Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 TenkayCrit Aug 13, 2015 16:01:06	HI fellow DMs, I'm looking for a bit of inspiration for some really impactful choices for players. These could be absolutely anything. If it doesn't fit with my current campaign it might spark an idea that does. So here's my question: what are some choices that you have given players or have seen from other DMs that are truly memorable? Any tips for making choices really matter would be awesome and greatly appriciated as well! Thanks for the help!
#2 Ralif_Redhammer Aug 14, 2015 7:22:27	I think the key is to work up to the difficult choice, rather than surprise them with it. Recently, I had a recurring villain that had been a thorn in their side for a few adventures. When they finally confronted him and beat him, he had a back-up plan. Kill him and a magical bomb goes off, spilling a plague of undead into the city. Let him go and he disarms the bomb. They decided on letting him go, but it was a close thing.   You also have to be willing to allow the consequences. I kinda was hoping that I’d get to use that undead invasion, and was tempted to have him double-cross them, but in the end, their choice had to have meaning. So, no plague of undead for me.   In the last adventure, in order to get the name and location of an enemy, the group had to make a deal with the Assassins Guild – they promised to perform a hit for them in exchange for the information. They came up with the whole thing in the first place, and I am so excited to use it as an adventure plot.   Another trick I’ve seen is tying the choices to character backgrounds and goals.
#3 OoftaMeg Aug 14, 2015 12:40:20	I regularly have two or more bad guys/organizations going at the same time.  Do you track down the evil cultists of the death god or try to take on the evil mage and his followers?  Does the Church of Purity really have the interests of the people in mind?   In one case it was the cultists of Hel (evil deity) vs the followers of Verran (evil mage) .  The PCs had a chance to significantly hinder the plans of the followers of Verran but their leader made a plea.  Explaining that they wanted to stop the cultists of Hel just a much as the PCs did, he convinced the PCs to let him go.  Kind of an enemy of my enemy is my friend scenario.   They didn't realize it at the time, but they could have stopped Verran from later trying to take over the world.   Would it have been difficult and riskier to fight both groups?  Yes ... but it would have been possible.   In other cases I've dropped what I thought were pretty obvious hints that some NPC was up to no good.  They either didn't catch on or decided to deal with the NPC later.  When the NPC assassinated the king (their benefactor) the look of "Oh **** we could have prevented this sooo easily" was priceless.   What I don't do is set up no win situations.  I also hate the "do you support the really evil bad guy or the bad guy who's really evil?" scenarios that came up in the previous living campaign.  The PCs should be heroes, it's not a "moral dilema" to be forced to choose between two different shades of evil if there is no third option.
#4 Nevvur Aug 14, 2015 13:15:55	I like both Ralif and Oofta's examples. Having to choose between the lesser of two evils -- especially when it's not clear which is the lesser -- is a great meaningful choice.   A similar but sort of opposite decision comes in the form of the greater of two goods. I remember struggling with a decision point in Divinity: Original Sin (even though the choice had little actual impact on the game) where you are able to provide life-saving aid to only one of two people. The first is a young, independent man with his entire life to look forward to. The other is well into his years, but has a family.   Wealth vs. Influence is another possibility. Do I accept the villagers' reward money for killing the manticore that's been terrorizing their herds, or let them keep it and earn a favorable reputation?
#5 Imaculata Aug 14, 2015 14:37:29	TenkayCrit wrote: