D&D 5E Concerned that Geas will Railroad my players

[akr71]

TL/DR If my players find an artifact that put a Geas on the character to perform a quest, will it feel too railroad-y?

There is a chance my players will find an ancient artifact, but it (and its former owner) has a mission to defeat its ancient enemy. It may deem the players worthy and grant them the artifact so that they can finish what it could not. However, one of the properties of the artifact is that when attuned, the wielder of the artifact is under a Geas until the ancient foe is defeated.That foe is clear across the other side of the country and takes them out of the way of their immediate goals. I worry that the players will feel I'm railroading them and taking away their choice.

Can I water down the effects of Geas so that they can pursue their goals but still feel that they need to take care of the other thing? How would you approach it?

 

[Shardstone]

Geas is the definition of railroad.

But, there's ways to make it FEEL not bad. Geas comes from some pretty ancient Irish mythologies, so if you were to spin this artifact + ensorcering of the players with a strong mythological context, really hamming up how myth-heroic it is and all that other stuff, they might be good with it.

Or they might not care and be down to go with it anyway.

Idk your players, so all advice is pretty much impossible to give.

A watered down Geas is still a Geas too, there's no real difference because they're still forced to do something at the end of the day.

 

[Sadras]

Can I water down the effects of Geas so that they can pursue their goals but still feel that they need to take care of the other thing? How would you approach it?

Yes. An ongoing effect which could be a gradually worsening condition (exhaustion or madness), restless sleep, or loss of HD or Ability...etc is attributed to the character for a particular period of time where no progress towards completing the Geas is made - where such period of time is a day, a week or if you are extremely nice - a month.

 

[Oofta]

I agree that a lot of it is in presentation. Start with disturbing dreams and a feeling that there's something they have to accomplish. If they disagree the dreams start to become more real, they start hallucinating during the day and so on. If they take steps towards achieving the goal, give them small reward such as inspiration.

At this point they have two options, complete the quest or remove the geas (if they even realize it's a geas).

The question to me would not necessarily be "is this a railroad" as much as "does it make sense for the story I'm telling"? What's the motivation for you, as a DM to place a geas? Does it make sense in the world and can I foreshadow that this might be a possibility? If it feels like I'm doing it because I want my players to do something specific I don't use it. But if it makes sense that this artifact would exist, that the ancient spellcaster would use this method to force their will on someone else? Sounds like a good story.

Bonus points if I can see a way to have the players a chance to turn the tables on the source of the geas.

 

[akr71]

Geas is the definition of railroad.

... snip ...

A watered down Geas is still a Geas too, there's no real difference because they're still forced to do something at the end of the day.

I was thinking watered down as in less than the listed 5d10 psychic damage - something that is more of an inconvenience than a punishment. Though "each time it acts in a manner directly counter to your instructions, but no more than once a day." leaves me a bit of wiggle room as to what is directly counter.

Also, how I word the command gives me a lot of leeway too. "Eliminate my ancient foe before the full moon of midwinter. Before he comes into his full power" or something.

 

[Shardstone]

I was thinking watered down as in less than the listed 5d10 psychic damage - something that is more of an inconvenience than a punishment. Though "each time it acts in a manner directly counter to your instructions, but no more than once a day." leaves me a bit of wiggle room as to what is directly counter.

Also, how I word the command gives me a lot of leeway too. "Eliminate my ancient foe before the full moon of midwinter. Before he comes into his full power" or something.

Aaah I see. In that case, I agree! Maybe make it scale/ramp up too? So that the 1st day they ignore the Geas its 1d6, then 1d8, 1d10, 2d10, etc etc with every passing day. Resets when they do something for the geas.

 

[akr71]

I agree that a lot of it is in presentation. Start with disturbing dreams and a feeling that there's something they have to accomplish. If they disagree the dreams start to become more real, they start hallucinating during the day and so on. If they take steps towards achieving the goal, give them small reward such as inspiration.

Ow wow - I like this a lot! There is a corruption on the land surrounding the final resting place of an ancient archdruid. If they eliminate the corruption they may be gifted the artifact by the archdruid's ghost. It is his ancient foe that placed the corruption, so if they do not pursue the foe's destruction they might start hallucinating the same blight and corruption over and over until they do something about it.

The question to me would not necessarily be "is this a railroad" as much as "does it make sense for the story I'm telling"? What's the motivation for you, as a DM to place a geas? Does it make sense in the world and can I foreshadow that this might be a possibility? If it feels like I'm doing it because I want my players to do something specific I don't use it. But if it makes sense that this artifact would exist, that the ancient spellcaster would use this method to force their will on someone else? Sounds like a good story.

Bonus points if I can see a way to have the players a chance to turn the tables on the source of the geas.

The artifact ties in to one of my player's backstory, so I'm pretty sure he'll be all over it. There is another pretty strong adventure hook already luring them in the direction the geas would take them. They just want to tidy up some loose ends before heading that way.

 

[NotAYakk]

Give them a choice if they want to accept the artifact and geas. Let them walk in with eyes open.

Exhastion seems like a good mechanic here; it starts out gradual, then ramps up seriously. Their min exhastion level reaches 1 after ~2 days, 2 after ~4 days, 3 after ~8 days, 4 after ~16 days, 5 after ~32 days and 6 (dead) after ~64 days.

Serious progress towards the geas ramps it down at a rate of 1 per day.

Narratively, this is caused by endless nightmares and dreams as they sleep; they are unable to rest. These dreams can include information from the druid about how to go about the quest etc.

Note that this will make the character cursed incompetent after only a few days on side quests. So a clock is ticking.

If you have time, having the cursed character do solo "dream quests" outside of the main sessions could keep that player engaged (as their player gets more and more incompetent in the regular sessions, the "dream quest" sessions can make them feel some spotlight).

 

[aco175]

You could have a NPC henchman/sidekick type under the Geas. This way the players are still free to help or blow it off. You can play up the NPC taking damage or wracked with visions or whatever. It would be better if the party knows the NPC rather than a guy walking down the street. Combine this with moving the location closer to where the PCs are would help motive them to help out. Of course, the reward should be less as well.

 

[jasper]

Only use Geas is you are going to railroad your players with YOUR plot. It is a huge PLOT Hammer.