Neverending "Yes ... And" Feedback Loops in Mysteries

[Golden Bee]

Has anyone quoted Raymond Chandler in ten posts? If not:
There is no trap so deadly as the trap you set for yourself.
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A good story cannot be devised; it has to be distilled.
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Don't ever write anything you don't like yourself and if you do like it, don't take anyone's advice about changing it. They just don't know.
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"The faster I write the better my output. If I'm going slow, I'm in trouble. It means I'm pushing the words instead of being pulled by them."

 

[Theory of Games]

Good time to start a new campaign

Not all of 'em are going to be winners. You can always circle back to something similar at a later date, right?

 

[aramis erak]

It's worth noting that there are several modes of mystery...

1. In some, it's simply about finding truth.
2. In some, it's about not leaving unpunished bad acts. (This is the political side - show that someone is punished in a timely manner.)
3. In some, it's about punishing the guilty. (This isn't the same as finding truth. It is often helped by finding the truth. Often, the truth still leaves this undone.)
4. In some, it's about exploration of the unknown.
5. In a few, it's about ending a problem by any means

I tend to run my investigatives in the L5R setting, where magistrates can get away with punishing the guilty without needing to worry much about truth; they need a confession to execute, but the execution need not be for the crimes that they're investigating... So mostly types 2 and 3. The truth is an avenue to #3, not the goal.

Occasionally, they find things that hint towards unknown elements, and leads them into lore of the setting. Many times, my players assigned task is #5, "there's a problem in village X, go, fix it."

Since Truth is seldom the direct goal of the mystery, it's often not established in the authoring of the adventure. Instead, I have 2-3 potential "true answers" for application to goals 2 or 3.

 

[Retreater]

They're still running from site-to-site, collecting clues and doing nothing. I presented them with a village where the people were being charmed and tortured by fey.
Them: "too bad - I guess we're gonna leave."
Me: "so you just want to let these people die?"
Them: "yeah - it's not really our problem."
Me: "after you told me that you - as players - want to fight stuff? and your characters are trying to get to the bottom of a fey menace in Player C's homeland?"
They eventually decided to do something. But my lord, I've never seen a group try so hard to avoid what is fun in a game.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

They're still running from site-to-site, collecting clues and doing nothing. I presented them with a village where the people were being charmed and tortured by fey.
Them: "too bad - I guess we're gonna leave."
Me: "so you just want to let these people die?"
Them: "yeah - it's not really our problem."
Me: "after you told me that you - as players - want to fight stuff? and your characters are trying to get to the bottom of a fey menace in Player C's homeland?"
They eventually decided to do something. But my lord, I've never seen a group try so hard to avoid what is fun in a game.

So do the characters have any goals or motivations?

With experienced roleplayers I don't feel this is necessary, but with these sort of players it might be helpful to have them to write down their character's goals and beliefs. Having to do so might make them more concrete to them and would help you to use them to entice them into action. Like this fey connection seems like such, and at least it eventually worked.

 

[BookTenTiger]

They're still running from site-to-site, collecting clues and doing nothing. I presented them with a village where the people were being charmed and tortured by fey.
Them: "too bad - I guess we're gonna leave."
Me: "so you just want to let these people die?"
Them: "yeah - it's not really our problem."
Me: "after you told me that you - as players - want to fight stuff? and your characters are trying to get to the bottom of a fey menace in Player C's homeland?"
They eventually decided to do something. But my lord, I've never seen a group try so hard to avoid what is fun in a game.

Maybe you need to put things more in the way of the characters' progress, rather than having options available?

Would they have been more interested in the fey if they needed the help of a skilled smithy who was now charmed and tortured by a fey? Or if they could cross a bridge over a gorge because the bridge operator was charmed? Or if they can't get a magic weapon, or level up, until they deal with the fey?

In my experience players are most engaged when their goals and obstacles are clearly communicated.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

They're still running from site-to-site, collecting clues and doing nothing. I presented them with a village where the people were being charmed and tortured by fey.
Them: "too bad - I guess we're gonna leave."
Me: "so you just want to let these people die?"
Them: "yeah - it's not really our problem."
Me: "after you told me that you - as players - want to fight stuff? and your characters are trying to get to the bottom of a fey menace in Player C's homeland?"
They eventually decided to do something. But my lord, I've never seen a group try so hard to avoid what is fun in a game.

I think it's time to have rocks fall and kill off these characters players.

 

[Retreater]

My response is to create a dungeon so there's a flowchart of somewhat limited options. This will hopefully save me from planning for a multitude of eventualities, at least for a few sessions.
Hopefully this will get the players to change their mindset to be more proactive.