D&D 5E Help with giving my players choices that matter

[hastur_nz]

I'm not 100% clear on what you have left for the players to do in your campaign, but I do wonder if giving your players a choice at the end of the campaign is the best way to round things off. Ideally, give them one or more situations to resolve, like a classic BBEG to defeat, loose ends they created that need resolution before they can rest, and so on. But leave the "this is how it ends" up to the players. Ultimately, the campaign should end when there are no useful threads left to play out - it might end happily ever after, it might end in tragedy, but either way, it should end with Answers, not Questions.

For example if the King wants them (or some of them) to be Knights, why is that? "As a reward" isn't a good reason, for the players - the King must have his reasons, then the players can decide how to react, which may or may not be the ending of the campaign. For example, maybe the King wants to make sure the PC's are kept close, to make sure his realm (and rule) is save for ever more. Makes sense, so what might he do when some or all of the PC's refuse? Maybe it's not the end of the campaign, after all...

 

[MarkB]

One thing you could try is more collaborative setting creation. Fate Core has some good guidelines for this, and they're reasonably adaptable to other systems.

If players come up with some of your setting's organisations and NPCs, they'll be more motivated ti influence how they develop, and you can even encourage them to flesh out those elements when they encounter them in-game - including their goals and motivations. Since those elements are developing during play you won't have preset plans for them and can more easily let your players take the lead in deciding how to interact with them.

I hope it goes well for you - I tend to be similarly 'railroad-y' when DMing, and am also trying to develop a different approach.

 

[delphonso]

Thanks Redhammer and thethain.

My players and I like to imagine things in a cinematic way. Combat for us has been really fast and deadly, but over in two or three initiative passes. Likewise, I don't have a ton of time to set up conflicts in multiple areas - but usually things are pretty straightforward or only have one twist. I reckon that's a failing on my part, and definitely something I'll attempt to do in the future.

I'm not 100% clear on what you have left for the players to do in your campaign, but I do wonder if giving your players a choice at the end of the campaign is the best way to round things off.

I may not have made myself clear. My group is all people who have DMed before. Two of us have done it a lot and the other two just a little. We all want to get better at it, but I'd say I'm taking that a bit more seriously than everyone else.

When I said we would suspend the campaign after this choice, I meant that we would switch to another system and GM while I set up the next few adventures before switching back.

One of the story threads they've been following is an oracle character. I wanted to end this set of adventures with a big vision from the oracle, where everyone took turns describing a faction in an army. Then the next few adventures would be visiting and recruiting those factions (of course, by doing some goofy adventure there.) Whether they were recruiting them for the King, or for an NPC, or for themselves it didn't really matter for the set up.

One thing you could try is more collaborative setting creation. Fate Core has some good guidelines for this, and they're reasonably adaptable to other systems.

I've been attempting to do this as much as possible. I think it's the most interesting way to play for the players, especially in a system that doesn't focus much on your "character" in a role-play aspect. D&D is great for improving your stats and gear, but there's not much of a background to work with.

The Monk in this party is playing as a Nihilist, so it has been a big struggle to get him motivated to do anything. It's not in an annoying way, this is actually one of my favorite characters I've ever played with. But at the root of it, I have one less character to play off of and just hope that he follows the rest of the party.