D&D 5E Changing the Theme of a Campaign

[Voi_D_ragon]

So, I've recently moved to a new city to attend university and found myself a new D&D group. Since none of the players had played 5e before, and some were completely new to RPGs, I offered myself as DM. Not being a fan of published adventures (but I might reconsider that, since I haven't actually tried any before -I just dislike the concept of having someone else "do all the work for you") I decided to start running a mirror campaign of the game I was running with group back home -your typical "the heroes discover a hidden threat and proceed to save the world" thing- but now, a few sessions in, I started realizing that the group isn't a group of heroes -I have a CN rogue whose only objective is to accumulate wealth, no matter the risks (he seems to enjoy the risk of trying to rip off powerful organizations), a N-but-more-like-CN bard who seems content in aiding the rogue in his schemes, since he doesn't really seem to have an objective of his own, a Druid who recently joined, but already the other two pull off their latest heist, a paladin who recently died and is going to roll up an evil-ish fiend warlock, and a LN barbarian, who likewise lacks a definite goal and so follows the group because reasons.
So, the focus of the group (well, the rogue really, who acts brashly and is mostly followed by the rest of the group) seems to not be on the main theme of the campaign. And so I find myself in a dilemma: do I continue along with the current quest-line and risk being completely sidetracked by petty crimes or give the two non-mischievous characters a semblance of a reason to follow the others in their accumulation of wealth and change the campaign to a base/organization-building money-grabbing game?
If so, how is the main threat resolved? Does it fade into the background? Does it reappear later on in the campaign and whack them in the face for having ignored it? Do other heroes show up and steal their spot on the save-the-world train? If any of you have had any experiences, please share

PS. Yes, it is partly my fault for not having a proper session 0, but the players said they just wanted to jump into whatever I had ready without thinking too much about backstories and campaign themes.

 

[ccs]

Change direction.
Play off of what your players have already done & seem to want to do, not whatever you'd initially had planned.
As for your original plot? Let it fade into the background as its NOT the story here. Maybe every now & then have something from it Vaugely effect what the groups doing (ex: the BBEG succeeds in his demon summoning. So now the PCS could encounter some demons. The players won't know - or care - WHY the demons are here. But you'll know..)

 

[Stalker0]

If you are good with the change in direction, go with it and let the main story fade

 

[Imaculata]

Just take the campaign wherever your players want it to go. If they enjoy their chaotic thieving activities, make the campaign about that instead.

 

[iserith]

I would talk to them and see what we could do to come up with reasons their characters would stick to your main theme while providing some opportunities along the way to engage in their schemes and crimes.

 

[Oofta]

I remember reading articles from authors who used to play D&D. They were asked if they still play and if they DM, with the implication that since they write novels they must be great DMs. They responded that no, they can no longer DM because the player characters in the story didn't do what the author wanted them to do. Being a DM is all about collaborative story telling, as a DM you define the world and the NPCs in that world but you don't define the story.

At the same time, D&D is best when everyone is having fun including the DM, so make sure you are enjoying the game as well. In some cases, especially with people new to D&D one person with a strong personality can come to dominate the game. That's neither good nor bad, just be aware that others at the table may base their character not on what they want but on peer pressure. So my one word of caution is that you make sure everyone (including yourself) is having fun, not just the guy playing the rogue. Personally I ban evil characters from my game, but that's my personal preference and the preference of my wife who for some reason still puts up with me as a DM.

When I DM I always set certain thing in motion. Hints of a massive orcish invasion that the PCs ignore? Well, there may come a time when the orcs invade because nobody raised the alarm. Of course if the group decides that it's a great opportunity for them to do more looting because everybody is busy fighting orcs, but what happens when the town is overrun? Do they just flee to the next city? Even if you don't do anything like that, after a while the party could really piss off some powerful people, on both sides of the law. There's a reason people don't generally steal from the mafia ... who are they going to sell their ill-gotten gains to?

So adjust your story but try to keep in mind what else is going on in the world and come up with logical consequences. There's a reason PCs historically rob/stole/liberated items from ancient tombs; the dead don't generally secretly run half the city the PCs reside in.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

A similar thing happened to me with a campaign. I started off with a heroic/epic campaign, but most folks were just playing a bunch of greedy mercenaries (aka, murderhobos). I finished the current arc, though I tweaked the motivating factors to be a bit more in-line with the characters. They came back as heroes, sure, but then proceeded to get themselves run out of town with their shenanigans. And so began a surprisingly successful campaign of the ne’er-do-wells.

If the players aren’t feeling the main threat and direction of the campaign, I’d say either tweak things to be more appealing to them or shift focus. Maybe they hear about the spectacular treasure the hidden threat has? Or maybe some other heroes take care of it and they get to go off with their heists?

 

[hawkeyefan]

[MENTION=6855956]Plutancatty[/MENTION] I don’t have all the details to know, but is there a reason you can’t do both? Can the dangerous threat be the target of the rogue’s greed? Is the threat an object like the One Ring? Or a person or entity?

I would say to try and merge the two ideas. Maybe the rogue leads the party into some real trouble, and the result is that they’re captured and forced to try and deal with the threat. Or maybe the party earns a reputation as accomplished thieves and assassins, and the local king or church or whoever hires them to deal with the threat. The promise of wealth or a title would probably motivate this group.

There’s no need for the story to go to waste....just think about how to incentivize this particular party to engage in the story. As long as it’s not too heavy handed, it’ll seem like a natural turn of events. You just need to tweak things a bit in order to involve yhis party.

 

[Voi_D_ragon]

[MENTION=6855956]Plutancatty[/MENTION] I don’t have all the details to know, but is there a reason you can’t do both? Can the dangerous threat be the target of the rogue’s greed? Is the threat an object like the One Ring? Or a person or entity?

I would say to try and merge the two ideas. Maybe the rogue leads the party into some real trouble, and the result is that they’re captured and forced to try and deal with the threat. Or maybe the party earns a reputation as accomplished thieves and assassins, and the local king or church or whoever hires them to deal with the threat. The promise of wealth or a title would probably motivate this group.

There’s no need for the story to go to waste....just think about how to incentivize this particular party to engage in the story. As long as it’s not too heavy handed, it’ll seem like a natural turn of events. You just need to tweak things a bit in order to involve yhis party.

Thing is, their enemies are Lovecraft-inspired, so they care little for wealth, lands, etc. Also, the rogue already did get the group into trouble and then failed to uphold the bargain that had been made to atone for his crimes and got himself killed. His new character is essentially the same as the old one was.
The church (what with the lands they are in being under a theocracy) then hired them to deal with some problems, which they did, and now as soon as they returned to civilized lands they started parading around pretending they work for the church in order to rip people off. I don't think the church will send them on other useful quests when they find out.

 

[Tormyr]

Thing is, their enemies are Lovecraft-inspired, so they care little for wealth, lands, etc. Also, the rogue already did get the group into trouble and then failed to uphold the bargain that had been made to atone for his crimes and got himself killed. His new character is essentially the same as the old one was.
The church (what with the lands they are in being under a theocracy) then hired them to deal with some problems, which they did, and now as soon as they returned to civilized lands they started parading around pretending they work for the church in order to rip people off. I don't think the church will send them on other useful quests when they find out.

Is this game fun for you? It doesn't sound like it. Back around 13 months ago my group was having issues with play style between party members including in game behavior that was disruptive. I had a "come to Heironeous" conversation with them to start working together as a group again and play collaboratively. It helped keep a couple people in the group, and they started working together better.

In your case, it sounds like the players, one in particular, are not engaging with the story that you would like to tell. This can be solved in game by having the effects of the ongoing story impact the group wherever they go. It can also be solved out of game by having that session 0 now and coming to an agreement as to where everyone wants the story to go.

Apologies ahead of time if I missed the point. I do that some times in these kinds of threads.