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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.

hymer
2013-08-03, 02:42 AM
Bring it up with the two of them at the same time. Show them the conflict you've discovered and see what they have to say about it themselves. Look for a solution with your players.

dariathalon
2013-08-03, 02:48 AM
The problem is that you're not dealing with a single "they" entity. Your group is made up of individuals, each with their own preferences. That complicates things for a DM. One thing that I try to do is at the end of each play session, I have a few questions that I ask players while we pack up our stuff.

-What did you like about this session?
-What didn't you like about this session?
-What would you like to see or do in future sessions?
-What are your immediate plans for the next session?
-etc.

This gives me a little more direction in my planning for the next week. And if they don't like what I've got planned, well they have themselves to blame. I asked the questions and planned based on their answers. If they weren't communicative enough about what they wanted, then I'll be stuck doing a lot more improvisation (the quality of which can be varied).

Rattslinger
2013-08-03, 02:52 AM
-What did you like about this session?
-What didn't you like about this session?
-What would you like to see or do in future sessions?
-What are your immediate plans for the next session?
-etc.

Thank you for this advice, I have done that every single game, and I've written it all down from each player, 3 of them have no problems, they just wanted some combat, boom, combat this last game. The other two, I don't know what to do with, we actually had to ask a player to leave because his roleplaying was over bearing other players,so the two who are having a problem now, wanted more opportunity to roleplay, but when one of the scenes was in a tavern, where they were talking to people because they failed their gather information checks, one of the two said that whole scene could've been 5 minutes, because their was too much roleplaying going on in that scene.

dariathalon
2013-08-03, 03:38 AM
My best guess then is that he was frustrated after failing the gather info check. He probably felt like the role-play after that was pointless. With a player like that, sometimes it's best to separate the role-play from the rolls. Have a longer scene in which the player can just have fun playing his part and at some later time let him make his roll for gather info (or whatever) play out the reaction shortly and if he wants to continue the role-play thereafter that's on him. Unfortunately, this might not go over well with players who aren't so wishy-washy in their desires.

That or he just doesn't know what he wants. Which actually seems the most likely.

I can totally understand your annoyance. "There was too much roleplaying in that scene." What did he expect from a roleplaying game? Especially when he'd asked for more opportunity to rp.

erikun
2013-08-03, 06:18 AM
Did you mention to your players that they avoided every single piece of material that you had prepared for them, and that you needed to make everything they did from scratch?

If this trend continues, you might want to subtly point out that things would progress a lot smoother and without excessive note-taking if the PCs would just so happen to go along one of the already-planned-out adventures. :smalltongue:

Alejandro
2013-08-03, 06:38 AM
Two comments:

- Never let a dice roll stand in the way of progressing the story. If the PCs need a certain piece of info to progress the story, then they get it, regardless of what their gather information check, or anything else, was.

- Don't bother making maps of, or probably even naming, or making NPCs for, most places until the PCs go there and show interest in it. Wait until you see where they've gone and what they actually cared about, then flesh it out. Players don't care about 90% of your background, story, and NPCs. (your as in the GM, not you personally.)

Slipperychicken
2013-08-03, 08:53 AM
As a player, if I avoid an adventure hook, it's usually because I think it's too high level, or I miss it entirely. If I make a mistake like that, I have no problem with the DM letting me know OOC that the adventure is level-appropriate and we're supposed to go on it.

I don't know about your players, but I would rather take an OOC hint from the DM than make him write another adventure because I was daydreaming during the last quest-hook.

Toofey
2013-08-04, 09:38 AM
The players having fun is the goal but their whims are not to be adhered to, also he's something of a dim bulb if he doesn't know why the cards are related and you can tell him, or simply ridicule him, at your leisure.

You are the DM, do not take guff.