Front-load your story guidance
Proactive players are great, and good Storytelling can keep them moving along the plot. But now and then, a player group can get totally lost. When no one knows what to do next, the game grinds to a halt. And if it happens early in the campaign, it can weigh a game down before it even has the chance to build up any momentum.
Luckily for most Storytellers and their games, players aren’t telepaths. They don’t know the story of your RPG without being told — which means your carefully constructed plot and cool twists and reveals are safe until it’s time for them to come into play. Discovering and uncovering that story is a lot of the fun of a role-playing game, but it can also complicate telling that story if your players don’t know where to go, what buttons to press or what they’re meant to do.
Giving your players the right amount of guidance at the right time can be a game-saver, and thankfully there are a lot of tools. This isn’t just about how to leave your trail of breadcrumbs, though, but more about when dropping a crumb can save the game.
Guidance can come in a number of forms, from NPC guides — characters with helpful in-world information and experience that push PCs in the right direction — to investigations and clues that form a map to guide your player characters through the story. Most RPG campaigns end up involving more than one type of guidance, and which tools work for you and your group often depends upon the strengths and weaknesses of the Storyteller. Aron almost always utilizes an NPC guide because engaging non-player characters are his strong suit, while I lay out a lot of clue-based bread crumbs because I tend to be better at investigative stories.
But regardless of your preferred method of player guidance, most campaigns will vary in how much of a helping hand the party requires. Be prepared to offer the most help early in the story, when the players and their characters know the least about your plot, setting and campaign. While it’s fine to give your players a little time to explore their characters, don’t let them languish for too long. They’ll get bored or lost — or both. Put some clues right on the metaphorical doorstep, or have your guide NPC ready to step out onto stage within the first session of game so that you can build up that vital momentum.
By the second act of your campaign, it’s probably time to ease up on how much guidance you’re giving players. By now, they likely have enough information and momentum to more or less chase the story on their own. Don’t take your hands completely off the wheel, though. RPG stories can be far-reaching and complex, and a single misconstrued clue runs the risk of your player characters running off in entirely the wrong direction.
Which isn’t always a bad thing! Those side-trips and extra adventures often add a lot to a game. Give your players freedom to explore the world that you’re playing in, and only use your guides to bring them back when the main plot needs to progress.
In general, a Storyteller needs to apply more of a guiding hand early in your RPG campaign. Through the middle, you can lighten up — but you may find that you need your guide more as the game approaches its climactic ending. This can be the point where players and their characters become a little frantic, worrying that they have missed something or if they’re even on the right path toward the campaign’s end. Players often fear that they have overlooked something, and this is your chance to either have your guides let them know that they have everything, or direct them to any final information or tools that they will need.
For the most part, though, front-load most of your guidance when running an RPG. Give the players all the information and direction that they need to get up to speed on your plot, then stand back and watch them go.
