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<blockquote data-quote="Lord Zardoz" data-source="post: 3051909" data-attributes="member: 704">Prune the plot tree and lead by the noseIf you have too many options for them to pursue, its time to either shut some of those options down, or at least render them non viable for the time being.&nbsp; The notion is that &quot;Crap, we spent too much time not doing anything, and its too late&quot;.&nbsp; Just start the game off with a visitation from the now dead NPC's spirit.The other thing worth doing is to lead them by the nose a bit.&nbsp; Players tend to suck at making decisions regarding what they should do next when confronted with a handfull of choices.&nbsp; But they are great at reacting to whatever is happening right 'now'.What I would do is have one of the BBEG leutenants use a magical sending saying &quot;I want that artifact you hid.&nbsp; You have 2 days to get to ( insert location ) or I kill all your missing family members&quot;.&nbsp; This will get some sort of immediate response.&nbsp; If the bad guy does not get any response in a timely fashion, have him teleport the severed head of one of the missing family members to the players.&nbsp; If you want to be very immediate about getting things moving, providea&nbsp; magical gate and give the players exactly 5 minutes to comply before for the family member is executed.Some general suggestions.- Have all missing family members brought together in one location- force an ultimatum that requires immediate response- Create an encounter where the players can fight the BBEG and get beaten without a permanant TPK.&nbsp; Use a Deus Ex Machina of an old ally teleporting them out of the fire if you have to.- Find a way to inform the players that the BBEG now has all the artifacts except for the one that they hid.In any campaign that runs past a certain point, the hardest thing to do is keep the players on task.&nbsp; I think the real problem is that you introduced both a ticking clock and a number of choices in what to do, and enough time to do half of the side quests.&nbsp; I only use a ticking clock in my plots to force the players to act in a timely fashion, perhaps acting without resting after every fight.&nbsp; Or to force a choice of one course of action instead of another.&nbsp; A big problem is that since the players have secured the artifact, they can afford to dawdle and still manage to win.END COMMUNICATION</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Lord Zardoz, post: 3051909, member: 704"] [b]Prune the plot tree and lead by the nose[/b] If you have too many options for them to pursue, its time to either shut some of those options down, or at least render them non viable for the time being. The notion is that "Crap, we spent too much time not doing anything, and its too late". Just start the game off with a visitation from the now dead NPC's spirit. The other thing worth doing is to lead them by the nose a bit. Players tend to suck at making decisions regarding what they should do next when confronted with a handfull of choices. But they are great at reacting to whatever is happening right 'now'. What I would do is have one of the BBEG leutenants use a magical sending saying "I want that artifact you hid. You have 2 days to get to ( insert location ) or I kill all your missing family members". This will get some sort of immediate response. If the bad guy does not get any response in a timely fashion, have him teleport the severed head of one of the missing family members to the players. If you want to be very immediate about getting things moving, providea magical gate and give the players exactly 5 minutes to comply before for the family member is executed. Some general suggestions. - Have all missing family members brought together in one location - force an ultimatum that requires immediate response - Create an encounter where the players can fight the BBEG and get beaten without a permanant TPK. Use a Deus Ex Machina of an old ally teleporting them out of the fire if you have to. - Find a way to inform the players that the BBEG now has all the artifacts except for the one that they hid. In any campaign that runs past a certain point, the hardest thing to do is keep the players on task. I think the real problem is that you introduced both a ticking clock and a number of choices in what to do, and enough time to do half of the side quests. I only use a ticking clock in my plots to force the players to act in a timely fashion, perhaps acting without resting after every fight. Or to force a choice of one course of action instead of another. A big problem is that since the players have secured the artifact, they can afford to dawdle and still manage to win. END COMMUNICATION [/QUOTE]

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