How should a GM handle refused plots

[Ratskinner]

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I do generally encourage DMs to have a "living" world, where the bad guys mostly move forward with their evil plots with or without the input of the players. I do certainly feel a certain level of cinematic narrative is needed that the good guys and the bad-guys play off each other, with the more the players push to defeat the bad guy, the harder the bad guy pushes to complete their evil plots. But the downside is that having a "living world" means knowing that A leads to B, B leads to C, C leads to D and having at least a general map of how, when and where that happens, instead of only creating it or fleshing it out after the players bite. It also means having a "larger" mindset towards the game. The players may never find out about several of your villainous plots which may lead to some serious ramifications to your game world.

True enough. That's why I like/recommend sticking to smaller schemes, both in scope and consequence. I mean, D&D worlds have mobsters and petty politicians just like ours (or should have.)

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[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

It's tough when this sort of thing happens.

Even tougher is what you have to do next: find the opportunities hidden amongst the detritus of the unanticipated setback dealt to you by a group of players.

Which is why every GM should experience this at least once. It's one of the biggest, baddest roadblocks a GM can face, short of all the players abandoning the game.

What to do then, if the players won't engage with your plot?

Ask the players, "What do you do next?" Then wing it for that session. Let the players flex their character's muscles. Throw in encounters (random or otherwise) as you see fit and build the story as the players go along. If the players act outrageously, then respond equally outrageously. Push them. Test them. See what they do.

Why?

Because moments like this are the perfect opportunity for a GM to "take the temperature" of a group in order to see what they will do with their characters when the DM has nothing for them to do.

This is your first clue as to what they want out of a game.

Once the session is over, if I were a GM in this situation I would talk to the group. I'd say I worked hard on the story and that I think the players will have a great time experiencing it. Then I'd ask them where they are at. Why doesn't the plot interest them? Do they feel the game is lacking in some way? Do they want more encounters and less roleplaying? What do they want out of the game when they sit down at the gaming table?

This is your second clue as to what they want out of a game.

Then I'd decide on my own whether the plot can be retooled to fit the group or not. And if it can't, then I'd decide whether I can come up with something better suited to the group, or whether I need to step aside as GM and let somebody else run a game.

No point running a game if people aren't having fun.

 

[Michael Silverbane]

But.... This is one of the ways to get to like your character. You give them a few interesting details & a reason why they've taken up the adventuring life. You don't have to write something the size of War & Peace, just a paragraph or two.

So... I've been thinking about this particular thing a little bit, and it actually has come into play for a character that I've recently made for a campaign taking place in Waterdeep (the Forgotten Realms).

The more that I think about a character before play begins, the more of a jerk that character inevitably ends up being. People who go on adventures to thwart 'evildoers', mostly by the application of violence are, have to be, inherently broken. Broken people are not good people.

So, I was considering playing the Wizard, Wu, from Wa. I ended up with an excellent Int (17) and a good Cha (16)

That's as far as I had gotten, but for some vague notions of being a sort of friendly, zany fish out of water type character. But then, about a week before play was to begin, my DM wanted some backstory, "Who is your family? why are you so far from home?" that sort of BS. So I thought about it a bit... And the character turned into a jerk.

Wu's father was (is?) a successful caravaneer named Leeland Travels, following on the earlier success of adventurers like Volo, having opened up some trade with the far east. While away on business, Leeland took a bride, Wu An, whom he impregnated and brought home (somewhere in the Heartlands, or maybe around the Moonsea, I don't know that much about FR geography).

Wu An died in childbirth, and Leeland, needing to be away on business much (all?) of the time allowed Wu (actual name Leeland the Younger) to be raised, cared for, and taught by nanny's tutors, and other household staff. While these people were all nice enough, young Wu was never able to form a strong attachment to any of them, feeling that their 'affection' was purchased, rather than given.

When Wu's talent for magic was discovered, he was apprenticed to a local wizard, Larkin. Larkin was an adequate teacher, but sparing with praise, and about as affectionate as an alligator. While he was now able to engage in learning the fascinating and wondrous Art of magic, his personal situation went from merely lonely to pretty miserable. His desire to master his training was equaled only by his resentment towards his absent family.

When Wu finally came of age (about the same time that he mastered his first batch of first circle spells) he returned home for the first time in three years to find that his father had taken a new wife and had a new son. Wu convinced the household staff to evacuate the house, gathered up (stole) enough coinage to see himself on his way, and burned the entire house to the ground. Then he stormed off (fled) to the west, eventually making his way to the Sword Coast and to Waterdeep.

Shortly after arriving in Waterdeep, Wu met a prostitute that he has taken a fancy to. She is currently in a somewhat abusive relationship with her manager, though she says that it wasn't always this way. He has a cordial relationship with the staff at the boarding house where he lives, and he has made a few contacts among other low-level Waterdhavian wizards.

He does not know it, but several bounty hunters are looking to bring him back to (whereever) to a. explain to his hurt and angry father WTF and also to stand trial for arson. The bounty hunters that are looking for him on behalf of his father have orders to bring him back alive. Arson is probably a capital offense, however, so the bounty hunters that are looking for him on behalf of whoever is in charge do not have such orders.

Wu sees most relationships as transactional. He is friendly, but not kind, is most comfortable around servants and household staff. And He feels the urge to repay even imagined slights in kind. His short term goals are to make enough money to pay for his rent and other expenses, and to negotiate his prostitute friend's release from her obligation to her manager, probably via coercion or force, possibly through a straight up murder.

So... Now I have a character with motivations, contacts, a background, plot hooks, and all kinds of past trauma by which to make sense of him being an adventurer. However, a character that probably would have been Neutral Good or Lawful Good, if maybe a bit goofy, is now Lawful Neutral at best and more likely Lawful Evil or Neutral Evil. Before, he would have done things because they were the right thing to do, or even because of why the hell not. Now, he's going to want to know what's in it for him.

 

[Lwaxy]

Been there, happened to my chars. I had a harmless "want to go out and see the world because it sounds like fun" fighter gal turn into a psychotic evil murderer just because the backstory developed a life of its own, as it so often happens. I wanted to scrap it at first but then I thought, hey if she wants a backstory so detailed, let her do something with that. There was no rule we couldn't be evil so...amazingly the game lasted about half a year.

I usually let people who are capable of doing it (knowing the world we play on etc) run their own family, NPCs etc. if they have a good backstory, but it doesn't happen that often. I'm fine with developing stuff on the way as well as that's what I like to do for many of my chars, and players of both types work well together in a group.