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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shadowdweller00" data-source="post: 9080487" data-attributes="member: 6778479">So in my latest game session - for the first time in a goodly long while - I ran an episode where essentially nothing happened.  There was no combat.  There was no strife.  No particular clues were discovered.  No mysteries unraveled.  There WAS some investigation and exploration of a fantasy city.  And a touch of roleplaying.  It wasn't exactly a slog.  The players didn't seem particularly bored.  However...My basic question is this:  If you personally, Dear Reader, were playing in such a game, would you prefer it if the DM MADE something happen?  Or would you rather be the author of your own fate, even if the action gets a little slow sometimes?Background:  The PCs were hired by the ruler of a Greco-Roman themed city to arrest a prominent criminal who has been selling dangerous narcotics that cause possibly permanent catatonia in some users.  The criminal is a powerful wizard who is well-connected amongst the city's elite;  and of whom the normal law-enforcement is deathly afraid.  The PCs have been granted policing powers.  The city is in the midst of a major festival that occurs once every three years, coinciding with the conjunction of the world's three moons.  Drug and alcohol usage is rampant amongst the population at the moment due to the festivities.  And the streets are filled (during the more tolerably cool parts of the day) with fire-based performances as part of the celebrations - fire eaters, fire dancers, pyromancers, fireworks.  The PCs don't know where the criminal can be found - but they know he has a manor in the city, owns a vineyard outside of town, and runs a number of ostensibly legal shops in the city, specializing in the sale of wines and tobacco as a front for more nefarious activities.  The PCs explored a bit, heard rumors of a fire.  They spent a while investigating the fire, which was ultimately inconsequential; an accident resulting from the fire-based performances.  The PCs approached one of the businesses run by the criminal, and purchased a sample of the drug (as well as some lemon-flavored wine), but otherwise learned nothing.  There WAS for the record stuff to learn there - but not by conducting normal business with the salespeople.  They did a bit of snooping outside the criminal's manor, but didn't try to go in.  Unfortunately the exterior was walled off by tall cypress trees; with a wooden gate obscuring any view beyond the very top of the house on the other side.  (In addition to a sign warning that trespassers would be killed).  Maybe I'm being too sensitive and I should just let the PCs continue their investigations as they wish.  They were VERY careful not to reveal themselves to employees of the criminal; nor to show too much interest.  So I don't have any basis for warnings off or assassination attempts yet.  The players were mostly just kind of....noncommittal?So...realizing that everyone has different tastes and tolerances: thoughts, ideas, suggestions?  Should I let the PCs continue to investigate at their own pace?  Introduce some unrelated city-based encounters and stuff?  Try to move the main plot along somehow?  And, if so, how?</blockquote>

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