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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mulkhoran" data-source="post: 1665626" data-attributes="member: 894">I feel your pain, Quasqueton.   It's incredibly frustrating, and can wear away at you sometimes.  Nightchilde's example is great, if it works for you.  Some DM's can't just pitch it all and go improv, just depends on your style.If switching to a mostly-improv style doesn't work for you, then:Reading your examples, it sounds like your PCs aren't big side-trek fans.  It seems they put their primary adventure goal first, and don't like deviating.  Can I ask you: Do you place a lot of emphasis on time-sensitivity in your games?   If so, maybe they've developed a concern about staying focused and moving fast.I'm not sure how you approach campaign philosophy, but you could always take the material and encounters that they're missing, and place them directly along the path of the adventure they *are* pursuing.   I know that *sounds* like railroading, but if they've already chosen a particular path, you're just modifying the specifics along that path.I mean, even if they're walking away, they're going *somewhere*.   Of course, you'd have to be accepting of modifying things post-creation, and different DMs have different feelings on that.Also, examples like the Assassin's Guild and Bandit encounter like you gave don't necessarily have to be the kinds of things that just go away.  If someone tried to kill one of them, and it didn't pan out, that has the potential to grow to a big enough problem that they *can't* ignore.  Again, I know some people would call it railroading, but hell, if someone wants to kill them, and they take out an Assassin, and the hunt increases in intensity........that's just the world reacting to them.   And with the Bandits, who knows what consequences could result in just leaving that behind....especially if the evidence was lost, and it started to look like the PCs were the culprits...........I realize these sound like rat bastard ideas, and I'm certainly not recommending this happen every time.....but if it's happening that frequently, a little more "push" could help you get your material into use without stifling the game.Lastly, and this is utter, blind speculation, but are you sure the PCs are seeing what you want them to see in these situations? I myself have put what I thought were clear links or situations in front of my players before, and had them walk away.  When asking about it later, I'd sometimes find out: "Huh? We had no idea.....I don't remember you saying that.....Wasn't clear..." Those kinds of things.  Again, no one's fault, but clear communication is sometimes not easy to see, no offense intended, as I said, it's speculation.*stares back at post*Um, yeah............sorry bout that. Wow, rambling............In short (yeah right!), don't give up the good fight.  Hang in there, and remember that DMs do a great service to their players by providing them an entire world to play in.  Remember the things that gave you satisfaction, and make you happy about DMing, and hold to that.  Good DMs are hard to find.Good luck! (oh, and uh, lemme know if you need another pc...... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> )- Mike</blockquote>

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