The Voltron Effect In Action

[ralphmelton]

The planning my players are doing for this vampire fight is a great example of I've called "the Voltron effect" after its description in a great editorial by Steven Marsh. (I recommend the article to those of you with a Pyramid subscription; it's quite apt.)

In this article, he describes the formulaic Voltron episode: the heroes fight the evil robot individually and get whupped; the heroes form Voltron and fight, but get whupped; the heroes then pull out the Sword of Arus and save the day. He goes on to say this:

From a gaming standpoint, though, there's just one slight, itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny problem with it:

It would never work.

No, at the first sign of danger, any group of PCs would immediately form Voltron and have that sword pulled out. No questions asked. An inhuman shriek from above? Form Voltron, draw the sword, enter battle. The sound of an explosion from over the hill? Form Voltron, draw the sword, go investigate. Telephone rings? Form Voltron, draw the sword, answer the phone.

And so it is with this planning; the PCs are trying to make a perfect plan, using all their special abilities. (It's pretty clear that even if they win, after the battle is over they'll have expended so many of their spells and special abilities that they'd be hard-pressed to fight a housecat before resting.)

They hope they'll win. But if they fail, it's not easy for them to improve and try again; they've eliminated some room to do that.

~//~

On another note, I've become more willing to consider the players' plans in my counter-planning. My logic is this: the vampire has centuries of experience and very good intelligence and tactics. So in general, he's considered all plans that might be used against him, and prepared counter-strategies. But I don't have nearly as much experience or cunning--so I compensate by limiting my attention to the plans that actually might get used by these players.

The same principle is in effect when I prepare only the NPCs and locations that people might encounter.

Comments

[mrpeck.livejournal.com]

And so it is with this planning; the PCs are trying to make a perfect plan, using all their special abilities. (It's pretty clear that even if they win, after the battle is over they'll have expended so many of their spells and special abilities that they'd be hard-pressed to fight a housecat before resting.)

I'm starting to worry that we might over optimize. That sort of things can be a lot of trouble for players and once it's done, it's easy for the GM to put in something slightly different that all of a sudden makes things a lot more difficult.

On another note, I've become more willing to consider the players' plans in my counter-planning. My logic is this: the vampire has centuries of experience and very good intelligence and tactics. So in general, he's considered all plans that might be used against him, and prepared counter-strategies. But I don't have nearly as much experience or cunning--so I compensate by limiting my attention to the plans that actually might get used by these players.

Hey, you are starting to sound like Tal now! :) I think that's a sign of a good DM.

[a-machine.livejournal.com]

In my experience, ST cheating is vital. :)

That's how I simulate ancient vampires and Bondian experts and stuff. I guess there are STs out there who are just smart enough to come up with stuff like that cold, but it ain't me. :)

[wtimmins.livejournal.com]

The only game in which anything like the Voltron effect worked, IMO, is Torg.

In Torg, it doesn't matter how you plan. Pacing is built into the system. You can game it a little, but not a lot.

So at the beginning of the fight, you get your ass handed to you (if it's a tough fight). You loose, get a little ground, loose loose... and then, you have a bunch of cards gathered up, and the Tide Turns. You wipe the blood from your mouth and point to the enemy, or what have you, and the PC buzzsaw spins into action...

As for considering what the PCs are doing... I try to do this a little, but not tooo much. Mostly on details. My players are highly tetchy about that kind of thing, and if it happens will simply conduct conversations out of earshot.

[bluelang.livejournal.com]

Tangent: Basically, I think writing a game where the mechanics drive the pacing, preventing you or at least discouraging from forming Voltron before the 'right time', would rock on toast.

Simply speaking, I think it would be accomplished by hitting players where they live. E.g. for experience driven players, penalize their experience if they form Voltron too soon.

[ralphmelton.livejournal.com]

Have I mentioned my idea of giving players XP according to how close they come to losing before they win?

[glenbarnett.livejournal.com]

On another note, I've become more willing to consider the players' plans in my counter-planning. My logic is this: the vampire has centuries of experience and very good intelligence and tactics. So in general, he's considered all plans that might be used against him, and prepared counter-strategies. But I don't have nearly as much experience or cunning

You have no direct way to emulate his centuries of experience, nor his particular intelligence and cunning. So you can only emulate the effects of them. The effects are of course, that he will be better prepared for the PCs than you could be. So about the only way to simulate that effect is to base part of the tactics on what you know about the characters.

I recall just such an approach being advocated somewhere (possibly in a Dragon magazine article, maybe in one of the books) back in the days of AD&D - to make intelligent monsters actually be "intelligent".

If you become concerned about fairness (though I wouldn't worry), restrict yourself to only preparing for things you think he could reasonably have anticipated, and would have regarded as likely enough to really prepare for. There's a balance there somewhere.

[glenbarnett.livejournal.com]

Oh, and don't forget to throw in a housecat at the end.

[indigodove.livejournal.com]

We have a tough housecat to throw. His name is Louie ;-)

[dagonell.livejournal.com]

Now try it with live action gaming, where you don't have absolute control over the NPCs! :D The way to get around the Voltron effect is to have an obstacle to overcome before they can assemble the sword.

The werewolves are attacking the village. The champions have to go to the rescue NOW before there aren't any villagers left to save. The WW concentrate their efforts on the heroes rather than the villages and hand the heroes their heads. And while the players are getting slaughtered, the alchemist is completing the silver spell which will result in the only weapon that can do damage to werewolves.

You are correct. In any strategy situation, you encounter the least casualties by meeting the threat with the maximum possible force. The only exception to this is when your resources are limited and you will be receiving multiple threats. Then you use the least force necessary for victory so that you have sufficient resources to win the other battles.

[lcowper.livejournal.com]

One fun way to avoid GM unfairness I've done a few times in my games is to hand the tactical planning of the NPC off to someone familiar with the system but not current on my game. I give them any knowledge the NPC would have about the PCs, the kind of resources they would have, and let them go at it. I've had players about ready to kill the guest player for their nastiness in a couple of games because of this. persolo is especially evil in this regard.