As MJ pointed out, one way to use choice in an RPG is the old dilemma of: You can do A or B, but you can’t do both (usually used by villains in comic books and movies). MJ also touched on the idea that this isn’t always how it works.



Sometimes the hero can do both. Sometimes he can save the girl and children which gives us three options instead of just two, and allows our hero to confound the villain. There is also a fourth option that I haven’t seen too many folks try – You can choose not to choose.



If you haven’t planned for this contingency it’s a good idea to think of what will happen if the choice of no choice is made by your players. Does the villain win? Do both the girl and the children die? Do our heroes fail the test? Do the forces of darkness take over the town?



Not choosing can be because of apathy, fear or even quick thinking - For sometimes the choice of no choice the right choice…





At one point during my original Vampire campaign my bad guy, Michael, had set up the players so that all but one of them was in a position to make a choice between A or B. The twist was that both choices were wrong.



If they chose A, it was bad. If they chose B, it was worse. Michael, being a cocky sort of bad guy, kept one player outside and allowed him to witness each other player’s dilemma. He granted the outsider the ability to give one sentence’s worth of advice/direction to the player - Otherwise he could not speak. Michael hated to loose so he decided to stack the deck further by making the two wrong choices the only obvious ones, and to hide/not mention the only right choice.



As you can no doubt guess, the right choice was not to choose. Michael was trying to make the party play his game with his rules. If they party refused to play along they would escape and foil his plans for, as is the way with evil plots, it hinged on at least one player making the wrong choice.



The first player was taken aside and given his scenario. It was a chess game against Michael. The player had the white pieces so it was he who had to make the first move. The player on the outside didn’t know what to do, so he waited to see what would unfold. He wanted to give some advice, but he wasn’t sure what to say as he feared bad advince might doom them.



The player at the chess board asked me a number of questions trying to divine what he should do. He got the two obvious options right away - He could forfeit, or he could play and try to win. He didn’t like either choice. He wasn’t a quitter so he didn’t want to forfeit. He also knew he couldn’t win as Michael was a master of tactics and had magical foresight that unbalanced the chess match.



As the player pondered his situation, Michael became frustrated, as bad guys are wont to do when their plans are close to fruition and the good guys are stalling, so he bated the player.



“Choose!” said Michael. “You must either forfeit or play the game.”



The player looked at me and said: “I kick the table and send the pieces flying.”



I said. “Michael looks shocked and angry as the chess pieces fly across the room… What do you do now?”



The player folded his arms, looked at me and said, with a very big grin: “Checkmate!”



He had figured me out. And at that moment the player watching also figured it out.



“No choice is a choice!” I heard.



“Perhaps…” I said doing my best to roleplay a bad guy who’d just been busted.



“Perhaps? HAH! We’ve got you!”



As a GM you don’t want to overuse any of the tricks in your bag so don’t do this too often or it’s uniqueness is lost rather quickly. Depending on the type of players and game you run, you may not want the consequences of failure to be too dire. Sometimes the loss of something small is enough.



Then again, there is something to be said for the fun that comes from the player’s choice being the one that saves or dooms the world.



Brett J.B.