underdaaaaaaark

[chomskola]

In the game i'm running as DM, first time DM, the sunless citadel, there is a tunnel which leads to the underdark which is described as endless empty tunnel covered in fungi or something like that. HOw do I discourage players from spending hours of realtime in this pointless tunnel? I dont feel confident enough as a beginning DM to improv an alternative to the empty tunnel with a spin-off plot???

[sonofzeal]

There's subtle ways to guide the players.

"We go down the tunnel!"

"Alright, you're descending down the tunnel. It's pretty boring, except for the occasional fungal bloom. After five minutes you don't seem to have made it anywhere at all. How long do you want to keep going for?"

"Uh... an hour?"

"Cool. After an hour the air seems a bit thicker since you're further underground, and the fungal blooms are more frequent, but that's about it. There's no sign of anything ahead. Do you want to keep going?"

"......eh, let's go back."



That said, if they persist, you should go along with it. It's always good to support players in those choices even if it takes them off your precious rails. Say... after two and a half hours they see a Drow fortress on lockdown. Some Drow matriarch got assassinated, so everything's in an uproar. They might get attacked on sight as presumed culprets, or hired as hactchet men and/or investigators to find out the truth, or seemingly hired and then framed. All sorts of fun. Just make the details up as you go along, it's a good skill to practice. And if it flops, well, the players should understand that it wasn't your actual plan in the first place, so they'll forgive you.

[Bharg]

I'm not sure why someone would want to visit the Underdark...

They would probably have to walk for days in total darkness. Do they have someone in the group that can summon rations? Do all of them have dark vision? How many torches are they carrying? They should burn out soon. Also they make you very, very easy to spot and there is really troublesome stuff in the Underdark...

[Saintheart]

When in doubt, kill a PC.

Works for me. :D :D

[Pilo]

After a few hour in the tunnel, make them found a secret door which lead to the bottom of a chute which lead to the path they should have taken at first.

You are a DM, you should remove your players freedom when you need to, but never(NEVER!) let them now you are doing it.

[dantiesilva]

Like the chute idea. Have it locked or something that way they think they aren't suppose to be there. when they jump threw after a while it turns into a portal which leads to the x on the map. Or my favorite thing, pick up a dart from a dart board and throw it at map. Thats were they go, that way they think its a random place.

[Daftendirekt]

Our group understood as soon as the tunnel was mentioned that it was not meant to be followed. The DM pretty much said "You see an opening in the wall. It appears to be a tunnel that heads off into the Underdark". The rest of the Underdark was not the reason we were there, so we ignored it and moved on.

[nedz]

Just have them come across a mural of a smiling cthulu and an arrow pointing straight ahead.

[grarrrg]

In the game i'm running as DM, first time DM, the sunless citadel, there is a tunnel which leads to the underdark which is described as endless empty tunnel covered in fungi or something like that. HOw do I discourage players from spending hours of realtime in this pointless tunnel? I dont feel confident enough as a beginning DM to improv an alternative to the empty tunnel with a spin-off plot???

If you have not already, then DON'T mention the tunnel.
ANYTHING out of the ordinary tends to trigger "LOOTADVENTUREFUNTIMESLOOT!!!!" bells in PC's heads.
Unless the Tunnel absolutely positively MUST be mentioned, then do NOT mention it.

[Griffith!]

When in doubt, kill a PC.

Works for me. :D :D

You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar. You have my support!

Seriously, though. Just make it super boring and they'll turn around. Fun time killings don't happen in endless tunnels, and PCs are all about the lootz.

Unless they're not. We're not here to make generalizations.

[Invader]

You're the DM, just erase the tunnel from the campaign and don't give them a choice to go down it. If they already know about let them explore it for a bit and have them run into a dead end so the have to turn around.

[TuggyNE]

There's subtle ways to guide the players.

"We go down the tunnel!"

"Alright, you're descending down the tunnel. It's pretty boring, except for the occasional fungal bloom. After five minutes you don't seem to have made it anywhere at all. How long do you want to keep going for?"

"Uh... an hour?"

"Cool. After an hour the air seems a bit thicker since you're further underground, and the fungal blooms are more frequent, but that's about it. There's no sign of anything ahead. Do you want to keep going?"

"......eh, let's go back."



That said, if they persist, you should go along with it. It's always good to support players in those choices even if it takes them off your precious rails. Say... after two and a half hours they see a Drow fortress on lockdown. Some Drow matriarch got assassinated, so everything's in an uproar. They might get attacked on sight as presumed culprets, or hired as hactchet men and/or investigators to find out the truth, or seemingly hired and then framed. All sorts of fun. Just make the details up as you go along, it's a good skill to practice. And if it flops, well, the players should understand that it wasn't your actual plan in the first place, so they'll forgive you.

Quoting for truth; unless your group really dislikes sandboxing anything (or you feel entirely unable to cope with a chance of this much improv), this will likely work well.

You can cut out scenic descriptions, of course, but that tends to weaken the world, IMO.