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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mac Callum" data-source="post: 1665673" data-attributes="member: 17035">You see to have two seperate problems.This example, and several of your others, seems to indicate that the party isn't interested in the hooks you're providing.  Plot-hooks are only as good as their ability to draw PCs into an adventure.  What kind of stimuli do your player's respond to?  Use more like that.Your second problem seems to be a lack of adaptibility, combined with a soft, kids-glove approach.  I'll cover both of these in a minute.Wimp.  Kids gloves; really....Yeah, I'm being a little overt-the-top here, so don't take it personally.  It's just my way.But seriously, I'm one of those 'grown up' DMs with 'grown up' demands on my time.  My quest-prep time is limited.  I don't have time to make endless maps and NPC notes.  I write a quest, and darn it, the PCs will run that adventure.Part of it though is realizing that D&D is a group game.  If you're writing quests that you'd love to play in there's a chance you're writing quests that aren't what your PCs would love to play in.  A good DM knows his players well.Let me give you an example.  I've got this player who IRL has a strong Rebel-Against-Authority mindset which focuses on organized religion.  She can't stand 'em.  Catholic churches make her angry.  Without endorsing or decrying this predilection, I simply accept it and plan accordingly.  Her Ranger is an Undead Hunter and she's doubled up on Undead as her favored enemy.  So what do I do?  Her character comes across a Church that pretends to be good and friendly during services, but is secretly run by a vampire and is making all the converts into spawn.Hook.  Line.  Sinker.  The other thing, as I mentioned earlier, is a lack of adaptability.  Remember that patrol with the important information?  Well, just because the PCs avoided the patrol doesn't mean they get to avoid the encounter.  Imagine up some Rangers patrolling the woods who the PCs run into while avoiding the soldiers on the road.Look, the world is malleable to your will.  As the DM its your JOB to see to it that the other players are having fun - but it ISN"T your job to waste your time inventing quests for your PCs to ignore.  I can't just improvise this stuff up in the middle of the game ahead of time the way some people can, so I make up an encounter - and then I think of at least FOUR different ways the PCs will end up there.  The chance of the PCs avoiding all four of them is so low it hardly ever happens.  A little planning can make important encounters unavoidable while simultaneously maintaining the illusion of free will on your player's parts.  Trust me, with practice they'll never know.Well, hopefully some of this helped.  A little bit of extra effort can ensure that most of it doesn't get wasted.  Knowing that your players avoid patrols, you can now plan accordingly.Most importantly though, if none of this helps, talking to your players pretty much always does.  Find out what they want to do.  If after half-an-hour of conversation you realize that the adventures they want to play aren't the ones you want to run, a compromise can often be reached.</blockquote>

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