Greetings, gamers from all systems, places and timelines!
How could players having too much agency possibly be a bad thing? Especially as player input not only builds investment in the game but can add a greater degree of depth to the world itself? Well, some character concepts may be vastly different from the flavor you intended for the game or its power curve.
For example, what if one of the players wanted to run an out-of-the-box type of undead, such as a ghost? Should you let them? Or what if a player wanted to base their character on someone from mythology, like Hercules? Just how far can you lean into this without making the other players irrelevant?
To answer these questions, we’ve composed a list of guidelines that will give your players all the agency they want without giving in to every request until it takes a herd of Tarrasques to challenge them.
1. Lay Down Ground Rules in the Beginning but Embrace Change
While session zero is a great place to start setting expectations, the overall feel of the game may vastly evolve over time. Case in point, for DM Dave’s game, everyone knew going into it that it was going to be set in a low magic world. Which, for the dark horror setting he wanted to lay out, made a lot of sense. Because how scary is a graveyard full of zombies when the warlock has a chain lightning wand with 23 charges?
Now, some 30 sessions later, the game has evolved into a much higher magic setting with dimensional travel and opportunities to buy magic items. Dave could have stuck to his guns and kept magic limited, but he got the mileage out of that campaign feature. Once the main story arc was completed, he wanted to try something else – which the players readily welcomed as it made the second half of the campaign feel fresh and new without abandoning what was originally good about it.
2. Allow Players to Shape Their Character Goals Throughout the Story
While instant gratification is all fine and dandy, the joy will be fleeting if a character completes an important part of their story arc too easily or quickly. An easy example of this can be seen with leveling because every first-level character one day wants to be a great adventurer. However, building up to that is a cornerstone of the story and the game itself. So, if a character wants to become a leader of a league of master assassins, set that as a long-term character goal they will have chances to work towards as the game progresses.
3. DM-Player Collaboration Can Be a Win-Win
Some of the best storytelling comes from the combined efforts of the DM and the players. This can take many forms, from character creation to goals, but it allows the player to embrace their creativity and add something to the story that they will be excited to be a part of. The DM also gets potential scene and story ideas they can expand on and refine to fit the campaign. These collaborative ideas can be brought into the game at the appropriate time as a plot hook that is guaranteed to get a bite.
4. When to Say No and When to Compromise
Not every idea your players are going to pitch will fit like a glove into your campaign setting or even the rules, no matter how comfortable you are with homebrewing.
For example, one of my players once expressed that she wanted her character to be a sorceress, who is also a vampire goddess and has healing powers. To which my answer was, “Anything is possible, but you can’t just start out like that.” I mean, unless we’re doing a 20th-level one shot, because that’s something else entirely.
However, some of the wildest ideas I’ve heard that sounded absolutely off the wall worked inside the actual game. So, if someone wants to do something that is anything but ordinary, don’t immediately say no. Rather, consider how it could be done without destroying the continuity of your game or the party’s balance.
At one point, I was running a wizard who used a deck of many things to wish to be imbued with the powers of a storm giant. DM Thorin could have made me make either an insight or arcana check to determine that it wouldn’t work. Instead, he asked me to work with him and together we created a storm giant template. As a result, the character grew in size and strength, but without being 26 feet tall or having a 29 strength, which would have been pretty much unplayable at the point in the game we were in. However, because we ended up meeting somewhere in the middle, it still felt satisfying without sending the party’s power curve off a cliff while on fire.
Storm Giant PC Template
Appearance changes
Erasmus was changed from a 6’ 3” human wizard in his late 20’s to a hulking 9’ 6” giantish being with blue skin and wild silver hair. Hence, making him increase in size from medium to large.
Mechanical changes
- Increase the character’s strength to 21
- Gain a permanent increase of 20 hit points
- Gain the aquatic keyword as well as resistance to cold and immunity to both lightning and thunder damage
- Gain the ability to throw a lightning blast of 8d8 electrical damage with the same range as a lightning bolt once per long rest.
- Gain the ability to cast detect magic, feather fall, levitate and light once per long rest.
5. Flavor and Mechanical Customization
With the example of the player who wanted to model their character on Hercules the question that should be asked is how can you make them more like this mythological figure without handing out a 30 strength?
Maybe, over the course of the game, they could find a magical lion pelt that offers them a higher armor class, just not the near invulnerability that the one from the myths did. Or you could allow them to find a way to gradually increase their strength where they are indeed “very strong,” but just not quite holding-up-the-world strong. And so forth and so on…
Then, from the beginning of the campaign, drop hints that one day they may find themselves tested by the gods with great challenges similar to the labors of Hercules from the myths. But since this is a collaborative story, it would be the type of quest where the whole party will need to work together to finish, with rewards for everyone on completion.
Also, if someone wants to be Hercules, they should receive, at no extra charge, an angry and extremely powerful goddess who wants to see them crash and burn and isn’t shy about making things difficult.
Final Thoughts
As a DM, you undoubtedly draw from countless sources of inspiration for any number of creative reasons, so why should the players be any different? If a player has an outlandish-sounding idea, personal goal or plot twist they would like to see in the game, don’t immediately shut them down. Rather, consider if and how it could be done and would the introduction of this concept be harmful to the game or the buy-in of the other players. If it can be done, just remember to keep your mind open to the equally colorful ideas your other players might bring to the table and have fun weaving all of this into your collective story.
“…unplayable at the point in the game we were in”
And yet you were given a Deck of Many Things at that point. That sounds like an interesting story…