Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="fba827" data-source="post: 4420210" data-attributes="member: 807">I'm trying to get a feel as to what I should do as a DM ....Note I am leaving this a little vague in case my players happen to stumble here.For this new campaign, I had several points of "the grand plot" that I was trying to unravel over the course of the first ten levels, allowing a few adventures worth as they uncovered layer after layer.But, after just starting the campaign, the players have basically taken the first layer of the plot and are now making plans to follow that to an extreme.  The plans they are making would basically take this first layer as the core focus of the majority of the campaign.Since it's only been a couple sessions, I know part of the issue is that the players simply haven't had the time to find enough clues to realize something else is going on (and they ignored the clues I did give them).  Part of that is my fault for not figuring out a creative way to drop clues (beyond what I already did). Part of the fault is from trying to keep pacing for a full campaign so that they don't get everything all in the first level and be overwhelmed and trying to allow new things to be discovered over time.  Also, partly my fault for making the first layer have so much interest that both the players and characters have become fascinated with it. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />So I'm left with trying to decide what to do....1) Do I let them do what they've planned on doing, and drop the other layers I had planned from the campaign, thus refocus everything on the one layer? (this could work because the first layer does have enough character to server as a strong focus on its own, but then lots of my prep-work for the other layers would go down the drain and I would need to prep new stuff)2) Do I let them do what they've planned on doing, and let them deal with the consequences of not finding the other layers? (oh that will would be evil and fun to deal with in it's own right <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devil.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":devil:" title="Devil    :devil:" data-shortname=":devil:" /> ! and my prep-work is then easily recycled in to further plot and story with minimal effort)3) Should I alter one of the other layers of the plot, so that they will stumble on it while doing what they planned on, thus tie them back to everything I already planned out? (this seems like the likeliest of compromises but that's from my view point as a DM, it would let me maintain all my prep work, and it would still let me keep my pacing on stuff I planned on revealing over the course of an entire campaign)4) Tell them flat out, via in-game methods, how more stuff is connected? (a stranger they already met that has been secretly guiding them to this point gives them a warning, though this would give away about 2 layers at once.  But I worry that this method will feel heavy handed and forced and less "about the PCs finding stuff and more about know-it-all-NPCs")5) Tell them flat out, via out-of-game methods, that they may want to revisit some of the clues that they previously bypassed/ignored? (I shy away from this because I do prefer to find an in-game method)6) Something else?  (there is always some option I don't think of right away)Keep in mind that neither the characters nor players[/i] have any idea about the other layers going on at this point (they ignored or bypassed all the other clues I tried giving them).  So, in truth, I could follow any of these thoughts and they wouldn't be any wiser or claim I was doing trickery behind the scenes.Any of these options have the potential to make for interesting stories.  It's just a matter of how much of the original story and prep-work I should sacrifice?  At what point is it railroading?  At what point should I just give up what I envisioned and put in hours of planning for the story and just go with what the PCs are doing?I am leaning towards a certain of the options, but I thought I'd see what other options from non-involved persons might be...Thoughts?</blockquote>

Verification