through NPC interactions you can bring the full range of consequences, emotions, and gameplay options into effect. NPCs, by their nature, are interactive.
For example, if the PCs cause a fire you could certainly use that location for future encounters. First encounter you describe the ruins. Second encounter there you describe early repairs. Third encounter a month later you describe the new building and the new warning sign.
However, those situations become much more interesting if PCs meet the victim(s) of the fire and interact with them. In the second encounter PCs could meet onlookers and repairmen. Third encounter PCs meet the victims again plus the new bouncer or guard or city watch. Each of these NPC interactions can illuminate the suffering and cost of the fire the PCs caused, where conversation, combat, and puzzles are all possible encounter elements.
Use NPCs to show players the effect they are having on the setting.
Use reputation
An easy technique for creating a reactive world is reputation. Have word of PC actions and descriptions precede them in encounters. Have NPCs call them by name before introductions are made. Have NPCs act based on gossip, news and opinion received before ever meeting the PCs.
Generate sycophants, rivals and enemies
Bring in new NPCs – or even better, have known NPCs change their relationship with the PCs – to be rivals, enemies, and people who seek to gain personal advantage from their relationship to the player characters. Generate these relationships because of events and PC actions. Be sure to illustrate this via roleplay and encounters.
Close loops quickly
If you are using the spotlight method, keep changes happening quickly and be done with their effects just as quickly. If you want extended repercussions, and layered consequences, then I advise moving toward more of a world building approach.
The PCs will be doing so many things each session, on average, that you will not be able to keep up with all the causes and effects, especially if you carry over a lot from previous situations. Resolve things quick and move on to the next three actions you choose to act upon between sessions.
Those are a few tips for making players feel like they are making an impact on the world. Hopefully they help.
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October 29th, 2009 at 11:51 am
Wow, no comments yet? Fantastic article, guys. I think Mike hit the nail on the head with “…nothing shows players that their characters are having an impact on the world better than the world having an impact on the PCs.” So very true!
I find that the most fun indications of effects are small ones: An innkeeper remembering my character and waving in acknowledgement; a grateful farmer having named his son after a PC; an article of equipment incorporated into a statue or memorial in a small village; etc.
Those things make it all come together for me. It doesn’t have to be world altering or in my face. It’s the little things that allow me to feel as though I have an impact.
.-= Rafe´s last blog ..Abstract Wealth =-.
October 29th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
This is going into my DM binder…
My previous DM was real good at this. I had a sorcerer who was known to be a gigantic pain in the arse with all of his battlefield control spells. So in response to that, the DM painted a target on my back. All the intelligent enemies who encountered the party and had heard of us knew to take me out first, as fast as possible, and by any means necessary. Whenever the enemies thought we might be coming, or even in the area, there were traps EVERYWHERE custom-tailored for me. The last half of that campaign I spent at least as much spell slots trying to survive each day as I did contributing to the fight. Though if you think about it, drawing most of the enemy fire while the rest of the party works is still technically contributing… I must say that this made my experience as a player that much better.
October 29th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
Thanks for the kudos, guys, and for the ‘real-game’ example, Robert. Yes, absolutely, drawing the bulk of the enemy fire is contributing; what’s more, it lets you play your character while giving the other PCs the tactical options to show off what they can do.
October 30th, 2009 at 12:23 am
I always try to do this kind of stuff. One time, the sorcerer used a Love Potion with a ship Captain. The man was married and confused, but still tried to follow his “heart” any way. He named a small fort after the Sorcerer and when the Socerer couldn’t get what he wanted (some official permission) from the Captain, he made a dramatic scene. “but… why!?? DON’T YOU LOVE ME!?” (cries and runs).
Following day, they found out that the Captain committed suicide. Since that moment no one let the Sorcerer in charge of the potions.
.-= Soulnova´s last blog ..yoski_soulnova: A very good option for Mars colonization: CAVES http://bit.ly/lgC1J =-.
October 30th, 2009 at 3:13 am
I’m a big proponent of the “Living World” method of campaign handling. I list all the major factions the PCs should have heard of(and significant NPC groups that player will have major interaction with), and flesh them out just enough detail (I’m also a proponent of “Just-in-time GMing” aka “Don’t do more campaign prep than you expect to need, plus a safety margin”) to be able to assign each one major “Fundamental objective” and three “project” goals. I deliberately set this up so groups and factions have conflicting goals (this makes the generation of rumours and NPCs even easier). Then the PCs start campaigning. They hear about conflicts between groups and factions: their actions, reactions, progress and failure. They hear about (or even get caught up in) events that are local, regional and/or national. This goes on even if they don’t choose to intervene. BUT (and this is the point) some of their actions *will* interfere with factions goals and change their plans (you need to note the change down : what, sho decided, date, what this makes them feel about the PCs…), thus the PCs hear “echos” of the consequences of their actions, which can inspire them to further action. These interactions show the players that they are influencing the world, which they appreciate greatly, and provide the GM with a easy supply of:
– campaign news/rumours and evolutions;
– scenario springboards;
– Ideas for scenarios;
– NPC conversational gambits;
– new rivalries and alliances;
… and so much more that the PCs can interact with!
I repeat : take notes of the changes of faction/group plans, and activities!
N.B. Some factions are never prepared more than a few paragraphs of flavor text, ressource parameters and names of significant members. That’s all it takes to kick this off. Except a coherent vision of your campaign world and a list of the factions in it, of course, but thats something for another day :)
Hmmm… I think I’ll add this one to my blog….
November 1st, 2009 at 1:24 pm
@Robert – sounds like an awesome campaign and great GM.
@Loz – you and Mike think alike. http://www.campaignmastery.com/blog/the-power-to-choose/
Great tip about giving each faction an intro to the players. Sometimes too much fog of war in a campaign is detrimental.
November 1st, 2009 at 1:59 pm
“you and Mike think alike”
Hmm, yes, I read that post and agreed with it a great deal :)
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:10 am
Great article. In my campaigns, I like to have consequences if the group decides to take an extended rest in the middle of a story arc… for example, the undead invasion they are battling may take over the rest of the town while they sleep for the night :] It makes them think about conserving their resources and start realizing that life goes on even without the party there!
November 3rd, 2009 at 3:02 pm
I remember when I had gotten up to a reasonably high level in one game where the main bad guy up until that point (a Lich) had been defeated, and brought (back) to the side of good… but there was one thing that my character didn’t count on. There was still a shadowy presence (never really found out “who”) controlling things from safety. One of the original party members, a paladin, had a “helm of opposite alignment” slapped on his head and became the new main bad guy. The GM started a new game with him as the new bad guy, so there was a shift in power, but in a sense, not really because the paladin (basically) picked up where the Lich had left off, keeping in effect all the power structures from before. My (old) character was reluctant to fight his former commrade (probably with just cause because he knew how powerful he was — but shortly thereafter the DM ended the game, so I don’t know if my old character would’ve made guest appearances to help the party out or what)
November 3rd, 2009 at 8:42 pm
@Ray – PC who sleep through an invasion should wake up in the goal. :)
@James – nice twist!
January 1st, 2014 at 7:00 am
I think one fundamental thing that isn’t mentioned, and is especially helpful for newer GMs is that the PCs at lower level are pretty much nobodies, or at the most, promising neophytes. Their impact on the world should be very local at first, outside of any organization/villain that they directly inconvenience by their early actions. This gives time for the “ripples” to build, and tension to develop. If you have the low level characters impact too much, too quickly, you handcuff yourself as to where you go next.
Example, the PCs stop an orc/goblin/kobold or other low level mob group from overrunning a town. The local town is very grateful. As a follow up, the PCs are going to root out the humanoids leader, and try to disperse any large group. Easy stuff, all local.
However, if there is someone in the town that wanted the attack to succeed; say a person who is a rival of the local magistrate, or better yet, a pawn of a larger organization wanting to put the rival in place of the local magistrate, they’ve thwarted a minor ploy, but it gets them on the organizations radar, even if the PCs don’t know it. Now they have the rival working at cross purposes, again locally, but a “ripple” that is bigger than the local story.
As the PCs level, you can start to reveal larger scope (regional, national, etc) elements, but should have them be a step ahead, so the PCs are always looking for the next plot, or the person behind it all. They reap the rewards in the area they are in, but the next larger area is already moving against them.
In one campaign, my archvillain was an ancient blue dragon, who was looking for a way to achieve lichdom. Through a vast network he kept the party chasing. Up until the very end, wwhen I loosed a dragon on them, who had a network on a national level. They were expecting a human mage.
January 1st, 2014 at 1:25 pm
All good advice, Patrick, even if it doesn’t directly address the primary question of how the GM can make the players feel that their characters are making a difference. Ultimately, that difference is expressed by the degree to which enemies have to change their plans to accommodate or allow for the PCs presence. Those changes can be as straightforward as sending someone to try and stomp them back into last week (fairly early on) or it can mean a major deception campaign to get the PCs looking in the wrong direction, later on, or even the abandonment or delay of a planned course of action simply because the PCs stumble to it too quickly. Nor should this factor apply only to the bad guy; simply the suggestion that the PCs would oppose a measure (whether they actually would or not) could be enough to at least give neutral or allied organizations pause, or send a negotiator to try and work out a deal.