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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Chzbro" data-source="post: 5377657" data-attributes="member: 83964">I realize that this response won't be popular with everyone, but I would say the answer to that question is: Never.(Of course, that assumes the players aren't willfully and actively trying to ignore your plot hooks just to get your goat, but it doesn't sound like that's the case here.)Some DMs love to be subtle and give the players lots of freedom. They never want to railroad and might even think of anyone who would stoop to railroading with disdain. That's all well and good, but if that's the case you must always, always, be willing to scrap your "plans" and wing it if the players don't cooperate.Personally, I'm not willing to do this because I don't improvise that well or that quickly. So I will try to give the illusion of choice with my plot hooks. If, for example, the PCs hadn't investigated the mysterious papers, I'd have had some bad guys come and demand those papers or the words start to smolder with arcane fire inside the bag or maybe I'd have had the character holding the papers have some sort of fit where he began babbling the words from them in that language. Whatever. Just keep bringing the attention of the characters back to the device you've created. Many DMs who claim they never railroad are actually just very lucky to have players who always pick up on/go along with their plot hooks. Bully for them, but most of us don't have that luxury.Here's the thing: You can't be rigid in your thinking with your plot hooks. You must ask yourself, "What happens if they don't translate this thing?" You, as the DM, can't allow yourself not to know the answer to that...and the answer probably shouldn't be "nothing."Having said that, it's crazy to me that your group didn't listen to a talking painting or bite on mysterious papers in a mysterious language. Would it have totally offended your sensibilities to remind the player he had the Comprehend Languages ritual? I can see that being a less than ideal solution, but between that and a session where neither the DM nor the players had a great time, I'll take the clumsy deus ex machina.Speaking only for myself.</blockquote>

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