Greetings, 3WD-verse! DM Chris here. In the long hours, weeks, months, and even years of your campaign, there will be portions of your carefully crafted story that will get lost in the flood of plotlines and twists. It’s inevitable. Don’t fret – it happens to writer’s as well. Remember, you spend a lot more time with the details than your players do. Top that off with the power that ideas can have. Once your players have had a “wrong” idea about the story, it can plant itself deep in their understanding and cause issues for you down the road.
We recently experienced this in our current Shadow of the Dragon Queen campaign. DM Dave does a fabulous job delivering lore and secrets, but over the multitude of sessions a “wrong” idea began to grow amongst the party members. I don’t want to spoil the fun for anyone looking to play that adventure, so I’ll be talking about it generally, rather than in specifics. Our party is nearing the epic finale of the story, and one of the key portions had become slightly twisted. We became so focused on this altered version of what we were there to do that finally Dave had to break immersion and course correct us in order for the story to continue. But then that got us talking – is there a better way to get your players back on point?
Do You Need to Break Immersion to Course Correct?
This is a tricky question. We all assume a level of suspension of disbelief when we sit down for a game. Breaking the fourth wall can be a way to add humor and keep it fresh, but when done too much it can cause players to lose the roleplaying thread and become confused between their character and their own personal experience. So how do we best handle an idea or concept from your story that has gone awry in the player’s minds?
The simplest way is to just tell them where they’ve misunderstood, but therein lies the rub. Breaking immersion in the story can be as confusing to players as the key bit of information they’ve taken the wrong way. If you must, make sure it is a critical part of the story that needs the clarification, and keep it brief and to the point. But if at all possible, try to redirect them using an in-game method.
Three Ways to Redirect Players Effectively
There are three different ways to get your players back on the right story path that we’re going to discuss here: Lore, NPCs, and Side Quests. Depending on your situation, they provide an easy way to have something in-game make the clarification or adjustment you need. Players love to figure it out, and letting the game tell them feels more natural.
Lore: Although this is what got you into trouble in the first place, lore can be an effective way to get your amended point across. While they needn’t find the proverbial “How I Did It” manuscript, let the players find a scroll or book that contains enough to correct their course. Lean into Investigation and History skill checks to add enough flavor so that it doesn’t feel like you’re telling them that they’re on the wrong path.
NPCs: They are often the ones giving our players the secrets and clues that drive the story forward. So they naturally work as a course corrector. But just like the Lore option above, you’ll need to make sure their appearance makes sense. Maybe the original quest giver returns, confused as to why the party is heading this way, or perhaps one of the people in town wants to share their time-honored wisdom about the quest in question? Add some Insight or Persuasion skill checks to give the NPC a little agency about sharing their info. The key is to make the players feel like they discovered the correct path.
Side Quests: What if the wrong idea is larger than a scroll or person can clarify? Turn it into a session. If the point they are missing is important, then a side quest takes Lore and NPCs and throws them in with all of your other tools. It’s not a race (usually), so take your time with the clarification. Maybe there is a rival party that is after the same thing and can help to pull your players towards the actual goal? Or a deity that has become interested in the party and wants to help them in a round-about way? It can take a little more prep for this option, but the results can be that much better.
Using The Confusion to Tweak Your Campaign – Maybe The Players Have It Right-er?
Crazy thought. As DMs, we feel a sense of ownership and control over our adventures, but they are collaborative stories we’re weaving. As you are mulling over how to get the players back on point, ask yourself honestly if what they’ve decided might be even better than what you’ve already planned. This doesn’t mean you should be constantly re-writing your story based on misunderstandings. Just keep an open mind. As we said earlier, players love to figure it out. Maybe what you thought months ago when writing it doesn’t hold the same weight after the series of adventures you’ve been through?
Session Zero and Recaps – Your Continuity Friend
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The best way to keep your players “wrong” ideas from growing into full-blown problems is to keep the lines of communication open. Therein lies the magic of Session Zero and recaps. Life can be a demanding thing. When you only meet up occasionally to play, the time in between can serve to dull the memories of the previous session(s).
Make sure to open the campaign with a session zero to crystallize all of the key points about your world with your players, and then follow-up with recaps before each session to help focus the players on the important details that will factor into the night’s session. TV shows have been doing it effectively for years – imagine for a moment trying to understand the myriad shifting alliances and families of Game of Thrones without a brief recap beforehand to let you know who and what to expect in tonight’s episode.
Final Thoughts
We spend a lot of time crafting our stories and adventures, but just like a road trip occasional wrong turns can derail the experience. The wrong turns can also lead to some unique experiences, so I’ve made sure to put quotes around the word wrong when I’m using it here. There are no wrong ideas, just “wrong” ideas that may require you to use one of the methods above to correct or force you to take an honest look at your story and adapt it into a right idea.
How have you dealt with this problem at the table? Do you consider it a problem at all, or is it just DMs holding on too tightly to their story? As always, we love to hear what you think. Hit up the comments with any tips, tricks or feedback that has helped you with story focus.
Got a Question?
3 Wise DMs mission is to help DMs with problems that you can’t find answers to in the rulebooks. If you’ve got a question or a problem, visit the website and enter it in the “What’s Your Problem” field. Or reach out to us at 3wisedms@gmail.com.
YouTube!
3 Wise DMs is scaling up into the 21st Century! We’ve begun loading our new episodes, starting with our “Back in Black” return episode onto our shiny, brand-new YouTube channel. We’d love if you’d all head over and Subscribe and “Hit the Bell Icon” to get all the latest from 3WD as we venture into new multimedia territory.
Be sure to LIKE and FOLLOW us on Facebook and Instagram as well and please, feel free to share with your friends or anyone else who rolls funny looking dice!
Need Dice?
If you’re in the market for dice (and who isn’t?) visit our affiliate link at FanRoll Dice and enter code 3WISEDMS10 to get 10% off your entire order!