gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Before moving on with the rest of the session report, I thought I would pause briefly to discuss the 'three-clue rule' as popularized on the excellent 'Alexandrian' website/blog. This simple DMing tip states that if you want a group of players to pick up on a piece of information, make sure to drop it three times:
Given the sheer amount of information dumped during the Ascent of Screaming Souls, I was concerned that my players might have missed the threat to King Aodhan - especially since the stand-out piece of info was the big reveal of Stanfield. So I made sure to include Thisraldion's hint, "if there is to be a new king in Risur", but no one picked up on or questioned that. So I had Thisraldion mention it again just before they left the Dreaming, speaking of a "shadow over Torfeld Palace" and worries for his friend Aodhan. And still, on their return to the Waking, the players had not recognised that threat and were more concerned to stop Stanfield. Worse still at their level they had the ability to travel speedily, without the help of the hunt, and the wherewithal to manage without a rest. They actually said, "the threat to the king seems a bit vague and less pressing". Even when Gupta's player remembered that the Ob's ritual couldn't work if the king was still alive, their logic was that it would be better still to disrupt the ritual altogether.
I didn't want to railroad them, or nerf their powers (or even more of their powers, shadow walk and teleportation having already been taken off the table), but I was also disappointed that we would miss out on a cool episode of the adventure.
The turning point - the saving grace - came when Gupta used Nicodemus' ring to locate him, and then Stanfield and then finally - out of the blue - Catherine Romana. When they learned she was in Slate, they changed their plans, which was quite a relief.
This might be worth bearing in mind if you are running this adventure. The threat to the king needs to be more imminent and more pressing if you want your players to experience Act Two!
"For any conclusion you want the PCs to make, include at least three clues. Why three? Because the PCs will probably miss the first; ignore the second; and misinterpret the third before making some incredible leap of logic that gets them where you wanted them to go all along."
Given the sheer amount of information dumped during the Ascent of Screaming Souls, I was concerned that my players might have missed the threat to King Aodhan - especially since the stand-out piece of info was the big reveal of Stanfield. So I made sure to include Thisraldion's hint, "if there is to be a new king in Risur", but no one picked up on or questioned that. So I had Thisraldion mention it again just before they left the Dreaming, speaking of a "shadow over Torfeld Palace" and worries for his friend Aodhan. And still, on their return to the Waking, the players had not recognised that threat and were more concerned to stop Stanfield. Worse still at their level they had the ability to travel speedily, without the help of the hunt, and the wherewithal to manage without a rest. They actually said, "the threat to the king seems a bit vague and less pressing". Even when Gupta's player remembered that the Ob's ritual couldn't work if the king was still alive, their logic was that it would be better still to disrupt the ritual altogether.
I didn't want to railroad them, or nerf their powers (or even more of their powers, shadow walk and teleportation having already been taken off the table), but I was also disappointed that we would miss out on a cool episode of the adventure.
The turning point - the saving grace - came when Gupta used Nicodemus' ring to locate him, and then Stanfield and then finally - out of the blue - Catherine Romana. When they learned she was in Slate, they changed their plans, which was quite a relief.
This might be worth bearing in mind if you are running this adventure. The threat to the king needs to be more imminent and more pressing if you want your players to experience Act Two!
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