when the unimportant details are a little too interesting...

I am running a homebrewed campaign that is highly plagiarized and intended to be a fuzzy, not-too-developed backdrop to some standard D&D adventuring.

However, the more I tinker with the setting's details, the more it distracts my players from the adventures! I made a few (what I thought were) flavor-based changes to some of the D&D assumptions (chiefly there is a large, powerful politically-oriented church, so there isn't the normal D&D freedom to simply pick a god and be a cleric, and there's a widespread wizard guild that likewise makes it so it is not considered normal to just go out and be an untutored wizard or sorcerer), with the intention that it would just be fun background information, and would help build in some "reasons" to go out adventuring (discovering forbidden or lost lore about magic). I never intended it to be an overplot for the campaign (I'm actually burned out on overplots and just want barely linked adventures), but this backstory/background stuff is what they seem focused on. It could just be habit or expectation on the part of my players.

Similarly, I just imported the town of Sandpoint from Paizo's first Pathfinder adventure, along with some of its backstory (the town has finally recovered from a string of unfortunate events including a serial killer and a fire). Sure enough, my players are drawn to the one interesting place near town that is not well detailed -- the former home of the (now deceased) murderer (Chopper's Island for those of you familiar with Sandpoint). So ... I guess I had better prepare for them to visit!

It's not bad, it's just unexpected. It is in fact cool that they are excited by a bit of detail, and that they want to follow up on it. I am just afraid that I may disappoint them if they show up at Chopper's Island and all there is is an uninhabited ruined cabin. On the other hand, if I "plot it up" too much, that will just lure them further into a plot strand I really don't intend to pay off.

Anyone here run adventures in Sandpoint? Did the players want to go to Chopper's Island, and if so what cool things did they encounter there? I'm thinking maybe the evil that he wrought might still haunt the area, maybe compelling one of the PCs to go back to town and set something on fire...

Sometimes, I wish I had players like that. All too often, mine sit back and wait for me to spoon-feed them plots. Worse, when I do that, they seemingly conspire to miss them entirely.

My advice: run with it.

From the other perspective, my gaming group is playing in an Eberron campaign that started off with a WOTC Eberron module (Shadows of the Last War, IIRC) but has gone way off track. What began as a (somewhat) quiet boat trip to chase down a puzzle piece, quickly turned into a business opportunity in privateering and a counter-ambush on a serious threat to the group. Something I'm pretty sure our DM hadn't prepared for. But he's done a pretty good job in going with it and letting us "stretch our legs" a bit. Maybe we were a little weary of what we call the "DM Railroad", and I think some in the group are looking to see where we can push the boundaries.

That said, I think from a DM's perspective you can either go with the detour and embellish it and create a great side-trek or somehow gently re-route the players back to where you want them. All the while preserving the illusion that they are free to choose

One of my current campaign's is in the process of going off the rails. I'm in two minds as to whether to try to drag back to what I had intended or to just go with it. Trouble is the "going with it" will require me to come up with rules for mass combat.

Ah hell, my BBEG's have their own goals, they'll go ahead with them and the PC's can try to interfere or not. MEanwhile I'll try to let the guys do their thing.

I have had similar problems. Running an investigation game, and the PCs just get the wrong idea nad just keep running with it and running with it and I have trouble steering them back.

If you have the time to adjust to the direction the players are taking, it can be a very rewarding experience. It will give them the feel that they really are in an independent world and not just following a particularly written quest path. It does take quite a bit of extra preparation to pull this sort of game off, but it's worth it if possible.

Please write up what you come up with for both your church and the powerful wizards' guild. I don't blame your players: Those are both interesting setting elements.

As others say, run with it. I love improving with what players give me. Maybe too much. Currently, one player went way off the map with a hook I provided him- to the point that it has now spawned a seperate adventure with different PC's.

I will say the preperation for this would harder if I didn't have the Ptolus Big Book to fill in gaps and have a good idea how to handle any players that go off the rails.

Here's two techniques to help run with it.

Technique 1:
Draw some circles in the middle of the page, like a Venn diagram. Label each with the name of something you don't know enough about. On the outside draw some more circles and label them with stuff you DO know about. Now see the diagram:
[SBLOCK=For Eric] [/sblock]Label everything in red as best you can. What's the connection? Note that red lines can connects to anything in the blue circle.

Technique 2, works with Technique 1:
If that doesn't fix you up, check out the TRAP discussion in my sig and make TRAPs. If you did the diagram in Technique 1 you can make TRAPs that correspond to the red connections.

(Players interested in something is to be encouraged, so I say ALWAYS try to run with it if you can)

Whizbang Dustyboots said:

Please write up what you come up with for both your church and the powerful wizards' guild. I don't blame your players: Those are both interesting setting elements.

Click to expand...

You can see bits of it here: http://webpages.charter.net/ericnoah/noahrpg/westernshore/index.htm under Player's Guide and House Rules.

We then developed benefits for being in the guild to help encourage membership:

1) 25% discount on magic items purchased, provided they are of an arcane (not divine) nature.

2) 50% discount on wizardly and alchemical items. Wizardly items would include things like blank spellbooks, material component pouches, etc. Alchemical items are things like acid, alchemist's fire, etc.

3) You can sell magic items to the guild for 75% of their value instead of the usual 50% I dole out when selling to a normal merchant. You can also sell gems, unusual monster parts, alchemical ingredients, etc, at a similar rate.

4) You can claim a reward/bounty for turning in discovered spellbooks and scrolls that have new/currently unknown spells in them. Will have to come up with a price scheme, but thinking somewhere around 200 gp per spell level.

5) You are required to turn in discovered spellbooks/scrolls/wands/other items that have forbidden spells on them. Guild will pay a similar bounty as for new/unknown spells.

6) You have access to masterwork tools of various types that you can use at guild facilities.

7) You have access to libraries of information that can help you in different kinds of Knowledge skill research. Different guild branches will have different materials and the quality of the materials may also vary.

8) Wizard-type characters who need to learn spells as they go up in levels (or at other times) can gain new spells for a reduced price, to be determined.