At a recent Pathfinder session, a friend introduced me to a mechanic to aid players in making difficult or complex plans. If your players run across a situation that requires them to chose one among a handful of options and there is differing opinion as to which is the best, you may find this "decision matrix" works well for you.
Advantages include being impartial and democratic, revealing the group's general consensus out of individual responses to simple questions, uninfluenced by input from others. In groups of more than four players, this decision matrix can be especially helpful in streamlining decision making.
The main disadvantage is speed. The decision matrix does take a bit of time to get through, and the more players, the slower it works.
Step 1: Determine the choices at hand. The players know what their goals are, and the dispute should be over the route to achieve those goals. This step takes two parts: identify important factors and identify main choices. Important factors are things like party safety vs. party speed, factors that have to be juggled. Main choices are things like which route to take toward an objective or which approach to use when striking down an unknown foe just over the next hill.
Step 2: List both factors and choices. Write them down on a piece of paper such that they form a grid, which factors down one side and choices along the top.
Step 3: Interview the players. Go around the circle of players and ask each to individually answer. Forbid other players from interfering. Ask each player for their vote on the best course of action for each given factor, and on the second best.
Step 4: Tally the results. The majority decision should be visible. If there is a tie, repeat the process with only those choices that were tied, and ask only for the top choice from each player.
Example:
The players are investigating a mysterious island. They know from earlier reconnissance that there is a supposedly abandoned town on the island's far side that is now active with people, and that the woods between their current location and the town are filled with hostile creatures. They do not know if the people in the town are friends or foes, but they do know that there is a large and dangerous disturbance in a crater southeast of the town. The players cannot reach a group decision after several minutes of decision, so the GM decides to try using the decision matrix method.
She talks with the players and determines that they all agree that all of the following factors are important:
1. The safety of the group.
2. The speed with which they can reach the town in order to warn potentially innocent people of their danger.
There are three possible routes to take to the town:
1. Using the road that leads over the island to the town.
2. Using the most direct overland route through the woods.
3. Sailing the characters' ship around the island to a reef-free bay within sight of the town.
She begins asking each player the following questions:
"Which of the three routes do you think is the safest? Which is the next safest?"
"Which of the three routes do you think is the fastest? Which is the next fastest?"
She begins to tally the answers, asking each player in turn. In the end, she adds up the tallies and determines that the group's general consensus lies with taking the ship around the island. This will sacrifice a good deal of speed, but is much safer than the danger of the woods or the lack of cover on the road.
I hope this helps you to resolve disputes about the next course of action the next time you have a game with a lot of players.
