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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Draksila" data-source="post: 4879035" data-attributes="member: 31376">I have to say I'm in the 'feel you pain' camp, myself.  The first memory that comes to mind was a murder mystery that a friend and I wrote; yes, there were curveballs, but poking around and asking questions combined with the party rogue doing a little B&E would have made it a fairly short and simple adventure.  Instead?  The characters all moped around the town drinking and lingering on one suspect without gathering evidence (they were suspects, and so couldn't leave without a fight).  They would then complain after sessions that the mystery was too hard and they didn't know what to do.  After two sessions of this, my co-DM and I (it was an experiment) decided that we'd had enough of their whining, had the constable attack them 'while resisting arrest' (she was the killer), and had a sit down with them afterward to let them know we weren't going to bother writing out plotlines for them if they were going to just sit there and wait for things to happen to them. What we were so upset about, and what it seems you're having problems with, is the fact that no matter what you do you're screwed.  If you railroad them through the plot, then they complain that they're constrained and have no options.  But if you give them a story with branching paths and possibilities, they complain that you're making them think too hard.  It's a copout to say it's a problem inherent with D&D; I've run Ravenloft and Forgotten Realms campaigns where the players role-played, asked questions, and were proactive and I've run the same settings with players that were about as involved as unwilling opera patrons.  It's a problem with the group dynamic. The best advice I can give is to go over your methods; maybe record a session and listen to the playback.  If you're giving the party leads and leaving them openings and they're just too lazy to run with them, then you aren't going to be able to run intellectual adventures for them.  Period.  However, if you think you're being a bit obtuse, then listen to what you think you're doing wrong and see if you can try to be a little more obvious with the options you're leaving open for them.  Maybe once they see the branching paths a few times, they'll start looking for them.</blockquote>

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