Players: Have You Ever Asked, "Why Don't You Take Care Of It?"

[Ed_Laprade]

Sort of, once. At a LGS, with the proprietor running. We'd uncovered a plot to invade the country from out of the desert but the local authorities weren't paying us much attention. Finally I had my Cleric insist that they at least send word up the line so the army would be on alert if we screwed up. They flat out refused. I walked.

 

[Psion]

No. This is another thing I never see happen at the table. Only on the internet.

 

[Lord Xtheth]

As a DM I was asked that once. I came up with "Because, brave adventurers, YOU are expendable whereas I am not. No one will miss you if you die, however I'd prefer you didn't because it is oh so difficult to nail the 'Adventurers wanted' Notice in the bar every week... and don't even get me started on the 'Shady strangers' I have to hire to sit in bars... "

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Just because I didn't ask it didn't mean I didn't think it.
Being a fellow DM, I understand it as a convention of the D&D genre, and just don't bother to lift that particular curtain, because I know what I'll find.

I too have been on both sides of this, and try to ignore it...but atleast once I HAD TO ASK...

No. This is another thing I never see happen at the table. Only on the internet.

man I envy you...


I normaly try to have a decent reasons, and assume others do as well...but then there was the boat game (dun dun DUN)


Ok so we were 2nd level (in 3e) and we were summmoned by the councle of wizards that ruled the small country...(4 cities, and large farms and small thorps between) the 30th level archmage, and his 7 epic level cleric, wizard, and sorcerer advisors had brought us there to ask for our help... they wanted us to travel through orc and undead controled swamps to get to a small ruin where there was a kobold tribe living, and get a magic orb. From there we were to travel North through more swamp, and then into mountins controled by a half dragon oger cheif... then into a valley where we would trade the ORB to a dragon to find out information from the dragon... if he betrayed us we could kill him and bring his skull they would then use speak with dead

OK I had to say it... "New plan...why don't you guys scry the dragon, teleport in, use a few 5th level spells, kill it, speak with dead, then teleport back...I bet we wont even be finished packing to go on our waste of time by tthe time you are back..."

The DM told me to "shut up" made a grandma un friendly hand symbol then said "do you guys want to play or what"

edit: we called it the boat game becuse it was describe to use when we made the characters it was for a sea travel game...we guess the info (had game not ended) would lead to ships somewhere...

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Sort of, once. At a LGS, with the proprietor running. We'd uncovered a plot to invade the country from out of the desert but the local authorities weren't paying us much attention. Finally I had my Cleric insist that they at least send word up the line so the army would be on alert if we screwed up. They flat out refused. I walked.

yea, now think of the dire half dragon version of that...

I as a DM came up with a story where the red wizards where going to launch an all out suprise attack starting with some high level rituels to disrupt the area, then mass telport/gate in troops... my problem I didn't know the country I had target had a queen who was elminster's lover, and a chosen. Needless to say that didn't end well.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

yea, now think of the dire half dragon version of that...

I as a DM came up with a story where the red wizards where going to launch an all out suprise attack starting with some high level rituels to disrupt the area, then mass telport/gate in troops... my problem I didn't know the country I had target had a queen who was elminster's lover, and a chosen. Needless to say that didn't end well.

If it's any consolation, The Simbul doesn't need Elminster's help. She could probably beat him in a straight up fight. And she's defended against the entire nation of Thay at least 30 or 40 times.

 

[Badjak]

I guess I've never understood this complaint. To use an analogy, if I worked at Microsoft and Bill Gates asked me to do something, I wouldn't say, "you're a genius, you figure it out." I've always assumed that the world my adventurer was in was teeming with "end-of-the-world" scenarios and higher level NPC's were to busy directing lower level adventurer's to their almost certain deaths to actually step in and act on their own. That's called multi-tasking. You see it in the real world so why not in D&D.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

As a player, I've definitely thought of asking that question, but I restrain myself out of politeness (I know it isn't easy to be a DM).

As a DM, it's been a long time since anyone has said anything, and hopefully they're not thinking it, either. I try to guard against it several ways:

• I run a sandbox-style game that might be described as "points of light." That is, there are wild lands with scattered "safe" spots of civilization (city states and holds of one sort or another). Some of the "leaders" are higher level, but they tend to have responsibilities and immediate concerns that make it hard for them to go running off on adventures; it's easier for them to sponsor agents with more freedom to act.
• I tend to avoid "save the world" story hooks. The default motivation for PCs in my game is "fortune and glory." It invariably gets more convoluted than that as play goes on, but that's still often the main thrust.
• Few NPCs in my game are classed characters. Almost all NPCs are "0-level" normal men. Most nobles are 0-level (the classed ones are the guys who hacked their own barony out of the wilderness). There are plenty of holy men and priests, but they aren't Clerics. (They might even be able to "perform miracles," just not by Cleric spellcasting rules.) I assign special abilities to 0-level NPCs as needed (e.g. the tailor is a 0-level man who has taught himself to shoot a crossbow like he's a 4th level hero).
• I *do* have NPCs trying to do the same stuff as the PCs. However, since the goal tends to be "fortune and glory," PCs see this as competition, not assistance!

 

[Bluenose]

As a player, I've definitely thought of asking that question, but I restrain myself out of politeness (I know it isn't easy to be a DM).

As a DM, it's been a long time since anyone has said anything, and hopefully they're not thinking it, either. I try to guard against it several ways:

• I run a sandbox-style game that might be described as "points of light." That is, there's wild lands with a few safer spots of civilization (city states and holds of one sort or another). Some of the "leaders" are higher level, but they tend to have responsibilities and immediate concerns that make it hard for them to go running off on adventures; it's easier for them to sponsor agents with more freedom to act.
• I tend to avoid "save the world" story hooks. The default motivation for PCs in my game is "fortune and glory." It invariably gets more convoluted than that as play goes on, but that's still often the main thrust.
• Few NPCs are classed characters, in my game. Almost everyone is "0-level" normal men. Most nobles are 0-level (the classed ones are the guys who hacked their own barony out of the wilderness). There are plenty of holy men and priests, but they aren't Clerics. (They might even be able to "perform miracles," just not by Cleric spellcasting rules.) I assign special abilities to 0-level NPCs as needed (e.g. the tailor is a 0-level man who has taught himself to shoot a crossbow like he's a 4th level hero).
• I *do* have NPCs trying to do the same stuff. However, since the goal tends to be "fortune and glory," this tends to be viewed as competition, not assistance!

This, in my homebrew. Especially the avoiding "end-of-the-world" plots, but it's also a world where high-level adventurers might be as high as 7th level and if you're past 10th you're in the legendary hero category.

I hate the idea that high-level NPCs are too busy with major world-ending threats to help out with lesser things with a fiery passion, btw. It's either an amazing coincidence that they always are dealing with one of these when anything else comes up, or there's so many that they have to be infallibly perfect to stop every one. Although I would get a lot of amusement from a campaign where the big name NPCs failed to stop something massive and the world ended while we were clearing out a goblin infestation. Actually I think walking triumphantly out of the goblin caves into a blackened wasteland could be a good starting point for a campaign.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I did.

I was sick of being railroaded.

Nothing changed. I learned to enjoy the game for what it was - to look out the windows and enjoy the scenery.

And my question here, is this the fault of the method of character use, or just a bad GM?

It seems a few of the replies of your nature Lost Souls, seem more like bad Game Mastery than anything else.