Tacos

"Going out for tacos" : action: When players decide to go completely off the rails from a plot hook in order to do their own thing.

Of Course!

So years ago I was in a game that our group tracked down this evil lord across the planes and we finally cornered him at his castle. This was our arch nemesis. We had been commissioned by the great god of nature and magic "Joe-bob" to defeat him. We had stopped his army before and now he was in his home consolidating power. He was going to take over the world.

  We grouped up in the village outside the castle and I remember the DM asking us "Alright so how are you getting into the castle?"

Get into the castle? So soon? Why would we do that? There is a whole village here to explore and get information about!  My character, the alchemist, and his party actually all donned disguises and opened up a small shop selling trinkets. We called it "A-mage-ing stuff'n'things".  

So while the DM had prepared for the big invasion that night, ready to end the whole year long campaign that night or the night after: we squeezed out over a month more of plot by finding a balance between running our little shot and slowly undermining and spying on our enemy.

I told one of my friends in college about this and he said something that immediately stuck within my gaming group: "Oh, they went for tacos."

"Went for tacos? What do you mean?"

¡Yo Quiero Taco Bell!

"My players did something like that. I was prepared to get them to do something, they were already seemingly on board and then I said 'Okay guys, lets do this" and one of my players just said "Nope, forget that, instead we are going to Taco bell! Yep we are going to just relax and order some tacos and maybe a few chalupas! And you know what you are going to do, you are going to have ninjas drop down from the ceiling while we are trying to eat. Cause there is no way we should be able to get away with that."

And thus the term "going for tacos" was born. From his group to mine and now to yours!

Some last things to keep in mind

As a DM: Your players will on occasion go out for tacos. This is one of the reasons why I mentioned that you shouldn't over commit your time on specifics for the game. If you want to shy players away from going out for tacos, there is one little trick I found that keeps the players focused: a time limit. Make sure they realize that yes, they are allowed to explore other places, but the clock is ticking. as soon as players feel like they have an actually limited time frame to work in, they can get focused really quickly.

With that said, not shy away from it all the time. As soon as your players roll up their characters, the rp world is not yours alone. If they show interest in something you originally didn't think they would, try your best to roll with it.

As a PC: Use tacos sparingly. At best they can be used to explore and expand the game worlds, in new and exciting ways that not even the DM foresaw. To use them this way, latch onto a minor detail that the DM threw to you as flavor, and investigate it further (as our group did with that village).

But just like their name-sake, tacos every time gets old very fast. They are a sometimes food. Your DM does do work to plan things out so make sure to make sure that his preparations are not completely wasted.

Until next time Facedowners! May you enjoy the delicious taste of tacos while fighting off ninja.

"You'll take my crunchy tacos over my dead body!"
But seriously, NPH is awesome.

Inside the Mind of a PC

Since I am currently playing in two games currently, one as the DM and one as a PC, I thought I would switch gears a bit and talk about my experiences on the other side of the table. While the "Inside the Mind of a DM" will probably be more informative overall, since I think less people see that side of the game, I think it is easy for DMs to forget what it is like for players sometimes. Also there are certain traps that players can fall into that can cause conflict.

Below is a list of thoughts that I believe should be running through every player's head.

1: "My character makes a difference in the world around him." 

"In roleplaying games in general, the DM will create a world around the players, while the players will interact with said world." This means both sides need to have some responsibilities here. The PCs are the main characters in a story. If the world is so static that nothing the player could do would ever change it in the slightest... why is there a story about this person? On the flip side, as a player, I need to make sure my character is going to go out and try to make a difference. It is one thing to be a reluctant hero that needs to be pushed into it, it is another to constantly be doing nothing. Again, the question should be "why is there a story about this person?"

2: "My character has his own goals and motivations."

The character I play on Saturdays has two simple motivations: protect those weaker then him, and prove his superiority. Because of the interaction of those two simple motivations, he goes out of his way to protect the rest of the party, but he also tends to get on their nerves a bit as well (when having a character with charisma as a dump stat, play it up a bit.) He isn't motivated by money or not even really fame. He believes he is better than the "mind-blinds" for being psionic. That doesn't mean he doesn't like them, and he has already grown a bit as he is forced to see them pulling off things that he couldn't do (150 points of damage from a volley of arrows.)

3: "My character will respect the goals and motivations of the rest of the party."

He might have his own reasons for doing so. Maybe he is going along because he agrees with them or maybe it is just to be helpful. Maybe he is doing it because he wants the other characters to owe him later. Maybe he is just being paid for his time. What ever the alignment, motives, or background of your character, make sure you can justify staying a member of the party and working with them. This does not mean your paladin should be alright with them selling the souls of the innocent for fun and profit, of course. What it does mean is that your paladin will not try smiting them if he catches one of them pickpocketing from a crooked politician.

4: "I want to be able to do my character's trick."
When most characters are made, the player making them will have something in mind that they want that character to be good at.  Maybe he is a damage dealing machine, or maybe he can take more damage then the rest of your mind-blind party members put together. Even if your character doesn't have one specific trick and is more jack-of-all-trades useful guess what: that is her trick! DMs shouldn't have to know every little thing that the PC can do (that is the players job to be informed of that) but should have a good knowledge of what each character's trick is. If that player is really good at social situations make sure there is a chance once in awhile for social situations or that player is going to feel useless. Don't baby them and give them everything they want, but still they should at least have a chance to shine once in a while (see thought #1)

5: "NPCs are friends not food."

Or maybe call him "Nemo"...

If you treat npcs like throwaway chunks of XP, then that is all they will be... to you. It is far more rewarding to have your character treat them like they were actual people. This is especially true to those no-named NPCs that the DM may or may not have made any actual plans for. These are the times that the player gets to do a little world building for the DM. That no named guard? Ask him if his name is Sven and if he was a member of the old sell swords guild, since he looks familiar. The DM says yes: then your character reunites with an old long loss friend... or the guy who borrowed 20 gold and never paid you back. In short, if  you want a more rich and rewarding world for your character to play in: treat it as such.


Stay tuned Facedown-fans. Next time, we're going for tacos!