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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6169851" data-attributes="member: 4937">So, in general I feel I've been running a pretty successful campaign.My only problem has been that frequently what I consider obvious investigative techniques are not at all obvious to the players.  It's not so much that they miss clues - that's not unexpected - it's that when they have clues they never seem to know how to follow up on them.This is now coming to something of a crisis.   The players are stuck and I don't know how to nudge them gracefully.Some examples:a) For months now, the players have had a copy of a letter from the BBEG to an underling where he mentions one employee is unreliable and may need to be executed at some future point.  He identifies this employee only by a rare trade that the employee has.   The players have read the letter many times, but not only have never thought, "If this person could be found, he might be a reliable mole or informant within the BBEG's organization", but not even, "Maybe we should look for this guy because he might know something."   Finding the guy is scarcely harder than going to any merchant or tradesman on the street and saying, "Where would I find a ______?", yet the players have never attempted this.   The first NPC the players encountered in the city was a local guide that offered  to take them anywhere they wanted, but they never utilized this resource and continually complain of their own lack of local knowledge.   Similarly, they've been prone to say things like, "I wish I was a bard.", and not, "I wonder where I could hire a bard/sage/scholar/local guide."b) The players managed to learn that the BBEG desired a very valuable item, and they have realized that getting the item before the BBEG would give them a big win in their quest to thwart the BBEG.  At no point has it occurred to the party to ask anyone where they might find someone who knows something about items of that general class, or where they might buy items of that general class.   Simply seeking out the leading merchant in items of the class desired by the BBEG would put them on the trail of some valuable clues.   Such a leading merchant could be discovered as easily as asking an NPC, "Where could I buy a _____?"c) The players at one point were told a story they immediately found fishy concerning the failing health of an NPC and a closed off building.  But they've since forgotten the story, and never followed up on it.d) The players have located a person who confessed to being close friends of a known underling of the BBEG, and who panicked when they discovered the PC's true identities yet they have also never attempted to investigate this person or their dwelling.e) The players have repeated found that BBEG's minions use a special token to identify each other, and have acquired several of these tokens, but have never attempted to track down who is making the token nor used it to try and trick members of the BBEG's organization into revealing themselves.   Simply asking, "Who makes ______?" could lead to valuable clues.f) The players know that the BBEG was sitting close to them at a banquet, and that a certain scholar recognized the BBEG shortly before being murdered, but they've have never attempted to investigate the backgrounds of any of the likely suspects.  For that matter, at the same party they were given clues as to what the personality and background of the BBEG would have to be - independently wealthy, highly intelligent but humble and unassuming, able to be away from town for long periods without raising questions, and not someone who is not recognized as a wizard by his peers.  They in character even remarked on the humility of the BBEG during the party, and the same character said he knew no magic.  Any casual investigation of the NPC's background should raise huge red flags in other ways as well.  And keep in mind also that they have several samples of the BBEG's hand writing, but have never attempted to match it to any likely suspect.   Even better, the NPC's real name appears on a list which is in the player's possession of people known to have interest in an item that they know the BBEG stole.  Additionally, though they've forgotten this, the date on the list next to the name corresponds exactly to the time frame when a certain disaster they later had to stop began, proving the character was in the area at the time the disaster happened.And this is just a sample of the more obvious things that have been dangling around for multiple sessions.I'm not sure what to do at this point.  My players are increasingly stuck and the excitement of my sessions is beginning to drain off.  What would you do in this case?</blockquote>

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