Take the Challenge – Say Yes

Imagine the scene: You’re playing the uber-cool DEATHWATCH, more specifically, larger-than-life ultra-high-tech space marines.   You carry ultra-cool equipment, like bad-ass armor, a super-cool machine-gun, and jump-jets that help you run faster, leap over obstacles, and even fly.  Oh, and don’t forget about your ability to sustain your daily nutritional requirements from your built-in ever-efficient “Waste Recycling” system (yeah, you read that right).  You’re fighting hordes of Planetary Defense Forces – who you squash like bugs.

However, your team is under fire from all directions, including missile-fire from the top of a tower (ok, those kinda hurt).  So, you decide to scram to the inside of the base of the tower, and plant a quick explosive.  You set the timer to go off at the end of your next turn, and prepare to get the hell out of Dodge.  Unfortunately, at that moment, the tower gets surrounded by hordes, hampering your escape.  What do you do?

Well, you could probably fight your way out through the horde.  Or… you could ask your GM if you can use your jump-jets to shoot straight up through the tower floors, just as the explosive goes off.  You’d be busting through the roof (and the guys shooting the missiles) as the tower crumbles, leaving you hovering 50 meters in the air, looking like the Angel of Mother Effing Destruction.  That, would be cool.

I don’t care who you are, that would be cool (and in truth, it was).  Sure, maybe the rules don’t specifically support this action, but so what?  It’s still cool.   However, let me tell you how it would not be cool:

• The GM says, “No.”
• The GM says, “Let me check the rulebook.” Or,
• The GM says, “Well, give me a hard Perception roll, a hard Agility roll, and a hard Toughness roll.”

Really?

If you’re the GM here, how should you handle this?  I’ll tell you how.  You say, “Abso-freaking-lutely.  Just give me a Tougness roll to see how roughed up you get from busting through the tower floors.” Cause that’s how it went down, making the game experience simply ultra-fun.

I know you’ve read articles before about how the GM should just say “yes.”  Maybe you agree, maybe not.  All I can say is that the game is just that much more fun for most gamers when the GM tries to find a way to say “yes.”  I’m not saying that GMs should cater to the players at the expense of game and story balance.  What I am saying is that story trumps mechanics, in any role playing game.

Miniature wargaming, on the other hand, is all about mechanics, so of course mechanics win that fight.  But this article doesn’t apply when playing Battletech or D&D Minis. By all means, play the mechanics in those games like there’s no tomorrow.

Role playing games are simply about the GM telling a story, with the players interjecting their individual character’s stories.  When the player asks to do something that the GM, or the rules, aren’t immediately ready for, or perhaps is questionable, just go ahead and try to find a way to say yes.  Skill challenges have this concept built right in.  Most of them allow for the characters to succeed, even if they fail.  They simply succeed in this manner by taking a detour of some kind, but still eventually achieving their goal.

One more thing. Players, I’m talking to you here.  When the GM introduces something that you feel affects your character in a negative way, don’t always feel that you need to fight him on it.  Chances are that he’s doing it for the story.  For instance, don’t be afraid to make your character a parent, one whose children would (of course) be kidnapped sometime in the future.  Yeah, that would be cliche, but it makes for a better story than yet another character with no outside friends or family.  Just say yes to his request – take the challenge.  Or, perhaps the GM wants to put your character under a domination spell without any kind of rolls, because it would make the story better.  Don’t fight him on it – trust that he’s trying to make a better story.

Saying “yes” can simply make a game more enjoyable.  It helps make the game run smoothly, avoids annoying hiccups, and makes both players and GMs look forward to coming back.  Take the challenge.

By the way, DEATHWATCH.  I highly recommend it.  Not only do you get to play super-cool combat monkey space marines, but there’s a lot more roleplaying opportunity than I initially thought.  Get it here,  and you save $22.00.