How do you move things along in a campaign?

[dreaded_beast]

There are times when the PCs are just hanging around town not really doing anything. I hope they would spend the time to interact with the townsfolk or the town itself or pursue their own agendas. However, most of the time they just sit around and wait for something to happen.

How can I move things along without losing a sense of realism?

 

[Crothian]

I ask question, have a active NPC engage them, see what they want to do. What are you doing that loses realism?

 

[Shadowslayer]

There are times when the PCs are just hanging around town not really doing anything. I hope they would spend the time to interact with the townsfolk or the town itself or pursue their own agendas. However, most of the time they just sit around and wait for something to happen.

How can I move things along without losing a sense of realism?

1. Well, if they're not "hang around and interact with the townspeople" type players, you can't force it. Just accept that you need to make something happen to lead them to the next adventure/quest/whatever.

2. Make it clear to them that information can be obtained by talking to people. Make "digging up rumors" a part of the group's rituals when they come to a new place. I'll maintain, however, that if you think that will cause them to just engage in idle chitchat with the locals for the sake of "roleplaying", you'll probably be dissappointed.

 

[WayneLigon]

Have the townspeople interact with them first.

More than likely, they have some strong lads or lasses amongst 'em: have a brewer enlist them to help load a wagon, where he can spill the beans about the fact that his apprentice would would usually handle this thing is laid up after an encounter with a ghoul, yes, a ghoul on his route to the taverns the Brewer serves last night.

Have one of the older village women ask the party wizard to be her escort to a festival; he's handsome enough, and she could stand consulting with a mage. It seems her daughter is apprenticed to a wizard, but she has concerns that the man might be teaching her Dark Magic....

Or even just make conversation. If the innkeeper notices the cleric, he can remark how his own son went to serve the god a few years ago and now he's in some far-off conflict. Or the local guardsman can note the nice sword the fighter has, and ask about it. Or the wizard keeps getting young girls come up to him to ask him to brew a love potion for them.

 

[Ralts Bloodthorne]

Look at them and ask if they expect the world to come to them. Are they adventurer's or townsfolk. If they want to buy houses and settle down, that's cool, but make up thier minds, you don't have all night.

Eh, maybe I'm lucky, my player's aren't ones for sitting around.

 

[Imperialus]

Random dragon strikes?

 

[dave_o]

I try and get my PCs to have goals their characters are perusing in mind -- sometimes it's tough to get them together from their plots and stuff. But I run open campaigns usually so it's not a big deal.

Aside from intrinsic PC goals, have the town be alive around them. Festivals, muggings, crime, parades, political actions, war, all this stuff can be happening in the background but is interesting and can drag the PCs in a direction.

Or maybe get them in a situation where they recieve "assignments" clandestinely from some entity. That way, they're basically told to go here and do this, but there's that roleplay aspect that doesn't break versimilitude.

Then, of course, you have them get double-crossed.

Also -- do you happen to have stairs in your house?

 

[Whimsical]

If your PC group doesn't have a bard, have an NPC bard approach them and offer to spread the tales of their grand adventures. If they accept, he will then ask detailed questions about their adventures and backgrouds, writing everything down. If they start to describe a monster, have him pop up a silent image or predestidigitation foot-high image and ask "like this?". Then he can correct and refine the image based on their follow-up descriptions. The bard thanks them, and does create stories. They could be accurate or romantasized or satiristic versions of their stories, depending on the bard. But the bard also secretly sells his detailed information to interested parties. Such as the powers-that-be or future big bads.

Afterwards, they get pestered by several people offering to join their adventuring party, or people who need their help in solving their problems. In addition, their wealth gets targeted. Not only do merchants charge them more, but they keep getting sob stories from people, guilt trips from family to share the wealth (or just hand it completely over to the patriarch), buisness opportunities, or various con jobs, but pickpockets go after their worn magic items and PCs find that their living quarters have been broken into and robbed. In addition, officials are finding new ways to tax these guys or conscripting them into some official duty or another.

You can throw in some good stuff also. Certain upperclass societies offers them memberships to their clubs, they may be able to buy a higher class level of citizenship that grants them better legal protections and city services. They may be able to genuinly help people who are suffering. They may be offered good employment opportunities training others in their craft for example. Wherever they go, people offer them free drinks and would like to hear their stories again.

There an encounter chart in the DMG 3.5 that details urban adventuring. Just walking around the city can generate encounters, and there's a chart in the DMG you can use for wandering encounters when the PCs just hang out in town.

 

[Herobizkit]

I try and get my PCs to have goals their characters are perusing in mind -- sometimes it's tough to get them together from their plots and stuff. But I run open campaigns usually so it's not a big deal.

Therein lies your quandy (emphasis mine). With a campaign style that is open, the players have no direct goals to strive for. You can drop them a million hints to a million different campaign plots, but all that will do is give them more choices to mull over, and indecision will rule the day.

Characters and players aren't always going to pursue their goals 100% of the time; they need distractons just as much as Real Life People. In order to create versimilitude, you'll need to have random things happen. Even in an open campaign, the players are still the stars of the show... and if nothing happens around the stars while they Just Stand There, they'll be in a state of disbelief anyway.

It's also possible that the players are more interested in what's going on in The Big Picture, and they just haven't caught on to what exactly IS The Big Picture; they're so bogged down in their own plots, campaign sub-plots, and campaign arcs, they really don't know what to do with themselves. I've been in that state in other campaigns before. If I'm not sure what to do next, and the DM is waiting for me to decide, the game comes to a halt.

Even if you narrow down the choices to three or even two options, your players may be more apt to bite at one of the bits. You COULD even create a NPC party to parody their own, and have THEM be in constant competition with the players. If the players can't decide on which way to go, have the NPCs decide and go. The players will either a) chase after them, trying to beat them to their goal or b) go the other way out of spite. If they STILL don't budge, have the NPCs return some time later with the spoils and mock them.

 

[Stormborn]

Suddenly Two men with weapons burst into the room... To paraphrase a classic example. If they are sitting in the bar drinking between adventures give them something to do while in the bar. Make the town itself the adventure location, as most of the advice in the posts above have suggested with excelent examples on how to do it. Make the NPCs unique and intersting, make them fun to interact with. But don't push it, sometimes you just have a players who aren't intersted.