The scene is set. A reluctant hero from a tundra-dwelling tribe makes his way into lands to the south, where winter is just a harsh season and not always a question of survival. This hero wants to avoid a fate set forth by a tribal shaman, who foretold a violent future for the hero. Hero wants to go so far as to avoid his own people should they be in the southern lands, avoiding interesting confrontations and questions of identity and so on. Are they avoiding the plot? Do you force it upon them?
Let’s take this in a different direction. What if you decide, this hero, and his testy attitude and unfamiliarity with southern ways, runs into a pompous Elven prince? Words and almost blows are exchanged. The prince wants respect and cowering, the hero doesn’t understand unearned titles. The hero leaves the bruised ego of the price, reconvenes with friends, and heads toward an important meeting with Elven diplomats. There, hero runs right back into the Elven prince, who realizes he can sabotage everything the hero wants in this scene, with his title and attitude.
In a novel, the first scene gets dragged on to create tension, until ultimately the hero must face fate itself. Same with the second scene, where a novel would play this mishap into a little comedy, a little mess, that the protagonists must resolve. They’re ripe scenes for novel action, if not a bit cliche too. BUT, are they also appropriate for a TTRPG session? Do they perhaps railroad the character into choice trees, one of which they wanted to avoid, and one of which they had little say in how it might wreck the plot?
What’s your approach as a DM? Do you like to pepper your scenarios with moments the players can (accidentally or otherwise) choose to derail a major plot point?
