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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dextolen" data-source="post: 234715" data-attributes="member: 5413">It's a tough situation to deal with.  A player working 'against the DM' can really slow the game down.  Subtly guiding them through the grand story you have in your head can be even harder.  If they detect any sort of forced situation you may have a revolt or lose face.A carrot for the donkeyWhen you come to the 'fork in the road, or dungeon' where one path leads to further progression of your campaign and another leads into unprepared adlib city, try to give them subtle incentives to continue on the desired path.  You need bait. A rumor of a magic item, mysterious person or something that ties into one of the PC's background stories.   Once they are where you want them you can proceed as planned.The X-FilesRemember how X-Files had episodes that related to Mulder's quest for his sister interspersed with those that didn't?  Follow that methodology.  Don't force feed your epic down their throats.Loose EndsLet a villian escape, leave weird letters around your dungeons - just keep them on the heels of your story by giving them tidbits that keep them interested. Never SurrenderNever use a planned party surrender as part of your plot.  Most players never think of surrender and it's a dead giveaway that you are guiding them along.  Either they won't get it and will die fighting a challenge over their heads or they will saracstically go along with your plans and roll their eyes the rest of the evening.  Being seperated from the gear that they've worked so hard to achieve is a real drag for most players, to drop it because they think that it is what they are 'supposed to do' is even worse.Lose ElminsterDon't use bigwig NPCs to effectively 'direct traffic' towards your intended goal. You players don't want to hear a 20 minute boxed text description of a battle between two epic level npcs...they want to kill enough sh_t to BE those epic level pc's someday.  If you use high level npcs or even deities to do your dirtywork, you better make it subtle.  Epic level npcs would look at lower level characters and barely see them, let alone discuss why they can't go back home instead of ever onward.  Next time you see a pop superstar on the street ask her to listen to your demo tape, get my meaning.</blockquote>

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