Taking 20 Podcast - Ep 227 - Manipulate Your Players

Episode Date: June 9, 2024

DMs, whether we realize it or not manipulate our players sometimes multiple times a session.  What does that mean, though to manipulate the players?  Is it a good thing?  Tune in to find out. #dnd #5e #pf2e #dmtips #gmtips #manipulation Resources: Bonus Action - Hacks DMs Use to Manipulate Players - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bokYGJPyKlI

This week on the Taking20 Podcast. DMs are allowed, even encouraged, to focus the camera a particular direction, on a particular situation or NPC or area to help drive connections and therefore the story. So in a way, we manipulate our players every single game session. every single game session. Thank you for listening to the Taking 20 Podcast, episode 227, encouraging DMs out there to manipulate your players. I want to thank this week's sponsor, teachers. Say what you want about teachers.

They are usually calm and composed most of the time. After all, they have a lot of class. Zzzz. Okay, work with me here. We have a website, www.taking20podcast.com. We moved over to a new, read, cheaper hosting provider and plan on updating the website soon, so come on by and check it out. There's a social contract when it comes to playing tabletop role-playing games. The GM and the players clearly communicate the type of game that we all want and the safe way to do it. In response, the DM creates the world, sets obstacles in front of the characters, and

gives them opportunities to overcome these obstacles in creative ways. I once heard tabletop role-playing game sessions described as a shared hallucination where we all experience the same story in our imaginations knowing full well that none of it is real but acting and reacting as if it is. We all agree to be true to each other and treat others around the table with a common sense of respect no matter what that looks like around your table. Whether it's polite and genteel role-playing or giving each other good-natured ribbing and jokes. So if that's all true, wouldn't manipulating your players kind of break

that social contract? The idea for this topic came to me from a video I discovered on YouTube called D&D hacks DMs used to manipulate their players by a channel called Bonus Action. I'll put a link in the description of the episode. Go check out that video because it goes into more depth than I have time to do so here. This video really got me thinking about the concept of manipulating players. At first my mind immediately went to negative places. No one likes being manipulated because it sounds like you're being treated like a puppet on a string, dancing for someone else. Almost like the reactions and the way you're feeling isn't in response to something real, but something that shatters that shared illusion of a tabletop game.

But as I listened to the video, I started to understand what bonus action meant by manipulating players. They didn't mean lying to the players or misleading them. What the original author meant by manipulate is what I'm going to call fair manipulation, which sets the stage and focuses the story on things that will make the players feel things and make them want things while keeping the story moving. Feeling and wanting things are two of the fuels that help drive a good tabletop story. Those are vastly different than manipulation where you take away player agency and make them feel like they're being railroaded on the adventure train, or make them connect up to some NPC or town or aspect of your game world and then ripping it away from them.

At the game's heart, DMs were not just storytellers and rules adjudicators. Don't get me wrong, those are important aspects of what we do. But we also control the camera lens of the adventure, or as the reference video describes it, we're directors of a sort. There are infinite possible stories unfolding in infinite number of locations across your game's world, universe, or even multiverse. DMs are allowed, even encouraged, to focus the camera a particular direction, on a particular situation or NPC or area

to help drive connections and therefore the story. So in a way, we manipulate our players every single game session. But why? Why do DMs manipulate our players like this? Because the focusing of attention, this subtle manipulation of players, helps the players buy into the story. Why should the players care that an army of rebels have taken the base on the moon, or that ogres are running a rough shot over the

town of Augerdale, or that the world wound threatens to split open, pouring demons into the world by the thousands? I go back to the fact that allerdale, or that the world wound threatens to split open, pouring demons into the world by the thousands. I go back to the fact that all of this, no matter how good we are at roleplaying and acting, is made up. If towns are burned and crops are stolen and families are split apart in the game world, it's not real. Sometimes I wonder how much of a miracle it is that we get the players and a DM to care about these fictional people at all. Let's face it, it's the same in movies. Sometimes we have emotional reactions to events in movies that never really happened. The Shire wasn't really burned, you can visit the set in New Zealand.

Sturm Breitblade didn't really die at the hands of Kitiara, someone he used to adventure with. The dog in John Wick didn't really die. Okay, here's where I'm going to pause, because even mentioning John Wick's dog puts a knot in my stomach. Like most of you, I can't stand to see innocent suffer. Who the hell shoots a puppy man Especially one that had the connection to his wife who had passed away I know shooting the dog was done to show just how evil Joseph was but a puppy Yeah, you deserve what you got you prick See I was manipulated by the director of that movie to make me care about an animal that doesn't even exist

by the director of that movie to make me care about an animal that doesn't even exist. At least not as depicted in the movie. In reality, by the way, the dog was played by a beagle named Andy. At least as of 2021, which is the latest news I can find, Andy's still alive and kicking, and the kids at the house where Andy lives renamed him to Wick. See? Happy ending for the puppy, but you wouldn't know that without a little internet sleuthing. By the way, I am NOT suggesting that you should kill a pet in your games. Now you run serious risk of alienating your players. Not all groups are going to be on board with puppy murder or violence against non-combatants or other even way more

negative things and this is why a session zero is so important. But I'm not gonna go on about that here see episode 47 for more about episode zeros for your campaign. I just use that as an example of being emotionally manipulated and not being a bad thing except for the fictional dog and Yosef and about 76 other people that John Wick kills in the first movie alone. But by focusing the player attention on a particular quest, an NPC, a subplot, an area, a business, or some other aspect of the game, you can make it more likely that the players will care, and if they care about these fictional things, they will care more about your game. And honestly, that's the type of player manipulation that has a positive outcome.

Manipulation is a tool. It can be used for good or ill. You should never manipulate your players just to try to lead to a negative outcome, force players to play in a way they don't want to just because you can. Generally, you should never manipulate them just to make the players paranoid or nervous unless that's the type of game everyone agreed to in the beginning. If the players say they want to play in a game akin to a horror movie where the purpose is mystery and thrills and terror and misdirection and shock, then sure, you can use manipulation to play on paranoia and helplessness and the

greatest aspects of all horror adventures. By the way, if you're interested in running a horror adventure, please go give episode 44 a listen. Otherwise, let's stay on the positive side of manipulation. Sure, Jeremy, you ding-ding, but how, how do I manipulate my players? When, when are you going to tell us? Well now actually, and I'm glad you asked, and calm the hell down. There are multiple ways to manipulate your players, and the first how I'm gonna call back to what I discussed earlier, use focus. Like a director, keep the focus on the things

that you want them to notice. For example, if you need to make headway in the story, focus on aspects of the story related to the main quest. If the PCs are spending too much time on inconsequential trivial matters, then shift their focus back to the main thing that's going on. Show them something bad that happened.

Show the big bad accomplishing part of their plan. Show the PCs that their choices have consequences. If the PCs have spent two sessions chasing tail in the torn bodice inn, start off the next session by describing what's happening two towns over in Thistle Down as crops burn, buildings are destroyed and the town is ransacked. Yeah, your character may have spent the night getting that good good, but without your intervention, bad things happen to elsewhere. You don't even have to say that part out loud, by the way. If they're smart players, they will figure it out and focus on getting back to thwarting

the warlord el...conquistador or whatever. I'm sorry, I had a complete brain lock of a name of a big bad. El Conquistador isn't bad, but it's actually the same name as a call-in radio prank I heard as a kid. Sorry. Let's just pretend I said the big bad's name was, uh, Duke Mayonnaise. Another thing you do is turn the players focus to problems or portions of the adventure that you'd like them to pay attention to. The

halflings of Baryten are starving due to a lack of crops. They need your help finding the source of the blight while you've been focusing on what kind of wood to install in your home base's dining room. You can do the same thing with NPCs that you'd like the PCs to know better because they're important to the story or because you honestly have a kick-ass backstory ready to reveal if they would just talk to the traveling merchant again, how many times do I have to hint? Make the traveling merchant or the NPCs that you want to recur happen to pop up periodically wherever the PCs are. Now, make it make sense though. It'd be weird if Bob the Merchant suddenly showed up, I don't know, seven levels down in the Hobgoblin mines. Hi guys, you wanna buy a hat? It's only two silver pieces.

How the hell did you get down here, Bob? There's a ballista over there, manned by a tribe called the... Merchant Eaters, if the sign is right. What are you doing here? Yeah, I don't think I'd do that. But have him show up every now and again, maybe every other town, or periodically when the PCs return to civilization? Absolutely, I would do that.

You can also do this at the micro scale within encounters as well. If you're describing the area where the PCs will fight the troll or get over the spring net trap, if there's something important fight the troll or get over the spring net trap, if there's something important to the story or a character backstory, then maybe just mention it in the room or area description. Usually even unconsciously the players will say, oh he mentioned the boat carving, I better check that out. Another thing you can do to manipulate the way the players experience the story is to manipulate time. There's already some of this by the way baked into the rule sets of Starfinder, Pathfinder, D&D, and

probably every other game that's out there. 30 second fights can take 3 hours of game time while a 4 day walk could take 15 seconds. The same thing could be true by the way of other rules in your game. As an example, I have a low level party going through the Abomination Vault's adventure path right now. For those of you who have never played Pathfinder 2e, let me give you a quick rule. So there's a skill called Medicine, which you can use to treat wounds between combats. You spend 10 minutes stitching up wounds, giving herbal medicines, helping another character,

or yourself recover hit points depending on your skill level and how well you roll. Each treatment takes 10 minutes, and at at lower levels once you treat somebody's wounds you can't do it again to that same person for an hour. So imagine a party of fourth players who are pretty beat up after a fight. If there's only one healer then they treat the fighter, the rogue, the wizard, then themselves in four different 10-minute increments within game. But if more treat wounds is needed then they have to wait an hour after they treated the fighter to treat them in four different 10-minute increments within game. But if more treat wounds is needed, then they have to wait an hour

after they treated the fighter to treat them again, then rogue and wizard and themselves and so forth, until the party gets enough hit points back to continue adventuring. It's a ton of dice rolling, and it's possible to fail the check, so it can easily turn into 30 minutes at the table of rolling dice, cursing the dice for making bad rolls,

and then trying again on the next character, and again, and again and again and again and don't get me wrong. When you get to higher level, the ability becomes amazing. In another campaign, I'm running an 18th level cleric that routinely heals more than a hundred hit points to six different characters on every 10 minute check, but at low levels, boy, it can grind a bit. So in a recent adventure, I said to the players, I'm happy to sit here and let you all keep rolling checks, but why don't we just say it took you two hours and everyone's full on hit points.

They agreed. The adventure continued. The rolling of the dice was not a fun part of the adventure for the players. So did I manipulate them a little bit? Kinda. But I think I did it in such a way that the players will have more fun at the table than less just by playing with time dilation and compression as needed to keep the game moving. Other things you can do to manipulate the player characters is to play for or against

character preferences. In most adventuring parties, the wizard prefers to be, for example, in the middle of the party as they march around, or maybe in the back, far from the maddening crowd of things with swords who like to make enemies bleed. Wizards usually don't like that. And if you want to play to the wizard's preferences, then let them be where they want to be positioned. But if you want to play to their fears, have a combat where they get surprised, and they aren't in the the back or they aren't in the middle. And maybe they are face to face with melee combat. Similarly, you can play to or challenge PC egos. Imagine the bard comes to town where some of the townsfolk have heard of her.

Oh, oh, oh, you're Emily Danmere. We heard you sing in that tavern in Whiterun. Watch the player's eyes light up when they were just doing downtime activities to make a little coin back in Whiterun, but come to find out their performance there helped get their name out and they're starting to gain just a touch of fame or opposite side of that same coin where you challenge their egos. Another bard hops off the bar stool. Emily Danmere, the bard who sounds like she plays the harp with

her teeth and toes. What are you doing here? You're trying to scare away the good business? Watch the player see then decide if now is the time to test the reinforced neck on their loot to see if it can hold up to a good smash across a captain's smart ass's face. All of this being said, if you do want to manipulate your PCs, I do have a brief word of warning. Make sure all of your players are on board with it. Even subtle manipulation can rub some players the wrong way, so make sure they understand

that everyone, including you, are there to have a good time. And even if the DM is spending time focusing the game a certain way, they need to trust that you're doing so for the right reasons. And even if they are on board, be careful how often you do it. If you go to that well too often, manipulating players, you'll create a situation where the players just don't trust the GM anymore. And lastly, remember, everyone's there to have fun. Pulling one over on the PCs for negative reasons rarely goes well,

and we're not at the table for you to stroke your own ego by showing how smart you are. Manipulating your players by focusing their attentions on certain matters shouldn't be done to negate their choices or force them to make one and only choice that you want. Showing the players that choices have consequences and steering them gently towards what is needed in the moment can make your game run smoother and be a better experience for everyone. Be careful how often you do it and only do it for the right reasons and I'd bet that you and your players would have fun doing it. If you enjoy this podcast, please consider a one-time donation to help keep it running.

ko-fi.com slash taking20podcast. Tune in next week when I'm going to have a Back to Basics episode reminding you that player ideas can be good ideas for your game. But before I go, I want to thank this week's sponsor, teachers. I loved my math teacher, but being in their class caused me to gain weight all the time I mean everything was about pie Also after that class I had a lot of calculus built up Also, I went through puberty in that class and came out with a fuzzy set on the way home

I ran over a possum If you have a square with each side of length q, what's the length of the perimeter? Four q. I was a math minor, by the way, as an undergrad, so I have a nearly infinite set of math puns. This has been episode 227, Tips for Manipulating Your Players. My name is Jeremy Shelley, and I hope that your next game is your best game. The Taking20 Podcast is a Publishing Cube Media Production. Copyright 2024.

References to game system content or copyright to their respective publishers.