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<blockquote data-quote="Majoru Oakheart" data-source="post: 4734249" data-attributes="member: 5143">I, on the other hand, am not.&nbsp; I don't think most DMs are.&nbsp; I will throw out red herrings, but if they explore it for too long then I will arrange things so they figure out it was a red herring.&nbsp; I know my players get really frustrated if they spend 2 hours tracking down a clue that meant absolutely nothing.&nbsp; They feel like their time is wasted because it got them no benefit at all.If the PCs dither while the world is about to be destroyed, I'm going to remind them in character any way I can that they are wasting time.&nbsp; I'm going to start offering them more incentive to save the world, and if none of that works, I'll step out of character and say &quot;Alright guys, if you don't want to go on this mission then I don't have anything else planned.&nbsp; The world is actually going to end if you keep wasting time like this.&nbsp; Your characters aren't going to be spared because they are PCs or anything.&nbsp; The game just pretty much ends.&nbsp; So, really, we have 2 choices: You go on the mission or the game is over and maybe someone else wants to DM.&quot;I've even had to do it once before.I think almost everyone does this.&nbsp; You need to restrict the choices to things you can handle.&nbsp; No one can imagine every single possible option in a near infinite universe.&nbsp; Some people are better at adapting on the fly than others, true.&nbsp; But at any particular moment the words that come out of one of the player's mouths could be...anything.&nbsp; It could be, &quot;You know, I know we've spent the last 2 years of real time trying to track down this villain and my character was the most enthusiastic about the mission...but...I've decided to retire and give up.&nbsp; I'm going to sail to a country not even on this map given to us by the DM and I'm going to start a new religion.&quot;Luckily, people are more predictable than that...they rarely change so drastically all of a sudden.&nbsp; Which is good, because none of us can keep track of millions of NPCs, thousands of &quot;events&quot;, all happening at the same time.&nbsp; Instead, we cut it down to a couple of things that we can easily keep track of and present those as options to our players while cutting out the rest.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Majoru Oakheart, post: 4734249, member: 5143"] I, on the other hand, am not. I don't think most DMs are. I will throw out red herrings, but if they explore it for too long then I will arrange things so they figure out it was a red herring. I know my players get really frustrated if they spend 2 hours tracking down a clue that meant absolutely nothing. They feel like their time is wasted because it got them no benefit at all. If the PCs dither while the world is about to be destroyed, I'm going to remind them in character any way I can that they are wasting time. I'm going to start offering them more incentive to save the world, and if none of that works, I'll step out of character and say "Alright guys, if you don't want to go on this mission then I don't have anything else planned. The world is actually going to end if you keep wasting time like this. Your characters aren't going to be spared because they are PCs or anything. The game just pretty much ends. So, really, we have 2 choices: You go on the mission or the game is over and maybe someone else wants to DM." I've even had to do it once before. I think almost everyone does this. You need to restrict the choices to things you can handle. No one can imagine every single possible option in a near infinite universe. Some people are better at adapting on the fly than others, true. But at any particular moment the words that come out of one of the player's mouths could be...anything. It could be, "You know, I know we've spent the last 2 years of real time trying to track down this villain and my character was the most enthusiastic about the mission...but...I've decided to retire and give up. I'm going to sail to a country not even on this map given to us by the DM and I'm going to start a new religion." Luckily, people are more predictable than that...they rarely change so drastically all of a sudden. Which is good, because none of us can keep track of millions of NPCs, thousands of "events", all happening at the same time. Instead, we cut it down to a couple of things that we can easily keep track of and present those as options to our players while cutting out the rest. [/QUOTE]

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