During last week’s discussion of the two general options for presenting a challenge to the PCs, I mentioned one potential problem being the difficulty of getting across to the characters whether they’re dealing with an Option A challenge, in which they should win unless bad luck or stupidity prevents it, or an Option B, in which all bets are off and it’s time to start improvising like mad and scaling up the stunts (or just running away very, very quickly).
So there we are: how does one go about getting across which situation is which?
One of the first things to do is to try to establish an expectation of what kinds of scenes you overall favor. That way, even if you don’t have indicators, people have a reliable default to fall back on. Usually, the best time to express something like this is either at the beginning of the campaign if you know, or as soon as you figure it out (and/or change your decision later).
The easiest way to mark an Option B situation, of course, is to emphasize a large power differential between the PCs and their opponent, in the opponent’s favor. This is one of the few times when operating in a system like D&D, and especially having people who are familiar with all of the rules, can be an advantage: if the party’s average level is in the mid-single digits, and the enemy’s CR is in the doubles, that’s probably a sign that just counting on the dice and on basic tactics isn’t going to work. Similarly, if the characters are pretty close to starting, and you introduce a character of a type that’s usually far out of their league, that’s likely to get across, if not “don’t fight with this thing”, then at least, “use every trick in your bag and a few you made up on the spot.” Other NPCs’ reactions, or the results of characters’ information rolls, can also get you the same effect; when the note passed to the guy who just rolled on this thing makes him blanch, or a usually calm NPC is starting to show signs of extreme nerves, that’s usually a sign that it’s going to take more than a good roll or two to deal with this problem.
Obvious power differential isn’t the only way, though. Sometimes, it’s just the fact that nobody has the slightest idea what the opponent is, particularly when the opponent appears to be resistant if not immune to some of the PCs’ favorite tactics.
If the key to getting Option B tactics is to show the players that their characters are outclassed, the key to Option A tactics is to show them that they aren’t. Their opponents are clearly on their level, without a home court advantage, single useful artifact, or other thing to lift them above the normal; if they’re in a situation that setting conventional wisdom would say they shouldn’t be able to make it out of alive, they and possibly their opponent are in no way average for their kind, mostly if not entirely in their favor.
And sometimes, you’re just going to have to tell them what they’re dealing with. If they’re using Option A behavior in an Option B situation, no amount of cues is getting them to stop, and it’s about to get them killed, it’s probably best just to tell them that’s what’s going on and hope for the best (unless, of course, you want to make this an object lesson, in which case it’s best to keep silent). Option B behavior in an Option A situation probably isn’t quite as self-destructive (I for one would let it go because it’s more fun to watch), but if it’s stalling things too much, or too likely to break the plot, telling them they probably don’t need to go to such effort might do the job.
Sometimes it isn’t really necessary to get across what kind of a situation you’re running, but every now and then it matters—and when it does, being able to get across whether they should be responding to Option A or Option B can be vital to a satisfying game.
