Off the Rails/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: The players of a tabletop game derail the Game Master's story.

  • Straight: Bob's very silly questions prevent Carol, the Game Master, from revealing the Big Bad's plot before Alice kills the Big Bad.
  • Exaggerated: Bob shoots the Big Bad before even Carol could think of a plot.
  • Downplayed: Alice and Bob generally follow Carol's plot, but get past a Beef Gate earlier in the game than Carol intended, breaking the intended sequence of events. They also tend to force their way past Carol's stock puzzles.
  • Justified: Bob wants to teach Carol a lesson about Railroading.
  • Inverted: Carol, The Game Master unleashes a very silly Card-Carrying Villain, much to the surprise of the players.
    • Alternately, Alice is a a Loonie trying her hand at being a GM. Unfortunately for her, Bob and the other players are "Stop Having Fun!" Guys and want to play the game by the book and follow the story.
  • Subverted: Carol creates two series of events: a general obvious one that she likes and two more that she really likes. The player's attempt at going Off the Rails is what allows her to put the second into action, ensnaring the players into an even tighter narrative.
  • Double Subverted: And the players immediately manage to unravel that one, too.
  • Parodied: Any action at all that Bob makes seems to derail Carol's plot.
  • Deconstructed: After having her intricate plotlines derailed too much, Carol gives up and runs module after module.
  • Reconstructed: Bob derails those too.
  • Zig Zagged: The players switch between following the rails and going off the beaten path.
  • Averted: There are no attempts at derailing the plot from the players.
  • Enforced: Carol's storyline is stuck because she failed to think it through all the way or accidentally left it unwinnable under the circumstances, and the players literally have no other way to proceed.
  • Lampshaded: "Is this the week to follow the tracks or go off them?"
  • Invoked: "Are we messing with the Game Master's Plan again?" "No. I learn not to plan any ahead more than ten minutes."
  • Defied: ???
  • Discussed: ????
  • Conversed: ???

Alice and Bob want to you to read "Off the Rails," much to Carol's dismay.

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