Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cobalt Meridian" data-source="post: 7936329" data-attributes="member: 60107">Hi! Sorry about the wall of text but I could really do with advice from more experienced GMs on how to resolve a campaign plot issue.By way of background: My campaigns have a “theme” but I also like to incorporate player’s ideas for plotlines that they would like to follow. This tends to work quite well because, frankly, most players come up with relatively simple plot ideas that I can fit in around the campaign theme.The problem is that I have a player who is getting frustrated in the lack of progress in their plot.The plot is as follows: Their family, for the past 10 generations, have had a pact with Orcus. In exchange for the soul of the first born child of each generation, the family gains sorcerous powers. The player wishes to get their character’s family out of handing souls to Orcus BUT still retain all the benefits of the pact.I have told them various ways that they could break the pact entirely but the sorcerous powers benefit would almost certainly stop. The player refuses to accept that as an option.Instead they want to travel to Orcus’ realm, beat Orcus and get him to acquiesce to a new deal where the character’s family gets all that they want and Orcus gets to live. This, to me, sounds like a seriously difficult endgame target and I have let the player know that. I have also let them know that Orcus, on his home plane, is incredibly powerful and they’ll need some divine or infernal assistance in order to be victorious.The players started at level 1 and they are now level 7, after 30 sessions. I have so far included three factions wiling to assist the player character in a fight against Orcus:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A (LE) cult that worships the devil, Zariel. They will help but the player characters would need to prove their loyalty to Zariel and that means doing a number of really morally dubious jobs. The player characters have started these but are reaching the point where it’s obvious that they are working for an evil cult and they intend getting out of this soon.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A (LN) “Ministry of Magic” who wish to stay neutral but would be interested in seeing if they could turn this to their advantage. So far though the characters are too low level for the ministry to see how they could prevail. The player characters also don’t trust the ministry.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A (LG) church of Athena who is annoyed that the character’s family entered into a pact with Orcus but will help as long as the family convert to the worship of their deity. The player doesn’t want to agree to this.</li> </ul>The player is frustrated that I haven’t added an obvious faction that really wants to help him confront Orcus and will willingly/freely give him very significant assistance on how to achieve his (not entirely noble) aims.Considering the character’s level and aims I am not sure how to take the player character from where he is to where he wants to be.Any advice that will help me get this plotline resolved, in a non-McGuffin way, would be very much appreciated.Thanks in advance!</blockquote>

Verification