Players Completely Ignoring Adventure Hooks

[Sammael]

The thread title is pretty self-explanatory, I guess.

Let me first state that I do not have a problem when players ignore some (or even all) of my plot hooks. When I have the time, I make sure to prepare a few side scenarios that I can plug in whenever the session goes in a direction different from what I envisioned. The structure of my campaign is such that there is a central storyline (somewhat of a metaplot) that the players are aware of and want something to do about, but do not yet have the resources and knowledge; aside from the central storyline, I try to create sidequests that tie directly to the PCs' abilities, backgrounds, and interests. This usually seems to work well. However, last session I ran into a problem.

Here's the background. One of the players is playing a fighter/devoted defender/cleric/divine champion of Helm, the LN Forgotten Realms god of protection, guardians, and vigilance. Now, in the usual circumstances, I'd describe him as a "casual player." He likes to tag along, his character doesn't talk much, and he is (usually) perfectly satisfied following the rest of the party wherever they go. There have been a few situations when he raised an opinion (perhaps after I gently pushed him along), mostly concerning upholding the laws and such.

However, the campaign has been going on for two and a half years (it started in April, 2002), and he has probably missed the least sessions of all players. He seems to be enjoying the storyline. I've tried making a few character-based plot hooks for him, but nothing major so far. Until now.

Upon becoming a divine champion, I declared that he received a vision from Helm in which he was bidden to make a pilgrimage to three different temples. Keeping in line with Helm's views on responsibility and such, he was told that he shouldn't abandon any other tasks in order to perform the pilgrimage. Two sessions ago, the party was near one of the temples (Helm's Hold near Neverwinter Wood) and, since they didn't have any other major plans, they decided to go there. He spent the night in prayer, expecting another vision, but there wasn't one (I didn't feel like railroading him THAT much). Instead, in the morning, he overheard a patrol reporting to Dumal Erard, the temple's founder and high priest, that one of the patrols that entered the forest last night did not return. My player reacted and inquired about the event, and was told that a double-strength patrol was sent out to investigate and that he will be informed of the search results.

Some time later, the high priest summons him and his friends and notifies them that the first patrol is missing without a trace, their tracks leading to a clearing within the forest and them simply disappearing, without any signs of struggle or hints as to how they disappeared. They cannot be contacted through magic, and there are no known portals or significant monsters in that part of the wood. The high priest orders the PC to go and investigate.

So, the party leaves and enters the forest. On their way, they discover a ley line leading into the same direction as the path the missing patrol took. When they reach the clearing, they ("they" meaning spellcasters with detect magic and arcane sight) see a nexus from which the ley lines spread in a star pattern. After using several divinations, they discover that the nexus is the point where the Plane of Faerie touches the Prime Material, and that, at night, the two become coexistant, allowing creatures to travel back and fourth, and capturing unwary creatures on the Plane of Faerie once the connections are weakened (in the morning).

At this point, the players vote on what to do. CN halfling rogue flat-out refuses to go there (but this is not the first time this has happened, and his opinion can be swayed with promises of treasure and/or food). N human enchanter doesn't like the idea of going there. N(G) moon elf monk is pretty ambivalent but insists that, should they go, he should be the leader since he is the only party member who speaks Sylvan. NG human cleric of Selune (party leader) is ready to go but says it's the divine champion's decision. NG sun elf wizard is psyched about it and wants to go. So, the opinions are about 50:50.

And the "protagonist" suggests that they should go back and report their finding to the temple.

OK, a perfectly fine, if aggravating, LN choice. They go back and report their findings. Rogue and echanter keep hinting how Helm's clergy do not matter to them at all, and how they should protect their own, not ask outsiders to help them. At this point, I have the high priest (an elderly man) thank the party for their effort and declare that he is responsible for his missing clergy members and will personally go to the forest at night and try to enter the Plane of Faerie in order to get them back. The two NG PCs are shocked. Rogue and enchanter gloat. Monk is still ambivalent.

And the divine champion... says nothing. I wait a few seconds, and then have the high priest explicitly command the divine champion not to go with him and then dismisses the party.

The party leaves for Waterdeep. End of missed plot hook.

In the end, I awarded the party zero experience for this part of the session, since they did not learn anything from the experience, and the resources they expended (spells and such) were insignificant and were available to the party six character levels ago (they are now level 13/14).

What would you have done differently? Should I be bothered? How can I better motivate the divine champion's player? I am at a loss as to what more I could have done, other than flat-out railroad him by giving him orders via a divine vision.

 

[Bagpuss]

If they don't want to go they won't, the plot hook seemed pretty obvious from what you've said. Still ordering them not to go, and having the High Priest say they can deal with it, makes it much less likely they would.

 

[Mark Hope]

You might just have a "social" player here - one who is enjoying the games as a social experience and is less motivated by the various plots and themes at hand. I had a player just like this - he made every game, joined in on every adventure but seemed utterly disinterested in the larger issues. Not neccesarily a bad thing, so long as this is understood by all. Have you spoken to the player concerned out-of-game about this? Imho, this is always the best approach when issues like this arise, and it avoids any misunderstandings or frustrations from building up on either side.

As an aside, maybe awardig 0XP was a tad harsh. I mean, from your post it sounds like there was some in-character role-playing going on, decision making and interaction with the world. That might be worth a little award, to ensure that your players don't feel dead-ended if they don't jump at the plot hooks .

 

[Allanon]

One thing I've noticed with some of (actually all) my players is that outside of D&D they can be rocket scientists as soon as they become their persona ingame their collective intelligence drops like a fat lady from the Eiffel Tower. Hints, foreshadowing, etc. nothing seems to register. On more than one occassion the urge you carefully resisted just took over with me and I *railroaded* them. Why? Simply because I feel that my players wanted to be railroaded.
EDIT: just to prevent people of misinterpreting me. If I do not railroad them they act like lost children, constantly discussing amongst themselves what to do now. I've lost a couple of sessions in which mostly nothing happened besides these discussions. After I tried railroading them they even told me they enjoyed the session more.

And in railroaded I mean storywise. I won't stop them from solving quests in their unique absurd ways. But I will basically use whatever means I have at my disposal (NPC's, Visions, Dreamquests, Hand-written notes, etc.) to imprint on them the direction the story needs to take. Maybe my players are a unique bunch but from the sound of the player you're describing it seems logical for me to conclude that he's the same type.

So you could either give him bigger hints, or just take him aside before or after a session and talk about his characters development. Maybe you'll find that the hints you've been giving have just not been registering with him.

 

[nimisgod]

I think you should talk to him regarding this problem. Talk about his character and his motivations.

IME, some players are fine with being railroaded into good or even average storylines. I feel like this sometimes and would rather a reactive flow than a proactive one. Perhaps it's because I'm lazy, but also because I may trust the GM. Maybe your "problem" player is something like that.

 

[philreed]

One way I've found useful to "train" players to take the bait is actually quite mean.

When they pass up a juicy plot hook just move on. Then, three or four sessions later, have them hear about how the plot hook resolved itself -- and in a very beneficial way for the real heroes that took care of the problem. Do you have a fighter that's just dying for some awesome magic sword? Well, the NPC heroes that chased down the plot hook that the PCs ignored got his hands on a really cool sword during the adventure. Greedy players after lots of gold? Well, the resolution of the plot hook that they ignored included a ton of gold.

After three of four times of this happening and the players will be falling over themselves to chase down any leads.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

Many players do not like being railroaded. That's fine but I also feel that the players sort of need to meet the GM halfway. Since the GM cannot predict what the players will want to do, he has to create a scenario that would be fun. For the players to see that scenario and not do it is kind of rude unless they REALLY hated what they thought it would be.

 

[Sammael]

Just as a quick note, players did receive xp for roleplaying, including the first part of the session. I've set up a system for my campaign where, after the session, the players discuss each other's actions and give each other roleplaying xp (within the limits I set). In the end, each player averages out the xp he got from other players. Depending on the session, this roleplaying xp may be less than, equal to, or greater than xp for overcoming challenges. In this case, it was about equal (each player got between 600 and 700 xp).

 

[TheAuldGrump]

One way I've found useful to "train" players to take the bait is actually quite mean.

When they pass up a juicy plot hook just move on. Then, three or four sessions later, have them hear about how the plot hook resolved itself -- and in a very beneficial way for the real heroes that took care of the problem. Do you have a fighter that's just dying for some awesome magic sword? Well, the NPC heroes that chased down the plot hook that the PCs ignored got his hands on a really cool sword during the adventure. Greedy players after lots of gold? Well, the resolution of the plot hook that they ignored included a ton of gold.

After three of four times of this happening and the players will be falling over themselves to chase down any leads.

Been there, done that, sold the T-shirt. In the case of the game I am thinking of the bad guys all started showing up crucified, and their macguffins all gone.

The Auld Grump

 

[Mark Hope]

Just as a quick note, players did receive xp for roleplaying, including the first part of the session. I've set up a system for my campaign where, after the session, the players discuss each other's actions and give each other roleplaying xp (within the limits I set). In the end, each player averages out the xp he got from other players. Depending on the session, this roleplaying xp may be less than, equal to, or greater than xp for overcoming challenges. In this case, it was about equal (each player got between 600 and 700 xp).

Cool system . We did something like that, based on the WoD xp awards system for a while, where everyone votes for each other. Worked pretty well.