[Twilight Time] Challenging Your Players

[Heather Grove]

August 26, 2002 - Challenging Your Players
Volume 3, Issue 12

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Good morning!

It's a long article today, so I'll keep the intro short. We're 
starting another interesting article series on the web site - like the 
Masks of Lady Eva, it's a series of game material articles. Unlike the 
Masks, it has somewhat broader use. If people continue to like these 
series, we'll keep producing them! (As usual, you'll find links to new 
web articles down below this zine article.)

I'm afraid there are only two articles on the web site this time, due 
to illness, but at least I got the zine article out on time. I also 
finally got a new link checker, so I've started to update links around 
the web site. I'm not done yet, but I'm making progress!

Have a great afternoon,
Heather

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Challenging Your Players

Copyright 2002 by Heather Grove and Jeffrey Howard

In a recent issue we talked about ways to make sure that it's always 
possible for your player characters (PCs) to defeat the villains in 
your game. This time we tackle the opposite problem - finding ways to 
challenge clever players and powerful PCs. Under some categories I'll 
include a "Fatal Flaw." If you find that villains who follow these 
suggestions become *too* difficult to defeat, make use of the flaw to 
tone things down a little.


Smart Opponents

There's no reason your villains can't use their heads. They can make 
plans, use tactics, think strategically, watch their backs, and so on. 
Find one of those "if I were an Evil Overlord" lists floating around 
the internet and take a few notes. Look carefully through your plans 
for the villain for "stupid villain tricks" - i.e., dumb things that 
villains tend to do simply because it's traditional for villains to 
think in certain ways.

For example, instead of creating a villain who's a brooding loner, 
make a friendly, charismatic villain who has plenty of friends and 
allies willing to help him out. Instead of creating a villain who's 
content to lure the good guys into his lair where they can kill him, 
have him be proactive and send flunkies out to kill the party.

Scrutinize all of your villain's plans with this single question in 
mind: "is he doing something dumb for no good reason?"

FATAL FLAW: A villain doesn't have to be stupid in order to have 
weaknesses. Everyone has a blind spot somewhere; everyone makes 
mistakes. Just make it something unusual, that requires a little 
research and ingenuity to take advantage of.


Adaptable Opponents

A smart opponent adapts. This means that if your players come up with 
an unbalancing advantage, the enemy can come up with a way to counter 
or reduce that advantage. I remember once hearing someone talk about 
how his party came up with "the unbeatable tactic" - shooting out 
opponents' eyes so that they got horrible penalties to their actions. 
An adaptable villain could counter this easily by giving his people 
durable goggles, helmets with narrow eye-slits, or spells that protect 
against missile weapons. Or he could say, "hey, that's a great idea!" 
and turn it around on the party.

FATAL FLAW: Your PCs can use this same tactic against the villain. 
Allow them to research *his* weapons, subordinates, and strategies.


Opponents That Use Spies & Listen to Rumors

Too many villains operate in a vacuum, without knowledge of party 
tactics and foibles. Allow your villain to use spies and listen to 
rumors. Have him take advantage of party weaknesses, and make plans to 
counter oft-used party strategies. For instance, if a villain finds 
out about a PC's drug addiction, he can use it to his advantage (cut 
off the PC's supply, blackmail the PC, lace his drugs with something). 
If the party isn't careful to keep its powerful weapons and strategies 
secret, then the villain can devise his own strategies to counter 
them, research their weaknesses, or find things against which those 
weapons or strategies will be useless.

A villain who pays attention to the party's actions can try to stay 
one step ahead of them.

FATAL FLAW: Not all rumors are 100% accurate. The villain might have 
gotten a fact wrong somewhere.

CAUTION: Giving the villain too much information about the PCs can 
make it feel as though the game master (GM) is the true villain - 
because the villain can start to feel as though he has access to the 
GM's head. Be sure to figure out exactly what is reasonable for the 
villain to uncover, and what isn't.


Monsters That Use Tactics

Don't just look up statistics for your monsters and then conduct 
combat willy-nilly. Have monsters use tactics and strategy when they 
fight. This can make them much harder to deal with. A couple of things 
to remember:

#1. Take intelligence into account when figuring out monster tactics. 
A really dumb monster isn't going to use sophisticated battle tactics. 
A really smart monster probably won't just bash someone over the head 
if there's a smarter tactic to try first.

#2. Take the monster's motivations, living conditions, and abilities 
into account when planning tactics. Monsters might use some pretty 
unusual tactics just because they make sense given what the monster 
wants from its victims, the sort of terrain the monster grew up in, or 
the unusual abilities the monster possesses.

FATAL FLAW: Item number two is the villain's fatal flaw as well as his 
salvation. Unexpected tactics due to a monster's needs or experiences 
might surprise the PCs, making things harder for them. Or those 
unexpected tactics might also have unexpected holes in them.


Adding Layers to Plots

If your PCs solve your plots too quickly, then try adding extra layers 
to them. The obvious revenge plot might just be a cover-up for a much 
more devious machination. I try not to refer you to television shows 
too often, just in case you can't see them where you are, but "Law & 
Order" is really the best example of this I've ever seen. So many 
times it seems like it's obvious who the killer is, and then one last 
piece of information falls into place and you realize it's someone 
else entirely. A couple of hints:

#1. Have multiple suspects for crimes, multiple people who had motive 
or opportunity, multiple things that could be going on.

#2. Include clues that are "split." In other words, one piece of 
information doesn't make sense, or at least doesn't point to the real 
culprit or scheme, until it's put together with another (separate) 
piece of information. That way you can reveal things in bits and pieces.

#3. Use clues that are time-dependent. A witness will wait three days 
to come forward because he doesn't read the newspaper and it'll take 
him a while to hear about the investigation. Forensic lab tests take 
time to conduct. This way, you can deliberately keep certain bits of 
information from coming together until later in the plot.

FATAL FLAW and CAUTION: Ideally, you want to have at least two 
different ways that any particular vital clue can make it into game. 
That way, if the PCs miss something, they aren't completely dead in 
the water (which can be really frustrating). Always have a back-up 
plan in case the PCs totally miss the "real" plot. For example, if 
they haven't stumbled on any of the clues you've laid and after a 
while they become frustrated, plan to have new information come 
forward (just make sure there's a good reason why it didn't come 
forward before).


Misdirection & Red Herrings

Use misdirection (clues that lead to incorrect conclusions) and red 
herrings (things that seem important but aren't) to complicate things, 
slow PCs down, distract them, and so on. Something that seems to be a 
vital clue in a case could be completely irrelevant - blood on a floor 
could belong to someone other than the murder victim. Someone who 
seems to be an obvious suspect in an investigation really has nothing 
to do with it - the man who brought the dying girl to the hospital and 
ran away from the scene really was just trying to help her.

Split clues (from the last section) are a great way to make use of 
misdirection. The first half of the clue seems to point in one 
direction, but when put together with another detail it points in 
another direction entirely. For instance, your PCs find out that a man 
was seen running away from the scene of the crime, and that makes him 
a suspect. Later, when searching for him, they find out that he's a 
reporter. They go to his apartment and find a message on his answering 
machine from that fatal night telling him that something news-worthy 
is going to happen in a certain warehouse, and he should bring his 
camera. Suddenly he isn't a suspect but rather a missing witness, and 
the voice on the answering machine is the new suspect.

FATAL FLAW and CAUTION: Always make sure that there's a way for the 
PCs to figure out that the misdirection or red herring isn't their 
perpetrator. If the blood isn't the murder victim's, then they need to 
have a way to find that out. If the man didn't commit the crime, then 
there have to be clues to that effect.


Listen to Your Players When They Talk In-Game

My favorite GM taught me this one: listen to your players. As they 
speculate about the fiendish plot you've wrapped them up in this time, 
they're likely to come up with things that are more twisted and 
paranoid than anything you could have thought of! Use that. Every now 
and then, grab one of those ideas and run with it.

Make sure to pay close attention to the discussion. If you're lucky, 
your players will sit there discussing which speculations are 
possible, which aren't, how they might determine whether or not a 
certain thing is going on, and so on. This helps you to figure out 
which paranoid creation of the players is viable, and what details you 
have to seed into the game to make it work. If you have a proactive 
set of players, they'll sit there telling you exactly what you need to 
know to make the plot work!

Try to change a few details here and there so you don't make things 
too easy on them.

FATAL FLAW: This one sort of has its own built-in fatal flaw. On the 
one hand, you can stay one step ahead of your players for a little 
while by listening to them. On the other hand, by picking something 
they've discussed, you can make sure you're picking something they 
have at least some idea how to investigate.

CAUTION #1: On the one hand, you can use this technique to draw out a 
stunning and well-paced discovery plot. On the other hand, some 
roleplayers feel very uncomfortable with the idea that their GM would 
change things on-the-go, even to make for a better game. Do what's 
right for your gaming group.

CAUTION #2: This tactic will work well with most roleplayers. However, 
there are a few people in every crowd who will use things to their 
advantage. If you have the kind of players who will use anything and 
everything to their advantage, then be very careful using this tactic. 
If they realize you're doing it, they might try to lead you in certain 
directions by talking about certain things. Or they might avoid 
talking about directions they don't want you to go in. In other words, 
use this trick now and then - not reliably. That should reduce the 
chance that your players will pick up on it or be able to use it 
against you.


Do the Unexpected

Once in a while, have your bad guys do something absolutely, totally 
unexpected! There are a couple of ways to go about this.

#1. If your bad guy is a fully-developed character, with hobbies, 
family, associates, foibles, and a childhood, then it should be easy 
to come up with things he cares about that would surprise the PCs.

#2. Think like a real person instead of a character in a game. Even 
bad guys go on vacations or search out weird presents for their mothers.

#3. Come up with something totally unexpected and figure out what your 
bad guy would do in that situation. If you read the newspaper and see 
that there's been a car accident, imagine that your bad guy gets into 
a car accident. If you're reading a novel and someone in that novel 
has a stroke, imagine that the bad guy's daughter has a stroke. Draw a 
tarot card from a shuffled deck; if you draw a card that discusses 
inheritance, then imagine the bad guy just inherited something special 
from a relative. What are the consequences? You can also apply this to 
other non-player characters (NPCs) - not just the bad guy. You can 
even apply it to the PCs!


Some Actions Have Consequences

In beating up the bad guys and stopping their evil plans, the good 
guys often have to do a lot of shady and not-quite-legal (or 
not-quite-nice) things. Take advantage of that. Every now and then, 
make sure their actions have consequences. Some of the possibilities:

*  Lawsuits
*  Jail time, fines, banishment, etc. (depending on the crime and the 
justice system)
*  Someone hurt by one of their plans becomes a later villain (vendettas)
*  They lose friends and resources due to their actions

But it can get weirder than that. What if a PC wants information from 
a druggie, and the informant won't talk unless the PC takes drugs with 
him? This could have all sorts of consequences: bad trips, addiction, 
flashbacks. The PC's good name or career could be ruined if someone 
found out; he could lose allies, or someone could blackmail him.

In other words, allow the PCs' own actions to complicate the game for 
them.

CAUTION: Don't overdo this. If you do, you can create a real problem 
for yourself. If every time the PCs do something they ruin their lives 
in some way, then eventually they won't want to get involved in plots 
for fear of things going wrong, and you no longer have a game.


Add Plot Complications

Not every obstacle in the PCs' path has to come from the bad guys, as 
the last section shows. Put problems in their way that have nothing to 
do with the villain (or which are only tangentially related to the 
villain). Maybe they need to acquire an item that isn't for sale and 
belongs to someone whose good will they require. Create plot 
complications that require the use of diplomacy, stealth, strategy, 
sacrifice, ingenuity, and so on. Here are some of the sorts of plot 
complications you might play with:

*  Moral quandaries
*  Personnel matters
	-Angry allies
	-Harried henchmen
	-Uncooperative but necessary contacts and allies
*  Limited resources
	-The party needs access to facilities that are in use by someone else
	-Something the party needs is in short supply
*  Tradeoffs and sacrifices that must be made
	-Too much to do in too little time; the PCs have to decide what to let slip
*  Matters of diplomacy, negotiation, convincing, and bribery
	-Getting a star witness to talk
	-Convincing someone to help who doesn't want to
	-Getting two rivals to work together on a project
*  Distasteful choices that need to be made
	-Save the innocent bystander or stop the bad guy's escape?
*  Distasteful actions that must be taken
	-Apologizing to someone the PCs hate in order to get his help

CAUTION: Any particular type of plot complication, repeated too often, 
can become annoying, silly, or frustrating for the players. Variation 
is key.


A Few General Words of Warning

#1. Always leave more clues to what's going on than are strictly 
necessary. Otherwise, all it takes is one clue that doesn't get 
uncovered to leave the PCs frustrated. If you know your players are 
very good at solving mysteries, then make some of those clues 
time-dependent - they won't come out until the players have already 
had time to look into things for a while. This gives the party a 
chance to solve the mystery the "hard" way, then makes it 
progressively easier as more time passes and they fail to solve it.

#2. There's a difference between compensating for unbalancing 
advantages and taking away the party's toys. You can usually find a 
way to compensate for a PC's advantage without making a player feel as 
though his cool toy was taken away from him. This is usually a better 
tactic, as it's less likely to create hard feelings between you and 
your players.

#3. If you have the kind of gaming group where it's okay for you to 
adapt your plans as you go along to make for a better game, then try 
to stay *slightly* ahead of your players - not too far ahead. If you 
get too far ahead of them, it becomes harder to adapt things on the fly.

#4. Unless you have players who don't mind the occasional unwinnable 
plot, always think about how the players might solve the plot ahead of 
time. Don't tell yourself "I'll figure it out during game." Have at 
least a vague notion of how the group can solve the plot, and 
preferably think about a couple of specifics as well. Don't mistake 
this for a suggestion that you create one specific plot solution, 
however - you're better off coming up with a couple of ideas and 
thinking of them as *possible* plot solutions. This allows for more 
creativity on the part of the players.


As you can see, there are plenty of ways in which you might challenge 
your players that involve something more than just throwing extra 
monsters at them. Or even bigger monsters. Start small; add in one 
challenge or complication at a time. If people get frustrated, then 
back off a little bit. The key is to challenge your players enough 
that they feel excited and victorious when they win, as though they've 
achieved something amazing, without making them feel stupid or as 
though they're stuck in a plot they can't solve.

Do vary the plot difficulty now and then, however. Having an easier 
plot once in a while can be relaxing, and varying the difficulty also 
helps you to vary ingredients such as pace and tension - other things 
that also benefit from change.


Helpful Articles:

I know that the villain topic is right up the alley of Roleplaying 
Tips Weekly's Johnn Four, so after I finished this article I went and 
pulled the URLs for a bunch of his old villain articles. Here you go:

*  From One Tyrant to Another: Villainous Tips Inspired by a Real 
World Dictator:
    http://www.roleplayingtips.com/issue125.html
*  Six Tips for Making Monsters Meaner:
    http://www.roleplayingtips.com/issue113.html
*  14 Great Villain Tips:
    http://www.roleplayingtips.com/issue30.html
*  Six Devious Villain Tactics:
    http://www.roleplayingtips.com/issue27.html
*  Five Tips to Creating a Truly Evil Villain:
    http://www.roleplayingtips.com/issue14.html


What's Your Opinion?:

Comments on this issue's topic? Suggestions? Tips? Special topic 
requests? Drop me a line at (heather at burningvoid.com). If I pass any 
of your suggestions on (either through the newsletter or the RPG 
resources page), I'll attribute them to you. Be sure to tell me if you 
don't want me to use your name and/or comments!

The next issue is coming in just a few weeks (mid September).

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SITE UPDATE:

Burning Void Roleplaying Resources:
http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/resources.html

Good news: I finally have a link-checker again. Bad news: there are so 
many links for me to fix that it's going to take a little time! I plan 
to do a few at a time until I work my way through them.

http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/evamask5.html
The Masks of Lady Eva V: Flawed and Dangerous (part two)
Another five flawed masks for you to play with, along with their 
histories, backgrounds, and personalities. That's right, 
personalities. If you haven't yet checked out the rest of this series, 
you can find it on the roleplaying resources page!

http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/barakah1.html
Our new series details the unusual men and women who have one human 
parent, and one jinn parent. What are they like? What unusual powers 
do they have? How do they get by in the world? We hope you continue to 
enjoy the items, people and creatures we create for your use.


Burning Void Writers' Resources:
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