Where'd my Story Go?

This is post is based off of a request I received (Look! I do requests!) about what to do when your players derail your story and manage to circumvent traps and encounters.

If your players manage to circumvent your traps and encounters, there isn't much you can do. To an extent your encounters can be moved to later in the session. Your traps can be re-placed on your dungeon so that the players have the opportunity to encounter them again. However, this should be done with caution. Whether your players circumvented them by chance or design; they should be rewarded for doing so. Simply moving everything forward so they can encounter it again cheapens the experience of trying to solve problems by working around them.

So what do you do when your players derail the story and go off in their own direction? That really depends on what kind of game you're running. If you're running a sandbox style game, you have to go with it because that is the point of sand box games.

If you're running a more controlled game you can either roll with it and see where the players take the story or gently guide them back to what you intended. If you shut down out of hand everything the players do then you'll get to a point where the players will just ask, "What do you want us to do here?" And that isn't really fun for anyone. Unless you are running straight dungeon crawl after dungeon crawl, then the players need to have some input on where they're going to go next and they need to have the freedom on how to approach the encounters you put in front of them.

If things get really out of hand, then you might have to make some hard choices. In extreme situations you may have to speak with the players (or player, if it is only one person derailing everything). That should get everything back into line. People usually don't realize that they're causing problems, because everyone but the DM may be having fun. If you're gaming with mature players that should be all it takes.

However, this may not take care of the problem for some groups. You can kick specific people out if they're causing problems, but that will cause a variety of problems in the long run. A better option, in the worst case scenario, would be to can the game. Even though you are the DM, you are still playing a game and you need to enjoy it as well.

Stories in RPGs can be sticky. If you want to tell a story that you have brewing in your mind, then you'll need to restrict your players a bit. Or, you can allow your story to change with what they do and that can lead to a richer story and unexpected surprises.