Player's just not paying attention.

[DWARF]

Short Version
Despite them being attacked several times, and having some of their friends (NPC's) asassinated, the group isn't bothering to find out who or why it's happening. It's actually a group of Mind Flayers that are trying to kill the party Psion, but they haven't even checked the "bad guys" pockets for info on who's trying to kill them. Any Help?

-Long Version Follows-

 

[DWARF]

-Long Version-
One of my players has a character who is a Psion. Now I run in the Kalamar setting, where Psions are highly suspect and are almost exclusively destroyed if found out. Think of the witch hunts for an idea of the severity.

So, this guy (A Telepath), has himself set up as a Merchant. And as you can imagine, uses his "charm" to help work deals. In his background, he's currently running from a large organization of Mind Flayers that have been systematically destroying enclaves of Telepaths. This order is only known to him as the Blue Salamander.

So, after about a dozen sessions, I bring in the Mind Flayer angle. I have spies of theirs check out the markets. Is he hiding his powers? Nope, he's turning a pretty good amount of coin using them widely. Okay, I bring in someone to check him out, see if he's a psion.

Returning from a crypt they'd raided, they're attacked by "bandits". Thing is, one of them is being controlled by a Puppeteer. If you haven't heard of them, think of those mind controlling bug-things from the first season of Star trek: Next Generation. So the puppeteer does a detect Psionics, and our Merchant lights up. So the bandits are defeated, with one of them surviving. This one, with out friend the puppeteer, is turned in to the city guard, and they don't bother with it any more. Okay, so they didn't catch the first subtle hint.

Then, they return to town from another adventure, and are attacked by Mind Flayer's Thralls (mind-controlled slaves) in the streets of a major city, late at night. The disguised Sorceror asks if they are the ones who "brought in the bandit, last week". They reply with the affirmative and he says, "Good, I have a message for you" and a bunch of his hobgoblin mercenaries in pretty heavy armor appear from their invisibility spells as they lay into the party. Once these foes are killed, the party proceeds to call the city watch and haul the bodies away. They don't even check them for anything. I was set up for each Thrall to be tatooed with a mark of the Blue Salamander, with the Sorceror still possesing some major clues as to the assassin's master. But no, they don' even pop open their helmets to see who the attackers are. They didn't even find out they were Hobgoblins!!!

And finally, they get back to "home base" to find that 3 of their friends (NPC's now as some players left) were themselves killed one night earlier, with the watch saying there was no real evidence of who killed them. (Angry forces of the Mind Flayers slowly chewing through their allies...)

So, do they check their friends bodies for evidence? Do they go to the scene of the crime? Do they even do a simple Gather Information check to see if anyone knows what happened? No.

So what the heck do I do? These are all guys in their 20's, and have been playing for over a year. They know that my games are fairly well written, and i won't include anything unless there is a reason. (Sometime the reason is "because Orcs live in those woods", but there's still a reason).

Since they have again returned to town (they've been on a bit of a scavenger hunt), I was considering having the entire crew of Psions ship killed, and a good portion of his gold stolen off of it.

I mean, what is it going to take to get these guys to get out of the "if this was an important point in the story, the DM would have told me, so it's okay for me to ignore anything he doesn't say" mindset. I'm halfways ready to drop in a few mindflayers with high-level thralls and push a near TPK to wake them up...

Suggetions?

 

[Crothian]

I'd continue as normal and let them go along in their merry way. If you want to hit them on the head with a big clue like the attack by Mindflayers that's fine, but I wouldn't alter your plans becasue the players are missing things.

 

[DWARF]

But the thing is, attack by mind flayers (and at their level, death by mind flayers) is the goal. This isn't me dropping another hint, this is me bringing a set of encounters in earlier than I thought, because they're not being careful...

And I'm talking about 5 Mind Flayers, with half a dozen warrior thralls (level 4), and about as many rogue (level 4) thralls... against a party of 5 level 5's....

 

[Crothian]

Well, you could attack and kill them all and end that campaign, but that might not be what you want. You could have a NPC Telepath find them and warn them, but that might be too easy.

What about the place they are staying at burns down (accidental fire). The party has to go live in the city someplace else. The Mindflayers are secretly in the city and hunting for them, but don't know where the PCs went. As the PCs move around, the Mind Flayers are a step behind them. Deaths occurs where the PCs were the day before. Maybe the PCs will eventually get the clue.

 

[DWARF]

I can't burn down where they are at, it's use is central to the plot. But I had been considering even more murders; the merchants boat crew, a powerful wizard ally they have. If their boat crew and "Geolain, Sage of Zoa!" getting slaughtered doesn't grab their attention... I think I might do a TPK and end the campaign, because I'm not having much fun with 5-6 people trying to get me to railroad them through the campaign...

 

[buzzard]

Being the cruel bastard that I am, I say invoke Darwin. Uncle Charles always takes care of his own. These people are seemingly clue-proof, so you have to employ the clue-bat. Bring on the Mind Flayers.

buzzard

 

[Crothian]

I can't burn down where they are at, it's use is central to the plot. But I had been considering even more murders; the merchants boat crew, a powerful wizard ally they have. If their boat crew and "Geolain, Sage of Zoa!" getting slaughtered doesn't grab their attention... I think I might do a TPK and end the campaign, because I'm not having much fun with 5-6 people trying to get me to railroad them through the campaign...

You could just have a kitchen fire or something that closes the place down for a few days.

You could have a comical situation where the Mind Flayer assassins keep get thwarted by dumb luck and see how long it takes the PCs to notice that odd things are happening around them.

You could have them attacked and saved by the gaurd. Maybe only killing one or two PCs.

 

[BryonD]

I find that in my game, the players (2 in particular) like the story alright, but they like to "get to the action" a bit more. Not that they won't role-play. They do and enjoy it. But they still enjoy the roll-play part more. It is just what they like about the game.

That used to bug me somewhat. Because I like to storybuild and I usually have a driving reason behind most of what happens. But a while ago I got over it. I realized that trying to make my players enjoy the game the way *I* enjoy it, does not work.

So now, I just keep notes and offer reminders to them from time to time. You can "force" little things, without railroading the party,. For example, dropping a blantant hint about the puppeteer could be completely reasonable. I think this is true because, on the one hand, you seem to assume that the direction of the campaign leans on the party figuring this out. So it must be "fairly" easy for a party that is trying to figure it out. But juts because the players are not trying does not mean that the characters would not be. So just have everyone roll a D20 and the annouce that somebody "spots" a key clue or something. On the other hand, if it really does require careful attention to catch these clues, then your campaign story should probably have a better alternative for failure than a looming TPK.

Then let them do whatever they want with that information. If they still ignore it, let the plot move on as you think it should and the chips will fall where they may. Every session or two, give them a brief "where the story stands" review. Even the most hack and slash powergaming combat monger will enjoy smashing his foes just a little more if he knows, This is that guy that tried to frame us last week!!

I'm sure there are some role-playing purist cussing me about now. But really, I have found that you CAN have the best of both worlds. My player's really enjoy the game, even the power gamers. And I enjoy both the tactical combat and the ever developing plot. Yes I force some data into the party from time to time. But I never force them to act on it. And some of the most fun games for me is when they turn my plans on their ear. And as my players get more involved in the story I tell them, they actually are starting (emphasis on starting) to get more into it on their own.

 

[Painfully]

I think a warning from an anonymous telepath might be okay. Even if it is just a few words like, "they're coming for you. Run!" And 30 seconds later the mind flayers are on them. Too blunt?

If there were more time, maybe have somebody else from the party (not the psion) become a puppet and use some infiltration tactics to lure the psion into a trap. Mind flayers are supposed to be geniuses after all. Or just have a customer walk in (mind controlled) and somehow leave a clue in the shop.

I have a player who always insists on bashing all the bad guys first and never taking names or asking questions. So, when I really need his attention I'll use a person he would probably never think to attack, like women and kids. Or, even better, use a relative of the PC.

What things do the party respect? Is it money? Is it titles? Lure them in with that, and then grind their bones into dust (after you eat their brains). All fair in love and war, eh?