Players Completely Ignoring Adventure Hooks

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Except your CO (as in, the guy who's got a better direct line to Helm's ear than you do), has basically just ordered you to go away.

 

[Sammael]

Yeah, the High Priest of Helm saying, "Don't worry, I've got this one."

In all his Lawful Neutralness?

I actually understand why your player turned away.

The High Priest only said he'd handle the situation after the PC showed no intention whatsoever to proceed with the investigation. The report he made didn't end with "what are your further orders?" (completely LN). It ended with a silence. The high priest then said that he intended to go himself. I made a literal pause in the game to give the divine champion the chance to offer to go with him. Nope. And that's when he issued his final order, which I left as vague and open to interpretation as I could.

*shrug*

That's not the part that's bothering me, guys. What's bothering me is the lack of interest/motivation throughout the quest, and what I could have done to make it work short of barking orders at the player (which his party wouldn't be forced to comply with, and would probably ridicule him for being ordered around - they've done that before).

 

[Corinth]

You should've order the cleric to take up the mission.

A casual player expects to be led by the nose, regardless of what character he's playing, because he's not there to do anything but hang out and play the game. He's a casual player precisely because he doesn't want to invest more into the game than rolling dice when called for, marking things off on his sheet when called for, and enjoying time spent with the boys. If it's more onerous than that, then he's got other things he can do that give him what he's after- like videogames or watching sports.

To make this work, you have to remove the choice and just issue orders to the PC; he will do as he's told, especially if you give him exacting and explicit objectives, but he'll never do more than what's required of him.

 

[frankthedm]

Greedy players after lots of gold? Well, the resolution of the plot hook that they ignored included a ton of gold.

Hope you are ready to stat out those who DID get the gold, cause when the greedy players catch wind, those NPCs are going to be hunted down.

 

[eris404]

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.

Heh, not mean, just smart.

Another version of this would be the party doesn't take the hook and something very bad happens that makes things uncomfortable for them...such as the elderly priest being killed and turned into some kind of nasty undead critter to haunt the PCs.

 

[Morpheus]

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.

Nope, you are not alone. My crew needs to be lead along some of the time too. Funny you should mention it, but a couple of my players really are rocket scientists (engineers). One is just now learning that roleplaying can be a rewarding experience (not just bashing in the door, killing and grabbing the loot).

 

[Darren]

If you were really hoping for the characters to go plane hopping, the priest should have had little knowledge of faerie, or not spoken sylvan, or some similar obstacle, and simply asked the PCs their thoughts and opinions about the place, rather than just taking a formal report then dismissing them.

If the champion still hasn't taken the bait, the priest mentions that he is getting old and his adventuring days are behind him, but if Helm has placed this responsibility before him, he will take it. <<<insert pointed look at champion here>>> Then if that fails the priest gives orders to not accompany him, orders in which other eager party members can easily find the loophole - namely that they can follow him.

And if that doesn't work you just give up and lead him around or have a little chat with the player out of game. Maybe he just really didn't want to go to faerie...

 

[Saeviomagy]

My suggestion would have been to have the guy's superior order him to go find the missing men.

I mean really - you're talking to someone who's party is split over whether to go in, and he himself believes first and foremost in organisation and following orders. He's lawful neutral.

If you wanted to present it better, you could have just had the players travel and stumble into the area during the night. Even if they noticed it before they entered, then at least the door would have been there, right then.

As is, it was a case of
"During your scouting mission, you come across a timelocked vault. It won't open for another 8 hours, and it's probably dangerous to go in there"

Of course the players are gonna say "well - lets go back and tell someone before we spend 8 hours in the middle of nowhere and then disappear to a foreign dimension".

At least if the door had been open, the PC's might have gone "well, it'll close soon - we should act quickly".

 

[Imperialus]

A running joke in my campaigns is to use Che-Che the sorcerous monkey to show up when the party wanders too far off course and use a combination of charades pictures and really irritating spells to bash the party back into the metaplot. He's used sparingly and only when the party constantly wanders away from plot hooks so usually when he does show up he's seen as more comic relief than railroading.

 

[Harmon]

Not sure but it almost reads as thou the players might think that they did do something. Like reporting their findings was good enough.

Do they have a way back to the Material Plane on their own? Mayhaps they were scared to go because they might not be able to get back on their own and didn't want to have to trust in finding the portal? A guide might have helped to get them to go, someone that claims to know the dimension then when they get there- "umm, this isn't an area I reconize but I can help you with getting out and help with general knowledge."

Suggestion- an Avatar shows- "whow- soon to be former follower of our lord, it appears as thou your faith is whanning."

Good luck