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Doctor Acula
2011-06-18, 03:15 PM
So I just started a campaign with a few friends of mine. I haven't DMed in a long time and made their encounter to hard for them. By then end of the encounter half the party had died, but they retrieved the goods they were supposed to so as a thank you their benefactor revived them on credit, he was going to send them on another quest when a party member who just died decided that he didn't want to go on any quests anymore because he is afraid of dying.

I understand this piece of roleplay however the party decided that he was right and asked the benefactor for an indentured servitude. This is great but I have no idea what to have them do.

The benefactor is a dwarf leader of a guild known for making nonmagical equipment.

Do you have any ideas on adventures that wont scare them?

zorba1994
2011-06-18, 03:35 PM
I would suggest scaring them back into adventuring. Set up a situation where if they don't start fighting/doing X, Bad Thing Y will inevitably happen, doing far worse than just killing one of them.

claricorp
2011-06-18, 03:43 PM
You could have him cursed or be pursued by paladins and such for a crime he didn't commit, then it becomes adventure or die.

Calmar
2011-06-18, 04:49 PM
Ok, sometimes adventure idly waits in a haunted dungeon or cave in the wilderness, where you can comfortably come as you please - but often enough adventure comes knocking when you do not expect it, or are not prepared for it.
What kind of nonmagical equipment does the guild produce? If it is modeled after real-world guilds, its field of activity should be pretty narrow (e.g. clothing, tools, furniture, etc.).
Assuming your campaign resembles fairly typical, Europe-like mediaeval setting, thieves/evil spirits/fairies/wererats might be robbing from the guilds' workshops, possibly harming guild members (adventure hooks, hidden tunnels, lairs and hide-outs aplenty). Or a rival tries to destroy the guild's reputation (investigation and exploration of the city and its inhabitants). Or the characters are sent to a mine/workshop/mill/whatever in the dangerous lands outside the city (lots of travel, dangerous beasts and bandits, places and hooks).

Othniel Edden
2011-06-18, 05:15 PM
How about your Dwarf needs to go out on business to a different city and asks the PCs to come along, except they get attacked along the way, and their boss gets kidnapped during the attack. Now the PCs, who might have a sentimental attachment to the Dwarf, have to go retrieve him.

Doctor Acula
2011-06-18, 06:59 PM
You could have him cursed or be pursued by paladins and such for a crime he didn't commit, then it becomes adventure or die.
As it is, their first and only mission was to recapture some goods stolen by pirates. But their benefactor lied to them and instead they hijacked the ship and murdered the crew of another blacksmith guild, then they gave the stolen items to their benefactor.


Ok, sometimes adventure idly waits in a haunted dungeon or cave in the wilderness, where you can comfortably come as you please - but often enough adventure comes knocking when you do not expect it, or are not prepared for it.
What kind of nonmagical equipment does the guild produce? If it is modeled after real-world guilds, its field of activity should be pretty narrow (e.g. clothing, tools, furniture, etc.).
The guild produces arms and armor and some mundane metal tools such as grappling hooks.



Assuming your campaign resembles fairly typical, Europe-like mediaeval setting, thieves/evil spirits/fairies/wererats might be robbing from the guilds' workshops, possibly harming guild members (adventure hooks, hidden tunnels, lairs and hide-outs aplenty). Or a rival tries to destroy the guild's reputation (investigation and exploration of the city and its inhabitants). Or the characters are sent to a mine/workshop/mill/whatever in the dangerous lands outside the city (lots of travel, dangerous beasts and bandits, places and hooks). At this point I could see the characters turning and running from any danger. The investigation mission I could try.


How about your Dwarf needs to go out on business to a different city and asks the PCs to come along, except they get attacked along the way, and their boss gets kidnapped during the attack. Now the PCs, who might have a sentimental attachment to the Dwarf, have to go retrieve him.
That would work except the party has no vested interest in the dwarf right now as they only have known him for a short period. I could easily see my party saying "Thanks" to me if he got kidnapped and not lifting a finger to help him.

Othniel Edden
2011-06-18, 07:39 PM
The party is going to have to care about something if they want the game to continue. What you could try to do is to take advantage of that fear to put them on the road, driving them to run and hide through the more exotic locations in your setting looking for an ally strong enough to protect them. They want to play the scaredy cats, then do whatever you can to keep that fear going.

Honest Tiefling
2011-06-18, 11:34 PM
Maybe people related/associated with those they killed want revenge.

Or, you can force them to decide as a group what they want to do. Have them vote on the next adventure.

I think if someone lied to me and sent me on a suicide mission, I'd be pissed. Pitch to them the idea of killing the 'benefactor'.

You can also use the carrot instead of the stick. Maybe the benefactor is rich and has a lot of nice things to loot. Or, he'll up the price for the mission and throw in more of a reward.

Whybird
2011-06-19, 07:26 AM
I ran a game myself a while back with PCs who just wanted a quiet life. Things ended up looking something like:

GM: You've found a McGuffin.
PCs: Looks dangerous. We sell it and run away.
GM: Okay, the town you've run away to has things A, B and C happening...
PCs: Yikes! We could get hurt. We find a new place to run away to.
GM: Fine. On the way you encounter a mysterious traveller.
PCs: All this weird stuff keeps happening to us! Why can't we ever catch a break?

The best way to solve it, and what I should have done to start with, is to speak OC with your players and ask them

(a) what their characters' goals are,
(b) what would encourage their characters to become interested in something, and
(c) what their characters would risk their lives for.

Don't accept answers like "danger to other PCs" -- go specifically for carrots you can dangle in front of them to get them involved in plot. Once you've got those, you can start creating plots involving those carrots to draw them in.

Omeganaut
2011-06-20, 08:47 AM
Try giving them an easy encounter. Something that they know they can win to build their confidence back up. Then build the difficulty back up to where it should be. I would suggest random encounters while they are protecting the dwarf as he goes to another city. Explain to them OOC that you did take it too hard on them, and that your going to lower the difficulty to where it should be. That should solve any lingering problems.

Lord Loss
2011-06-20, 10:17 AM
Political plots. Introduce them to some political machinations, reveal that one of the nobles/whatever is evil, have them investigate the nobles until they think they've found the right one, then have them raid his mansion, only to find out he was set up and they have to go to point X right now, because the truly evil noble (perhaps their benefactor) is summoning evil stuff right now. Alternatively, you could have the noble that gets set up be their benefactor.

big teej
2011-06-20, 10:29 AM
At this point I could see the characters turning and running from any danger. The investigation mission I could try.


make this the adventure.

something has taken an interest in them. and is chasing them... they can't stay in any one place for more than a few days, lest it catch up and destroy them.

the destruction that follows in their path gets them barred from cities as tales of destruction follow them.

finally, eventually, they turn and face their fears, doing battle with this horrid thing that persues them.

after a hardfought battle where they have proved their bravery beyond all doubt. the thing.... dissipates.

verily, there is little to fear, but fear itself.

and to be honest, an "on the run" campaign would be kinda fun.

I envision something like the matrix almost where the party is always fighting and stuff, but if they stick around too long it's just a matter of time before it all comes crashing down on them.

Notreallyhere77
2011-06-20, 03:07 PM
This dwarf benefactor was expecting a big shipment of adamantine, but somewhere along the way, the caravan/armed wagon/mercane retinue got held up and can't finish the journey. If the PCs find the shipment and can convince the current escorts (if any survived) to let them help, and can get the shipment to its proper destination, the dwarf offers them a cut of the cargo, to be made into whatever items they wish.

Bonus: Their indentured servitude ends on the completion of this task.

Caveat: The shipment weighs at least two tons, and the caravan is off-course/wagon wheels are broken/mercane's bodyguards were eaten by monsters. Yeah, you have to take care of one problem first, then another, but the rewards are totally worth it. Make it clear that combat is not likely to occur, but environmental hazards and logisitcs puzzles are going to be the challenge here.

vartan
2011-06-21, 10:04 AM
You could really heavy-handed with it and Geas/Quest the group. The benefactor sounds like a jerk and could be all "I didn't raise you all so that you could work the bellows at a smithy! I could hire a commoner for silver pieces a day for that! YOU OWE ME!" And then BLAM! Geas/Quest. Adventure or Die.

I think this was mentioned above in some fragments. I +1 it.

evirus
2011-06-21, 11:19 AM
They may not care about the Dwarf now, but they do care about their lives.

Time to invade the dwarf's stronghold and have them fight to stay alive. The dwarf can hire them to help him escape or enter another plot you could think of.

I was thinking of something exceptional like:

The Dwarf casts a ritual splitting his "essence" and investing it into the PC's. Now the PC's are being targetted for death and don't understand why. Enter a series of adventures to find out why the bad guys want the dwarf dead.

Turns out he was more than he apperaed to be and now they need to find out how to remove him from their souls/bodies to confront him.

Lord Loss
2011-06-21, 01:55 PM
You could really heavy-handed with it and Geas/Quest the group. The benefactor sounds like a jerk and could be all "I didn't raise you all so that you could work the bellows at a smithy! I could hire a commoner for silver pieces a day for that! YOU OWE ME!" And then BLAM! Geas/Quest. Adventure or Die.

I think this was mentioned above in some fragments. I +1 it.

No. Don't do this. Whatever you do, don't force the players into doing something they've explicitly stated they don't wan't to do. Nearly every GM has tried a variation of it and players rarely enjoy being railroaded and having their free will removed even less. The game is about making everybody happy, if the GM takes control of what's happening, he might as well be playing a solo RPG where he controls all the characters.

This solution tends to end with players leaving the game, and I'm speaking from experience.