DM desperately needs help... (My players stay out!)

[Arravis]

Well, I'm having a bit of a plot problem and I thought you guys might be able to help me out.

Here's the setup:
This is a campaign that just started, it's set in the Forgotten Realms, in the semi-ruined city of Phlan. There are a total of 5 players, 2 of which are co-DM's (I'm one of the co-DM's and likely to be the "main" one).

The party consists of the following:
a moonelven boy contortionist/acrobat who works for a travelling troupe of entertainers;
a female human bard/sage with a mysterious past;
a cleric of Illmater on a quest for self-salvation from his past;
a dour moonelven mercenary;
and a centaur who's tribe was recently captured by slavers. He was drugged and shipped to Phlan, where he's being held by an evil merchant-lord.

The game began with the travelling troupe stopping in Phlan to entertain a powerful merchant that has taken up residence in part of the ruins of Phlan. Tthe merchant has a deal with the town council to restore that neighborhood if he's given free land and some tax exemptions. As the troupe makes it way throuth the ruins the boy spots the bard and the cleric searching through the remains of an old bookshop. The bard seeks books on magic, the cleric wants to restore the old temple of Illmater and is trying to get details on what it used to look like.

Anyway, the troupe gets to the rebuilt mansion where the powerful merchant is staying at. Halfway through the performance, the merchant-lords calls it to a halt and asks the leader of the troupe why he hass failed him in their covert work (an obvious reference to some previous illegal work the boy knows nothing of). The merchant orders his guards to kill the troupe, but in the confusion the boy escapes out of a sunroof on the ceiling. Unfortunately the sloped roof is slick due to recent rains and he looses his footing. He lands severely wounded in front of the stables where the centaur is being held. The two make their way into the street and attempt to flee, but it's nearly impossible since it's crawling with guards.

The two escapees head into the ruins where they come across the cleric and bard. As the guards gather around the ruined block, the group hides out in the buildings. The cleric heals the boy and makes sure the centaur isn't hurt. The centaur clearly doesn't trust the two humans and seems ready to kill them at any moment.

Several guards are sent in to kill the group, who now think the cleric and the bard are in league with the escapees. One of the guards, a moonelven mercenary who is appalled at orders to kill his own race, joins the party. The small group of guards is fought off, but the larger group has now left no clear exits out of the ruins.

Luckily, the group finds the old sewer system beneath the ruins they are in and escape into the grassfields nearby.

Here is my problem... the player of the centaur thinks that his character would simply run off, leaving the party behind. He thinks he wouldn't trust humans (who have been the source of his waking nightmare) and barely trusts elves.

I'm not sure how I should handle this, I'm kind of stuck Any advice guys? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

-Arravis

 

[Dimenhydrinate]

Vengance? Try to show the players that they need to stay together to stop this from happening to his "people" again. If he were to run away he could get captured again.

 

[James Heard]

Why should you do anything? It's his character, his responsibility to come up with motive enough to adventure with the party. If someone makes a character that is described as "a paranoid loner" then it isn't your responsiblity to make adventures for him alone when they flee the rest of the group, they've made a choice. I'd tell him to come up with some reasons, maybe he suddenly finds himself sweet on a member of the party or finds one of their mounts compelling. Maybe he's bored. Maybe he should just play the character and stop worrying about reasons, it's a game and he wanted to play a strange character. If for some reason you need the character for storyline feeds, hand him a blank character sheet to make up someone who DOES want to adventure with the party, while you confiscate the centaur for an NPC.

 

[GladiusNP]

Hmm.. I don't know how much you've planned out, or what's happened since the post, but I guess the drugged thing sticks in my mind. Maybe he can't leave yet... perhaps at the beginning of next session he suffers withdrawal/aftereffects from the drug. The party has to take care of him, and the cleric manages to keep him alive, the bard and the boy 'forage' for food. The mercenary keeps them safe, and at the end the centaur decides these guys aren't so bad. Maybe you could role-play this quickly, or maybe just decide it happens between now and the next sesssion. I guess I'd tend to go for the latter, since the centaur is out of commission. Just a suggestion!

Hope you work it out.

 

[Felix]

In one campaign I'm playing a gnoll ranger with favored enemy (human). Most of the party is human, and we are a very mercenary-like party. So far our motivations have not strayed far from: get paid.

Last session (after some very dubious actions by party members) we get captured by the slavers who are holding a orc we were tasked to free and get information from. The orc (while we're imprisoned) relays to us that he is wanted because he knows about this incredible cache of wealth.

The rest of the party's eyes light up when they hear of this treasure, and my character gets upset. He thinks it likely that he will spend the rest of his days as a galley slave, and for what? So other people can have this yellow metal.

My character doesn't much like his companions. Or much trust them. But he knows that they want to go after the treasure. He will stay with the party to help him reach it so that in the end he will be able to destroy all of this wealth, so that no more lives will be destroyed by ambitious humans desiring riches. (He's multiclassing Druid to represent this anethma to "civilized" things.)

The Point: it was a difficult session (only the 3rd) for me to develop a bond with the group. Since they proved unfaithful, trust was out as a motivation. My DM and I sat over a pint and talked about why I would stay with the party, and we came up with this.

What James Heard said has merit: don't hold his hand through this character crisis, but I think you should help him. At least recon what is going through his mind so that in the next session you can provide a new little hook to keep the centaur in the group for a little while longer; perhaps they run into a group of centaurs that need humans for a mission in town? If he won't stay with the party on his own account, have him be told by someone he listens to to stay with them. The longer he stays, the more likely the player is to find a reason to stay for good.

Good luck to you.

 

[Piratecat]

Minor rant here: players who design PCs that will deliberately not work with the party, and then who complain about their motivations, drive me nuts. I had this happen to me once, too.

Nowadays, when I see something like this approaching, I've decided to politely ask the player to make sure that the PC has some sort of motivation for wanting to adventure with the others. that puts the responsibility in the player's lap, and makes him able to control how much fun he does (or doesn't) have. Then the DM can concentrate on the story, trusting the players to stick together as a team.

It's a little simplistic, but it works for me.

 

[James Heard]

Simple is usually good.

PC outlines my position on the matter pretty well, except that at some point I don't bother holding a player's hand. If someone wanted to play someone who didn't work well with others in my game that's fine, I'd tell them that it would be a bad idea and if they insisted on doing it they might have a session or to for "getting with the program". There is plenty of room for roleplaying without creating more work for me to do as a GM.

 

[Arravis]

Wanted to update everyone... I followed the advice here, of putting the responsability of the player. It worked quite well . The centaur realized that the only way to succeed at his goals was to stick with the party. Since then, it's been working out well . Thanks for all the advice guys .

 

[Kyramus]

It happened to me once before also.

I simply said "DnD is a group dynamic. If you make a character that is a soloist, I suggest you find a Vampire the Masquerade game."

The person promptly left and the rest had a good time.

 

[James Heard]

Even VtM is a group dynamic, it's just a different sort of one. A dedicated soloist in Vampire won't have a good time in VtM either, since to tell a story involving a lot of loner vampires even requires interaction with the other loners. I don't know if that makes as much sense as I'm on meds, but it's true. If you really want to play a roleplaying game alone, pick up Morrowind and get a past computer.