Getting players to Move

[Wicht]

Last night, I was DMing and my players hit a rut. They had a magical gem and were torn about what to do about it. They argued for over 45 minutes. I had a guy (and his quasit) waiting to attack them if they just went a little further down one single tunnel but they just had their characters stand in the same place arguing. It was not a good place for wandering monsters (which I rarely use anyway) and I was puzzled as to how to get them to make a concrete decision without dropping hints.

At one point they even had their characters pray about what to do but I felt having a direct revelation just to get them to make up their minds was poor story-wise so I left the answer to feelings. Result: they spent another 15 minutes argueing and discussing.

Finally they decided to put the gem back and i decided the invisible enemy was near enough to try and stop them. Tactically it was probably a bad choice but I felt I needed to get something happening so that they did not put it back and then argue another 30 minutes over whether that was the right thing to do.

My question - how do you get your players to act and not talk when they hit this sort of rut?

 

[Furn_Darkside]

My question - how do you get your players to act and not talk when they hit this sort of rut?

heh, I tend to have the opposite problem, but here are some ideas:

1)Talk to your players- I am sure they are equally as frustrated by such arguments. Suggest a team leader or simple votes to break these things in the future.

2) Have the npc's nearby react, even if you have to alter them from what you have planned.

You should have given the guy waiting in ambush a one-shot wand of some area attack. That would have juiced things up.

3) Introduce new npc's.
Hostile or friendly npc's that are looking for the same thing the players are- nothing tends to bring a group together like a common enemy.

FD

 

[Tom Cashel]

I find that repeated exhortation of the DM Mantra, "C'mon, make a decision" usually does the trick. Add "time's a wastin'" and "I don't have all weekend" at your discretion.

Also, when you start acting secretive and rolling dice behind the screen (even if it's for nothing) the players will MOVE, 9 times out of 10.

 

[hong]

Count down from 10. Even if you don't have anything planned, they'll probably do something before you get to zero.

 

[Wicht]

Re: Re: Getting players to Move

1)Talk to your players- I am sure they are equally as frustrated by such arguments. Suggest a team leader or simple votes to break these things in the future.

They voted at least three times and then the minority each time covninced them to redebate the issue.

2) Have the npc's nearby react, even if you have to alter them from what you have planned.

You should have given the guy waiting in ambush a one-shot wand of some area attack. That would have juiced things up.

I eventually did change what the villains did. It went from being an ambush situation to being a situation where the villains invisibly charged the party, which IMO ended up making the encounter easier for the party. Changing the equipment of the NPCs though IMO would be cheesy.

3) Introduce new npc's.
Hostile or friendly npc's that are looking for the same thing the players are- nothing tends to bring a group together like a common enemy.

FD

Well, they killed all the other NPCs looking for the same thing already (except for the two villains looking to ambush them when they walked by and then take the ruby) and the one NPC with them gave them advice but they did not like it or even consider it in their arguments.

Originally posted by Tom Cashel
I find that repeated exhortation of the DM Mantra, "C'mon, make a decision" usually does the trick. Add "time's a wastin'" and "I don't have all weekend" at your discretion.

Also, when you start acting secretive and rolling dice behind the screen (even if it's for nothing) the players will MOVE, 9 times out of 10.

I asked about every five minutes... "So are you leaving with the ruby? So what are you doing? You guys just stand there and talk about this some more then?"

I confess I did not think of randomly rolling dice for no reason... Nor did I think of counting down as Hong suggested, though then I would have been at a loss as to what to do if I had reached zero and they were just staring at me to see what was about to happen.

 

[Jack Haggerty]

They reach the Dungeon to find all the bad guys slain and the bodies looted... Apparently, some other intrepid band of decicive adventurers got there first.

 

[Furn_Darkside]

Salutations,

Hmm, then this is a tough one.

How about bring a novel? If this starts again, put down your notes and books. Put up your feet, and start to read. If the players ask what you are doing, then be clear when they want to play- you are ready, but until then.. you are not going to just sit there.

I still think talking to whole group before the next session may be the next best bet. Explain you want to play, but you don't have that much time to waste on such silly situations. Next time a vote comes up- vote and stick with it. If the losing voters want to do something else, then let them run off and get eaten.

FD

 

[Wicht]

They reach the Dungeon to find all the bad guys slain and the bodies looted... Apparently, some other intrepid band of decicive adventurers got there first.

This was more of a situation where they interpidly got to the dungeon on time, killed all the bad guys but 2 and then in the final test of their skill and wisdom, they turned all wishy washy on me.

Of course their delay has consequences elsewhere, and so maybe they will get the lesson later as they discover their delaying a couple days cost lives but still in the meantime, I just could not figure out how to get them out of a single passage. All they had to do was turn a couple corners back the way they came and the action was all prepped to start.

I never encountered that much hesitation before. Hopefully I won't again, but I just thought someone might have other suggestions...

 

[dren]

why players should want to move

I'm sure most of those conversations are done in character, so time passes in the game. Every ten minutes roll for a wandering monster. Actually I let the players roll a d10, and they know on a 3 or less, a random monster comes into the area. For every ten minutes spent in the same place without an encounter, increase the chance by +1.

The end result in my campaigns, discussions are usually relatively short when in dungeons. Outside of dungeons, it's their characters' time, and unless you have an NPC to help guide them along, let them talk in character. If this is the way the players want to "adventure" - let them. Bring a book, create more NPCs, play a a game of yahtzee with those dice, play a video game. If their conversations go off topic, or OOC, hit them with a slight experience point penalty.

Then tell them that you want to minimize long non-adventurous activity. Have players send e-mails to each other to discuss strategy, or meet for a coffee after the gaming session to re-hash what just happened and plan for the next game.

Hope something in here helps.

 

[Umbran]

What do I do? Very little.

Of course, if the PCs are standing around arguing in a dangerous place, the denizens will act accordingly.

Also note - it is quite reasonable (in fact, some folks think it's necessary) to give hints to characters with high Intelligence or Wisdom. If they cannot resolve a question, the reason may be that you haven't given them enough information to do so.

In the end, though, players have the right to control the characters' actions. And sometimes they'll disagree. If they want to stand around and argue, then I let 'em. I don't railroad them into making a decision unless the situation really demands it.