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

[GMforPowergamers]

see this is where it breaks down...

In the real world let;s pretend Jack is physicaly fit, above avrage IQ, and very good at alot of things...he comes across a threat to national security, and infroms the FBI/CIA/NSA (home land security), where he meets Max... the home land security agent... If Max told Jack to go do X Y and Z (even if said things were withing Jack's skill set) why would it be wrong for Jack to point out Max is BETTER qualfied to handle it??

If in D&D my 3rd level wizard is totaly bad ass, and finds a threat that will end up going against the whole kingdom, and he brings it to a person of athurity, and that person tells him to go get X and do Y and then Z to save everyone...well there are some quastions...

If the NPC above is a 6th level Minon (Vizer to the king) then well du'h of cource I am better to handle this...

If the NPC above is a 12th level Wizard (spiral tower mage) then...well why whould I do it...he is BETTER at it...if it is this important shouldn't the best do it??



A real real life situation is me and my lap top... I have two friends that do IT work all the time, and know way more then I do about my computer. If I ask them for help with my new computer problem, that makes sense...on the other hand if one called me up and said "can you help me my printer isn't working" I would think it was a joke...

 

[avin]

As a DM I never put my players on this kind of situation.

There's always a reason why people are asking them, instead of doing it themselves. As somebody else said, why didn't Gandalf put Frodo on the back of that giant eagle to melt the ring faster? Most of my players are smart and would figure out this kind of thing, so I'm always ready to answer.

NPCs should have reasonable motivations all the time.

 

[Dausuul]

In real life, when going for a job interview, do people actually ask that. "Mr. Foreman, you seem of hale health and body. Why do you not dig this ditch?"

It's more like, "If this ditch is not dug by 5:00 this afternoon, the company will go bankrupt. Mr. Foreman, you are seven feet tall and built like a tank, whereas we're a bunch of skinny geeks from the IT department who get most of our exercise rolling dice on Saturday night. We're happy to do what we can, but for the sake of the company it seems like things would go a lot better if you pitched in here."

As I said elsewhere, this situation crops up when two things are true: The quest is of utmost importance, and the NPC is known to be much more powerful and capable than the PCs. The question is asked not out of laziness but because it looks, from a strategic perspective, like a moronic decision to put the PCs in charge of this task instead of the NPC.

Now, there are plenty of reasons why it might in fact be a good strategy to put the PCs in charge. Most of them boil down to either, "The NPC has other things to take care of, also critically important, which only s/he can do," or, "The NPC is not capable of performing this quest for some reason."

Alternatively, one of the two premises above can be invalidated. Maybe the quest isn't of utmost importance; in that case, the NPC can reply, "Because I don't want to be bothered with this, so I'm hiring you," without completely undermining the setup of the mission. Or maybe the NPC is not in fact vastly more powerful than the PCs.

The problem is not a difficult one to solve. But it does need a solution.

 

[Desdichado]

So if someone is willing to pay you to do something that they themselves could do, you'd ask why they want you to do it?

I take it anyone who answers yes to those questions never goes out to eat dinner and makes everything at home?

That's not a good comparison, though. There's a big difference between "it's easier and less hassle to buy a dinner that someone else cooks" and "I think I'll outsource saving the world today." If the world is truly at stake, then it should become that high level NPCs top priority. Assuming that he also lives in the world and cares what happens to it, of course.

Again; the problem isn't that patrons hire the PCs to do stuff, it's the specific things that poorly thought out premises have the PCs hired to do that is being complained about here.