Give Players What They Want

I really wish I could claim originality here, however, I read this in a gaming magazine some time ago. Be that as it may, it is certainly worth repeating over and over and over again: give the players what they want.

Most players, if asked, would say things like "+34 Bastard Sword of Instant Baddie Destruction" or "100 billion dollars" or other whatnot to boost their power. The reality of the situation is that players don't want those. Sure, it may be fun to be an indestructible juggernaut of destruction for a session or two but it gets to be pretty boring pretty quick when nothing is a challenge. What players really want is almost the exact opposite of this.

Players want to be roughed up, beaten down, bloodied, battered and bruised but then win. They want to win but they don't want to do so easily. They want to win only after it looks like they may not be able to do so and after their GM has drug them through the fire...twice, just to make sure they got burned the first time. Players want to emerge triumphant by the skin of their teeth.

There is a fine line here, however, as if you constantly beat down the players they will soon get frustrated with the game and this is a poor place for a game to be. So, you have to let them have their victories now and then to keep them excited about the game, but let only very few of them come easily. The rest of them should make them cringe at the memory of what they had to go through to get there. And, don't be afraid to do whatever is necessary to accomplish this. Fudge rolls; add more beasties halfway through the battle; throw some resistances to things they use frequently; do whatever it takes to bloody them up, but give them their victory in the end. Of course, you want to keep your screen up during all of this so they don't actually see you "cheating"...it's no fun if they know what you are doing. Along the same lines, you can't use the same kind of tricks all the time or players will come to know what you're doing. You also have to mix it up, let them have a small victory with relative ease from time to time and don't make every battle epic.

Players want epic battles where they aren't assured of victory and they want to be smacked down to just above death, but they still want to be heroes and heroes ultimately win. So, pull out all the nastiness you can muster and start making some players cry!