Can’t Rip put out a video recently about random encounters with fellow Italian CaoticoPigro. In it, CaoticoPigro recommends the legendary quantum ogre that Seth Skorkowsky discussed a couple of years ago.

What’s a Quantum Ogre?

A quantum ogre is a case in which the players make a decision about which way to go or what to do, and game master presents them with a pre-determined encounter (maybe an ogre, but maybe a trap, puzzle, secret, etc.) that they would get no matter what decision they made. Some argue that this robs players of their agency, railroading them down the GM’s path with the lie that the get to make decisions that matter. CaoticoPigro even calls his style “the Theater of Lies”.

Seth defended quantum ogres in ways that I personally think are disingenuous, suggesting that there may be a difference in the battlefields where the heroes meet the ogre, and therefore their agency is preserved. That I agree with. It’s easy to imagine an adventure in which the point is fighting a bunch of ogres, so encountering one here or there is fully expected, but it’s the circumstances that are different. But of course, if the circumstances are different, it’s not a quantum ogre. The point of the term is that the players’ choice doesn’t matter, because the GM presents the same circumstances no matter what, not just the same monster.

As you can tell, I don’t like quantum ogres. But Seth makes a good point as well. He asks what’s difference between planning an ogre encounter whether the heroes take passage A or passage B and randomly rolling an ogre encounter? Let’s say a random encounter is due in the next room and the players haven’t quite made up their mind which way to go, so you’re technically determine it will be an ogre before the players make their choice. Well, in that case, I’d say it’s not a quantum ogre specifically because the GM didn’t make the decision that the heroes would meet an ogre down either passage. The dice decided it was time for an encounter, and the dice decided it would be an ogre.

Player Agency & Indistinguishable Choices

Seth and Caotico both argue that, since the players don’t know what’s down each passage, it doesn’t matter if you rob them of agency. But this brings up a larger issue: if the players don’t have any inkling what’s down passage A versus passage B, they don’t have much agency in the first place. This is common in dungeons with a random or nonsensical layout, and it’s something to be careful of—and usually avoid.

Look for ways you can give the heroes a hint about what’s down either passage. It’s okay for it to sometimes be a toss-up, but other times it should be hinted at what’s to be found (either in terms of monster encounters or types of room) down one passage or even both. Thinking, “The great hall is probably this way; there’s no telling what’s down the other way,” is a valid choice for the players.

An ogre in a dungeon can seem pretty innocuous, but imagine the worst cast scenario: the GM decides that, no matter what course of action the heroes take, and no matter how successful they are, the evil tyrant will destroy their stronghold to set up the big finale of the campaign. Here again, the players have no idea what consequences their actions will bring, so what’s the harm in saying that these are the consequences no matter what? That should pretty obviously be a huge cheat that makes the players’ actions meaningless. And cheating is cheating whether or not the other side ever learns about it.

Never Say Never

This is not to say that you should never use a quantum ogre. There’s only so much time to prep an adventure, and sometimes it really enhances the developing narrative to have a certain clue or other encounter fall at a certain point. But you should strive to be a neutral referee in your adventures, not the auteur of an epic story. The whole point of a role-playing game is that player choice matters and a story emerges out of those choices and their consequences.

So, while it’s okay to sometimes pre-plan an event and to have some situations in which the players must choose between equally unknown things, it’s crucial to plan times when the players are presented with very clearly different choices and, most of the time, ones in which the consequences are clearly different also.

Here’s where things like dilemmas come in to add drama. Make players choose between two things that aren’t equal either in their value, risk, consequences, or emotional meaning for their characters. These are the antithesis of the quantum ogre.