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When good roleplayers rebel...
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<blockquote data-quote="Byrons_Ghost" data-source="post: 1260178" data-attributes="member: 7396"><p>I side strongly with Dirgible on this one. Drop the hunt-the-artifact plot and go with the attack on the bad guy. In the long run, you'll get far more mileage out of a nice blood-and-guts revenge story than you will out of a typical dungeon with traps guarding some treasure or other. Even if if is pie.</p><p></p><p>The thing is, if your DMing style is anything like mine (and it sounds like it is), your players have been pretty good-natured about following up on plot hooks and getting dragged around. Heck, there was a large segment of my last campaign where the gods simply transported the party from one adventure to the next. And they went without fuss (well, without too much, anyhow).</p><p></p><p>But this sort of thing has to work both ways. After being nice for so long, they're going to want to do some of their own stuff too- it's to be expected. With something the players want bad enough to pursue on their own, something they just <em>have</em> to do, then go with the flow. They've toed the line, and now it's their turn for some direct action. As far as I can tell, the worst complaints of campaign railroading come from players whose DMs knew the characters, and knew what they wanted, but forced them into a situation anyway.</p><p></p><p>Now, I'm not saying that you should just hand the villain over to the players- but by all means, have them take him down another notch or two. There's another thread here about supposedly "recurring" villains getting killed before they have a chance to recurr. It was pointed out that the main problem was the PCs didn't know the guy was supposed to be the villain. Here, they definately know- the best recurring villains are the ones that the PCs really want to kill.</p><p></p><p>So, either your magister gets some support to do his thing (drawing the plot out a bit, and giving you a chance for side-quests) or he and the party go after the BBEG immediately. Either way, you should have plenty of material even after ditching the artifact plot. Or, if you really want to run it eventually, turn it into a chase- when the BBEG gets away, he goes after the artifact himself, because he's realized that his gambit failed and he needs it to survive.</p><p></p><p>You'll have to find a way of dealing with whatever was done to the magister, the geas. He should feel some sort of penalty from it, but it shouldn't stop him from stalking the villain. And he should definately find a way out from it eventually- a captured henchman can give a clue in exchange for freedom, or a recruited NPC ally can find a way to break the spell. I'd say about 2-3 sessions is enough for him to suffer.</p><p></p><p>So, it doesn't look like your'e getting much moral support from people, but at least you're getting plenty of unsolicited advice!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Byrons_Ghost, post: 1260178, member: 7396"] I side strongly with Dirgible on this one. Drop the hunt-the-artifact plot and go with the attack on the bad guy. In the long run, you'll get far more mileage out of a nice blood-and-guts revenge story than you will out of a typical dungeon with traps guarding some treasure or other. Even if if is pie. The thing is, if your DMing style is anything like mine (and it sounds like it is), your players have been pretty good-natured about following up on plot hooks and getting dragged around. Heck, there was a large segment of my last campaign where the gods simply transported the party from one adventure to the next. And they went without fuss (well, without too much, anyhow). But this sort of thing has to work both ways. After being nice for so long, they're going to want to do some of their own stuff too- it's to be expected. With something the players want bad enough to pursue on their own, something they just [i]have[/i] to do, then go with the flow. They've toed the line, and now it's their turn for some direct action. As far as I can tell, the worst complaints of campaign railroading come from players whose DMs knew the characters, and knew what they wanted, but forced them into a situation anyway. Now, I'm not saying that you should just hand the villain over to the players- but by all means, have them take him down another notch or two. There's another thread here about supposedly "recurring" villains getting killed before they have a chance to recurr. It was pointed out that the main problem was the PCs didn't know the guy was supposed to be the villain. Here, they definately know- the best recurring villains are the ones that the PCs really want to kill. So, either your magister gets some support to do his thing (drawing the plot out a bit, and giving you a chance for side-quests) or he and the party go after the BBEG immediately. Either way, you should have plenty of material even after ditching the artifact plot. Or, if you really want to run it eventually, turn it into a chase- when the BBEG gets away, he goes after the artifact himself, because he's realized that his gambit failed and he needs it to survive. You'll have to find a way of dealing with whatever was done to the magister, the geas. He should feel some sort of penalty from it, but it shouldn't stop him from stalking the villain. And he should definately find a way out from it eventually- a captured henchman can give a clue in exchange for freedom, or a recruited NPC ally can find a way to break the spell. I'd say about 2-3 sessions is enough for him to suffer. So, it doesn't look like your'e getting much moral support from people, but at least you're getting plenty of unsolicited advice! [/QUOTE]
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