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I'm running a campaign with a dash of political intrigue - although delving into the world of feudal backstabbing is not mandatory, the players did it anyway.
One of the players in particular is REALLY into it. He does not usually pay attention in my campaigns, but this time he actually made a fucking conspiracy map with every important NPC and plot meticulously connected with each other in possible plots and secret alliances, and he brings it with him to every session to make changes and corrections on the fly. While he can't explain everything so far, he has several detailed theories that explain pretty much everything.

The problem? He's too smart for his own good. Not only his theories are wrong, they're way cooler than what I actually have in mind. There's no grand conspiracy - just several fairly simplistic plots planned and executed completely indendently of each other, and a lot of NPCs he thinks are those cool spymasters and expert backstabbers are actually just background characters who got way too much screen time and personality for their intended roles.

What do, Veeky Forums?

That is NOT the image I intended to use for this thread, but it kinda works anyway.

Feed a couple of his delusions. When it comes time to reveal something major, make it even more 'just as planned' than his wildest fever dreams, but carried out by the PC or NPC he's friendliest with. Might require that PC to be more intellectually advanced than "HIT THE MONSTER REEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAL GOOD" to pull off.

co opt his ideas and build on them. Not only do you get to tell a better story than what you had planned but you also vindicate and reward his planning and interest.

>What do, Veeky Forums?

Run with it, turn him into the campaign's equivalent of a paranoid lunatic with a tackboard covered in newspaper articles and bits of string.

>turn him into the campaign's equivalent of a paranoid lunatic with a tackboard covered in newspaper articles and bits of string
Too late, he's already that both OOC and IC.

Isn't it kinda cheap? I get changing the plot on the fly, as long as it improves it and makes sense, but what you're suggesting is a complete ass pull for the sake of a twist.

That's awesome, dude.

Lurking because political campaigns are my weakness.
Also that last star wars movie blew ass!

Double-bluff it. Have the plot proceed as you have it, where there are no major conspiraces and things seem less interconnected, but then suggest even more hidden and dangerous secrets with them. Basically, do but then give him the twist right when the truth is exposed that maybe he isn't quite as crazy as he thinks.

For real though, don't be afraid to change around plot points and stuff for the sake of a better story, as long as you can keep it consistent and functional.

That's the secret of GMing. The goal is for your players to.have their mind blown by how awesome it is, not for your campaign to have some sort of dramatic integrity.

As other people have said just use some of his ideas. Let him be right some of the time and have it be your original stuff other times. Its not much extra work for you and being wrong some of the time will stop him from realising your just stealing his ideas

I agree with this user. Wheels within wheels.

If he has so many ideas that are better than yours, you shouldn't be DMing

Remember when prequels were great and you were just too dumb to get them?

Its all about what the players see, not what goes on behind the curtain. The world exists in a state of flux, the only thing static is what the players are currently seeing.
Let some of his theories be correct. He'll be proud of himself for connecting the dots, and you'll look even better as a game master for properly foreshadowing these conspiracies. Just be sure not to make him always right, or they might catch on. Throw in some curve balls to keep them guessing.
It doesn't matter that you weren't the one to think of it, all that matters is that the game is fun and interesting.
In my current game, my players have unknowingly helped me flesh out and proofread my world building. I've turned more than one hole in my initial write-up into IC mysteries.

>What do, Veeky Forums?
Riff off of his stuff. You don't need to have everything planned out beforehand. Let them investigate and seed red herrings and new evidence appropriate to their theories and actions. Let them craft the conspiracy as much as you do.

This. One of the best GMing tricks in the book is using your players ideas if they're better than what you had in mind. Twist them a bit, play with them and figure out fun things to do with them, but don't squander them.

>'The last Jedi' is the most intelletual 'Star Wars' movie
I imagine the author of that article watches Rick & Morty religiously.

Although I think 'intellectual' is the wrong word, I do think you could call it the most ambitious Star Wars movie, the one that took the most creative risks since the very first one. It's just that a lot of those risks didn't pay off, detracting from the experience of the film as a whole.

You know what you did, and you're right proud of yourself. Now people will be posting here about movie shit instead of actual relevant discussion.

Like this fag.

And this one.

This one too.

And this schmuck.

Look at what you did. Do I need to stick your nose in it, you fucking filthy animal?

Okay, answer me this tg, how do people use the wrong image for stuff? It tells you the filename in the little thingy on the post window.

You already know what to do. Use his conspiracy map to create an even more entertaining solution to it all.

Oh no, a Veeky Forums thread that meandered off topic, the horror!

Obviously the faggot didn't do it by accident unless he has Parkinsons and has a hard time clicking on pictures.

He's baiting, and doesn't give a fuck.

We have separate boards for a reason. Or did we forget about that?

Did you forget that Veeky Forums covers everything?
You don't even need to go to the other boards

I regularly prod my players for expectations to get inspiration.

Bad Writing Advice just did a video on conspiracies you should probably check out.

To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Star Wars the Last Jedi. The humour is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of the expanded universe most of the plot will go over a typical viewers head. There's also Luke's nihilistic outlook, which is deftly woven into his characterisation- his personal philosophy draws heavily from Narodnaya Volya literature, for instance. The true fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of the subtle jokes, to realise that they're not just funny- they say something deep about LIFE and the force. As a consequence people who dislike Star Wars the Last Jedi truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn't appreciate, for instance, the humour in Luke's manerisms like the iconic scene where he comedically tosses the lightsaber behind him, which itself is a cryptic reference to Turgenev's Russian epic Fathers and Sons. I'm smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Rian Johnson's genius wit unfolds itself on the theater screen. What fools.. how I pity them.

Because they want to have thinly veiled shitposting that also protects their reputation.

It makes no sense because we are an anonymous message board.

...

This upsets me because instead of making direct Veeky Forums related shitposting, they are doing shitposting for popular media. This is shitposting meant to get normies.

Your plans and ideas are like Schrodinger's Cat. Nothing is conclusively determined until it's revealed, and if two alternate explanations could account for what has been portrayed, then both are equally valid. If you think the player has better ideas than you do, steal them. Just don't let anybody know what is happening. If he's making wild guesses and it turns out the plot corresponds exactly to his conspiracy theories, it's going to seem suspicious, and be less enjoyable to everybody. So maybe try to meld his ideas with your original ones, or use his ideas as a springboard to build upon. At the very least, change the details and make one of his important assumptions turn out to be definitively wrong. Getting the execution right is up to you, but the point is that you should definitely pillage better ideas when you can get away with it.

Why does Veeky Forums love to shit on that show?

It's not a genius show like everyone says it is, but it's fun. Kind of makes me think of the sort of thing I saw on newgrounds as a kid

Is it because reddit likes it, and you don't want to be called reditors?

It's mostly because the fanbase is incredibly fucking obnoxious.

Ha ha, image and thread subject association on the subject of "It's not that deep, man".

Encourage him by making some of his bullshit canon but show how some of it is dead wrong too. Keep the fact that he went way, way too far, but go ahead and use some of the cool stuff at least.

Because Veeky Forums has too many contrarian brainlets. They are like tier 2 hipsters.

>He's too smart for his own good
From what you said, he isn't actually smart, just autistic.
Over complicating things don't mean that someone is smart or actually right.

>Over complicating things don't mean that someone is smart or actually right.

I wish the Infinity roleplaying game took some notes on this.

>They are like tier 2 hipsters.
Tier 2 hipsters are fine; you just have to make sure they aren't in the same group with tier 5 hipsters, or they'll hog all the action.

>i totally didn't intend to use bait for this thread guise
>please respond

>He's too smart for his own good. Not only his theories are wrong, they're way cooler than what I actually have in mind. There's no grand conspiracy - just several fairly simplistic plots planned and executed completely indendently of each other, and a lot of NPCs he thinks are those cool spymasters and expert backstabbers are actually just background characters who got way too much screen time and personality for their intended roles.
>What do, Veeky Forums?
If your player game up with something cooler than you did, you just throw out what you did and replace it with that cooler thing.

It'll happen a lot, the longer you GM. Maybe take their idea and crank it up to 11.

I think you should run with them for the most part if you reckon you can make a good show of it. But why not...subvert some parts here and there, just to keep everyone guessing.

After all, it's much more easier to adapt a pre-existing idea than to make something from scratch.

Don't feel to bad about this OP, we all have those pictures in our libraries that we have no idea what we're going to do with; yet always sit conveniently in between are more relevant stuff.

>From what you said, he isn't actually smart, just autistic.
That's not necessarily the case. RPGs don't have as many details to go on as real life, and you pretty much have to proceed according to some basic assumptions. One of his assumptions might have been that the events of the campaign are interrelated (rather than boring, self-contained bullshit) and that the GM is presenting details that can unravel the mystery of what's really going on. He's really only autistic if he jumps to ridiculously unfounded conclusions or refuses to accept that his suppositions might be wrong.

They can hog all the action they want in hell.

>getting cucked is the thinking man's fetish
Get a load of this faggot.

That's still true, old fags never got it and now ruined it for everyone.

Hmmm I would say get some inspiration from his conspiracy theories and indulge in the interests your players have for this, you shouldn't copy everything though because that would harm the suspension of disbelief.

Honestly just run with it take whatever conspiracy you think is the most interesting and fits with your narrative and use it.

In our current campaign it is part of the world's history that a dragons power can be gained by consuming their flesh / bathing in their blood, and in game this was represented by gaining mythic levels.
For example a black dragon flew over a forest while bleeding and the creatures hit by his blood and gained the abilities typically associated with them as well as becoming larger and more aggressive.
Initially this was just a neat little background element in his story to make his dragons a little bit different, but because of our parties focus it became the central element to the entire story to hunt down and destroy these cults and save dragons as well as those inflicted with the blood of evil dragons.

Holy shit dude. I actually really liked The Last Jedi but that pisses me off. Just accept you like something that a lot of people don't and stop trying to justify yourself. You don't need to.

>They can hog all the action they want in hell.
I was into hell before it was cool.