Five Things To Do When Your RPG Party Gets Bogged Down Planning
One of the hardest things to navigate in an RPG is planning what you’re going to do next. Here’s how to keep it moving when you feel stuck.
Playing an RPG can take you into a whole other world. When everything is flowing just right, you are immersed in story and character and little miniatures arranged on a grid. But nothing gets in the way quite like planning.
Whether you’re planning a heist or planning how you’re going to follow up on the quest you find yourselves on, planning stuff out can bring a game grinding to a standstill. It can happen to anyone at any table. But it isn’t planning in and of itself that’s the problem.
Coming up with a plan can be exciting! It can be an opportunity for character, or to draw further into the game. But sometimes you just get bogged down. There’s a lot of details to sort out. Do you try and go in through the back? Do you wade through the water or try and row ashore? What do you do about the guards you’ve spotted?
The list can go on. Before you know it, you’ve come up with as many plans as you’ve abandoned. Meanwhile the pizza’s getting cold, the night’s getting longer, and you’re sure, if a fight starts, there’s no way you’ll finish it in one session.
When that happens, here are five ways to get the game moving again.
Don’t Worry About Being Perfect
This is great life advice. But also. You can’t plan for everything. Especially when you’re playing a game about storytelling adventures with your friends. After all, we famously love it when the big heist goes off without a big twist or sudden dramatic turn, right?
If a plan feels good enough it’s probably much better than you think. As the adage goes, don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. The whole point of planning a heist/assault/kidnapping/dungeon delve is to actually do the thing you’re planning.
List What You Know
One of the biggest difficulties can be trying to accurately use what your characters have learned. It can help to make a list of relevant information. If you’ve done any scouting, or have cast any recon spells/flown in a recon drone, you’ve probably got a little.
And while you’re listing this, don’t be afraid to talk about what you can do with that info. Ideas tend to gain speed when they start bouncing off of each other. And as long as you’re listing what you know? Look for the things that you don’t know. Sometimes finding out “we need more information” or “we need to know ____ ” can lead to further action.
Don’t Give Up At The First Obstacle
When coming up with a plan, you’ll likely come up with obstacles in your path. Things like “the door is locked” or “there are cameras around the walls.” These aren’t signs that you should give up on your plan.
Rather they’re challenges to tackle. Having a solution for “avoiding the cameras” can help put you on the right track.
Ask Questions
The GM, in most cases, wants to get to the action as much as you do. If you have a question and think your character might know, why not ask the GM? Maybe they know!
But similarly, if you’re stuck trying to figure out what to do, pose the questions to the rest of the group. Again, as long as you’re talking, you’re moving towards the point of taking action. Plus, by asking for clarity you might be able to get some of the missing details.
Play In Character
Often times, planning can be a jarring/immersion breaking thing because it puts an emphasis on the player, rather than the character. And that’s not a bad thing! RPGs aren’t the sort of thing where you have to be in character 100% of the time. But when you start to feel stuck, sometimes you just need to change the energy of the room up a little.
And jumping in character, even if just for a comment, can help shake things up. Maybe it’s a character voicing a frustration about the difficulty of the plan. Or a quip about some of the things you’re facing. Look for moments to help give your character (or someone else’s) the spotlight and that can help take the pressure off the players.
What do you do when you’re trying to come up with a plan?
