Introducing quests to Suspicious PCs

[TheManicMonocle]

So, I have a very suspicious group of players, with good reason as the NPCs have lied before, but I want to try and put them on the trail of a vast treasure, this time not a trick, and I don't know how to go about it. Know any good quest hooks?

[JohanOfKitten]

The treasure map.

An object can still be deceitful, but you might less believe him to have a mobile to lie or cheat on you.

If an old man come to them to ask for "adventurers to help him find the lost treasure of Katualt, because he want to recover the lost orb and they can take the others treasures", the players will automaticaly wonder "Is he trustful? Does he really want just the orb? Is this a trap? What does the orb? Will the old man use the power of the orb to kill us/destroy the world?"

If the players discover an old coded map with hints of an ancient treasure of Katualt, they might wonder if the map is true or not, but barely more. And the idea of using their finding to become rich is a good motive to speed in an adventure (except if they're lazy and just try to sell it. But at that point, you close your books and say to them that if they want play adventures, they can call you, but you're not that much into a Monopoly RPG).



The thing is, how to give them the map ?
Here is where you can go with several ways. Some could lead the players easily on adventures. Others might give them more suspicions.

Easy way : old inheritance. A family member of the crew die and the group find the map in the attic when they deal with the belongings and the inheritance. It can even be just narrative introduction.

if a character is a gamer/gambler, maybe another poker player try to use the map as money in the pot.

Maybe someone is trying to hire adventurers for an exploration mission, but got killed by an ennemy who want the map. The players might arrive when the assassin is fleeing with the map, or find the map in the assassin lair after an investigation about the murder, or have a copy or a part given by the guy before he was killed.

If mystic treasure, maybe a character might have premonitory dreams about it.

If a character study in the library, he may find the map in a book, hidden between two glued pages. The librarian has no idea that's there.

Maybe a character have a family heirloom that can be use to decipher the map and someone is trying to steal it. Dealing with this guy, the heroes find the map on him (or in his house...)

You can even use their suspicion to push the story forward. For example, the magician (or other guy good with intelligence or cyphers) is hired to decypher some texts. It's hard, as given nearly no context. If you play well the suspicious part, they might investigate their client and find out about the map, or learn that the guy take a ship to the west continent with equipment to explore jungle. Knowing that the guy might find a big treasure might motivate them to take it first, specially if he uses them to get the data while paying poorly for that. Or if they get evidence the guy want to use the treasure for hideous purpose.

[Prince Zahn]

So, I have a very suspicious group of players, with good reason as the NPCs have lied before, but I want to try and put them on the trail of a vast treasure, this time not a trick, and I don't know how to go about it. Know any good quest hooks?

Do any of your party members make have of the insight skill? Do you as a DM play fairly with it?
If the answer to either of those is "no", then you might want to consider using it more often, and staying loyal to it, or offering your players a fair chance of knowing whom they can or can't trust.

There are magical aids that you can use for that, like a medallion of thoughts (which you could either adjust the DC to a fair amount of your shady NPCs have high WIS saves or just botch a roll when you want your players to know), you could encourage them to take spells like detect thoughts or zone of truth (or give them a few doses of some kind of "truth serum" that they can coax your NPCs to fall prey to when they want answers).

I made a thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?516085-how-to-deal-with-player-paranoia-when-you-re-not-planning-to-y-know) not long ago on how to deal with player paranoia. It's more in the sense of handling it as a principle than it is for a single case, give it a read!

[nickl_2000]

Different ways that it would be possible.

-Have a high powered NPC put a Geas on someone to retrieve a special object for them (won't help with trust in the long run, but it will stick them in the adventure). That object just happens to eb part of the treasure trove.

-Could be a simple dream from the god of a faithful player

-A shop owner that they are buying from has a very special object that they would be interested. However, have him refuse to tell them where it came from until they basically beat it out of him. If he doesn't want to tell it overcomes the thought that he is deceiving them.

-Finding a half of a valuable artifact that was freshly broken. They will need to figure out how to find the other piece to make it whole and be able to sell it/use it.

[blurneko]

I tend to make it clear to the players that it is up to them and their characters to choose to believe NPCs or not. Let them take into account the whole risk/reward of the quest. Accepting a quest from shady people might be risky but if they don't accept anything, they won't get much rewards. So it is up to them to make this decision.

I like meaningful decisions and this is a good example.

[sir_argo]

Have the information come to the party in a manner other than being told face-to-face.

Give an excuse for a party member to stumble on a clandestine meeting of some low level bad guys preparing to go after this treasure. They have a map. The PC can opt to try and pilfer the map. Lot's of interesting ways to do that. Or have the bad guys go about town buying supplies. The party can ambush the bad guys on their way out of town. Kinda fun to be the "encounter" instead of the other way around.

Regardless, the party will end up in possession of said map.

[Rysto]

If they don't trust the NPCs, leverage that. Have the NPCs instead try to hide the existence of the treasure from the PCs and offer hooks that will allow them to discover things about it. For example, have them hired by the NPCs to do something seemingly stupid and meaningless (that is actually critical to recovering the treasure). Make them suspicious about what's going on, and offer them opportunities to learn more.

If they expect lies, feed them obvious lies and let them discover the truth. They'll feel cleverer for having done so anyway.

[Sigreid]

A note or map on the body of a fallen opponent is easiest. Especially if it is clear the opponents were following the map when they happen on the party.

[Segev]

A rival adventuring party is after it, and they hear about it.

A deceitful NPC tries to cheat them out of the treasure map.

They already have the treasure map or a clue to the quest on them, and somebody tries to steal it/swindle them out of it.

[Dracul3S]

Are there really no npcs the players deem trustworthy? In that case the whole 'treasure problem' seems really minor to me? This might be a bigger issue. Never overdo the cheating and/or lying npc stuff. It can easily cause more damage than one might think. Remember it can cause players to start distrusting not only the npcs, but the dm as well. Happened to me (as a player) more than once.