[DL] Campaign Details

[Jesse Burneko <jburneko@yahoo.com>]

Hello Again,

I have some questions for all you Marshals out there
about campaign organization.

1) How do you deal with the details of reality? 
Before picking up Deadlands I used to play a modern
day Horror RPG and I used to have to skip over several
details and consequences of PCs action.  In reality
the players probably should have been arrested for at
least 3 or 4 crimes at the end of every adventure but
I always just ignored that fact.  I'd rather not do
that this time around but I don't know how to deal
with unexpected PC actions that would have serious
reprocussions.

Example: The players are in a Saloon and a bar brawl
breaks out.  Suddenly they draw their guns and start
shooting everyone.  If the players had simply left or
gotten involved in the brawl they probably just would
have been thrown out of the Saloon or at worst made to
spend the night in jail to cool down or sober up.  But
NOW as Marshall I've got a murder case on my hands. 
At best the PCs flee town and become wanted which
could derail a whole campaigne arc and I have to worry
about the law men in every town they come to and
whether or not word of their wantedness has reached
here or there.  At worst they're caught and I have to
deal with trials and possible hangin's.  How do you
deal with such a dramatic and serious unplaned
consequence of Player actions?

2) How do you incoporate player free will in
determining the direction of your compaigne?

Example: Your players are traveling from town A to
town B.  The adventure you have planed is probably the
journey to town B or possibly just the events at town
B.  Suddenly, your Mad Scientist has an idea for an
invention but it will require part X that can only be
found at location Y.  The players decide that they
should get part X before proceding to location B.  But
that's not the adventure you have planed!  This is
espeically bad if you have important ideas that
involve part X or location Y but you haven't worked
them out yet because it's not at that point in your
compaign.

Anyway it seems to me that an awful lot of Game
Masters either work entirely off the cuff or simply
plan their whole compaign world so that no matter
where their players go they know what's waiting for
them.  My story ideas are too complex and involved for
the former and I don't have enough time or the kind of
mind it takes for the later.

Basically I'm asking how do you make your worlds more
dynamic and responsive to the Players actions without
going "Are you sure you want to do that?" everytime
the players draw their guns in a bar brawl or coming
up with some lame excuse as to why the players can't
do something just to preserve your plot.

An example of how low I've sunken:  I'm a very naive
person about matters of public record in today's
world.  My modern day horror RPG scenarios were very
mystery oriented and I had a planed progression for
clue revelation and such.  However, my very wordly and
legal savy players were constantly doing things like: 
"I drive over to the public records office and look up
so and so's birth certificate."

And I'd be like, "What?  Doesn't that take like $25
dollars and 2 to 3 weeks?"  They'd say, "If I mailed
for the information but not if I walk over there
myself."  And I'd have to come up with some sorry
excuse as to why this person's birth cirtificate
wasn't on file etc etc just to prevent them from
learning something too early.

It got so bad that I'm tempted to create a group of
outlaws for my Deadlands campaign called the "Privacy
Posse" who go from town to town doing nothing but
burning down public record buildings.  And
mysteriously they seem to be always one step ahead of
the party.

Any suggestions would be useful and appreciated. 
Thanks.

Jesse Burneko

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Calendar - Get organized for the holidays!
http://calendar.yahoo.com/