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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ThirdWizard" data-source="post: 6170481" data-attributes="member: 12037">The best solution is probably to find new players. Some of these tactics are downright destructive to a functioning campaign. Attacking NPCs, and whoever can defend themselves is guilty? I'd probably lose a gasket if my players tried something so meta-gamey. You're a better man than I to approach the situation with thoughtfulness, that's for sure. However, if you aren't looking to find a whole new group, might I suggest finding a middle ground between playstyles.In this case I would take a cue from action thrillers. Deluge the PC group with a constant stream of something going on. Give them lots of options on how to deal with it, but for the most part, they're either being directly threatened or danger is around the corner. So, for example, take your (a) problem. One of the BBEG's hirelings is acting up. Presumably the PCs are also a thorn in his side in some way. Make that into a plot hook in and of itself. The BBEG tries to trick the PCs into going after the hireling. He wants to set them up to take the fall for killing a traitor in his midst, maybe by tricking them into thinking the hireling is the BBEG, maybe by tricking them into thinking he hired a hit on them. It will depend a lot on more situation details I don't have. But, he sends them after the NPC, and snitches to the town guard that they're going after him. If the PCs take the bait, its a setup. Hopefully (for the BBEG) they kill the guy and get caught. Two birds.However, there are so many ways for it to turn out depending on how the PCs react. Maybe they realize its a setup and work with the NPC. Maybe they just question him, and the guard shows up coming after them to arrest them. Maybe they instead investigate where their tip off came from and head to the BBEG. PCs are unpredictable, so they could go any which way, but they're your players so you probably have some idea of what they'd do. The key is that things just keep getting worse and worse for them. The guard wants to arrest them. Bounty hunters sniff some gold to be made. They need to find out why they were set up. The guard lets slip that X was their tipoff, so they have that lead. Hit them in the face with leads they can easily follow, and they will because they have to clear their name. Don't make it too difficult. They can find X and clear their name, and it moves them one step closer to finding out who the BBEG is.I'm thinking something like the Dresden Files where everything just constantly goes wrong for the protagonists, and there's a clock they have to work against as things just keep getting worse and worse. And, if they don't ask the right questions, they get more and more "clues" piling up in front of them until they basically hit a rail that pulls them back into the action only to start getting "clues" again.I like this kind of thing because immediate consequences are happening. It prepares the players for long term consequences when they can see things playing out like this in the short term. A little intrigue that has immediate effects can help drive home the idea that intrigue isn't boring. Maybe something along these lines would whet their appetite for it and get them thinking about investigation. It might take 3-4 sessions of this kind of action movie-like plot, but I think of it as slowly making them more inquisitive. In the end, that's the problem. They aren't inquisitive. They don't ask questions. So, by throwing problems at them in rapid succession, you create a situation in which the players feel the need to think.</blockquote>

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