When Player Driven Adventures Don't Pan Out

[Koloth]

Some players just don't have much self initiative. Kind of like real life. Some may benefit from standing game life requirements like monthly taxes/rent/upkeep on the thing to overthrow the enemy. The Bard* has to spend X hours per Y days performing to earn enough. The Rogue* has to 'earn' enough to meet guild requirements. The Magic User* is crafting stuff for the others and needs things that cost money or require an acquisition trip. (*substitute actual game characters).

I wouldn't worry too much about holiday play issues. Lots of folks lose a lot of time during the holidays dealing with stuff. It is amazing how little play time the groups I play in have during holiday time even though most are retired or off work during the time.

If most of the player's past games were adventure path type games, the players may be inexperienced at thinking up stuff for characters to do. You may have to do some teaching on thinking up character plot ideas.

 

[Tonguez]

I think Micah is talking about diagetic rewards -- that is, following a characters motivations leads to rewards in the fiction, not on the character sheet.

I consider inspiration to be diagetic, especially as I connect it directly to PC traits and goals, so Charactets feel inspired by their passions and bonds. Moreover the rally action can inspire others and imc Leanan Sidhe drain inspiration or cha

 

[Basic Expert]

Alas, players are indeed the weak link in many a great game.

GM: You guys can go anywhere and do anything you want!
Players: Uh, okay, we look for the nearest guest giver...

Players will ALWAYS wait for you to tell them what to do--unless it's something you WANT them to do. In that case, they will NEVER do it.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I consider inspiration to be diagetic, especially as I connect it directly to PC traits and goals, so Charactets feel inspired by their passions and bonds. Moreover the rally action can inspire others and imc Leanan Sidhe drain inspiration or cha

I don't use passions and bonds. Never sat right with me.

 

[MichaelSomething]

I'm in an open game. The other players want to lauch a crusade and ascend to godhood but I wanna open a cozy potion shop.

 

[Marc17]

Yep, been there. Thing is the their character live in the world 24/7, but they don't. The friction involved in even coming up with a plan i smassive. Sure they could just say "we attack the tax collectors after they get the taxes and are their way back to the capital and steal all the taxes and give them back to the poor". But just the players having to realize there are tax collectors to steal from is not a given, where it would have been an obvious if not oppresive part of their character's entire life. In the end, the game world the players don't live in is going to have to be boiled down to bullet points for them to react to.

How to mix it up so it isn't a simple episodic adventure:
Mix it up. You already said you had multiple factions and things going on. Those bullet points shouldn't come in one at a time, but a steady stream that are happening all over the place and force them to choose or at least work real hard to get to most of them. Lots of moving parts and they will have to make decisions and decide what order to tackle them and live with the consequences of the ones they don't.

Interaction, interaction, interaction. Do they know all the NPCs by name and thier interests and quirks? Do they know the name of the SOB they really want to kill and can name off the reasons why? Are those allies they made deals with making requests? Nothing really motivates players like actually thinking of the NPCs as their friends, allies, and enemies. Especially the one that you make on the fly that they decide to adopt.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Yep, been there. Thing is the their character live in the world 24/7, but they don't. The friction involved in even coming up with a plan i smassive. Sure they could just say "we attack the tax collectors after they get the taxes and are their way back to the capital and steal all the taxes and give them back to the poor". But just the players having to realize there are tax collectors to steal from is not a given, where it would have been an obvious if not oppresive part of their character's entire life. In the end, the game world the players don't live in is going to have to be boiled down to bullet points for them to react to.

And this is one of the reasons I consider Simulationist/exploration game design to basically never lead to great results. If instead of wasting my time with a pre-constructed setting I'd brought the PCs in to the shared setting building and asked them to name how they were being oppressed they'd know and would be free to come up with more.

And if I want to explore a third party setting the interface is painfully slow and the depth of plots almost always shallow compared to e.g. Skyrim (which is hardly deep) thanks to the number of people working on it. And that's before we get to the graphics. "Play to explore the setting with an impartial referee" always to me feels like a third rate video game which is one of many reasons I prefer emotional involvement or player-centric narrative arcs.

 

[zarionofarabel]

Alas, players are indeed the weak link in many a great game.

GM: You guys can go anywhere and do anything you want!
Players: Uh, okay, we look for the nearest guest giver...

Players will ALWAYS wait for you to tell them what to do--unless it's something you WANT them to do. In that case, they will NEVER do it.

Uh...not the people I play with. I haven't had something like that happen since the early 90s.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Alas, players are indeed the weak link in many a great game.

GM: You guys can go anywhere and do anything you want!
Players: Uh, okay, we look for the nearest guest giver...

Players will ALWAYS wait for you to tell them what to do--unless it's something you WANT them to do. In that case, they will NEVER do it.

If one player is a problem it's probably that player. If the majority of players or the group is the problem then the DM should look in a mirror to find the weak link.

 

[Tonguez]

I'm in an open game. The other players want to lauch a crusade and ascend to godhood but I wanna open a cozy potion shop.

Thats an easy one, I spent years as a gnome alchemist running my own laboratory and shop.
The thing is an alchemist needs to gather rare and often dangerous ingredients as well as mixing strange formulas and taking unusual request - and the customers arent always of this world.