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

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5205092" data-attributes="member: 42582">If the players are complaining about the session being dull, but can't bring themselves to play in a way that is more interesting for them, then it seems like you do have some dysfunction in your group.From my own experience, I think something like you're describing - the players want an interesting session but can't bring themselves to actually make it happen - can be the result of confusion among the players, and between players and GM, about legitimate motivations for PC actions. In particular, if there is a strong ethic in the group of "no metagaming" and "actions must be justified as being within character" then a game can veer off the rails in the way you describe.My suggestion (which really repeats some of what I and others have said upthread) would be to have a frank out-of character conversation. Ask the players why they didn't go for the bad guy. If they tell you they (the players) honestly thought he wasn't the villain, then you know you need to set up your plots more straightforwardly. But if they tell you that they (the players) knew but they though their PCs did not, then encourage them to be a bit more proactive in metagaming their PCs. For example, the cleric PC (assuming there is one) could be a bit more forthright in emphasising the existence of the divine proof, and insist that the villain come back to the temple for more testing. At that point, presumably the villain would resist and a fight would ensue.On the other hand, if the players knew that the villain was the villain, and chose to have their PCs think otherwise simply because they couldn't be bothered, and deliberately wanted to tank the game even though it meant they had a dull time, then I don't know what to suggest. That's the sort of dysfunction from which a group may not recover. . .</blockquote>

Verification