"I kill Gandalf."
The
Game Master has created an epic plot that spans time, space and dimensions. Its scope is exceeded only by its elegance, its elegance only bettered by its plot, its plot only bested by its setting, and the whole thing is held together by a compelling supporting cast of NPCs. The campaign is 'perfect'.
...at least, that's what the
Game Master thinks. Meanwhile, the players have decided that the huge scope has made the world shallow, it's only "elegant" if you like a
Cliche Storm, the plot was lifted straight from the
third remake of something, the
characters are either cookie-cutter stereotypes or
Mary Sues who make the
players feel like the supporting cast, and the setting looks like it came from
Manos: The Hands of Fate, with the serial numbers filed off. It's about halfway through the campaign, and the players have decided that everything is only going to get worse. The time has come to strike a blow for freedom, for better plots, and against this idiotic
Game Master. The players go
Off The Rails.
This can take many forms, but at its core, one (or more) players disrupts the Game Master's carefully-crafted plot by killing an important NPC, revealing an important secret, or just refusing to go where the plot demands they should go. Or maybe they just switch sides.
If the
Game Master is inflexible, either the GM ignores all actions that disrupt his plot aka
Railroading , or
Rocks Fall Everyone Dies. Or pauses the game to confer with his players about them ruining the adventure. A more creative
Game Master, on the other hand, will take this player revolt and run with it, spinning a new plot out of the threads of the player's actions. Of course, good
Game Masters rarely have their players revolt on them in the first place. A party going thoroughly and maliciously
Off The Rails is often a herald of the end of the gaming group, or at least the end of one person's tenure as
Game Master. Alternately, if there's just one player who's dissatisfied and he keeps grabbing the throttle and gunning the train, that player's character may be subject to a lightning bolt on a cloudless day, or
sudden violent chest pains, or a
drive-by mauling by the tarrasque that leaves everyone else untouched
. (Or the other characters may just kill him or her.)
This trope is effectively the player's version of
Rocks Fall Everyone Dies. Compare
Total Party Kill, where the game-ending disaster comes from incompetence rather than malice or loss of control over the game. Note that this doesn't apply when
there were no rails to begin with.
Occasionally, the train can be put back on track (
any track) with a little help from
Schrodingers Gun and copious amounts of
improvising. The winners in this situation are usually all involved.
Note that as a tabletop roleplaying game trope, most of the examples can be found in the
Troper Tales page.
Examples:
