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My players are trying to derail the campaign real hard wat do

Roll with the punches, learn to improvise and focus on keeping things fun and interesting.

Table flip and 360 out the door.

Let them.

These are the only answers you'll get on this board. Because any kind of narrative imposed by the GM is apparently the greatest indignity that a group of players could suffer, mostly because the opinion appears to be "we don't wanna play yer shitty fantasy novel".

Horseshit.

But a good GM can have a narrative in mind that will work with whatever the players do. Call it false choice or whatever you like, but if you scatter your plot hooks widely enough almost anything your players do will end up being part of the plot anyway.

It's a matter of nuance rather than absolutes. On the one hand, without any direction the game can get dull and stagnant, but without at least a feeling of freedom of choice the players will feel like they have no real influence over events. It's getting the balance that is key.

And going back to OP's point, I do think this is the best way to deal with players trying to 'derail' a campaign. Don't try to force them back onto the rails. Find a different track their actions might lead to. Have the rails follow Them. Do it subtley enough and you can have the best of both worlds.

If you did not go in with them agreeing to a strong, central story you get what you deserve.

Accept that your planned campaign is not working out and adapt it to what the players are trying to do.

GMing style is a very personal thing, no two people do things quite the same way and the only 'right' way to GM is the way that you feel most comfortable with and the group enjoy.

With that disclaimer, when I GM I generally treat any plans I have as a fallback if I run out of things to improvise, as well as always having a few sets of encounter stats pregenerated for likely locations and opponents depending on the area the PCs are currently in.

Ask them straight-up whether they're unhappy with the direction of the campaign or whether they're just doing it to see what happens/for funsies/to be dicks.

If it's the first, throw out what you've got and go with something else. If it's the latter, say "I spent time working on this campaign and it's worth giving a chance".

Bottom line, if the players don't want to play it there's no point in forcing it. You might have the greatest narrative since Hamlet but if all the players want to do is raid random dungeons, give them random dungeons.

Do you know why are they doing this? Because there are basically 3 options OP, either you're a shitty GM and they don't want to tell you that openly, they want something entirely different from the campaign than you offer them (In which case they should tell you that two) or they're morons who think that they have to "beat" the GM or just want shenanigans. In the third case they're shit players and you should dump them.

Let them go off rails, then have the big bad they were suppose to stop come in and push their shit in when they've completely forgotten. Just give them a few hints from time to time that shit is going down elsewhere, so they can't blame you for not letting them know the Necromancer completed the ritual while they were too busy trying to make gay marriage legal.

You're gonna need a lot more detail on that, champ.

That's not how it works. Narrative can survive without railroading. People in the world should act like characters, not robots with set action patterns and behaviours that only get triggered under specific circumstances. If the players start doing something you didn't plan, the world doesn't break, characters don't stop existing, they can act and react to the actions of the players, and further a narrative, even if it was not one set in stone from before the players even had a chance to play the game to begin with.

Think about it like this.

Riding a train can be entertaining.

But when the train derails everyone will remember it.

Either roll with it, or explain to the players that you need a little bit of leeway vis a vis the whole 'impactful decisions' thing and that they should try to be patient, and then attempt to roll with it in a smaller fashion.

Those are your options.

OP if you do not respond with details, we are left to assume you are simply trying to bait Veeky Forums into arguing, poorly.
Posting the updated pdf in case anyone hasn't seen it.

Well, OP, basically what is happening is that you are a shit DM. You are trying to oppress your players into following your shitty storyline, and they will have none of it. And now you are whining on an internet board about. Your oppressive male tears are delicious.

I am so sick of listening to DMs whine about how the players ruined "my" plans or killed "my" NPC. Listen, faggot, you don't "own" anything, okay? The players control what's going on. Your job is to react. They roll a natural 20? That means they automatically succeed at what they are doing. I don't care if it's popping a zit or jumping halfway to the moon on a pogo stick, a natural 20 is special and they deserve success as a reward for rolling it. Second of all, you let the players do whatever they want. You got that bitch? Whatever. They. Want. You are doing this for their entertainment therefore you get to suck their dicks. They want to start a business? Well you better have homebrewed rules for running a business, faggot, because it's up to you make their dreams come true. Don't like it? You should've let someone else DM. I've been DMing for the past 20 years and I've always satisfied my players, because I do what needs to be done. Players want an adventure about rescuing princesses? Done. Player wants a quest to find a magical sword? I ask, +1 sword or flaming sword? Sometimes I get my girlfriend to help me play as well as my wife's son (Yeah I got laid, jealous? Not my kid, you sick fuck, my wife). Oh, and I also have a beard. THAT is what it means to be a good GM.

I masterwork of irony?

Just make it so all the roads lead to Rome, friendo
Illusion of choice in moderate doses works wonders

I think OP's game actually exists, though.

Thanks for sharing, Chad. We'll all remember it at your funeral.

make shit impossibly hard and if they complain explain it like a low level character in an MMO going to a high level area, people here are shills against DM's with a story, it's quite full of "That guy" archetype subhumans.

Man, this thread has stupid shit on both ends of the argument.

OP here, people want details. Its the first time I dm anything and the game is actualy going pretty well, and almost everyone is having fun. Problem is one of my players is always up shenanigans and another one is always trying to be a some kind of killjoy to everyone else, causing the one that is always up to shenanigans to start doing even more stupid shit to get everyone killed. I dont mind some silly things going on and I give a lot of freedom to my players but this is pushing it to where no one has fun.

Also thank you for the good advice some of you gave me I really apreciate it.

Yeah it was meant to be satire.

It's a joke, man. The end of it is based off of a cringeworthy Reddit comment about "what it means to be a manly man"

>a natural 20 is special
It really isn't if you think about it.

>responding to copypasta

I mean if that's what you're into

Roping in silly shenanigans and behavior ruining the fun of others is part of being a GM.
Set clear limits and then stick to them.

let them do their thing, make your campaign happen anyway.

Someone post the gay rights greentext.

Make the BBEG appear in front of them

The mistake was that you planned far enough ahead for your players to be able to derail your campaign.

Error: Not enough info.

What kind of campaign are you trying to run?

What goals/plot do you have set up?

How/Why are your players trying to derail your campaign?

Is this like you've set up a dungeon crawl and they've fucked off to be pirates on the ship they arrive in town at?

Have you set up a game of political intrigue and criminal organizations, and they've fucked off to be pirates in the vessel of the emissary from a Foreign Empire that has strange non-magical weapons of thunder and fire?

Is it a co-operative diceless game where they are trying to get through a normal day, and they've all decided to be different pirate crew members stuck in the body of one person?

Is it a gritty future with magic and technology being wielded by Megacorporations to perform lucrative and often unethical experiments while oppressing the masses, and they are specialists who live outside "The Grid" and take jobs for money from brokers to work for or against different corporations and groups for money or politics, and they've fucked off to become Hackers and focus on pirating software and information in the virtual world?

What I'm saying, OP, is that when you have the players start off as pirates already it's harder for them to derail your campaign.

There's about a 1 in 20 chance of getting it.

What's really special is getting a nat 20 when you really need it.

You've fallen victim to one of the classic blunders, OP. The most famous of which is never get involved in a land war in Asia, but only slightly infamous is
>Never try to plot out a campaign in such detail that your players can't see what's coming next and derail it.

This is why published adventures always have encounters but never say when they occur or what happens prior.

It's 180 you mong

never forgetti rest in spaggetti you are fucked

Jolly cooperation ofcourse

Elaborate, faggot.

You sound like an absolute tool.

A Nat 20 does not mean instant success, in combat it's a critical, everything else is home-brew rules. Even then if a player asks to do something stupid and impossible as a DM, you can go no.

As for serving players, haha noooope. It's collaborative, DM's need to adapt to their players even if it's just the illusion of choice but the players need to play their characters properly. If the premise of the campaign is a holy crusade and a player wants to settle and own a brothel, well guess who's character just retired. They keep breaking the premise like that, then they stop getting invited.

Basically what it boils down to is go back to tumble, come out of the closet to your wife so she can watch you get assaulted by the other guy for once and come out to your friends, if they hang out with you at least one of them will be desperate enough to take the blowjob.

Let them.
Go on, let them fuck up the scenario hard way. Let them act as they want to.

But never, ever stop stacking consequences. Average "THAT GM" story about rail-roading boils down "And then that dick put consequences of our stupid actions against us! How dare he!"
If they want to derail the game, go ahead, let them. They will learn the hard way why they shouldn't.
Just don't be vindicative, but still play the consequences on them.

Rape them

Lol dumbass

Do you even moonwalk