Adventure running: when the PCs skip a step, what to do?

[Schmoe]

Don't the party have access to Divination magic? If they do, and they use it, then I would ensure they get enough clear information to find the second rod. If they do and don't use it, then I would let them fail, embrace the campaign that ensues, and point out opportunities they had to succeed (kind of an after action review).

 

[Sunseeker]

Part of what makes a "partial success" not very interesting though is two-fold:

1: The party isn't local. If the gate stays opened and madness keeps slowly spreading well... sucks to be you people in this mountain valley. We're going back to the Yellow City!

2: There is the gate (the portal) and the *outer gate* - a physical, impregnable door that opens once every 27 year for a 28 day period. The long term consequence of failure are there but... apart from the locals having nightmares and sheep going carnivore, not much is going to happen for 27 years :/

Is the inner sanctum of this place like, a small dimension or something? How impregnable is the door exactly? Could a really big far-realm horror break it down? Or break through some other part of the building? I would assume that if the "castle" is physically located in reality, then it being sealed just means the madness takes a little longer to seep out, since the far-realm literally warps reality.

 

[Imaculata]

You could also just have the rod be in the possession of a henchman of the big bad, and end the adventure with a two-fold final battle, where they have to focus on the big bad AND on getting the last rod.

 

[Ancalagon]

You could also just have the rod be in the possession of a henchman of the big bad, and end the adventure with a two-fold final battle, where they have to focus on the big bad AND on getting the last rod.

That is sort of the case already.

Rod #2 is under the care of a monster hidden inside the twisted caverns (the maze like section of the compound that the PCs traversed). The monster is staying put and the PCs don't know it's there or even that it exists, as they simply didn't go that way.

 

[Ancalagon]

The issue with partial success is ... is the partial success just random bad luck?

I have no problem with PCs "losing" if they make a bad decision. But unlike real life I prefer not to have things go sideways if it was simply out of ignorance, if that ignorance was not caused by truly poor judgement. In other words if they didn't track down the 3rd McGuffin because of bad luck, die rolls or simply inadequate hints provided by the mod then the PCs not being the heroes they mean to be leaves a sour tasted in my mouth.

Which doesn't mean bad things don't happen in my campaign. They do all the time. But the players can always look at Bob and say "This happened because you didn't believe us when we told you that the warlock Bad Evil Guy needed to be stopped and you let him go!" Actions or lack of actions have far reaching consequences, simple bad luck they could not have avoided can also have negative outcomes but I avoid the world-breaking cataclysmically bad outcomes because they didn't know they had missed anything.

The PCs will know, upon defeating the bad evil guy, that a rod is missing.

The process of backtracking and finding the rod doesn't sound very fun, anti climatic, in fact.

 

[Bradley Hindman]

Part of what makes a "partial success" not very interesting though is two-fold:

1: The party isn't local. If the gate stays opened and madness keeps slowly spreading well... sucks to be you people in this mountain valley. We're going back to the Yellow City!

2: There is the gate (the portal) and the *outer gate* - a physical, impregnable door that opens once every 27 year for a 28 day period. The long term consequence of failure are there but... apart from the locals having nightmares and sheep going carnivore, not much is going to happen for 27 years :/

Well then. Make a future villain in the campaign a stark raving lunatic who was once a shepherd who lived in said mountain valley. He's acquired strange powers from the otherworldly voice whispering in his mind and he has a bone to pick with the PCs for leaving his family to be devoured by carnivorous sheep. As a DM, that sounds like a fun character to play! His motivations don't need to make sense and he's filled with that weird sort of evil. Practice your evil cackle.

 

[Oofta]

The PCs will know, upon defeating the bad evil guy, that a rod is missing.

The process of backtracking and finding the rod doesn't sound very fun, anti climatic, in fact.

Which I understand, which is why the suggestions are to not "backtrack" as much as "rearrange the order of the mod so the other piece is now in their current path". Or at least not as inconvenient.

 

[5ekyu]

The PCs will know, upon defeating the bad evil guy, that a rod is missing.

The process of backtracking and finding the rod doesn't sound very fun, anti climatic, in fact.

Re the not much fun... It can be fun or unfun... And can be climactic or anti... Depends on the GM

A very fun structure i have used involved the BBEG bash up early, surprisingly so (i use quite a few random elements in play so you can meet the boss in room one checking out the new reports of the scouts.)

Then, that (hopeful) demise/loss set a ton of things in motion and the bulk of the adventure" was navigating the mad pell mell series of reactions and counteractions. Trying to keep junuors from looting the stuff and getting away, just one thing.

So, what if the bbeg fall sets off heightened activity at the gate - linked they were - and now the rods do strage stuff like high pitched screaming that leads them to the third thtough a now chaotic lair with tons of crazies doing their holy crap best to get before they get got.

Meanwhile the gate thingy goes crazier, and by the time they get back it has expanded and they need to go to the otherside to close it.

There are a thousand ways this can be exciting... All the GM has to do is decide to make it so.

 

[Tonguez]

is mini-boss #2 immobile? If Big Bad is defeated will he move location - either to investigate the commotion, to try and flee or to secure the gate?

That gives you rationale to relocate the encounter to somewhere close to the PCs and also to make it more challenging if that need be.

 

[Oofta]

So I'm also trying to understand what the issue is. You don't want people to backtrack, I get it. So don't backtrack.

Have they fought the BBEG yet? Did you leave them on a cliff-hanger where they knew the next fight was going to be the BBEG? No? Then there's still time to run into the mini-boss before they do. The mini-boss is in the next room they enter. Mods aren't set in stone and there have been several suggestions on how to insert the missed piece.

Or just change the mod. They really only needed 2 rods. Who knew! Or they needed 2 rods plus some other sacrifice/encounter/quest to complete their goal.

What's stopping you from running the "missed" piece as the next set of encounters before they hit the BBEG?