Natural Consequences to Actions in TTRPGs
This article by TTRPGkids is part of a parallel shared guest post with Thomas Wilson, a Neuro Diversity Specialist, who has written another article on The Art of Building Bridges: Conflict Resolution. You can find his article on his website here or on TTRPGkids here.
Most, if not all, games teach some level of action-reaction. You roll dice or draw a card or bluff or throw a dart and something happens.
The same can go for stories that you listen to, read, or watch. You observe a character making choices and see how this impacts them and the story’s world.
With TTRPGs, players get to actively participate in the story, directing the tale themselves. Because the narrative is theirs, the lessons learned can be felt more deeply than just observing someone else’s story play out in front of them. The player is part of it.
This creates a stake in both the actions made by the character and the mechanical strategy, incentivising players to consider weighing if it’s going to be a better option to bargain with the retired adventurer shopkeeper for the Cloak of a Thousand Whispers or attempt to steal it and risk getting caught.
I’ve seen SO MANY parties debate on what their character would do versus what the “smart” choice would be and then be at odds with what the player would want to do IRL.
For every age range that I have run games for, whether they are young kids, tweens, teens, or adults, they usually side with chaos, and we end up needing to play out some equally chaotic consequences.
And that can be really hard to do as a facilitator! Especially when gaming with youth!
There’s a balance of creating consequences that fit the actions of the players, players making some REALLY big decisions and boundary pushing, and keeping things PG so you don’t traumatize your kids.
When I first started playing TTRPGs with kiddo, I was honestly really nervous about having bigger consequences in our games because I didn’t want it to be too much. I realized, about 6 months in, that kiddo was losing interest because their choices didn’t seem to matter. As soon as I introduced bigger push backs from the game world, they got WAY more into it, and it really wasn’t too much for my kid to handle.
This feeling kicked up again when I facilitated TTRPGs at conventions… then again when facilitating at a community center… then again when GM’ing for tweens…
I’ve gotten way better at realizing that it’s an internal fear that I have and can now get right into using that push/pull on choices with confidence… so that’s what I’m going to share with you today! Here, I’ll cover the importance of having consequences, give examples and ideas for scaling world and NPC reactions to your players, and get into why positive consequences are just as critical.
Allow choice and give an appropriate consequence
One of the key elements of a tabletop role-playing game is the power of players to choose.
They get to drive their character in the story and need to be allowed to make decisions as they see fit in order to feel invested in the game.
The other side to that is, the facilitator is ALSO a player (and can sometimes be the player(s) if you have a GM-less game). They need to drive reactions of the larger world to push and pull based on what the players are doing.
And those reactions need to really match the actions of the PCs.
If your players keep choosing to destroy buildings across town in broad daylight and the guards don’t ever come to stop them or they fire on a friendly spaceship and no one attempts to track them down… that’s not terribly satisfying. It feels like the world doesn’t care.
If the story keeps going without appropriately reacting to the players’ choices, the choices don’t mean anything.
Players drive their characters, facilitators drive the world, and the consequences in the world drive the meaning of choice for the players.
Examples for creating appropriate consequences to player choices
Because I facilitate for a lot of different ages and styles of games (journaling, path choice, D&D, little kids, adults, at conventions, at home, online, etc), I need to adjust the impact of the consequences according to what my players need and seem to be seeking.
The reactions need to be connected to the story, honor the choice and/or skill of the players/characters, and be appropriate to the players’ maturity and familiarity with the content.
When GM’ing a campaign for adults who take things somewhat seriously:
If they start a fire at a warehouse as a distraction to lure the town guards away from the castle so they can sneak in, even if they don’t get caught in the act, I’m probably going to incorporate a follow up investigation by a hired investigator that’s been contracted by the city.
They might not suspect the party, but I’ll definitely have them snooping around and asking questions to show that the world reacted to them. I’ll also probably have prices go up in the city and bring up that NPCs are gossiping about the fire and/or heist, maybe speculating if they were connected or sharing their thoughts about if the monarchy had it coming and how this will disrupt trade in the whole region.
With this example, I consider that they used the fire as a means to cleverly solve a different problem and could figure out ahead of time that there would be collateral damage. They can also probably pick up on nuance and would feel some level of tension associated with questioning.
They pulled off the heist without getting caught, so I’m not going to punish them, but the world does need to react and should push back, at least a little.
When GM’ing a campaign for tweens who have not played TTRPGs before:
If they ALL take some level of fire attack (spells, breath weapon, bargaining with me to allow a medieval flamethrower) and start asking about how flammable everything is… there’s going to be some arson happening… and happening again… and again.
With this, I usually set up a scene or two so they can wreck an abandoned barn where someone is keeping zombies or battle a bunch of cactus monsters out in a dessert.
This helps to give a pressure release for what they’re planning while giving a soft introduction to consequences. The blaze is generally contained to the abandoned barn or fight zone, so I can describe how the building is starting to collapse! A beam falls in front of your ally, nearly missing them, but the intensity of the heat starts to take its toll. Everyone who stayed in the building, take 3 points of fire damage!
I show the potential risks for that strategy without having massive consequences because it’s a group that hasn’t played a TTRPG before.
From there, I might also throw in a scenario where they can create an intentional burn zone to stop a forest fire or use their skills with fire to entertain (and thereby sneak into a party with the performers), making it clear that there’s other options for using their build, if they want.
And then… when they get to town and burn down a building just because, if they get caught, the guards are going to come after them and they might have to go through a trial or do community service (which can be a quest), flee town, or see wanted posters showing up as they travel.
Even if they don’t get caught, I’m going to show how NPCs. The party may be contracted to investigate the crime. If they knew someone was inside before burning the building, the town may mourn them and shut down for a few days. Maybe the fire spread to a neighboring building, and that turned out to be where their contact in the Guild of Secrets was staying, who has now gone underground and spiraled off into a new quest.
These are all pretty appropriate without being super harsh or unexpected.
If it keeps up, I know at this point, they’re familiar with the game and understand that there will be consequences. They may also WANT consequences or to see how far things will go. So I’ll up the reaction.
One time, I presented a pyro party with a hedge maze. They decided to burn holes through the hedges to make a shortcut (which I figured would happen), so I had a mechanic set up for the fire to then spread through the whole maze! It became a race to escape from their own trap!
In a town or city, the fire may spread to nearby buildings, having a much bigger impact on the adventure as a whole. A god of chaos may take a liking to the group (and start very annoyingly following them around because they aren’t BORING like everyone else). A fire spirit might attach to a party member, causing them to accidentally surge fire every time they roll a 1. An angry shopkeeper who has lost their livelihood may start a fire… and leave evidence to frame the party, ensuring that this time they’ll be caught!
I don’t do a lot of “you accidentally killed someone” type consequences in my games because I personally don’t like GM’ing that, but I especially don’t do that when dealing with tweens because I feel it’s a bit too far for the age group. However, with this age range, I will show the emotional impact to the people around them. NPCs may be sad, angry, confused, or entertained, and I will facilitate those characters accordingly.
I want them working this stuff out in the game instead of in real life, and around this age, they can start seeing and handling a bit more large-scale or 1:1 emotional reactions, if they keep pushing for it.
When facilitating for a whole bunch of little kids at a convention:
If I’m running a choice-based storytime at a convention for 5-20 little kids, they catch on pretty quickly that there’s an adult listening to them and willing to make silly voices AND that they get to suggest what happens! And it matters!
About 10 minutes in, I get suggestions to create a tornado, kids argue with each other yelling “No! That would hurt the dragon!”, and someone asks if the light spell can be turned into a fire spell.
When running games for little kids at conventions, I intentionally structure stories so there won’t be opportunities for murderhobo’ing, I have a time limit, and I do not know what these 3-7 year olds can each handle.
Because of all that, I open the floor and ask them questions, letting the kids create the consequences themselves so it scales to what they are already thinking about or are familiar with.
I ask, while keeping judgement out of my tone:
“What do you want to use a fire spell for? What would happen if you did that?”
“Why do you want to attack the dragon? What do you think the dragon would do?”
“What might make a tornado here? How would you protect yourself from the tornado? What would happen to the forest if a tornado came through right now?”
Kids get REALLY into talking about all the big stuff that will happen! Even if they know that this could cause a massive reaction in the game, they will still bring it up because THEY get to say the “what if”. THEY get to voice their ideas and are being heard.
I get decent honest answers.
I do also make sure that we stay within PG territory, redirecting if something is getting too intense, and I watch to see how all the other kids are reacting. I may call for more suggestions so we can get different ideas that maybe won’t hit a trigger. The important thing here is that it ultimately still comes from the all of them.
And then, when they decide what they want to do and finish their rolls, I let it happen as they described! Even if it goes horribly wrong, most kids are really OK with this because it’s the story of “horribly wrong” that they came up with, and I let their choice happen.
Consequences of kindness and planning
The word consequence often has a negative connotation, but it really is just a result that occurs due to some action.
That result can also be very positive, and it’s important to emphasize the positive side of things as well.
If the players are consistently saving the day or have committed themselves to doing small acts of kindness wherever they go, they might hear a bard singing about their good deeds or become the focus of a celebration.
When players make a hard choice, like dropping a lucrative quest because they found out more information and didn’t feel right doing it, I may have the quest giver pursue them for backing out, but I’ll also make sure they see some positive impact from their decision. A parent may celebrate in the streets that their child is cured, and only the party knows that this was because they didn’t steal a shipment that contained medicine for the town.
For players who want to change how their character is acting, like saving someone from a fire instead of starting one, I’ll make sure to highlight it. The rescued person may offer a reward as thanks and the town cheers the party as heroes. The player made a choice about their character’s story, so they deserve the same level of acknowledgement as when they’re getting attention for choosing the chaotic arsonist route.
Don’t make one path super boring by not having a reaction.
It’s not enough to just show negative consequences to failed plans or intentional harm. You need to show the appropriate level of consequences to success and intentional acts of kindness too.
As a foil to hearing folks in a tizzy about the warehouse burning down, now have folks whisper about how someone (the party knows it was them) went out in the storm last night to fortify the dam, probably saving everyone here.
Make sure the party knows that what they are doing is being acknowledged by the world so their choice has meaning. It might not be super dramatic like having an investigator on your trail or drawing the ire of a slighted merchant, but it is still important to show the players that their choice means just as much even if they don’t go big and bombastic every time.
Showing the impact of being altruistic or cozy or chill are important too.
Conclusions
TTRPGs are a fun way to play with actions and reactions, test out “what if” scenarios, and exercise autonomy, and there’s so much that can be gained from doing this!
For any age, kids to adults, these games allow opportunities to let out frustrations, practice pausing to think about what happens next, immerse in stories that teach life lessons that WE drive the approach on, and much more.
So, let that happen.
Allow the natural consequences to the players’ decisions to unfold because this is how they really become part of the story.
I hope the ideas and examples here have helped, and I wish you and your players some wonderful games full of choice and flowing tales of adventure!
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