What to do when your PC's have just lost the plot

[billd91]

Maybe. I honestly don't know what sort of players I have, but I know what sort of DM I am and there is a certain point where I will feel that I've dumbed this down to where I'm not going to enjoy it. My players aren't great Thespians, but there still has to be some RP in the game for my sake. My players aren't great tacticians, but there will still have to be some tactical problems presented the players for my sake (although I don't mind that their solution to most problems is Nelson's 'engage the enemy more closely'). My players aren't investigators, but I can't enjoy running a game where the gamist tropes are as blatant as World of Warcraft and the plot and party is on rails.

To echo a bunch of other posters, I think that if you don't know what sort of players you've got, you're just going to have to sit down with them and ask them what they want out of the game, tell them what you want out of it, and see if you can reach some common understanding and method to get there. It certainly sounds like they're not the kind of players you want... yet.

I guess at this point that I'm going to have to invent some more puzzle pieces and drop them in the players lap. But my problem is beginning to feel like, you can give players puzzle pieces, but you can't actually make them put them together. I could have NPCs put the puzzle pieces together, but that would risk deprotagonizing the players.

Frankly, I doubt this would help. They're not responding to the teaching methods you've been using so far. They probably need things to be taught more explicitly or they need an example. Consider recruiting a ringer - a player who knows what you're looking for as a player and who can demonstrate for them the value of consulting sage NPCs, of following up leads in an intelligent manner rather than using brute force (a method they probably learned from computer games). Maybe make them watch the first few episodes of Torchwood so they can learn from Gwen Cooper.

 

[Lord_Blacksteel]

Well the puzzles always look easier from the DM side of the table, whether it's D&D or Shadowrun. Keep that in mind.

It sounds like you're running some version of D&D, wrote up an adventure as a mystery to be solved, then took out Gather Information? With a new group of players? Does that feel like it might have been premature? New players tend to operate within the rules, assuming that what they can do is what's written in the game. If you want to widen their vision take out the skill system altogether - it's both blessing and curse and if you don't want die rolls to solve your mysteries try going without a skill system.

It does sound like you have a "Plan A" group - that's OK, I've had a few of those myself. They probably aren't going to spend a ton of time investigating, they're in it as much or more for the "G" than the "RP". How long have you been running for them and what have you done prior to this sticking point?

 

[Gorgon Zee]

Retrospective: You had too many threads. A better strategy, often recommended, is to have no more than two three lines of approach, and to reinforce them. So better to pick, say, the informant and the personality as the major clues, and then keep reinforcing them. After the initial info on the informant, later find out she has gambling debts. And then have that person involved in a side plot and owing the players a favor. Your description shows you have an inventive mind -- focus on a couple of clues and reinforce using similar techniques to the ones you have.

I think you can immediately start doing this. It'll help a lot. It may even seem excessive to you: "the guy you know works for the BBEG, with large gambling debts, says he owes you big time, and looks expectantly at you, wondering what you might ask in return ..." Sometimes you need a sledgehammer.

You might also consider making the investigation personal. If one of the players is poisoned, or cursed to die it 5 days, or his aunt is marked for death, they will be motivated to get things done!

Make a handout for the players as a recap. Say "by now you've found out a lot about the big bad, I made this handout as you players probably don't remember all that your characters do. Feel free to let me know which leads you are most interested in following up."

Good luck and don't lose heart! One of my worst moments as a GM was when I spent days on a complex and fun plot and after a couple of sessions the players decided they just didn't care, and left town. Very dispiriting. But it taught me the #1 rule of investigative plots: the players must want to investigate. Make it so!