How do you move things along in a campaign?

[Woas]

Another trick to moving the plot along is time based events. And I don't mean like, "The bomb in the castle has 10 minutes to be defused, GO!". More like weeks, months, season, half years. Give the party some pressure to get up and get out. If the Evil Overlord's plans are rumored to be completed in two weeks, then the players have a reason to root around town uncovering info and moving along. It can also give the players some confidence if they 'beat' the adventure ahead of schedule too.

 

[ForceUser]

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?

Usually, I offer them downtime when this occurs--if nobody does anything, I hand-wave the passage of days, weeks, or months. I then pick up the story where an NPC comes calling, or a PC finally decides to do something proactive. In play, it might work out like this:

DM: You arrive back in town, to the cheers of the happy townsfolk. The lord mayor invites you to dinner, and the tavernkeeper offers you a round of ale on the house.

Player 1: I get drunk with the mayor!

Player 2: I go home with the tavern wench!

Player 3: I find a weaponsmith so I can buy a new sword.

Player 4: I go to my room and read my spellbook.

DM: Ooo-kay. Aside from buying equipment or scribing scrolls, does anyone want to do anything important in the near future?

Player 3: I want to know if the weaponsmith can craft me a masterwork longsword.

Player 4: Can I buy some pearls so I can cast identify?

DM: Okay, hang on. Is there anything important you guys want to do in the next few weeks?

[Silence.]

DM: Alrighty. Buy what standard equipment you want from the PHB, book price. Yes, you can find pearls. The masterwork longsword is going to take a few weeks to craft, but the smith accepts your commission. I'm moving the calendar forward six weeks...

Player 4: Wait! I need to go talk to the archmage during this time. He promised he'd have an answer for me on the location of the necromancer's lair.

DM: Okay. Let's say you waited a couple weeks, then headed off to the archmage's tower after you scribed your new spells. I'm going to say you left town on March 21st. It takes a week to get to his tower, so you get there on the 28th. Was anyone going with you?

Player 2: I'll go.

Player 1: Me too.

Player 3: I'm staying in town and waiting for my sword to be finished.

DM: Okay, so the three of you head to the archmage's tower. When you arrive, you notice an eeire light in the window...

<snip>

And that's when I'd introduce the next adventure hook.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

I've always tried to get my players to have some character goals, just as many have said already on the thread.

Something else I try really hard to show the players in my Realms Campaign is how busy the game world is around them. Specifically, even the smallest village needs to trade with other towns to survive. This means there's always an influx of visitors from other places, and always a 'need' (or stress, or desire; depending on situation) for townsfolk to produce wares for trade, or sell enough goods in the town to buy what they need when the next trade wagon/caravan rolls into the village.

From this, you can draw up adventure ideas as needed, if you decide your players have had enough downtime/you need to get things moving:

*If there are slavers in your game world, perhaps a mage in the employ of slavers leads a group of the same, where all are disguised as merchants and caravan guards, with the intent of casing the town and kidnapping the choicest people to sell off.

*Maybe a merchant who trades with the town foolishly hired mercenary NPCs as gaurds for his caravan, who themselves end up starting a brawl and trying to intimidate the townsfolk in the very Inn the PCs are staying at. Should the PCs put down the mercenaries, maybe the merchant offers to hire them instead.

*Maybe one of the PCs witnesses a member of a noble/merchant family sneaking in or out of the home of a rival merchant family, with something obviously concealed beneath his cloak.

*Perhaps the Inn where the PCs stay is considered “neutral ground” for settling disputes in the town. While the PCs are at the Inn, an argument between to townsfolk (say the two richest, most-likely-to-feud people in the town) erupts into a brawl and looks ready to graduate into bloodshed unless someone puts a stop to the fight.

And even if you don’t intend to hook your players right away, it’s still good to describe what’s going on around them, just so they stay focused on your game world.

That way, when you do introduce an adventure hook, it doesn’t seem contrived to them and they naturally take it in stride.

Hope this helps!

J. Grenemyer

 

[dave_o]

Open campaign stuff.

Yah, I agree, it's never fool-proof and you often get surprised which is where one's degree in ting comes in handy. But I use a couple of tricks to make the appearance of free will, without all the troublesome choices.

--I think it was somewhere on these forums, but someone said something simple like "If the gelatinous cube is being Door A, and the PCs go through Door B, then move it to Door B." This quantum theory of where things are is a big factor. Because, in essence, the reality of your game doesn't collapse into concrete fact until you make it do so.

--My worlds are busy. Things go on with or without the PCs (if it's that kind of game, which my Black Company d20 currently is). But oftentimes things force the PCs to be involved, such as riots, impending military rape and pillage of their current haunt, etc.

--Plot webs are your friend. My campaign notebooks have tons and tons of these guys all over the place. It's nice because at a glance you can see just what affects what.

But honestly, a lot of the run in open campaigns is the fact that the DM is usually surprised too. Which is fun for me, at least.

And if all else fails, there's always people who are trying to capture the PCs for reasons you can make up later.

 

[EdL]

Try to get hold of Midkemia Press's "Cities", which I believe is available online. There are lots of charts to roll on for Things Happen while the PCs are in town. (Noticing stuff, bumping into people, obvious events, etc.)

 

[DarrenGMiller]

Have some of the townsfolk interact with them every time they are in a town and give them some useful information that they couldn't have accomplished their goals without. Make a practice of it until they are used to getting info from NPC's around town, but gradually lessen your initiation of the conversation as they become accustomed to the need for interaction.

DM