Honestly, this is something I really need to work on in general. I got fairly good at it when running Gumshoe games where I would flat out tell players that they have found every clue necessary to move on to the next scene. And if they weren't sure what clue that was, I'd go over the clues with them. This was much preferable to playing out a scene for an extra 20 minutes when nothing else useful could be earned.
Agreed. As much as folks hate to do this, a con game calls for some guiderails at times, since you only have one go and a few hours.
This is why I advocated for in media res upthread. Just start them at the dungeon door, or in the room with the body, or as they are being accosted by the bandits. Why wait?
Yeap, during a campaign a few of these moments will come up. There is a point the players have turned every stone and got everything they can. Some players are just hoarders when it comes to planning and preparing for an adventure. That is fine in a campaign where time is copious, but a con game is premium in supply. You may have to hit that neon signage a lot sooner than later.
Isn't it always going to be the case that the character are presented with a "choice" that isn't really a choice? I could start the adventure with the characters standing at the entrance to a dungeon and tell them that they've been tasked with finding the Mobile of Baby Vecna, but if they don't "choose" to walk through the front door there's no adventure.
In that's even a vague concern just start them in the dungeon, with a monster popping out of a box of crackerjacks or whatever. Imminent death has a marvelous way of focusing the mind.
In my personal game, this is part of the fun, but I would never do it in a convention game. It is similar to how many of my closest friends and I "rib" each other in a manner that would be very insulting in nearly any other context. In my home games, I don't mind my players trying the "beat" my game or when they try to "stump" me by asking for names and back stories on inconsequential NPCs. The Legend Lore spell is a particularly useful stump-the-GM tool that players can gleefully abuse. For the last four years my games are very much sandboxes and I do like to improvise. I'm not great at improvising but some of the best things in my current campaign have come out of poor improvising that started with an off-the-cuff and not very original (or downright dumb or silly) NPC who eventually evolves into an endearing reoccurring character.
At least then they don't have the excuse that they were being clueless about the nature of the adventure hook. This couldn't be a failure of hook identification, this is outright and explicit denial to follow the hook.
