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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Janx" data-source="post: 5595507" data-attributes="member: 8835">a couple of thoughts come to mind in the crafting of this adventure:PC level should also equate social level.At 1st level, the PCs don't have a lot of money.  Money is status.  You go up in level, your name gets known, you shop at the better stores, etc.  This social ranking also creates opportunities.  The 20th level Noble is going to talk to his 20th level PC friends he met at the duke's party last month about his little "problem".  If his problem was truly little, he'd have his 4th level manservant look into getting it resolved (which means he hires a 2nd level party).By making sure that most of the time, low level PCs are not interacting with high level NPC's business, you avoid SOME of this problem of access to resources beyond their level.Nextly, when designing the adventure, don't forget that the NPCs involved HAVE resources to help apply to the problem and WILL be motivated to use them.  Arms dealers who are short on man-power will be motivated to LOAN some gear out to solve the problem.  Sages will DONATE some time and information towards the problem.  The PCs should hardly even have to ask (though maybe you'll wait until the 2nd scene to bring it up, or volunteer it if the PCs seem stuck).Thirdly, the general premise of most hooks is an NPC has a problem and the PCs are in a position to help.  If yours has this premise, then make bloody certain that the NPCs are constrained on the kind of resources the PCs have.  This then is why the PCs are exactly what the NPCs need.  The town guard probably doesn't need to hire more fighters to fight stuff.  But they might have need for a team of specialists who can sneak into an area and solve a problem they want off the books.  The sages should have no lack of information.  What they lack is muscle to go get their buddy and item back.Lastly, every story or adventure has a complication.  Say yes, and give them the resource that makes sense, but would seem to simplify the problem ("Yay, we got awesome weapons!" or "Piece of cake, we know exactly where they're keeping the hostage!").  The complication then is that sages are not street smart.  They may have given you the exact location of the enemy, but not realized that people move, and perhaps even change shifts.  Its possible that the retrieval is complicated because one of the sages was crooked (and that would explain how the bad guys knew who to grab).  Basically, accept that this "extra" resource makes things easier as PART of the design, and then rebalance the adventure by adding in a proper complication.</blockquote>

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