How often do your players loose the adventure?

[Alzrius]

This bit of generic advice probably isn't necessary, but I'll toss it out anyway: If the players lose an adventure, make sure there are repercussions!

I don't mean you should keep penalizing players for the fact that they lost, but rather, losing is one of the best ways they have of gauging how much impact they really have. If they lose, and then you just move along to the next adventure with no real impact happening, it's seriously demoralizing...it sends the message that they don't make any real difference, win or lose. Hence, make sure the players see the negative effects on the surrounding world when they get beaten.

 

[Hadraniel]

I had my players leave a dungeon where they were supposed to kill a necromancer/cleric.

One of the players said he did not want to defile the temple of a god, even a evil one. Then talked all the players into leaving the place. This all happened within the first 20 minutes of the session. Needless to say whole session ran about 20 minutes, to all of my players suprise...jerks, I had a sweet dungeon set up.

Anyhow I had the Villian fulfill his plans down in the dungeon and the players proceded to get screwed. The villian kept winning until they stopped listening the coward in the group and started killing the bad people.

I think that might have been the most frustrating and amusing campaign I have ever ran.

 

[random user]

I had my players leave a dungeon where they were supposed to kill a necromancer/cleric.

One of the players said he did not want to defile the temple of a god, even a evil one. Then talked all the players into leaving the place. This all happened within the first 20 minutes of the session. Needless to say whole session ran about 20 minutes, to all of my players suprise...jerks, I had a sweet dungeon set up.

Anyhow I had the Villian fulfill his plans down in the dungeon and the players proceded to get screwed. The villian kept winning until they stopped listening the coward in the group and started killing the bad people.

I think that might have been the most frustrating and amusing campaign I have ever ran.

Huh, I never run into that problem. Pretty much any plot hook I give my players, I'm ready for them to completely disregard it (for whatever reason). Of course, there are consequences to their actions, which they may or may not see in the future. I don't sweat about it though.

I just file whatever preparation I had done away for re-use at a later date. I might have to change the monsters around (and if the party hasn't gained too much in level, often the only fine-tuning that needs to be done is add one or two more monsters for each encounter, and occassionally swap a monster), but the map, the descriptions, traps, etc are all intact.

They never have to know that the temple of eeeeevil that they avoided would have had the same floorplan as the temple of phaaaaatlewt.

 

[Hadraniel]

Huh, I never run into that problem. Pretty much any plot hook I give my players, I'm ready for them to completely disregard it (for whatever reason). Of course, there are consequences to their actions, which they may or may not see in the future. I don't sweat about it though.

I just file whatever preparation I had done away for re-use at a later date. I might have to change the monsters around (and if the party hasn't gained too much in level, often the only fine-tuning that needs to be done is add one or two more monsters for each encounter, and occassionally swap a monster), but the map, the descriptions, traps, etc are all intact.

They never have to know that the temple of eeeeevil that they avoided would have had the same floorplan as the temple of phaaaaatlewt.

I did reuse the dungeon, but it was one of those all signs point to this place being the bad place they needed to take care of. I had planned on this place taking 2 or 3 sessions. Even NPCs suggested they go there, all the evidence pointed this place. It was just one stupid player.

It was just amazing to see the players actually go into a dungeon kill 2 skeletons in the first room and then just up and leave.

 

[Chimera]

Anyhow I had the Villian fulfill his plans down in the dungeon and the players proceded to get screwed. The villian kept winning until they stopped listening the coward in the group and started killing the bad people.

I think that might have been the most frustrating and amusing campaign I have ever ran.

<lol> About 20 years ago I was kicked out of a campaign and branded a "bad person" by a group of people.

Why?

Because we managed to capture an evil necromancer in the middle of her hide-out, after killing maybe 40% of her servants and guards. We questioned her, then my character killed her. All the other players were horrified that I killed her "in cold blood". They wanted to tie her up and leave her there, since she had "surrendered". Well, my thinking was that more than half her people were still around and we were possibly going to have to fight our way out. So who wants to leave her there to be freed 2 minutes after we leave and then organize her troops to come after us? Or potentially create new troops from the bodies of the ones we killed?

Ah, but I was a really bad person (IRL) for (gameplay) killing a necromancer in cold blood, so those people didn't want to be around me (the player) anymore.

This is still funny to me. Sooo, if a vampire surrenders, do you let him go? Am I a bad person for driving someone into bankruptcy when they land on my hotel during a game of Monopoly?

Won't someone think of the Children???

 

[Crothian]

THere are different kinds of losing. I'd say that most weeks things don't work out entirely like the poarty wants. They might succeed but things go wrong and the plot moves forward. Also, while things might go from their point of veiw perfect, they soon realize their action have casued problems for others. Naked and on Fire, that's the name of the game!

 

[The_Gneech]

Well what were the players supposed to do, then? If attacking the hags = TPK, and they were stonewalled at the temple, then all they've got is dead ends. If I was playing in the scenario as you describe it, I probably would have tossed my hands in the air and said, "Now what? Screw it, I'm gonna go find some orcs."

-The Gneech

 

[LordVyreth]

Well, my group never "lost" in the "had their butts handed to them" parlance, but they did essentially fail their last adventure. They were trying to capture this BBEG alive, to pry information out of her (magical ways to obtain the information, including speaking with dead, fail for this bit of information.) However, one bull rush through a prismatic wall later, the BBEG was dead, so now they have to switch to plan B.