A funny thing happened on the way to the Dungeon

[Mystery Man]

How many of you have planned for hours a great (in your own humble opinion) adventure only to have the party book the first tangent out of the storyline and end up hundreds of miles from where you want them to be? Do you play along and save the dungeon for another time or campaign, or do you invoke some sort of inevitably gravitational story force that herds them to the dungeon?

You could always reward them with pain and death. That is going beyond the scope of the adventure you have planned is 5 or even 10 levels higher than what they're capable of handling right now. Hopefully they'll realize they're out of their league.

 

[LostSoul]

I think there are two solutions to this:

1) Have another adventure to throw at the PCs. Keep something from Dungeon that fits with the PC's level in your back pocket all the time. So if they decide to wander away, you've got your dungeon map, your statblocks, your loot, etc. all listed out.

ie. Be prepared.

2) Don't make up adventures with dungeons. Have the PCs interact with NPCs, who then react to the PCs. Even the NPCs who don't have any "screen time" are affected by the ripple that the PCs created; they amplify that ripple, and send waves crashing back against the PCs.

ie. Run the game around the PCs.

 

[the Jester]

I try to write my adventures based on my predictions of what the party will do, and have lots of hooks that they can follow. I try to get feedback from them as to what they're going to do next session, too- that really helps.

I guess I try to write the adventures they want to go on.

 

[painandgreed]

The only storyline that I care about is what the PCs are wanting to do. They are told that they are not forced into any adventure path and that dropping everything and fleeing to the next country over is a vaiable option to the nearby ever growing menace. of coruse, if they don't take care of it, or ignore it for too long, I've already figured out how that will change the world they live in. I just figure out what all the NPCs are doing, then it's up to the PCs to figure out what they want to do, and finally back to me to modify the NPCs actions due to the PCs actions.

 

[Vymair]

I used the general philosophy that problems ignored grow into bigger problems. This isn't always the case, as sometime other NPCs resolved those problems. With Major Plot Points, I usually make the players pay for putting it off

 

[ThirdWizard]

My solution is to plant adventure hooks at the end of a session, when things are winding down. This has a lot of benefits, but the main ones are that you can start the next session with a definate goal and won't be sidetracked as easily and that I can spend more time between sessions preparing stuff that I know will be used (well 85% sure anyway). It works out great.

As for the PCs going off and doing something to leave the bad guys doing bad things. The best solution I've found isn't to make the bad guys more powerful, its to make another adventuring group kill them, gaining lots of glory. Rivalry is a great thing. When your biggest rivals are the talk of the town, drinking it up and haivng the tavern riveted, getting land grants for their new stronghold, and very wealthy, it motivates the PCs. Not that I do this a lot, but its sooo funny when it does happen!

 

[Corbert]

As for the PCs going off and doing something to leave the bad guys doing bad things. The best solution I've found isn't to make the bad guys more powerful, its to make another adventuring group kill them, gaining lots of glory. Rivalry is a great thing. When your biggest rivals are the talk of the town, drinking it up and haivng the tavern riveted, getting land grants for their new stronghold, and very wealthy, it motivates the PCs. Not that I do this a lot, but its sooo funny when it does happen!

I use that in my campaign also. I have a few NPC adventuring groups rolled up, and if my group doesn't go after the plot hooks I lay out I roll a percentage chance that another group came in and cleaned out the dungeon, killed the BBEG, etc.

 

[Shadowslayer]

ANother tactic is to wrap up at a spot where THEY can tell YOU what they want to do next week, thereby giving you time to prepare it.

 

[ssampier]

I have that happen a lot. It's frustrating to me to as a DM since I have to wing-it. I can wing NPCs well, but I'm not very skilled at coming up with an alternative scernario, My players in particular are pretty wussy, especially for vet. players, "What a vampire? We're first level, forget that. Let's go kill some goblins." They fart around for an hour or so, ad nadiseum (*example from Crucible of Freya, where it's only the rumors of a vampire). Of course, I've learned to lure my players with gold, that gets their adventuring spirits up.

My trick is to involve them realistically; no person is an island. If players don't want to go into the adventure, that's fine. Maybe a rival group of adventurer's finished the quest and now they are carting off a ransom in gold; jealousy can be a powerful motive. Or, better yet, if it's not too late in the going, you can include rumors of rival groups; the actual quest not completed. Or, as others mentioned, maybe the band of orcs grew larger. The orcs then destroyed the town, chopped the forest, and stole the gold mine. The players may have to rid themselves of an orc infestation (and build a new barracks and town hall).

 

[fuindordm]

Been tasked with killing the giant at the bottom of the dungeon? Okay, let's find the shortest possible route straight to him! Hey, what's this weird shimmering fountain? Who cares, it's not the giant! We've been attacked by hobgoblins! Kill 'em quickly and don't loot the bodies -- they're not the giant! Hey, here's a grizzled old hermit who wants to tell you the tragic tale of his son and his Amulet of Involuntary Polymorph Into Giant. Go to bed, old man! You're not the giant!

They're definitely goal-oriented, I gotta give 'em that. But they're missing 2/3s of their own adventures!

Testify! I feel your pain. Usually though it's just one out of the group that's like that, but I'd welcome advice on dealing with that sort of person too.

Ben