Disclaimer:  If you aren’t into role-playing games, read no further…you won’t understand.

I’ve been running role-playing games for several decades now, and am still most fond, though it may shock some people, of AD&D first edition.  There are so many wonderful aspects in follow-on editions of AD&D (I’m playing in a 3.5 campaign right now) and in other games systems, but I still run first edition.  Why?  Because in my world, the rules don’t really matter…it’s more about the game than it is about the rules.  The rules are just a framework to support the story.   I’ve toyed with the idea of converting from one system to another several times, but the three decades of work I’ve put into building an open-ended world that isn’t that highly dependent on the rules anyway just doesn’t seem to justify the additional effort.

I tell you all this so you have an idea what kind of world I’m running.  There is no major plot line that the party has to follow.  There is a world.  Things happen.  Go.

Anything they want to do, within the physical and ability constraints of the party, they can do.  There are plot hooks everywhere, just as there are in life.  There are major plot hooks and minor plot hooks and never discovered plot hooks.  It takes new players in my world to figure out that the DM isn’t “sending them clues,” or “trying to get them to go this way,” or “pointing out something relevant to the game.”  It’s ALL relevant to the game.   Everything is interconnected in some way.  Regardless of what the party chooses to do there will be consequences.  Regardless of what they choose NOT to do, there will be consequences.  Just like life.

Supporting a world like this can be a strain on the DM I’ll admit.  I have to continue every story line they ever start, move forward every political or economic process they come in contact with, evolve every creature or being they leave alive because at some point, in the near or distant future, they might (and oh too often do) return.   How many times have I heard, “that’s not the way it was the last time we were here!”  Well, of course not…the world isn’t just sitting idle waiting for you chosen few to have your way with it.

You would think after three decades of this kind of gaming, that apart from the occasional amazing die rolls and way-out momentary ideas of a party member in combat or a party with too much down time, that I would never be surprised for a party decision.   Last week however, I must admit, that I was surprised.  Not unprepared mind you, like I said, it is a wide-open world.  Just surprised.

So, let me explain.  No, it’s too much.  Let me sum up.  (thank you Indigo).  At the beginning of the game and as part of his backstory, one of the party members was left a mine as part of an inheritance.   The existence of the mine has been a considerable source of discussion in game as it is allegedly one of the only sources of an extremely rare metal that is wanted by one of the principal antagonists.  It’s location was a mystery, the uses of the ore were a mystery, the idea that several antagonists have now gotten involved over it’s existence has been a constant source of trouble for the party, and yet, it is merely one of (DM’s rough estimate) twenty-five concurrent plot lines that the party has decided to pick up on.

The last few months of gaming has seen the party very focused.  Pick a plot line, work it to completion, then go on to the next.  During the first year of gaming they were off on tangents several times a session, wandering in circles at times, and continuously trying to “find themselves.”   “What should we do next?”  “What do we do now?”

Now they are focused.  On to the mine.  Get to the mine.  Find the mine.  Kill the armies of antagonists that interfere.  Do not be distracted.  No tangents.  No side-quests.  Mine. Mine. Mine.

I tested their resolve by giving each of them a dream that would have caused a normal party to think twice about where they were heading…they sat down in an orderly fashion, shared their dreams and decided to go forward.  MINE!!

Within a few days of the mine there is an escarpment that the party has to cross.  It has nothing to do with any of the quests they are on, it just happens to sit at the top of the road leading down to the lowlands and the lord of the keep levies a fair tax on all who use his road.  They paid the tax, headed down the road, and met a small force of one of their antagonists within a day’s of the keep.   In the middle of what seemed like a very desperate battle, some of the men from the keep showed up and got involved in the fighting, unfortunately, it was unclear to the party on whose side the men were fighting.  By the end of the fight, even amidst arguments in the party, all of the enemy and all of the keep men had been slain and the party was all set to move forward to the mine.  That’s when it happened.

“They shouldn’t have attacked us,” one party member said.

“But now that they did, I guess their keep belongs to us,” said another.

“Yeah, let’s go take it from them,” said a third.

“You wanna do what?” I asked.

“If this was the lord of the keep who we just killed, then the keep is probably ours.  If he is there at the keep and knows his men attacked us, then we’ll have to take the keep from him.”

So they TURNED AROUND!  To make what is becoming a long (and under-detailed) story short, they lawfully fought to take the keep (the actual resident was NOT who they thought it was) and are now headed to the capital city of the kingdom to speak with the legal clerks about transferring the deed.  Sigh.  Good thing I have the real estate platt, the floor plan of the keep, the history of the area, and the deed on file in the capital city.  I just wonder which of the fifteen side quests connected to the keep will delay them from what was their principal goal.  This will be fun to watch…