Meh. Maybe we won't.

[Starglim]

Right, everybody roll up new characters.

Best suggestion so far, on several levels.

 

[diaglo]

"Your services are no longer needed. You are FIRED."

Teleport without error away from the party/ or teleport the party away and look for more foolish adventurers to complete the task.

 

[yennico]

"Then I will curse you so that all the beer you can ever get is green."

Or depending on their temperament

"If you do this for me, all the beer you ever recieve will be blessed and turn green."

The immensely powerful being is a 2 hp leprechaun with polymorph any object at will, right?

*lol* Green beer for the dwarf

 

[Mark Hope]

I once played in a truly dire FR game that featured just this kind of plot. The ever-laughable Elmonster summoned us to Shadowdale and said that we had to go to the Abyss and retrieve some Evil Hammer of Doom before the BBEG got hold of it. We cleared off to the Abyss, retrieved the hammer and then started offering it to the highest bidders from all across the lower planes. Elmonster was not happy at all (or maybe it was just the DM...) To answer your question, Quasqueton, in this case the immensely powerful being in question harangues you across the planes of existence using some kind of DM-fiat projected image, spouting increasingly implausible reasons as to why you should do what he says, until you call him an impotent geriatric old fert and the DM throws down his books and ends the game in a huff.

 

[Quasqueton]

Interesting that so many responders took a metagame view. Called it a railroad and dismiss it. You can't see the scenario as a "legitimate" situation?

5th-level PCs find themselves standing in the middle of a dragon's den, with the CR 25 dragon on a ledge above them. "You will bring me more treasure..."

2nd-level PCs are taken before the emporer. "I have need of persons my enemies will not suspect..."

10th-level PCs release a djinni sultan from his bottle. "I cannot move my own bottle, so you will..."

This question was prompted by something I read recently that made me think of some PCs I've had in my games. It seems there is always one in every group who refuses to be "duely impressed" with an obviously superior bad ass (OSBA). Either the OSBA decides the PCs could be useful or the DM tries to give the PCs a way out. And then either one or all of the PCs just fail to realize the gravity of their predicament.

Or the Players start thinking in metagame terms, and decide to not play in character. "I refuse to be railroaded."

You know, railroads are not only constructs of poor DMs. PCs can build their own railroad, in game. The call of "railroading" is sometimes the resort of poor Players, too.

Players: "We don't want to play a demon-fighting campaign."

DM: "Well, you shouldn't have opened that door that said, 'Warning! Demons held behind this portal.'"

Quasqueton

 

[Mark Hope]

Rather than an aversion to railroading (beacuse, let's face it, most adventures contain big, fat signposts, if not actual railroads) I would think that is more an aversion to the fact that the "Bring me the McGuffin, lesser beings!" plot is one of the most hackneyed gaming cliches in the book. It's the least subtle manifestation of the Quest storyline and it gets folks' backs up. The times that it does work, imho, are those times when there is a genuine, non-contrived answer to the question "Well, if you're so powerful, why can't you do this yourself?" Too often, the answer to that question is little more than a poorly-constructed excuse to make the PCs the focus of the action. A player's desire for verisimilitude usually demands a higher standard of plot than that.

 

[Mystery Man]

Hold an entire city hostage, let everyone in the city know their fate hinges on the party's success. Their failure means wiping the city out.

Edit: Choo choooooo!

 

[der_kluge]

Yea, Rel is right here. Don't give the party a quest unless you think they'll be interested in it. I often try to angle it towards their own personal motiviation, or better yet, make it personal.

And if you really do want to go the geas route (WAY railroady, btw), you only really need to do one of them. If the rest of the party cares about him, they'll do it for their friend. Read the consequences of not completing a geas.

 

[PapersAndPaychecks]

Obviously Superior Bad Ass things (OSBA's) are no problem. I mean, when the bunch of first level characters are out looking for their first dungeon and a Hill Giant comes lumbering past their campsite, the characters aren't expecting to fight it; if they're even slightly more intelligent than a yeast colony, they'll hide. But if the situation precludes that or the Hide Roll Dice aren't with them today, they'll find themselves talking for their lives in the face of an OSBA.

This strikes me as a perfectly legitimate roleplaying situation.

If the OSBA turns to them partway through the conversation and says, "Well, in return for me not eating you right here and now, I require you to go through the Maze of Improbably Constructed Traps to the uttermost depths of the Cavern of Very Predictable Encounters, wherefrom you shall retrieve the Handkerchief of Doom upon which I desire to blow my nose" - at that point suspension of belief fades away and hackles start to rise, because I just know that within a couple of gaming sessions we'll have met a mysterious dark hooded figure, which is a kind of Plot Event Horizon beyond which it is impossible for the adventure which results to be anything but total rubbish.

You see, a defining characteristic of OSBA's is that they are more capable of doing this stuff than the PC's are. If they weren't, they wouldn't be OSBA's. There are a very limited number of possible reasons why the OSBA might need help from the PC's and they have ALL been used so many times that they've become extremely hackneyed and dull.

A lighter touch is called for.

 

[Gez]

I once played in a truly dire FR game that featured just this kind of plot. The ever-laughable Elmonster summoned us to Shadowdale and said that we had to go to the Abyss and retrieve some Evil Hammer of Doom before the BBEG got hold of it. We cleared off to the Abyss, retrieved the hammer and then started offering it to the highest bidders from all across the lower planes.

Rather than an aversion to railroading (beacuse, let's face it, most adventures contain big, fat signposts, if not actual railroads) I would think that is more an aversion to the fact that the "Bring me the McGuffin, lesser beings!" plot is one of the most hackneyed gaming cliches in the book. It's the least subtle manifestation of the Quest storyline and it gets folks' backs up. The times that it does work, imho, are those times when there is a genuine, non-contrived answer to the question "Well, if you're so powerful, why can't you do this yourself?" Too often, the answer to that question is little more than a poorly-constructed excuse to make the PCs the focus of the action. A player's desire for verisimilitude usually demands a higher standard of plot than that.

Very true. That's why I like things like the elemental weirds. They're very easy to use as that sort of quest-givers.
"I know what needs to be done to solve this crisis, but it'll requires me to get hold of the McGuffin which I can't go fetch myself since I'm tied to this pool. If I ever were to leave it, it would be too the Elemental Plane, and then I could never go back to your world nor help you to deal with this little problem you have."

Other ways include having the quest-giver have its own work to do.
"OK, I need to find back the Tome of Alexiard and to convince the Eladrins of the Court of Stars to give me the Soulcrystal. Then, if I have the Skull of Lorevus the Wise, I should be able to perform the warding ritual. How long last the ritual, again? Oh, two months. Well, and how much time you say we have before the planar conjonction is realized and the infernal legions start pouring out? 9 week? Well, what about you go fetch me one of those holy relics while I take care of the Tome and the other relic?"