Dixon Trimline recently posted an article called “The Almighty Player” on Critical Hits talking about the power of the player in a game of Dungeons and Dragons. Reading it, I began to ponder how much the player really is given power in games in general. Clearly, in most pen and paper roleplaying games, the player is going to have quite a bit of power if the DM allows it. Of course, as in every game, it really boils down to how open-ended the designers/DM made it.
Trimline’s post argued that players could easily ruin a game of D&D (which is true, by the way, definitely seen this in action), but there’s definitely another side of it. Guild Wars, the popular MMORPG released in 2005, had a very linear gameplay within missions. Each mission was designed in such a way that it kept the player exactly on the path that the designers wished and they couldn’t stray from that, due to actual gameplay restrictions such as the inability to jump over obstacles and walls. First person shooters are well known for this as well.
This linear gameplay forces the player to do a certain thing, enabling the game designer to give a degree of realism to the game, since it’s impossible to program a limitless world. Text-based games were known for their ability to allow more versatility in player choices, partially due to the lack of graphics. Then, finally, moving even farther back from text-based gaming there is pen and paper.
Pen and Paper RPGs have the ability to be more fluid, allowing their players more movement through the game. However, this is entirely based on what your GM is willing to run with. I’ve played with one GM who responded to any player action which he didn’t plan for with a “well, some random force comes by and sweeps you back onto the path of correctness”. Other ones, however, rethought the entire campaign time and again as the players screwed up, missed the hints, and generally questioned why they were doing what they were doing. What really screws with a game of D&D is when one PC in your group questions why it is that he doesn’t just retire with his current wealth and become the leader of a ‘mafia’ type organization in a city that we passed through.
Anyway, my point is… the player does have control… but the sign of a truly good DM is the ability to move with his players and keep changing things on the fly, making sure that each of their decisions leads to something interesting that will continue to keep them interested. I suppose that’s the first rule for DMs… “Be Flexible!”
Good luck with your obstinate players!
~Obsrrver
