Planning’s not for everybody, but strategizing ahead of time can win the day.
“Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.” Sun Tzu
Improviser vs. Planner
In A Different Look at Player Styles: Planners and Improvisers I described planners and improvisors as two different ends of a spectrum of playing styles. My observation was that most gamers are closer to improvisers than to planners. They’re more interested in kicking down doors and killing enemies.
In my experience, the average player just wants some action (rather like many movie-goers, who prefer tentpole action movies). I prefer planning in games, but also enjoy tentpole action movies. To me, movies are passive, games are active.
This approach is likely influenced, at least in part, because of our modern lifestyles. Cell phones have made planning much less necessary in everyday life, so perhaps that spills over into games. If you forget to call someone, or to choose a restaurant, your mobile phone saves you. But there are usually no cell phones/Internet in fantasy (though see my previous article for the possibility of creating fantasy versions of just that).
According to Plan
By “planning” I don’t mean some course of action that must be rigorously followed. Plans have to change once you meet the enemy. But “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower. It’s the act of planning, of thinking about possibilities and how to react to them, that improves battle performance. And it’s something you do before the fight.
How players are encouraged to plan is influenced by the rules and circumstances the game provides. Some RPG rulesets encourage planning, some don’t; some GMs encourage planning, some don’t. For example: Do players have time and opportunity to plan? Do prisoners sometimes have useful information? Are spells interpreted in ways that benefit planning (think the commune spell in D&D)? In other words, do players benefit from trying to gather intelligence? If not, it’s harder to plan – you have to have some idea of what you might face.
This applies to game masters too. A GM who is running a storytelling campaign probably does not want players to plan much. In effect, the storyteller (GM) is the planner, the players must react (improvise) to fit the plan. With enough planning, the players might derail the plot significantly (a frequent meme, see Worlds of Design: Active vs. Passive—Part 1).
Why Plan at All?
For the perfect example of a mismatch between group playstyles, there’s the infamous “Leeroy Jenkins!” video from World of Warcraft. In that video, the players have made plans, they’re outside the lair of the enemy, they pause for a last run-through, and “Leroy” becomes impatient and charges in, thereby alerting the bad guys. At this point the right thing to do was to rapidly withdraw and let Leroy suffer the consequences of his actions, but in the video, they all charge in helter-skelter, and all of them (a big group) are killed. (This video has since been revealed to be staged, but it also works very well as an example many players can sympathize with).
Tabletop games are not immune to this mismatch. Depending on the game you’re playing, planning might go against the spirit of the game. Fast-paced adventures and action movies rarely give their protagonists time to plot out their next moves. Part of the fun is seeing them improvise on the fly. When there’s a mismatch between player styles and the tone of the game, planning can slow things down enough to seem “unheroic” or “plodding and dull.” And for good reason: some people may be tired of planning in their real-world lives. Many players just prefer improvisation in their games, so they can turn off their brain and have a good time.
If you’re a player, the question is, are you willing to go through the planning takes in order to increase your character’s chance of survival? If you’re a GM, will players’ plans derail the campaign’s narrative (if there is one)? It’s worth discussing your preferences before you sit down to play. Making sure your playstyles match can mean the difference between a well-executed plan … or Leroy.
Your Turn: As GM do you give the players opportunity to plan before an adventure or battle?
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