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Message: <blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 6664585" data-attributes="member: 97077">At the risk of turning this into an alignment discussion, I think the DM focusing on trying to change the characters' alignments isn't really worthwhile. For one, alignment has very little mechanical impact in D&D 5e. As well, some of your interpretations of alignment aren't really in keeping with the guidelines for alignment in the Basic Rules (page 34). So you're basically setting yourself up for players to object to your interpretation over what is essentially a mechanic with no teeth whatsoever. I'd suggest that's a risk with no reward or at best a superfluous goal for the DM. The hard choices in the plot as presented above are, in my view, sufficient to encourage roleplaying without getting into the mire of alignment debates. The characters' personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws are a better gauge of how to respond mechanically (with Inspiration or not, depending on how the players play their roles).The potential challenges with this plot for the DM are (1) the PCs taking the hook in the first place and (2) adjudicating acts of deception and the PCs' attempts to avoid being deceived. One the first point, if you've got players like me, it's not an issue... if something smells like an adventure hook, I will figure out a reason in keeping with established characterization to bite that hook. If your players aren't like me, then they may just tell the merchant to tell his sad tale walkin'. In which case, you'll have to shelve this adventure for some other time. (I suppose you could subvert their choices and have them end up on the adventure anyway, but this is known as railroading.) So this is something to keep in mind.On the second point, what if the players don't buy the merchant's story for some reason? What if they try to examine his body language and mannerisms to determine if he is being deceptive? Are you willing to call for a Wisdom (Insight) check and faithfully give them what the result of that check earns them? Or will you hide the roll or get cagey when narrating the outcome? If they can suss out his lies (if he is indeed lying), then that's pretty much the end of the ruse right there and players might reasonably be reluctant to venture into the swamp even if they aren't exactly sure what the guy is lying about. So if this guy is indeed in cahoots with the witch, I suggest planting a map on his person that shows a route to her lair and some other evidence that they've got this scam running. If the PCs decide to have at this liar, they'll have something that can lead them to further adventure and gives them an advantage of some kind in the swamp (a reward for being on their game in sussing out the deception). The later social interaction with the witch and her daughter come with the same challenge: How to adjudicate deception and attempts to avoid it. So these are just things to think about before setting up the scenes.</blockquote>

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