Planning

[Veknironth]

Well if you ever played with me, and I suspect that would be no one in this forum, then you know that I love plans. I'm always planning. Plans plans plans. But that always leads to the question of how much of my plan do I reveal to the GM.

The pros are that the GM is up on what I'm going to try and there isn't any back and forth when I spring any parts of the plan. It also allows me to explain why I think the plan will work and make a case for fooling someone or showing how many factors I'm taking into account to show how good the plan is.

The cons are the GM gets a chance to plan against me. This is dirty pool, but the GM is in control of the entire world and that's a lot to keep track of in general, and difficult in real time. So, if I spring something on the GM, the GM doesn't have time to come up with a good counter. It's as if the GM is suffering from the same surprise as the NPCs.

Where do you all fall in this conundrum?

-Vek
"The GM is not my enemy, but is sort of my adversary."

[kiralon]

If its a good gm i'll share the plan because he can keep counters to said plan separate between groups of npc's. Seeing surprise on the gm's face is fun too though, but can slow things because as you said, he is the world and if he thinks whatever your opponent is should be intelligent enough to see it coming or had encountered it before and be prepared for said event, then he will take the time to do so.

[Hotrod]

As the folks who have gamed with me on this board can attest, I take an improvisational theater approach to RPGs. I see the GM not so much as an adversary, but as a co-writer of the story we're telling. Thus, I focus more on revealing the plan in an in-character way, particularly if it helps keep the GM and other players entertained. When you're laying out your plan, you're telling a story. If the story is fun or compelling, the GM is more likely to go along with it.

That said, there's nothing wrong with taking an adversarial approach, as long as the GM doesn't shift his focus too far from the player characters and on the NPCs. If the GM seems to be using out-of-character knowledge to drive in-character NPC decisions, I would suggest that you talk with the GM. A reasonable approach might be to ask the GM to write out a plan for key NPC decisions prior to telling the GM your plan.

You also might consider altering your paradigm where it comes to planning and focus more on developing a variety of viable options and tactics for a given scenario. Rather than trying to shape events to flow the way you envision them, you're shaping your character's choices to fit the scenario. With a well-developed bag of tricks, you'll find ways to take advantage of situations as they unfold, and if one approach doesn't work, you'll have others you can turn to. This dynamic will likely keep the rest of the group more engaged as well.

Finally, when you do need to make a plan, I encourage you to plan collaboratively with the rest of the party. If everyone's on board, the GM is more likely to roll with it.

I hope this helps.