Crucial clue missed (by a mile and a half) - What will you do?

[Jon_Dahl]

Is this a published adventure? Did someone actually get paid to write this?

I don't know if anyone got paid, but I'm sure they did. You can find this campaign from Dungeon Magazine #117, #118 and #119.
In #117 page 57 it states that PCs need to search a specific location with a successful DC 25 search check to find the hidden journals.
In #118 page 36 this campaign continuous with a simple statement that PCs have found the secret compartment and have learned all the necessary information from the hidden journals. After this the rest of the adventure is built upon the fact they have found the journals and there's no other way or any other person who can give them the clues necessary to continue the adventure.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

I'll echo some of the other commenters and say that if there's information that the party must receive in order for the adventure to continue, then you should just give it to them rather than counting on them to find it. Thus, the secret compartment falls open when the BBEG dies, or you tell the sharpest-eyed PC, "As you look around the BBEG's chamber, you notice a block that seems out of place, as though it might conceal a secret compartment..."

Ick! Both as a GM and a player, that would annoy the heck out of me.

Failure should be an option! If you pull the players around by the nose then they will not thank you for it.

A mystery is better when handled as a flowchart - not all the clues lead to the same place, and some clues can be in several areas. But do not just hand them the answers.

The Auld Grump

 

[OnlineDM]

Ick! Both as a GM and a player, that would annoy the heck out of me.

Failure should be an option! If you pull the players around by the nose then they will not thank you for it.

A mystery is better when handled as a flowchart - not all the clues lead to the same place, and some clues can be in several areas. But do not just hand them the answers.

To be clear, I'm ONLY talking about situations where, if the party doesn't get the information the campaign grinds to a halt. If there are alternatives to not getting this information, great!

In a sandbox game, I can't imagine that there will ever be any information so important that the campaign just stops if the party doesn't get it. If it's a more linear game (such as most published adventures), then there can be information that's so important that it has to be given to the party.

As long as you can still have a fun time WITHOUT that information, then you can absolutely hide it and only give it out if the PCs find it. But if the next step after "the party fails to find this information" is "okay, well, I guess this campaign is over," then you should just give it to them rather than make it a hidden thing to find.

There are lots of times in a campaign when the DM just gives out information. The mysterious stranger approaches the party and tells them about the evil monster terrorizing villagers or what have you. That's okay. This is the same thing; it's just coming from a compartment in the BBEG's chamber rather than a mysterious stranger.

Edit: I hadn't noticed that the OP had put up the details of this situation. I'd say that this is a situation where things can continue even if the party doesn't find the information, so it doesn't have to be given out. Sure, the world might end, but it's possible that the PCs might learn the same information another way later on, which could be interesting. I'm mainly thinking about situations where the PCs literally have nowhere to go and nothing to do if they don't find the secret; in that case, it shouldn't be a secret.

 

[Glade Riven]

Sounds like a terribly designed adventure. Time to jump off the rails. I'd recommend retayloring it to the playstyle of your players - else you're going to just be frustrating yourself and it'll lead to bad things.

 

[GSHamster]

1) PCs happen to barge in on him when he's got the compartment open - the book, scrolls, or super-secret macduffin out in the open (if I knew my PCs didn't like to actually search for things).

Assuming the OP is playing with a pre-written adventure, I'd go with this. It's simple, easy, and even somewhat understandable.

 

[The Shaman]

I don't know if anyone got paid, but I'm sure they did. You can find this campaign from Dungeon Magazine #117, #118 and #119.

So not only did someone write it, but an editor saw it and allowed it to go through.

Geebus crisco, that's some friggin' shoddy work right there.

Do the people that write this stuff actually play roleplaying games?

 

[GSHamster]

Have one of minions/servants in an earlier fight surrender after everyone else is killed, plead for mercy, and offer to trade the secret of the master's treasure for her life. She can tell the PCs roughly where the master's secret compartment is, because she saw him once take something from it.

Then when the PCs get to the master's cell, they'll be actively looking forward to finding the secret compartment.

 

[Asmo]

http://www.enworld.org/forum/genera...abyss-series-dungeon-high-recommendation.html

paizo.com - Messageboards / Dungeon Magazine / General Discussion / Istivin: City of Shadows (Dungeon #117)

Asmo

 

[ExploderWizard]

A mystery is but another kind of challenge. Failing a challenge doesn't always mean the game is over. I love mysteries as both a player and a GM.

When thinking about any potential challenge, think about the meaning of success or failure. If success in the challenge is a requirement to continue play then you either have to guarantee success or end the game.

For this reason I prefer using mysteries as a means of discovering bonus information or other goodies such as treasure rather than as a breadcrumb link that determines the continuity of the adventure. This way, if players are not interested in searching or following up on clues, there are still adventure opportunities. The mystery simply becomes another challenge not taken up much like a monster in a room that the players never explore.

 

[Barastrondo]

There's no way to accidently bump into this key person, because he's hiding far away.

Hm.

No one else in the world knows about the key person. The adventure actually has the smartest man in the world and he has HIRED PCs to find this information.

If he's the smartest man in the world, and he notes that the PCs are the sort to bulldoze their way through dungeons, is it feasible that he would hire a cleaner team to go through said dungeon when the PCs have cleared it out to collect evidence they may have missed? I mean, if you know the PCs have a pretty solid chance of failing to pick up on subtleties, maybe the smartest man in the world would also be able to account for that.

Also there's no physical proof of the existence of the key person lying around anywhere, because it wouldn't make any sense and it wouldn't be consistent with the story.

As much as I like consistency, I wouldn't drag gameability onto its altar and plunge the sacrificial knife downwards. Not with an adventure that is being played out as a game.

This mad wizard is unable to speak about the key person since he's too crazy to say anything that makes sense at all. He has also kept things in secret for years, so why reveal everything right now? There's no point.

Are you emotionally attached to either of these "plot" points? Is a wizard too crazy to say anything that makes sense at all a feature rather than a bug? Is it also too problematic for a man who is so insane he cannot make sense to do something pointless?

So this adventure has carefully made sure that this secret compartment has to be found in order to proceed. Anything else would seem a bit random.

Only because this adventure may have carefully constructed its "non-random" elements to serve the plot. Is the important person far away because that makes sense, or because otherwise someone might find him? Is the wizard mad because that makes sense, or is he mad because that way the players have to find the secret compartment? I think the instant you require a wizard to be insane for reasons of plot, some random-seeming elements become entirely feasible -- at least for the usual RPG handwavy definition of "mad."