D&D General Advice how grandparents would force player take on familiy business

[Zhap]

TL;DR: Looking for ideas how grandparents would force their eldest son back into family business.

One of my players is the son of the Rosznars. A noble family of Waterdeep which once was banned because (their) slave trading was declared illegal but now returned. His father and younger brother are missing since months. He doesn’t know what happened to them but assumed their vanished after they tried to establish new connection in Skullport to hide that they still trying to do their slave trading.

After they gone missing his grandparents took over family business again. Pushing his mother (which married into family) into unimportant corner and forcing his sister to become the perfect noble. What nobody knows until now is that she is the Black Viper (a notorious thief) while keeping up with her perfect appearance.

He himself is kind of the black sheep of the family. A gambler and adventurer who doesn’t want to get pulled into the family business. I don't want him to quit his adventurer career. I just want him (and his family situation) to get more involved.

Do you have any suggestions how the grandparents would want to force him back? What I did was that he “suspiciously” is always the victim of (false) robbery and sometimes other bad luck – an attempt of his grandparents to get him tired of his adventurer life.

But I need more. In rare cases his visits home because he needs something. Seems like a perfect chance but direct attempts of intimidation will get ignored. Maybe I need something seductive? Heeelp!

 

[tommybahama]

What I did was that he “suspiciously” is always the victim of (false) robbery and sometimes other bad luck – an attempt of his grandparents to get him tired of his adventurer life.

I think that's a horrible way to manipulate a player and will probably backfire. I think a better way would be to make the family the victim in which only the character can help. Perhaps word of his family's troubles and request for his assistance can come from an NPC he admires. If the player refuses to help, then the admired NPC can say something like, "I'm very sorry I gravely misjudged your character/honor/loyalty" and refuse further interaction with the player. It's still very manipulative and I'm not sure why you'd force a side story on a player that doesn't want it.

 

[aco175]

You could have grandfather die leaving the business to him. Mother and sister are running it into the ground and are near bankrupted and keep asking him for money to float them for a while. Eventually creditors show up looking for him.

 

[Zhap]

I think that's a horrible way to manipulate a player and will probably backfire. I think a better way would be to make the family the victim in which only the character can help. Perhaps word of his family's troubles and request for his assistance can come from an NPC he admires. If the player refuses to help, then the admired NPC can say something like, "I'm very sorry I gravely misjudged your character/honor/loyalty" and refuse further interaction with the player. It's still very manipulative and I'm not sure why you'd force a side story on a player that doesn't want it.

It seems like you are misunderstanding what I meant. I don't force or manipulate anything. It is his backstory. His grandparents just aren't nice people (remember the slavery part?). They care that the family keeps going on and disapprove of his decision to leave them as their eldest son.

Having the two essential family members disappear is fatal strike to their ensured existence of the family. Their way to back to respect and prosperity. They need him. So they are doing what they think is necessary.

And what I meant with him beeing the victim: is that two (!) times in 14 sessions he was falsely accused of thievery. And I was planing a third attempt in near the future. It should be strange. He should question why. So that he sees that these are staged incidents by his grandparents.

 

[tommybahama]

He should question why. So that he sees that these are staged incidents by his grandparents.

Well that sounds better. I would suggest you have either an NPC, or better yet, another player say, "Hey, you keep getting accused of larceny every time you go home. What do you think that's all about?" And if he goes off in the wrong direction then have the NPC or player say, "Hmm, have you considered that maybe your mawmaw and pawpaw might be messing with you?" to get him on the right track.

 

[Oofta]

It sounds like you may not have given him enough clues to make him realize what's happening. Which I get. Sometimes it happens to me as a player, sometimes as a DM.

You need to be more explicit in your attempts, slowly making it more and more obvious. In worst case, sis talks to him thinking he already knows what's going on or the grands (or an agent) just corner him. Maybe give him a chance to capture an agent and interrogate them?

I never assume people pick up on my clues. Listen to what he's saying, or even have an NPC ask him about his bad luck and so on. If a nudge doesn't work, you can always resort to a flat out shove.

 

[Prakriti]

Geas, obviously.

 

[Umbran]

Well, there's two basic paths - brute force, and conniving.

If you want this to be over quickly, you use brute force - the grandparents put something he cares about under threat, "Come back or we will do this horrible thing to you!" PC likely responds with an attempt to eradicate the threat... and probably the grandparents.

If you want to drag this out, you go conniving. The PC gets hired or looped into events that do not seem to have anything to do with the family business, but behind the scenes it totally does. Lather, rinse, repeat several times. Now, the PC is in plot up to his neck, and Grandparents say, "Look, whether you want to or not, you're involved at this point. Come on board to help resolve this situation, or you go down with us." Only after joining forces with Grandparents does the PC find out this was all engineered by them....

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[MarkB]

One simple trick would be to make it seem like a one-time deal. Have them explain that they're trying to make a deal which will save the business, but the potential business partner wouldn't consider them a worthwhile long-term investment due to their age. They need somebody - a family member - who can appear to be the legitimate head of the business, and be its younger, smarter face, just to get through this one meeting.

And then they arrange things so that he's pushed into being publicly acknowledged as the business's new owner, introduce him to the workers, and the workers' poor families, and explain that if he steps down now, the deal will fall through, and all those poor adorable little tykes will go hungry.

So yeah, deception plus obligation, followed by guilt.