Off the Rails: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:OffTheRails 1891.jpg|link=Full Frontal Nerdity|
{{quote|''I kill Gandalf.''
|'''Igor''' (while roleplaying ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''), ''[[Dork Tower]]''}}
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''.
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* The book ''[[The Munchkin's Guide to Power Gaming]]'' features another hypothetical example, in which a GM wants the players to go into a dungeon, but 'all they want to do is find out what's down the road from the dungeon entrance'.
* ''[[Honor Harrington]]'' telegraphs much of the plot if you understand [[Horatio Hornblower|what the story is based on]]. Then someone goes ahead and nukes Napoleon...
* In ''The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System'', all that main character Shen Qingqiu had to do was to tie the loose hanging plot threads of the novel he transmigrated into. He instead prioritized to keep his character, originally a scummy villain that was killed by the novel's protagonist in revenge for years of abuse and mistreatment, alive and free of punishment, via acting like a decent person the minute the System that registers his progress lift its [[Out of Character Alert]] restrictions. By the time Shen Qingqiu realizes the full effect his actions had done to the plot, what originally was an extremely [[Escapism|Escapist]] [[Harem Genre|harem novel]] about the rise of a super-[[Marty Stu]]esque [[Villain Protagonist]] has become a [[Yaoi]] novel about an [[Anti-Villain]] whose love [[Oblivious to Love|towards]] [[Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?|Shen Qingqiu]] [[Love Makes You Crazy|drives him into increasingly questionable shenanigans]] in a misguided attempt to woo and protect [[Because You Were Nice to Me|the only person that was actually nice to him]].
** In the end of the novel, {{spoiler|it's revealed by the original author (who transmigrated into his own book) that the way Shen Qingqiu derailed the plot was actually ''closer'' to his original drafts, and in fact it was the published harem antics-filled version the one who went away from his original plans due to a combination of [[Lost Forever|losing his original drafts when his former computer fried]], [[Writing by the Seat of Your Pants|writing day by day]], [[Pandering to the Base|culling plots and characters the audience didn't like]] and [[Only in It For the Money|only writing whatever got him more audience and income]] (read [[Sex Sells|all the sex scenes he could get away with]])}}.
== Live
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jhjwkR5RZM This] ''[[Robot Wars (TV series)|Robot Wars]]'' fight. A 4-way free-for-all begins with {{spoiler|House Robot Shunt getting flipped onto its side in the first five seconds of the match}}. [[Hilarity Ensues]] from there. Outrageous stuff from the fight includes {{spoiler|the Refbot falling into the Pit [[Of Doom]], the OTHER House Robot getting caught in a 4-on-1, and a ''washing machine landing in the middle of the arena''. Yes, that last one is true}}. The result is eventually decided when {{spoiler|two robots suicide into the pit}}, leaving what's left to move on. "What's left" being "Not much".
** Weaklings. Another match involved a one-on-one fight between two robots. One won almost immediately, flipped both House Robots and was only caught out by the Flipper randomly going off midmatch.
*** What about the numerous times when Razer celebrated winning a match by trying to destroy one or both of the House Robots? {{spoiler|It managed it in the Southern Annihilator. Poor Matilda...}}
* ''[[Star Trek]]'': Holodeck simulations in [[Star Trek]] were often portrayed as futuristic LARP. As such, characters ([[In-Universe]]) would occasionally go Off the Rails by doing things that seemed logical to them but didn't make sense within the simulation.
** In the [[Star Trek:
*** It goes really Off the Rails in ''Bride of Chaotica!'' when {{spoiler|photonic aliens mistake it for reality and declare war on Chaotica}}.
*** Likewise when Seven uses the Leonardo da Vinci holoprogram for a little time to herself.
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** In the ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' episode "Qpid", Q drops Picard in the middle of a [[Robin Hood]] fantasy-world and tells the captain that if he doesn't rescue Maid Marion (who is his [[Love Interest]], Vash), she's going to be executed by Sir Guy of Gisbourne. Both Q and Picard are quite surprised when the eminently practical Vash agrees to marry Sir Guy, as it makes more sense than some [[Honor Before Reason|stupidly heroic rescue plan]].
** Another TNG example: in the episode "Elementary My Dear Data", mere minutes after Geordi and Data enter a [[Sherlock Holmes]] holo-novel, the plot begins when a man supposedly attacked turns up with a policeman. Data at once solves the entire case (which is supposed to be the length of a full novel or a film) by firing a short barrage of questions at the man and ripping open his jacket to reveal evidence that he is a counter-agent. He was remembering how the original novel went. Unfortunately, he had read all the original novels. Geordi storms off. The next time goes no better because the computer attempts to simply pastiche elements from the novels, and (let's repeat) Data had read them all. The ''next'' time they try a holo-novel, they accidentally ask the computer to create "an adversary capable of defeating '''[[Exact Words|Data]]'''". Cue virtual!Moriarty, a holodeck construct [[Game Breaker|capable of interfering with the basic systems of the Enterprise]]. Cue mass [[Oh Crap]] from the crew.
** In the [[Deep Space Nine
*** Kira apparently hit Lancelot when he came on to her in King Arthur game where she was playing Guinevere. She was playing a married woman, after all.
*** Q once created a scenario where he and Sisko were in a boxing match and Q was being his normally chipper self, playing around until Sisko just decked him to the floor. Q was stunned, as he was used to the arguing matches with Picard, and quickly reverted everything back to normal.
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* ''[[Good News Week]]''. The show was ''supposed'' to go from 8:30 to 9:30, but they always ended up getting distracted by a humourous aside or five. Now it's supposed to go until 9:45, and usually finishes around 10:05. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCwFJ4hCJww Wanna] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXTPsGxmM0I know] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z_6gRRxayY why?]
** As of 2010, the show is supposed to go until 10:00, and it's ''still'' overtime.
* ''[[Whose Line Is It Anyway?]]'''s Irish Drinking Song about "yelling the wrong name in bed". [https://web.archive.org/web/20131127074723/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3uAismSOxk Meow].
* In the ''[[MythBusters]]'' [[MacGyver]] special, Adam and Jamie are put through a series of challenges to test their [[MacGyvering]] abilities, set up by Tory and Grant. The final challenge involved creating a signal that could reach a certain height. Tory and Grant set up the surroundings to provide all of the materials needed to build a potato cannon, which results in quite a surprise when Adam and Jamie build a kite instead, using the [[Chekhov's Gun|rope that they were tied up with at the very beginning of the segment]].
** In another episode, Adam and Jamie made a challenge for each other: to build home-made hovercraft using household materials and under a budget and have a race with the machines they build. Both at first conform to the rules. [[Hilarity Ensues|Then Adam begins cheating]]. He ends up spending twice the budget on a truly ungainly "hovercraft" that requires him to flap his arms around while wearing press board "wings" and getting pushed by assistants to the goal line.
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* Inherent in ''[[Paranoia (game)|Paranoia]]'' to such a degree that many GMs recommend not installing the rails in the first place. (Especially since by the first 'station', everyone will probably be dead.)
** On the other hand, if the GM really ''really'' wants the characters to be at Point X, all it takes is one order from The Computer, and they are being [[Railroading|frog-marched X-ward]] by a heavily-armed Vulture Squadron "escort".
* One ''officially published module'' for ''[[Villains and Vigilantes]]'' from the 1980s will result in this if the players are at all serious about being proper heroes. While the PCs are on a bodyguarding mission, the villains stage an [[Go Look At the Distraction|incredibly obvious distraction]]. The ''module itself'' insisted that ''every single PC '''must''' [[Idiot Ball|abandon the person they're guarding to respond to the distraction]]'', and instructed the gamemaster that anyone who doesn't is a ''bad hero'' and is to be penalized. A party which cares about their original assignment, ignores the penalty, and leaves one or more heroes behind to protect the NPC will completely derail the subsequent plot, which is dependent upon the NPC being easily kidnapped during the distraction and has no fallback in the event that they ''aren't''.
== Theater ==
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Go to {{spoiler|the garage with Vault 112}} early, or
Skip straight to {{spoiler|Little Lamplight/Vault 87}} [[Replay Value|if you already know how to find any of these places]]. }}
* ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' has a few major factions that you can ally with to complete the game. Performing quests for each faction may make opposing factions warn you that they'll stop accepting your support if you persist in helping the other factions - if you continue, you'll no longer be able to progress in their missions (though they will remain non-hostile as long as you don't). You can then make all three major factions mad at you - possibly by meeting with their leaders, killing them, and [[I'm a Humanitarian|eating their corpses]] - which will give you [[Bragging Rights Reward|a special perk]]. This leaves you only one way to beat the game - going off the rails the three factions built and '''taking over Vegas yourself''' with the help of {{spoiler|Yes Man}}. Unfortunately, it's impossible to go off this rail since {{spoiler|Yes Man}} is more or less immortal, and doesn't even care if you open fire on him repeatedly {{spoiler|since his programming will just be transferred to another securitron if the one he's in is destroyed.}}
** This is intentional in the design -- the only two NPCs who are entirely unkillable are the Vendortron (because he's sealed inside an invulnerable enclosure) and Yes Man (because he has infinite robot respawns). This is so that no matter how far the PC tries to rampage off the rails, there will still be a minimum of one merchant to sell stuff to, and one viable ending path to the game.
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== Web Comics ==
* Happens ''far'' too many times to count in ''[[Dork Tower]]'', usually due to their overzealous gaming strategies.
** They once had a game based on ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''. The campaign opened with Merry killing and gutting Gandalf, Pippin beating Frodo to death... they were planning to institute a military draft in the Shire when Matt (the GM) went catatonic.
*** In the second attempt, one of the players is assigned to play Gandalf... but with his abilities [[Nerf|limited to talking to birds and casting fireworks]]. The players ended up using Gandalf as a [[Bulletproof Human Shield]] and battering ram.
** Another session ended with the players having taken over the kingdom, forged an empire, and conquered all of the known lands... when their goal was to just [[Your Princess Is in Another Castle|rescue the princess.]]
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*** In ''[[The Wizard of Oz|Magicians & Munchkins]]'', everybody decides to be a [[Min-Maxing]] [[Munchkin]], including the GM, whose [[Final Boss]] is an all-powerful Wicked Witch with the drawback of "[[Weaksauce Weakness|Vulnerability to Water]]". Which the players accidentally discover 3 Sessions earlier than the GM intended them to.
*** In ''[[Casablanca|Trenchcoats & Turncoats]]'', Ilsa and Victor are [[Dirty Communists]] who steal the [[MacGuffin|plans]] and [[Karma Houdini|escape on the plane]] because [[The Real Man|Jim (as Rick)]] is [[Too Dumb to Live|dumb enough]] to believe their cover story that they're Americans despite the facts that [[The Roleplayer|Annie (as Ilsa)]] speaks with a thick Russian accent and [[The Loonie|Sally (as Victor)]] only speaks in stock Russian phrases. But what really gets the GM [[Big No|frothing at the mouth]] is that he'd intended the campaign to be an epic, exciting, globe-spanning adventure but the players hardly ever left [[You All Meet in An Inn|the bar where they all met in.]]
* By contrast, the webcomic that inspired ''[[Darths and Droids]]'', ''[[DM of the Rings]]'', features a scenario where every single attempt by the players at getting Off the Rails is met by either failure or cruel retaliation on the part of the [[Railroading]] GM.
** The DM does face a problem when {{spoiler|Legolas kills Gollum}} early on. And later on they even get to {{spoiler|kill Grima Wormtongue and Saruman}}.
*** In a smaller example, [[The Roleplayer|Gimli's player]] manages to derail [[GMPC|Gandalf's]] battle against the Balrog by pointing out that it would be against their alignments to squander the [[Heroic Sacrifice]], meaning the [[Final Speech]] the GM had written up for that scene goes unused while the Fellowship legs it.
* ''[[Irregular Webcomic]]'' has two of its storylines being characters in roleplaying games. When time travel is introduced into both storylines, the PCs quickly disrupt the timeline, preventing events that for them have already happened from happening, resulting in paradoxes that contribute to the destruction of all reality. It should be noted that the DM was dead at the time (his disappearance is noticed in the "Space" storyline), so he was unable to prevent this catastrophic derailment.
* In ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120105043552/http://as.crowdedstreet.net/
* In ''[[Homestuck]]'', a number of events have conspired to doom the kids' ''Sburb'' session: Jack, who was meant to offer a means of helping the players dethrone the Black Queen before the Reckoning, gained access to a.) a weapon of unbelievable power and b.) nigh-omnipotence, and immediately began to destroy not just the Sburb session he originated in but also ''other'' sessions. Having learned that their game was doomed, Rose searches for a way to break the game because winning it in the traditional fashion is no longer possible. It appears that, [[Foregone Conclusion|in the future]], she is ultimately successful.
** After scratching the original session, the new Alpha session is already going Off the Rails before the game even starts. The agents of Derse are killing dreamselves before the game in violation of the normal rules, and someone has repeatedly tried to assassinate Jane on Earth.
* A very common plot seen with the ''[[Knights of the Dinner Table]]'' comics. In some strips they manage to go off the rails before the adventure ''starts'' because they refuse to listen to they guy who's supposed to tell them what the adventure is. In one, after they've stolen the king's silverware during a banquet and therefore had a huge battle with the guards rather than be sent on a quest, B.A. finally storms off after Bob says the adventure was much better than he expected, and Brian recommends he get the other modules in that series.
* Happens quite a lot in ''[[Full Frontal Nerdity]]''.
** As one of the players phrased it, "[http://ffn.nodwick.com/?p=1080 combination literary critic horde and shiny-object janitorial crew]". Eventually, it was [http://ffn.nodwick.com/?p=1989 discussed] by the High Contracting Parties themselves.
== Web Original ==
* ''[[Things Mr. Welch Is No Longer Allowed to Do In An RPG]]'' is a ''long'' list of attempts by somebody who seems to be the Casey Jones of games gone off the track.
* Several times in ''[[Ruby Quest]]''. They were ''not'' supposed to [[Dungeon Bypass|smash their way into that medicine cabinet with a crowbar]]. Because they'd gotten in, they could tranquilize Stitches instead of killing him, and they then stuffed him in a healing locker [[Video Game Caring Potential|with the photograph of everyone standing around happily for when he wakes up]]. {{spoiler|Later, he attacks [[Implacable Man|Ace]] at [[Big Damn Heroes|the last moment]], saving Tom from having to make a [[Heroic Sacrifice]].}} Weaver also hadn't even considered that they'd try to save {{spoiler|Jay}} or {{spoiler|have Tom use his [[Running Gag|MANLY PHYSIQUE]] to [[Shut UP, Hannibal|kill Filbert instead of letting him tempt them with information about their past]]}}. All of which actually gave them a ''better'' [[Earn Your Happy Ending|ending]]. Putting the hand in the pneumatic tube, however, [[Brick Joke|was just silly]].
* [[The Spoony Experiment|Spoony]]'s story about [https://web.archive.org/web/20130810060307/http://spoonyexperiment.com/2011/10/20/counter-monkey-vegan-steve-and-the-djinni-of-jengai-fomogo/ Vegan Steve and the Deck of Many Things] is a living testament to this.
** In a ''[[Vampire: The Requiem]]'' LARP, Spoony's character was [[Railroading|forced into joining the local]] [[Church Militant]] [[Railroading|sect]]. His response was to use his character's extensive knowledge of Chemistry to produce enough plastic explosive to level a city block, then snuck it into the local Prince's sanctum.
** Spoony also tells the story of a ''[[Star Wars]]'' game he ran, where he decided to have Darth Vader cameo...which, unfortunately for him, inspired the players to completely abandon their previous mission and focus entirely on trying to kill the Dark Lord of the Sith. He says this taught him the hard lesson that you do ''not'' include established characters in an RPG, lest such an event happen.
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** When the players aren't busy trying to [[Lord British Postulate|creatively murder]] and/or set on fire everything they can, they try to ''[[I'm Taking Her Home With Me!|adopt]]'' anything they can.
*** Or the inverted version: a [[Memetic Mutation|legendary]] example is the story of [http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Noh Noh]. A DM had his players, on a spiritual quest, encounter what he thought would be a simple virtue challenge: a powerful magic rapier and magic chain shirt on a pedestal, guarded by a little girl (actually a [[Artificial Human|spiritual construct]]). The little girl could [[Welcome to Corneria|only say two things]]: "No", or (if a "No" answer would be misleading) "Please do not take these items". The party spent fifteen minutes talking to her, assuming she'd suffered trauma of some sort. Then the bard played a song to see if he could get a reaction from her. He rolled high, so the DM let the little girl [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|shed a]] [[Single Tear]]. The party's response: they fell in love with her on the spot, declaring her [[Moe Moe|the cutest thing ever]] and deciding to ''[[I'm Taking Her Home with Me|keep her]]''. The little girl kept going back to the items, so the party eventually went back, gave them to her, and ''then'' took her with them. The DM, conceding defeat, arranged for her to gain a mind of her own, and the party made her their mascot, naming her Noh (as that was her response when asked what her name was). And they completely ignored said items in favour of Noh. Those are D&D players we are talking about, so such a reaction is a [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]] by itself.
** Special mention must be made of [
*** Now we know the true identity of one of Lovecraft's recurring characters - ''The Terrible Old Man''!
***
** I remember a [[Shadowrun]] campaign that ended in fire when the DM set the final act of the plot up so that any rational group of people would betray their employer in return for not being killed by overwhelming forces. Unfortunately he'd completely misread his group, who thought that they were playing antiheroes with a street samurai code of honor instead of playing mercenary criminals... so we consistently refused to betray our employer, he consistently refused to adjust his plot to compensate, and it all ended with us doing a Bolivian Army Ending vs. a Saeder-Krupp heavy weapons task forced led personally by Lofwyr's henchman Scale.
** "Blow it all up" reaction when GM's original plot appears to be deeply idiotic for some or other reason - usually it's cardboard rip-offs of already corny plots, [[Mary Sue|GMPCs]], blatant dive into [[Author Appeal|Magical Realm]], failure to make sense, or in worst cases all of the above. At least if the resulting clusterfluffle happened to be hilarious or [[Crazy Awesome]].
*** The end result of the GM's plot getting between a ''[[Deathwatch (game)|Deathwatch]]'' kill team and [http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_N1UanV4-p4/TxNMFj9YvWI/AAAAAAAAAM4/upeuPWtERTY/s1600/SpaceWolvesDemotivator.jpg loot.]
**** The Plot would still be derailed, but it is easily fixed. If they run before the Avalanche, they get crushed while trying to lift off. If they go after the Avalanche, the enemies burn their way out of the bunkers and slaughter them. The next team will choose another way.
*** ''[[
*** [http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/12853680/ There was] an one-shot [[Moon Logic Puzzle|"guess what I think" puzzle]] side-quest with "thrown into unknown world" plot and random furry crossover setting trying to use ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' (description doesn't lead to believe it was as much as ''d20 Future'' preview) as an impromptu substitute for ''[[Shadowrun]]''. [[The Loonie|Loonie]] misadventures and massive elemental destruction ensue.
*** [
*** [http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?searchall=Elf+Murderin%27 There was] a fangirl's attempt to pass "''[[Avatar]]'' with yaoi" as ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]] 4'' campaign without telling the players beforehand. The party was supposed to [[Easy Evangelism|See The Light]] and save elven tree-hugging [[Mary Suetopia]] from evil humans, but most chose to ''[[Bothering by the Book|actually roleplay the proposed roles]]'' instead, leading to what become known as "[[Screw You, Elves|The Elfslayer Chronicles]]".
*** ''[[50 Cent|50 Copper]] and [[Ludacris|Ludi'drizz't]]'' [http://1d4chan.org/wiki/50_Copper_and_Ludi'drizz't vs.] elf GMPC (noticed the other trend?).
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** As a corollary, when players go [[Mary Sue]] and derail the game to make it spin around their characters, the responce of other players can be no less brutal, derailing the sidetrack in question with extreme prejudice.
*** An [[Expy]] of [[Feeling Oppressed by Their Existence|Valerie Solanas]] or something sues out... gets [http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/9740414/ summarily terminated] by two other players, with a [[Bond One-Liner|highly appropriate one-liner]] from female Goliath.
*** Hary Potter AU [[Card-Carrying Villain]]s hit on a player... [
*** Play-by-post is overrun by [[Mary Sue]] characters indulging in narcissism... Enter [http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Oscar Oscar the Stoner]. [http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?searchall=Oscar] He's [[Unfazed Everyman|just a human, but acts too stoned to be very impressed by anything]], while being immune to few things that would ''make'' him impressed and retaining some caution. He trolls simply by not going with their plots while being more interesting to chat with than Sues (which in itself isn't too hard, since they by definition tend toward monologuing) even in that character. The result: everyone gets an excuse to act as [[The Loonie]], the game turns into one big [[Stoner Flick]], marysues are [[Attention Whore|deprived of attention]] and [[Rage Quit]] - as well as anyone not in a mood to laugh the behind off. As [http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/12669503/ the second Oscar thread] says -
{{quote|The now significantly thinned out group started to grow weary of Oscar's influence. It seemed as though their own craving of randomness and cheap thrills, combined with his never ending supply of happy grass, slowly began to stop being enough, and the group gradually grew even more fractured than ever before.}}
** An unusual case is [
** ''[https://1d4chan.org/wiki/The_Ballad_of_Edgardo The Ballad of Edgardo]'' is the story of how an anime-inspired play-by-post forum full of dark [[Designated Hero|self-appraised "heroes"]] get so derailed by the titular Edgardo, an archetypical shonen brawler protagonist full in the idealistic extreme of the scale who went against the [[Protagonist-Centered Morality]] of the local forum-goers, the forum itself imploded and got closed, achieving two full Hendersons according to /tg/.
== Western Animation ==
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