Natural 7

Poke, Prod, Pull

Happy Halloween!

There are lots of ways to interact with roleplaying games. One of which that I think is very common is Poke & Prod. A method I see less often, at least at my own tables, is Poke, Prod, Pull.

Poke & Prod

This is the kind of playstyle where players are curious about the environment of the game world. They like to poke & prod the various features to get an idea of what they do and how they react to different stimuli.

An example of Poke & Prod is when you present the party with a giant crystal obelisk that shimmers with a pale blue light, and one members goes up to take a closer look: they see little tiny people floating around inside the obelisk. By asking further questions, the party discerns that those tiny people might be ghosts and that they are all screaming in pain. Also, there are skeletons clustered around the base of the crystal.

Some players may want to keep interacting with this giant crystal obelisk. Others, not so much. "What if the crystal eats our souls?"

Poke, Prod, Pull

This playstyle differs in one singular way from Poke & Prod. Allow me to illustrate with a continuation of the previous example:

The party finds the crystal obelisk and investigates just as before. They notice the screaming ghost people and the skeletons on the floor. Now, one party member, decides it might be useful or interesting to try touching the crystal. When they do, their soul is ripped out of their body and sucked into the crystal (surprise!).

In some cases, depending on dungeon design, this would be a bad thing. But what if:

The rest of the party now knows that, unconditionally, if you touch the crystal you lose your soul. They could use this to beat the goblin king, if they can get him to touch the crystal.

The person who's soul got sucked away learns that, hey, I'm locked in eternal torment with these souls, but only because they haven't found a way to escape yet. What if, and here me out, the crystal was overloaded with souls? Might it then break open? Or, better yet, what if the souls weren't trapped in the first place? Maybe this is a gate to the Plane of Death, where you can enter and become reincarnated at the cost of soul corruption?

For both groups, the remaining party and the soul-sucked player, this creates an interesting dilemma or situation they can further interact with. Instead of leaving the crystal behind (noting it as LORE and not a TOOL) they have discerned that something can happen here.

Oh, and what if the soul-sucked player can communicate with the party outside? They can orchestrate future plans together.

Which do I prefer?

I prefer groups, though it's usually only one or two players with this playstyle, that participate in the act of Poke, Prod, Pull. When players interact with potentially dangerous things in ways that allow them to experiment and learn much more than by just Poke & Prod -ing it allows the game to evolve in exciting ways. It encourages me to think about creative situations to put players in, it usually offers difficult choices, and it gets the players involved in manufacturing the narrative.

When players just Poke & Prod it can sometimes feel, to me, that they are waiting for the cool/weird/scary stuff to present itself in obvious ways, rather than making their own cool stuff happen.

But You Said Dungeon Design Earlier

Earlier, in my example, I said, "In some cases, depending on dungeon design, this would be a bad thing," in reference to one player having their soul sucked out of their body.

But, does dungeon design actually matter for the consequences of their actions? I think not. What the consequences depend on is the mutual agreement of the table on what serves as a "good consequence", which you might have an idea of after a session zero or by playing with the same group for a few years.

If you wrote in your notes: "big soul crystal that eats souls" and the players found the soul crystal, you would have the authority to determine what happens when a player touches the crystal.

But wait, there's more. If you were running a pre-written module, you would still have the authority to determine what happens when a player touches the crystal.

You always can decide what "good consequence" to apply after a player does something dangerous or otherwise risky.

The only way that the big soul crystal sucking your soul out because a boring element is if no one does anything with the information it presents. This also means that people who prefer to just Poke & Prod are perfectly OK to continue as such if they are gaining enjoyment from simply witnessing a big soul crystal. They don't have to Pull on any knobs and whistles if that wouldn't make the game more interesting for them.

One part of good dungeon design is about presenting things that could be poked, prodded, and maybe even pulled, and offering enough advice to help someone be a good Game Master. One part of being a good Game Master is about offering good consequences to risky and dangerous actions, often after someone Poke, Prod, Pull's something.

Final Thoughts

Feeling mysterious, so no final thoughts today.

Thanks for reading!

Things on my radar: