Rattslinger
2013-08-03, 02:35 AM
Hello all,
I need to vent a bit about the 3.5 Eberron game I'm running. As of the first game, I put out several little hints for adventures I created for the group. They didn't pick up any of them in Sharn, where they were located when the game started.
The one plot they picked up on was when it was mentioned that some of the city guard's feather fall rings weren't working. They decided to go to the cargo stairs/cargo lifts on the side of the city and walk down it, for fun, I threw a little village clinging to the side of the cliff for them to adventure in and named it appropriately "Side Town." Since they didn't want to spend the whole time descending, they wanted something to do that wasn't just going into caves and killing monsters, so that's why I created the little village.
Anyways back to the story; the guards there had gone on strike because the city was busy dealing with some pretty heavy magical attacks on random buildings in the city, that one player didn't want to get involved in because and I quote "I don't want to deal with any save the world plots at first level, and those magical attacks feel like a save the world plot."
So I didn't get them involved in that plot and let them go off the rails to the little side town I made up on the fly because they wanted, which is fine, I however have to start whipping up NPCs and maps and building names, etc. on a moments notice. The last game, I got some decent stuff taken care of, but since they have decided to stay in the town for more than one session and want to do more, I fleshed out the town a bit more between sessions. However, like all games they went and did things that I didn't anticipate, so I had to write down notes on cards, so that later sessions there would be references and they would know what is where and who is what.
The players decided to split up the party and go to random places to try to find information on the bad guy, when they failed their gather information checks, I was nudging them to places they could go to find out the information, all of them, they decided not to do that and go other places, hence more note taking.
After game, I was approached by a player who complained that the game had dragged in the beginning because I was doing non-game related things, which he specifically said that the note taking had nothing to do with game and was dragging the game down.
So, I have no idea what to do, one player doesn't want to get involved in a fully written plot, and another complains when I have to make things up on the fly because of the player's decisions.
I need to vent a bit about the 3.5 Eberron game I'm running. As of the first game, I put out several little hints for adventures I created for the group. They didn't pick up any of them in Sharn, where they were located when the game started.
The one plot they picked up on was when it was mentioned that some of the city guard's feather fall rings weren't working. They decided to go to the cargo stairs/cargo lifts on the side of the city and walk down it, for fun, I threw a little village clinging to the side of the cliff for them to adventure in and named it appropriately "Side Town." Since they didn't want to spend the whole time descending, they wanted something to do that wasn't just going into caves and killing monsters, so that's why I created the little village.
Anyways back to the story; the guards there had gone on strike because the city was busy dealing with some pretty heavy magical attacks on random buildings in the city, that one player didn't want to get involved in because and I quote "I don't want to deal with any save the world plots at first level, and those magical attacks feel like a save the world plot."
So I didn't get them involved in that plot and let them go off the rails to the little side town I made up on the fly because they wanted, which is fine, I however have to start whipping up NPCs and maps and building names, etc. on a moments notice. The last game, I got some decent stuff taken care of, but since they have decided to stay in the town for more than one session and want to do more, I fleshed out the town a bit more between sessions. However, like all games they went and did things that I didn't anticipate, so I had to write down notes on cards, so that later sessions there would be references and they would know what is where and who is what.
The players decided to split up the party and go to random places to try to find information on the bad guy, when they failed their gather information checks, I was nudging them to places they could go to find out the information, all of them, they decided not to do that and go other places, hence more note taking.
After game, I was approached by a player who complained that the game had dragged in the beginning because I was doing non-game related things, which he specifically said that the note taking had nothing to do with game and was dragging the game down.
So, I have no idea what to do, one player doesn't want to get involved in a fully written plot, and another complains when I have to make things up on the fly because of the player's decisions.