Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ruined" data-source="post: 484934" data-attributes="member: 113">Hello all. I've got a question about something that occurs in my games that I'm never quite sure how to handle. The Dead End. I have plots ongoing, and sometimes the characters are searching for someone in particular or certain information. They come up with an idea towards finding the information, but it's not the right approach or they're completely off-track. Searching out things like this never seems to be fun to me, and I'm sure the players don't enjoy the frustration. At times the red herrings that stem from these have proven interesting, but that's the rare occurance.For example, in a recent game the party is looking for a mysterious wizard who lives somewhere North of their current location. The warrior is moving through a new city. He stops in a bar and asks the barkeep if he's heard of this wizard, and he hasn't (rolled a Lore: Local check, very slim chance); then he goes to a library within town and seeks information there. I'm not really looking for advice on this situation, as it's resolved, but it's a good example.I'm looking for suggestions on how to handle these situations. Should I abbreviate such endeavors, saying 'you look for X hours and find nothing relevant. Next?'.  Or should I bend in situations where I wouldn't normally think they shouldn't find info, and have something fall into their laps?  It seems fairly contrived, but these are the heroes of the story - should their pursuits be much easier than I'm making them?Any suggestions from those who've faced this problem would be greatly appreciated.</blockquote>

Verification