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

[Freakohollik]

Did it once it one of the most awful "twists" ever written into an adventure. Hook Mountain Massacre from Paizo by Nicholas Logue. Towards the end of the adventure, the players will think everything has been resolved and wrapped up. Out of nowhere a pixie shows up and tells you that you have to go visit her master druid in some forest. You go there, the high level nymph druid tells you that have to go get a body part from her dead boyfriend from the giant fortress. She can't do it cause she's stuck in the forest by MAGIC.

Needless to say, all the players were really annoyed by this. We debated just killing the druid right there on the spot. In hindsight, I wish we had. Ended up just doing the quest.

 

[Byronic]

I remember once playing a Warforged in Ebberon and we were on a quest to deal with some Goblins by either diplomatic means or by killing them. So we went off to kill them. Being only weeks old the subtleties of the situation escaped me, so I asked them why we were doing this.

I was accused (ooc) of being weird because we were adventurers and adventurers kill Goblins. One of the other players did mention in character a min or two afterwards (trying to get into it) that we were killing the Goblins because Gnomes has offered us money to kill them and this was more then enough reason.

In character the solution seemed obvious, I suggested we explain the situation to the Goblins and ask them if they wanted to pay more then the gnomes, either for us not to kill them or to kill the gnomes instead. My suggestion was ignored and I was told ooc to stop trying to derail the story. Suffice to say the first Goblin killed was the only Goblin to speak Common

 

[Starfox]

In general, i find this a much bigger problem in modern settings. Let me give an example, the worse I've been in.

In Cyberpunk, playing cops in Japan, a convention game. There has been a great influx of firearms in a no-firearm country and the parliament is being threthened by terrorist actions. Our squad of 5 finds a possible hideout of these smugglers/terrorists. We are expected to clean it out - on our own! You'd expect Tokyo Police would muster hundreds of SWAT, but no...

 

[Dioltach]

I reckon the answer should be something along the lines of, "By sending you out to do the dirty work, I'm solving the problem and therefore getting XP without leaving the comfort of my home."

Another line of reasoning is, "I'm the big cheese and if I send lower level heroes out on missions I get to control who will be my rivals in the future."

 

[Trihelios]

As a GM I'd be dissappointed if my players didn't. The moment they stop wondering things like that is when they stop expecting my world to make sense.

If I have an NPC send the PCs on a quest, I try to always have a reason they're not doing it themselves. Even if it's just 'I'm too lazy and would rather hire you to do it'.

 

[LostSoul]

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.

Bad GMing.

For example: The DM asked for some character backgrounds which never saw use. I asked, out of game, if we could be given the chance to get off the main quest to explore one of the other PC's background issues. The answer was "Sure! Of course!" - but that was out of game; in game, the answer was, "If you don't do this quest I have prepared the world will end."

It was made even worse because this responsibility was saddled on our low-level PCs. The regular soldier was higher level than we were, yet we were the only ones who could save the world?

 

[Anand]

My players recently got into Paragon Level, and we had a one year downtime. After this period, each one of the PCs got something interesting besides their paragon paths: special itens, new story hooks, etc.

Our warlord got her own mercenary band, and now the party send this group of mercenaries to do errands for them. In other words, they send them to do do heroic tier quests!

So the table have turned in this case.

 

[Dausuul]

My experience is that whenever they're faced with a major threat, PCs try to recruit absolutely anyone they think might be a potential ally. I have done this as a player, and the players in my campaigns do it all the time. (Heck, they derailed an entire night's worth of adventure recently by deciding that instead of battling their way through the jungle full of snake cultists, they would try to make an alliance with the snake cult against the evil undead overlord spreading winter across the world. Shows what happens when you forget the number one rule of DMing: "Anyone you expect the PCs to fight, they will talk to, and anyone you expect them to talk to, they will fight.")

It's pretty reasonable, too. As a PC, why wouldn't you try to get the big guys on your side?

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.

Also, as far as I can tell, every good-aligned nation in the Forgotten Realms is home to a powerful beautiful female spellcaster who's Elminster's lover.

Actually I think walking triumphantly out of the goblin caves into a blackened wasteland could be a good starting point for a campaign.

Totally doing this next game I run...

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

I've never done it, for all the reasons already stated. As a DM, I know that only madness lies that way..

But I have had my players do it before. They asked why during the early 3.0 period

This. Just add BECMI, 1E, 2E and 4E. I've even had players complain that they are being asked to go adventure and in frustration asked if they would rather roleplay as chicken farmers. As a player I'm all gung-ho to go adventure and I'll ask for my reward later.

 

[Trihelios]

As a player I'm all gung-ho to go adventure and I'll ask for my reward later.

That's the best way.

I think that it's the GM's job to create adventures and the players' job to create characters that will want to go on adventures.

Of course it's best when the adventures make sense and that's why I think the GM should have an answer to that question.