Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6170104" data-attributes="member: 4937">No, I at this point assume that they don't.  But even in a non-investigation based campaign, there are clues that link locations and events together.  These can be as direct as an NPC telling the players what to do.  But at some level, no matter how direct it is, it's still a 'breadcrumb' that gets the PC's from one place to another in every adventure or story.The problem I've having feels from my perspective less like the well known problem of the players not picking up the breadcrumbs, but having the breadcrumb and not doing anything with it.   Letters from the BBEG to his minions don't have to be labeled 'clues' IMO, as they are probably too trope and trite methods of leaving clues as it is (why don't good minions just burn the stupid letters like they are supposed to?).  I'm reduced to having my BBEG act like a stereotypical movie bad guy, making stupid mistakes and putting signs over his head saying, "Bad guy over here."Nonetheless, I have told the players out of character that the letter mentioning the unreliable employee is an important clue and have encouraged them to read it.  So far, no luck.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.  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.</blockquote>

Verification