PDA

View Full Version : Bard Quests



JadedDM
2010-04-22, 01:13 AM
Okay, so...in my current AD&D game, all of my players but one have dropped out for varying reasons. The lone player remaining is sticking with me, though, so we're just going one-on-one.

Recently her character died (Javelin of Lightning to the face, boom!) and so she rolled a new character--a bard.

Since she is my only player at the moment, I see no reason not to try and come up with lots of quests and sidequests that focus more on the things bards are best at, like diplomacy, intrigue, and performing. I try to come up with quests that are open-ended with lots of different possibilities that involve heavily on interaction (which is a style of gaming she prefers anyway, so it's all good).

The problem is, I think I'm being too subtle here.

One quest I used recently was a spy quest of sorts. A little background...

There's this town with a ruling noble family. The nobles run everything in town (except the temple) and so are quite powerful. Anyway, the bard is approached by a servant and brought to the manor for a job. The town's lord has a brother who is leader of the constables. It was this brother's wife who actually wanted to hire the bard. See, she suspects her husband is up to something illegal. He's always sneaking off and staying late at work, and she's afraid if he is up to something, it might prove a scandal and make the family look bad. She can't rely on anyone in town, because they might secretly be in her husband's pocket, so an outsider is needed. So the bard's job is simple: Spy on the captain and see what he's up to.

The bard does so, using an Invisibility spell to follow the captain around, and she learns the captain is having an affair with a young barmaid at the tavern. The bard immediately reports back to his wife, tells her what she saw, promises to keep it to herself and collects her reward.

Seems pretty straightforward, but there were lots of possibilities here. She could have tried blackmailing the captain or exposed the truth to create a scandal and ruin the family's name (not necessarily a bad thing, as the family mostly consists of bullies and jerks). She could have also talked to the barmaid, who would have hired her to break the captain and his wife up, so they could be together. So lots of different ways to play it out.

But she played it straightforward, and when I talked to her about it afterward, she said she had no idea she had all of those options. She just assumed there was only one way to go about this. So I guess I need advice on how to make these choices more visible to her. As a rule, she's never been terribly good at thinking outside of the box on her own. Any thoughts on this problem?

Kaun
2010-04-22, 01:26 AM
Flavour text yo!

"..and from your vantage you spot the brutish lord locked in a lovers embrace with a bar maid that is most definatly not his lady wife, ow the scandal this would cause if it was brought to light."

Just a nice semi subtle way to seed thoughts into her head and you will find that if you do it a few times and she will start considering the options more her self with less and less prompting as time goes on.

Radar
2010-04-22, 02:17 AM
I bit of moral ambiguity would help as well - in your scenario it could have been things like this:
- the cheated wife is not a pleasent person
- the captain's marriage was arranged and they never loved each other
- the captain and the barmaid are truly in love
In a given situation all sides can have some merit and it's to the player to decide, who is right.

BobVosh
2010-04-22, 02:26 AM
I'm humored how each suggestion you gave furthered the straightforward approach, Radar. However he is right, also Kaun has a good point. I like how he said it too. Basically there is no right way, and it will be difficult for her to get around it as the only person. I have always found that to be so, as there is no brainstorming and limited time.

JadedDM
2010-04-22, 04:09 AM
Hmm, so the general consensus is I should just point out the possible actions she could take (or at least the ones I can think of, anyway) outright? Well, that's a bit more direct than I had in mind, but I suppose that would be effective.


I bit of moral ambiguity would help as well - in your scenario it could have been things like this:
- the cheated wife is not a pleasent person
- the captain's marriage was arranged and they never loved each other
- the captain and the barmaid are truly in love
In a given situation all sides can have some merit and it's to the player to decide, who is right.

Actually, I neglected to go into detail, but some of these details were in the quest, too.

- The cheated wife wasn't an unpleasant person, but she did only marry the captain for money/power/status and neither loved each other
- The cheated wife was also barren, and so couldn't provide an heir
- The captain loves the barmaid (but not his wife), but in truth, the barmaid only wants to be with the captain for money/power/status, too.

Some of these factors came up, some didn't. I'm working on another quest in the next town and hopefully I can find ways to make these kinds of clues more apparent.

Darcand
2010-04-22, 05:24 AM
Hmm, so the general consensus is I should just point out the possible actions she could take (or at least the ones I can think of, anyway) outright? Well, that's a bit more direct than I had in mind, but I suppose that would be effective.



Actually, I neglected to go into detail, but some of these details were in the quest, too.

- The cheated wife wasn't an unpleasant person, but she did only marry the captain for money/power/status and neither loved each other
- The cheated wife was also barren, and so couldn't provide an heir
- The captain loves the barmaid (but not his wife), but in truth, the barmaid only wants to be with the captain for money/power/status, too.

Some of these factors came up, some didn't. I'm working on another quest in the next town and hopefully I can find ways to make these kinds of clues more apparent.

I'd put the PC in an uncomfortable position of her own creation that forces her to either make a choice she dislikes, or to fail the assigned mission.

What I have in mind is something along the lines of the jilted, status driven, wife is enraged. While there is no love between her and her husband she will not be cuckold. She hires the PC bard to kill the barmaid and make a statement, knowing that everyone who matters will know she was behind it, but her husband will not be able to arrest her for the crime without making public his adultery, destroying his own social standing in the process.

If the bard takes the job she earns the eternal enmity of the constabul for killing the one person in his life he truely did care about (even if she didn't return the feeling) He brings all of his corrupt police chief powers to bare against her.

If she refuses the job the wife hires another hitter and frames the bard for the killing. Now you have a faceless arch enemy and villian mastermind to contend with while clearing her own name.

And of course should she report the mission to the constabul he puts the PC to work protecting the barmaid against a series of other would be assassins and drumming up a way to stop his homicidal wife without killing her or revealing himself.

Anyway, that's the direction I would go with it.