What should a GM do when the players get ahead of the plot?

[Squark]

So, my playgroup had a session last night (Just for the record, I was actually one of the players here, but this is the sort of thing I'd like to know more about since I'm planning on running a similar campaign type in the future).

The Short version: Last session, my group got farther down the plotline than my GM expected we would, and while the last half of the session still went reasonably well, I'd like to see if you guys have any advice for me on how to handle a situation like this in case I'm ever in a similar situation

The long version:
So, set up. This is a Star Wars: Edge of the Empire campaign. Anyway, over the last few sessions, we've stolen a starship from a Trandoshan smuggler in the service of a Hutt, and locked him in the hold. After searching around the ship, we found a locked box. Anyway, last session devolved into us trying to recapture our prisoner and find a way to open said box. Session ends with our contact cracking open the box, and our group locating what is essentially a treasure map.

Now, onto the start of this session. Last session, since we realized we were going to have go back to the planet where our former employer makes his home on (and probably land in the same city), I hit on the idea of trading our current stolen ship for a new one, that we legally own and won't immediately arouse suspicion. So, half the party heads off to a used ship yard (With the party's resident psycopath attempting to mug a random passerby. 2 rounds later, and he's well on his way to becoming an axe-wielding maniac). So, anyway, a bit of negotiating later, and we're in a new ship, the Peace of Mind.

Here's the issue. Given our tendency to get distracted (we spent an entire session exploring the previous ship, after all), the GM didn't plan on us getting any farther. But, negotiations went faster than expected (peacefully, thankfully), and during the GM's bathroom break while we were brainstorming names for the new ship, I hit on an idea. See, at the moment, we can't actually read said treasure map. But, among the packages aboard the ship was one addressed to Bail Organa. So, I hit on the idea that since we had a perfectly good reason to go there, and the planet was renowned for it's civilized nature, we could make a decent profit and hopefully find a translator at the same time. So we head off to Alderaan, missing the GM's subtle hinting at the fact he hadn't yet had time to plan what we'd do when we got there.

[Amaril]

I'd just tell them I needed more time to prepare before they went any further. This would depend on having a group that was fairly mature and understanding, but given that allowing you more time to prepare would mean you could provide a much more enjoyable play experience (unless you're an improv master), they have plenty of incentive to slow down for a while and let you catch up to them.

[snoopy13a]

I can think of four possible solutions off the top of my head:

1) Railroading. Using your example, your group cannot travel to Alderaan because the Peace Of Mind has a broken hyperspace drive. So you have to return to the planet and spend time fixing it. This will take up the rest of that night's session. Players might end up a little upset over this.

2) Call it a night. End the session early.

3) Take a break and make a quick plan.

4) Ad-lib it.

I think 2 or 3 are generally the best solutions--depending on how much time is left in your play session. 4 can work if you are good at thinking on the spot. 1 can upset your players.

[Winter_Wolf]

I always thought it could be kind of a good thing if the players get ahead of the plot. That said, it only really works in practice if the GM has contingencies and is willing (and able) to reward players for clever thinking.

So probably GM admitting that y'all need to call it a night so he can revamp/work with the developments of players just screaming through the plot faster than anticipated. With the rationale that it's better to take a little down time than to screw things up. Unless your GM is a rock solid ad-libber, then just go for it. I've never known any rock solid ad-libber GMs though.

[Squark]

To be fair, the GM handled it fairly well. He did have a rough idea of what we were going to accomplish during the delivery, and he also did call it a night when we got to a point where he didn't have any plans at all (Our decision to visit the Royal archives in the hopes of finding a translator). I'm mostly asking because I'm thinking of running a relatively open-ended Rogue Trader campaign sometime in the future, and it occurred to me that this was a good time to learn a few things for that campaign.

We also had an amusing meta moment when we realized what we'd delivered Bit of a t-shirt moment, really. "I delivered the death star plans and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt" (Well, a lousy 1000 credits, but that's barely enough to buy a blaster rifle).*



*Long story short: When going through the cargo hold, we found a strange silver box addressed to Bail Organa. Having no idea what it was, my solution was to lie as little as possible and make it clear I was not the original owner, and had no idea what was going on. So, I claimed that the original owner passed away, and I was just trying to get all the things he had undelivered to their rightful owners.

[Lord Torath]

I can think of four possible solutions off the top of my head:

1) Railroading. Using your example, your group cannot travel to Alderaan because the Peace Of Mind has a broken hyperspace drive. So you have to return to the planet and spend time fixing it. This will take up the rest of that night's session. Players might end up a little upset over this.

2) Call it a night. End the session early.

3) Take a break and make a quick plan.

4) Ad-lib it.

I think 2 or 3 are generally the best solutions--depending on how much time is left in your play session. 4 can work if you are good at thinking on the spot. 1 can upset your players.
You forgot:

5) Random EncounterStall for Time: The Peace of Mind (serenity?) is attacked by Space Pirates while en-route to Alderan. The Players must spend half the evening repelling boarders, making it so they only reach Alderan at the very end of the session. "Sorry guy's we'll have to handle your delivery of the package next week." Plus, the Pirates can leave a clue to the where-abouts of their base, setting up a future adventure.

[jindra34]

You forgot:

5) Random Encounter: The Peace of Mind (serenity?) is attacked by Space Pirates while en-route to Alderan. The Players must spend half the evening repelling boarders, making it so they only reach Alderan at the very end of the session. "Sorry guy's we'll have to handle your delivery of the package next week." Plus, the Pirates can leave a clue to the where-abouts of their base, setting up a future adventure.

Thats really a sub-set of 4). The GM is still making things up to buy time till the normal end of the session.

[Lord Torath]

Okay, maybe I should have called it "Stall for Time." You're not advancing the plot, but you're not telling your players that they can't go where they want to, either. You're just giving them a speed bump.

I rather got the impression that 4) was more relating to your actual plot.

[kyoryu]

So, my playgroup had a session last night (Just for the record, I was actually one of the players here, but this is the sort of thing I'd like to know more about since I'm planning on running a similar campaign type in the future).

I like "yes, but..." This is a form of ad-libbing, of course :)

The basic idea of "yes, but..." is that the GM allows the players to do what they want, but makes it complicated. Why might going to Alderaan be complicated? Space pirates of course (send in the ninjas!). Are permissions required? It seems more likely than not! What about customs? Might some wheels have to be greased? You just bought a ship... what's wrong with it (I mean, seriously, ever buy a used car???).

[NikitaDarkstar]

I like "yes, but..." This is a form of ad-libbing, of course :)

The basic idea of "yes, but..." is that the GM allows the players to do what they want, but makes it complicated. Why might going to Alderaan be complicated? Space pirates of course (send in the ninjas!). Are permissions required? It seems more likely than not! What about customs? Might some wheels have to be greased? You just bought a ship... what's wrong with it (I mean, seriously, ever buy a used car???).

Indeed. I mean really, you just bought a used ship, or traded in a ship you didn't have papers on to get this used ship. And you took it out for a long flight before going over it properly to make sure nothings broken? That can get interesting. Or you did take the time to go through it and did find some things that will need fixing before you can safely fly it, so now you need to find spare parts, and perhaps even track down someone who can help repair whatever complicated system that you're not that familiar with that decided to break down.

[Averis Vol]

I scramble randomly and pull the plot out of thin air as the group laughs at my random efforts.

......

Thankfully this has only happened once in my younger days of DMing, nowaday I plan about three in game weeks in advance. I play, at least my current game, on a timeline; just because the PC's waste time doesn't mean the world changing villains do.

[Jay R]

It's not that hard to slow the group down.

Wandering monsters or encounters. Mechanical difficulties. Something crucial stolen. Side plots.

You simply cannot get to Alderaan without the GM saying "OK, you have now reached Alderaan."

[Rhynn]

The Short version: Last session, my group got farther down the plotline than my GM expected we would, and while the last half of the session still went reasonably well, I'd like to see if you guys have any advice for me on how to handle a situation like this in case I'm ever in a similar situation

The GM shouldn't have a "plotline" to begin with. :smallamused:

This can be a problem in sandboxing, too, though - players go off somewhere you hadn't prepared adequately. That's easier to manage, though - you make sure you find out, at the end of each session, what they plan to do next session. (If they have no plan, you prepare a hook for them, and they better play nice and take it.)

Generally, it's the GM's responsibility to make sure they have enough time to plan for the next session before it happens. Frankly, IMO, the GM is in a perfect position - he knows what you're going to do next time. It should not take more time than is between sessions to plan the next session. (In fact, it shouldn't take as much time as the session takes to play to plan a session, ideally.) If the GM really can't plan fast enough, play a board game next time instead.

[Kane0]

In order of what is most preferable to me:

1. Work on the fly
2. Come up with some means to slow them down. Random encounter (only in the right circumstances), sidequest, unexpected problem, etc. Have to be careful of it may backfire.
3. Take a break to plan a little or break out your emergency material if you have any.
4. Stop early and tell them they did better than you expected.

[Waspinator]

I'd try to adlib. Here's my spur-of-the-moment idea: when they arrive, they get a distress call from someone being attacked by pirates and crashed on a nearby moon. They'll hopefully try to go help and you can probably get a space battle and a ground battle out of fighting the pirate ship and whoever has already boarded the victim's ship.

[TheOOB]

GMing is 1 part preparation and 4 parts improvisation. The ugly truth is that no plans, no matter how well laid, survive impact with the PC's. Just wing it the best you can, and if you need 10-20 minutes to think and make a few notes, just have a break.

[Sith_Happens]

Okay, maybe I should have called it "Stall for Time." You're not advancing the plot, but you're not telling your players that they can't go where they want to, either. You're just giving them a speed bump.

Personally, I'd call it "filler." After all, that's traditionally what one does when the anime players overtake the manga plot.

[Waspinator]

You can even have a random encounter pre-planned and save it for when you need a filler. For D&D, I suggest a random attack by laser-shooting warlock bears or kung-fu dinosaurs.

[Kaun]

roll with it

[nedz]

You forgot:

5) Random EncounterStall for Time: The Peace of Mind (serenity?) is attacked by Space Pirates while en-route to Alderan. The Players must spend half the evening repelling boarders, making it so they only reach Alderan at the very end of the session. "Sorry guy's we'll have to handle your delivery of the package next week." Plus, the Pirates can leave a clue to the where-abouts of their base, setting up a future adventure.

This. Bonus points if the random encounter foreshadows a possible future plot.

[Totally Guy]

This one's not appropriate at all times but the times it is...

Go out in a blaze of glory. Present opportunities for the characters to get what they want once and for all. Present the main villain, the prized possession, the missing relative and play the opposition as hard you can.

Life's too short for filler. Live dangerously. Boil off the water and reduce your game to an intense flavourful meal. There's no scarcity of future games, there's no need to water down the soup to feed you for weeks.

Is it the end? Possibly. But this won't be for every situation.

[Surfnerd]

There is always the possibility it is just an asteroid field when they arrive at the coordinates of Alderaan?

[Lord Torath]

There is always the possibility it is just an asteroid field when they arrive at the coordinates of Alderaan?
Too soon for that. This is a while before That happens...

I think a change of title is in order. It's not that the characters are getting a head of the plot, it's that they're getting ahead of what the GM has material prepared for.

[Surfnerd]

Is it? I don't own the game, but another of our group ran us thru the Escape from Mos Shuunta adventure a couple weeks ago and he said the Edge of the Empire campaign takes place ABY, which would make Alderaan destroyed. But I can't find any confirmation on exactly when Edge of the Empire takes place other than references to it taking place during the height of the Rebellions struggle against the Galactic Empire.

[Friv]

My suggestion would be "Stall For Time B"

Specifically, tell the players "I need some time to figure out the entry to Alderaan, so go ahead and run a scene in-character with each other. Just some fun, character-building stuff. You guys are on your ship, so play a game of dejaak with each other and carry on a conversation." Or "cards around the campfire", or whatever fits the setting.

Those small, quiet moments are a big part of a lot of successful games, they require very little GM input as a rule, letting the GM half-listen and half-work, and they can easily burn through half an hour if everyone gets into it.

[Jay R]

The GM shouldn't have a "plotline" to begin with. :smallamused:

It's not true that we all like the same approach to our games, or that people "shouldn't have" gaming approaches you don't like.

The specific plot of a BBEG who must be stopped, a war that must be won, or a quest that must be completed, has been a staple of RPGs since the 1970s. Even if you don't prefer it, it exists, many people enjoy it, and people have the right to ask questions about the best way to do it.

[Squark]

The GM shouldn't have a "plotline" to begin with. :smallamused:

This can be a problem in sandboxing, too, though - players go off somewhere you hadn't prepared adequately. That's easier to manage, though - you make sure you find out, at the end of each session, what they plan to do next session. (If they have no plan, you prepare a hook for them, and they better play nice and take it.)

Generally, it's the GM's responsibility to make sure they have enough time to plan for the next session before it happens. Frankly, IMO, the GM is in a perfect position - he knows what you're going to do next time. It should not take more time than is between sessions to plan the next session. (In fact, it shouldn't take as much time as the session takes to play to plan a session, ideally.) If the GM really can't plan fast enough, play a board game next time instead.

I'd call what's going here a semi-sandbox. We do have an ultimate goal, and several specific tasks we'll have to accomplish to achieve that goal, but how those tasks (Translate map's directions, Determine a way of getting back to Tatooine without the local Crime Boss noticing us, and gather Supplies for retrieving treasure), but beyond that, the GM has mostly just given us a couple of adventure hooks. He does do a fair bit of planning behind the scenes, but we've never actually seen him so much as pull out a notebook full of pre-written things.

[Calmar]

The GM shouldn't have a "plotline" to begin with. :smallamused:
I agree, but, to be fair, I think one needs experience to resist the temptation of the plot.


This can be a problem in sandboxing, too, though - players go off somewhere you hadn't prepared adequately. That's easier to manage, though - you make sure you find out, at the end of each session, what they plan to do next session. (If they have no plan, you prepare a hook for them, and they better play nice and take it.)
And it doesn't break immersion to ask the players what their characters wish to do next session.
I thought that in the sandbox game I'm planning, I'll ask the players to be patient until the next session when they wish to venture in a direction I need to prepare for. :smallsmile:


Generally, it's the GM's responsibility to make sure they have enough time to plan for the next session before it happens. Frankly, IMO, the GM is in a perfect position - he knows what you're going to do next time. It should not take more time than is between sessions to plan the next session. (In fact, it shouldn't take as much time as the session takes to play to plan a session, ideally.) If the GM really can't plan fast enough, play a board game next time instead.
In case the characters go into an completely unexpected direction, it might be useful to have a number of mini events, encounters and adventures prepared in advance that they may stumble upon.

In the case of the Squark's Game Master, there might be space pirates, imperial patrols, malfunction on the Peace of Mind, space stations, or even space monsters that may need to be dealt with before they can reach their goal on Alderaan.

[Vultawk]

I'd go for the Space Pirate attack/side quest idea personally.

I don't understand how people can have games without the GM having a plot (or two) in mind, personally. Just sounds like it's asking for a meandering waste of time at best, or the PCs destroying the setting for poops and guffaws out of boredom at worst.

[Sith_Happens]

I'd go for the Space Pirate attack/side quest idea personally.

I don't understand how people can have games without the GM having a plot (or two) in mind, personally. Just sounds like it's asking for a meandering waste of time at best, or the PCs destroying the setting for poops and guffaws out of boredom at worst.

I think it's a matter of people misinterpreting what exactly a "plot" is in the context of a TTRPG*. When done correctly, it's merely an overarching, long-term task that the PCs are enlisted by whatever means into performing (e.g.- stop Bad Guy X from doing Extremely Bad Thing Y). Of course, when done incorrectly, it's a specific sequence of events that the PCs must be cajoled to not deviate from.


* Incidentally, whenever I see this acronym I end up reading it as "tengen toppa role-playing game."

[Raum]

Last session, my group got farther down the plotline than my GM expected we would, and while the last half of the session still went reasonably well, I'd like to see if you guys have any advice for me on how to handle a situation like this in case I'm ever in a similar situation.I'll typically choose one (or more) of the following:
- Wing it. As long as I've put a few notes on the major NPCs this is my preference. Sometimes I'll suggest a ten minute break so I can expand on my notes.
- Ninjas attack. Or pirates, orcs, crime lords, or whatever fits the current situation. This is probably my least favorite response because it gets old quick. I prefer battles to grow naturally out of opposing player actions with NPC goals.
- Call it for the evening. If we're close to quitting time or I'm simply tired, this is my choice. I'll come back better prepared next time.

All that said, it's difficult for players to "get ahead of the plot" if you're planning NPC goals instead of actions. As long as I know my NPCs' goals, adjusting their reactions to PC actions is simple. Not always easy if the PCs choose a radically new direction but still simple. ;)

[Waspinator]

One issue with Star Wars is ease of transportation. If the party has a ship and can literally fly anywhere at any time, it's hard to plan for everything they might do.