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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rechan" data-source="post: 4587694" data-attributes="member: 54846">The above, much truth.This sort of situation isn't just cut and dry. "The players don't want to follow my railroad, so I shall destroy their distraction" is a bit harsh. But so too is "I set aside all my prep work because the PCs want to run a day care." As Harr points out, the former will seriously build some resentment in your players. But the latter can lead to DM resentment, that the players hijacked his campaign. Certainly there must be more to the issue (and more answers) than one of two polar extremes.There are generally three problems I see with this sort of focus.1) Someone's fun is being sacrificed. In the OP, it's the DM. The question becomes, "Should the individual not having fun soldier through it for the benefit of the others?" A DM who is not happy is not going to run a good game. A player who is not happy is going to bring down the other players. 2) Not everyone can become as vested or situate into the focus. Even though everyone at the table when the game begins might be interested in the focus, new players may very well be turned off from it, or not be able to make it "their own" because they came in later. Let me provide an example from my game:I am right now running an "Establish a frontier colony in the dark continent" campaign, involving lots of managing the colony, supernatural politics and battling the local monstrous denizens, along with some exploration. My old players I allowed to draw the initial blueprints for the colony's construction, establish their laws, and building/trade establishment (one PC is really going after establishing docks and waypoints along rivers and the coast). However, getting new players to be as enthusiastic and engaged with the colony construction or the political landscape is challenging. A new player joined, wanting to just run around ruins and disable traps. Something that I do not have a lot of prep for, and I can't just turn the game to focus on that. The other new players might not feel as vested an interest in designing the colony's map, or fleshing out the colony at all. 3) What the PCs (or DM) want to focus on is sodding BORING. It is so mundane that there are only a few ways to spice it up to make it a fun RPG. Ultimately it just becomes a sitcom, rather than a prime time action thriller. While some people at the table might like this, it will sap the enjoyment out of everyone else. What this comes down to is a lack of Communication. Talk to the players, talk to the DM. First order of business, I think, is for the DM to lay out what ideas for a campaign he has, what he is interested in running, and how he expects the players to behave as PCs (Heroes, suckers, etc). If the DM desires a sandbox style game where the PCs determine goals and pursue them, or points to a map and wants to explore that region, then the players should know that. Otherwise, they might be waiting for him to feed them the plot, and the DM is getting frustrated with his directionless players.Or, he opens the floor and sees what the players want to play. If they want to be bakers or whatever, they can start out that way. This also requires everyone to state what sort of campaigns they are not willing to play in ("Bill doesn't want to do an epic, save the world campaign, Daryll doesn't want an urban campaign, the DM doesn't feel equipped to do a sea-based campaign"). I once approached this, and everyone at the table agreed to play wandering gypsy con artists, and the campaign revolved around their various schemes. After the game has all ready begun, and the players take a sudden left turn and plunk down, the DM needs to talk to them. Ask them, "Okay, what do you expect from this campaign, what would you like me to do to facilitate what you want, and what am I doing that you Don't want?" Being abrasive to the character's goals (The barge) will come across as petty and mean (Unless it's WHF, where torched barge is par of the course). If the players want to take that left turn, the DM needs to decide if he's fine with that, and if he can sacrifice his plot.</blockquote>

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