Player Strategies

What has four feet in the morning, two at noon
and three at night?

Do you have players who sometimes over think a way out of the mess they've gotten themselves into? I do. Sometimes I'm tempted to tell them to just relax and that they're way overclocking their little brain cells on a situation that may look complex but really isn't. Sometimes it isn't even a matter of over thinking, sometimes it's a matter of coming up with the wrong solution and becoming absolutely stone-walled when that sure fire solution doesn't work out. Over thinking seems to be a common foible for which their are few immediate solutions.

I hate to say it but I'm generally of no help. I always resist the temptation to tell the players to relax or that a situation is simpler than it looks. It isn't sadism on my part, though I must admit to enjoyment of player perplexity at times. No, I feel that pointing out that a situation is simpler than it looks is the equivalent of having the players take a peak at the man behind the curtain, as it were. You break the illusion for just a moment which I find wholly undesirable. I have found two ways of dealing with this situation: the rules and a little bit of judicious (but plausible) redirection.

In the first case, the rules themselves can often help redirect the players toward a better solution. We recently had a situation in which the trap door to an underground dungeon was covered over by heavy logs. No amount of strength or magic was really going to move them. The bad guys had them trapped. They had a lot going for them though. They had an entire cavern full of water and an endless source of food. So, starving the characters out, thus breaking the siege wasn't really an option. There was also a small chimney leading to the surface, a way out for players with the right resources (i.e. a small sized character or shrinking magic). However, the first thing they tried was to burn their way out which I countered with the smoke inhalation rules, though I did allow some progress through the thick wood. Eventually a diminutive character did make her way to the surface via the chimney and extricate the rest of the party through negotiation instead, which made the whole situation far more dangerous and exciting than a mere test of fire versus impenetrable entrapment. As a matter of fact, blasting their way out would have been fatal. Fortunately, simply drowning the party (their barbarian more specifically) in smoke did the trick.

Sometimes though, players are so hard headed and their aren't many rules for dealing with that. So, a little bit of judicious redirection is what's needed instead. I said there aren't many rules, but there is one: Perception checks. You could allow a Perception check to allow characters to notice things that went unnoticed before. However, you run the risk of the dice playing against you. Sometimes it's just better to do the old school thing and say the party notices something they didn't notice before. It's smoother, you've broken no illusions and the players can be assured that it was obvious on second glance, no one the wiser.

There is one more way to deal with the hard headed mistaken strategies players sometimes pursue, though I hesitate to mention it because it's no fun and that's to remove things from play that your players will most assuredly misunderstand or get entirely wrong. There is a place for this solution though. First, know your players. If you know they can't handle a "complex game" then you should work to simplify or soften situations that will absolutely stone wall play. Riddles are often one of those traditional game objects that stop players in their tracks when they simply don't know the answer. In this case, remove or replace them with something more palatable. Remember that challenge is the goal not frustration, but don't remove the challenge altogether unless there's no other way. Players should have to squirm and struggle some though or the game can get dull in a hurry.

By using these little game master tricks you can keep your game moving or start it moving again when it stalls due to player over thinking.