Neutral Wording

[Omegaxicor]

I am playing 3.5 but it applies to any game, my player's are pretty easily influenced by how I say what I say so I need to be careful...

There is an Artifact which if activated releases massive amounts of energy which could damaged the Material plane or even the multiverse (possibly over the top but meh) so testing it is bad, however, if placed in the temple doorway all of the power is syphoned off into the temple to power an intersection between planes a gateway to a Planar Hub which the players have no access to but the tunnel has weaponry/powers that can help the players side defeat an oncoming invasion BUT (and here's the problem) the battery MIGHT be dead, it hasn't been used in centuries possibly longer.

Testing is out of the question, trekking all the way out there to find the battery is dead is a waste of valuable time, but ignoring the temple altogether could spell doom for the players allies.

I want them to make a choice rather than interpret what I want them to do...How should I phrase telling them about the temple?

(sorry if parts of that don't make sense...)

 

[Grogg of the North]

So, as I understand it, your players are facing an oncoming extraplanar invasion and the big question they're facing is do they go find a weapons cache that 1) May not work, 2) If it does work it may destroy Life As We Know It and 3) But it would definitely give you a huge edge in the battle if you can get it.

What I would do is have the PCs join be part of some meeting with some clerics/wizards/generals of the resistance/whatever. Have someone in the meeting bring up the fact the weapons exists, another mentions it was never tested, one more says it may not even exist. Lay out everything that is known about it and let them make their own decision on whether to go or not.

 

[Omegaxicor]

not quite...the attack is from another power on the Material Plane and the player's have found an artefact that opens this side of a tunnel which contains a weapons cache.

If I specify the reasons why it might not work, they won't go after it but if I specify how awesome the weapons cache will be then they definitely will go after it...they make their choice based on how I have said what they could do (it is very annoying), is there a way of telling them without pushing them one way or another

 

[the Jester]

Tell them exactly what they know- super powerful potential edge, may be dead, may cause major problems if used and it's live.

Let them do the rest- if they want to know more, there are knowledge checks, sage consultations, divinations and no doubt dozens of other things they could try to gauge their odds.

 

[billd91]

To offer much good advice I have to ask: What is it you want or expect them to do to resolve the invasion situation? Will they need to use the weapon? Or is it unnecessary? Is it unnecessary but at least a little bit helpful?

As a player, I'd be kind of pissed to go off on a major quest to recover something that ends up being utterly useless. So even if the weapon no longer works at full capacity, I would recommend that it be of some use or that its recovery lead to additional discoveries that will be helpful - like new, previously unknown, allies.

 

[Omegaxicor]

The quest is very drawn out, there are several ways of defeating the invasion. If it works the weapons cache can defeat them but without it the players have other options to win.

 

[pemerton]

There is an Artifact which if activated releases massive amounts of energy which could damaged the Material plane or even the multiverse (possibly over the top but meh) so testing it is bad

<snip>

BUT (and here's the problem) the battery MIGHT be dead, it hasn't been used in centuries possibly longer.

Testing is out of the question

I'm a bit confused - is the artefact the same thing as the battery?

That is, is the problem that (i) the arefact may not work to open the temple's planar hub, or (ii) that once they open the hub the weapons may be depleted and not work? I am assuming (i), but others who have replied seem to be assuming (ii).

trekking all the way out there to find the battery is dead is a waste of valuable time, but ignoring the temple altogether could spell doom for the players allies.

I want them to make a choice rather than interpret what I want them to do...How should I phrase telling them about the temple?

I haven't quite worked out what the point is of making the players choose. If the point is to give them a chance to exercise strategic or logistic ability, you're going to have to give them more information, or at least the possibility of more information. Without information, the choice looks like a sheer gamble from the players' strategic perspective. They may as well roll a die!

And as a GM, I'm not clear what your overall goal is. Presumably you have already decided whether or not the battery (=artefact?) is dead. But you've also decided to keep this information from the players (and thereby from the PCs). Presumably you have a reason for doing this, though I'm not clear on what it is.

But anyway, here is a preliminary suggested wording (I imagine this as coming from an appropriate NPC):

You know of the threat we face? [Presumably players, in character, signal their agreement.]

You know of the Artefact? [Presumably players, in character, signal their agreement.]

Well, there is something else you need to know. In the distant [N/S/E/W] lies an ancient temple. Within it is a tunnel to a planar hub. And within the hub is a cache of mighty weaponry [say a bit more about the awesomeness of the weapons]. If we could open the tunnel, we could get those weapons.

[Presumably, players ask/talk excitedly about opening the tunnel.]

The tunnel can only be opened in one way: a potent source of magical energy must be placed in the temple doorway and its energy released. The only source of such energy known to us today is . . . the Artefact.

[Presumably, players get excited about activating the artefact to open the tunnel.]

But because we cannot test the Artefact, for the reasons that you know so well [ie it's tendency to obliterate everything if activated], we do not know whether it stil has the power within it. Perhaps, over the centuries it was lost, its power all leeched away!​

At which point the players hopefully start debating what to do, ways of checking if the battery (=artefact?) is still potent before they actually try to use it, if there are other possible sources of energy to open the tunnel, etc. Divination spells and the like, or going to talk to the people who made the arefact (or the temple), or who last used it (it's a fantasy world, they might still be alive!), would seem the main ways of doing that.

Is that at all on point, I have I completely misunderstood your situation?

 

[Omegaxicor]

pretty much exactly as you said there (a few points to clear up)

1) Yes the artefact is the battery (I don't use the word battery with my players because they think that is all it can do so why not just test it, it is in fact a weapon...think a nuclear bomb/reactor in one item )

2) I am keeping whether or not the temple can be accessed from the players because I want them to...stop reacting to what I am saying as though I am leading them. If I say "The artefact might not work but if it does then the weapon cache will be worth it" then they will go and try, if I say "The weapons cache can only be opened by the artefact which might be depleted" then they won't even consider going for it because they think it is depleted. One has positive connotations whereas the other has negative connotations.

3) As GM (DM) my goal is to make the players be in charge of what happens, I haven't decided whether the temple can be accessed but even if I did I don't want my players to go and access the temple JUST because I have decided that the temple can be accessed, as I said above IF they go to the temple then fine but IF they don't then there are other ways of winning the battle...