Are PCs Completely Unpredictable?

When I create a major encounter, I usually try to predict how the PCs will approach, take on, and overcome the challenge. I do this mostly so when something happens, I’ve already given some thought on how to adjudicate it.

For instance, if the party had regularly tried parley and social skills to get past obstacles in most of their previous encounters, I give thought to how such an approach would work in the upcoming encounter.

If the only way into the room with the big bad evil guy (BBEG) is through one door, and the BBEG would probably know the PCs are coming, how would he cast spells? What would he buff with first?

I just try to have thought through the common or most expected situations, so I won’t be caught flat-footed or blind sided when the situation happens. Way back, in my earlier DMing days, I didn’t really do this much. I just flew by the seat of my pants with little to no forethought at all.

In the last several years, I’ve figured that I could be a better DM if I’d think through some things before the stuff hit the fan in the middle of the action. I even thought of interesting things for the BBEG to say when the party encountered him in the way I expected (based on their previous actions).

But since I’ve started doing this, I’ve learned that I absolutely cannot predict how the PCs will act in any situation. And I don’t mean they sometimes surprise me, or they occasionally pull an unpredictable stunt; I mean they don’t do anything the way I expected, and nothing about the encounter goes the way I figured. This is not to say the encounter doesn’t go fun or exciting, usually it does. But I’ve wasted a lot of thought on situations that don’t happen.

If the party usually kicks in the door and kills the monster and takes its stuff, and I plan for that tactic, it will turn out that the PCs stop and want to parley with the monster.

If the party usually negotiates with every creature they encounter, and I plan for that talky-stuff, it will turn out that the PCs charge in and slaughter the monster.

And its not like this stuff happens because the party is psychotic or chaotic. Half the time, it’s for some perfectly reasonable thought process: some convergence of clues or ideas that, though wrong, taken out of context, or just weird, makes sense when seen at the right angle. But then there’s the other half of the time when their whole thought process makes no sense, and they are left saying, “I don’t know why we did it like that.”

So I’m giving up trying to predict or prepare ahead of time for what the PCs will probably do. It’s proven to be a waste of time and effort on my part. It’s even been a source of some aggravation because of the waste. But it just seems like a bad idea to not give any thought or consideration on how an encounter may go.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com