Strange player mentality

[Ichneumon]

My players just abandoned the quest they were doing (killing a mayor of a town who happens to be possessed by a demon) and started travelling to another continent so they could be in a desert where they could put the loot they found last session, a regular scroll with a spell that protects against the heat, to some use... I'm not sure what to do with such a player mentality... thoughts?

[Yora]

Let them do it and then ask them what they want to do now?

Also, please use meaningful thread titles that tell people what the thread is about.

[Ezeze]

My best suggestion is to be very careful about what you give them in the future

Also, get your hands on Sandstorm - it will help with the whole "desert" thing

[Saint GoH]

I have found I most often do completely random, nonsensical things when I get bored of the current plot. (Not to say your plot is boring, but perhaps the players feel stumped in someway) I could use a granule of intelligence to figure out the next step, or I could do something completely against alignment, character, class, everything and just do something weird. Its often more fun that way.

[Ozreth]

Sounds like a good group of players to me : )

Being a DM isn't too much fun if they don't challenge you and make you scratch your head :p

[valadil]

so they could be in a desert where they could put the loot they found last session, a regular scroll with a spell that protects against the heat, to some use...

My best guess is that they think they're following a plot hook. Sometimes players fixate on something they find in the game. If they decide it's a hook and they're the types to blindly follow a hook, hoping it explains itself when they arrive, well, that's the kind of player who ends up in the desert for no good reason. Either come up with something for them to do in the desert or mock them for going there with no real motivation.

[Jair Barik]

Do your players use this site? Becuase often when players complain about 'railroading' or 'lack of plot' or anything along those lines people inevitably recommend the players go do something else on their own initiative.

[Anxe]

They moved off the plot wagon? Punish them with random encounters! Or an entire random dungeon beneath the sands! Super easy to do for D&D 3.5 because the DMG has all those handy random tables. You roll for each room to see what doors, traps, and monsters are in there. Then you just do that for every room until the PCs are bored and decide to find a new adventuring hook (that you've designed) at the nearby oasis town.

I would advise you to forget the demon mayor plot. It wasn't interesting enough for your players. But remember! The world does go on without them. The consequences of ignoring a demon will be felt eventually. (Let the demon get away with whatever his nefarious scheme is, or have word get to the players that he was killed by Sir Joe Paladin).

[Telonius]

They might just be Bob Dylan fans.

Well, I wish I was on some
Australian mountain range
Oh, I wish I was on some
Australian mountain range
I got no reason to be there, but I
Imagine it would be some kind of change.

[Bang!]

How did the demon possess the mayor? Could it be a symptom or an indicator of something larger? Maybe the Abyss is leaking? Maybe later on that can be used to build an 'oh ****' moment? Or something else along similar lines?

I'd probably try to seed other symptoms of a large-scale-event-explosion along on the random travels, just to get a sense of consistency and overarching plot within the campaign. That also has the advantage of justifying recycled ideas. Themes are nice that way.

But mostly, I'd advise just running with it. The best campaigns are usually the ones that force the GM to think fastest.

[Sydonai]

Have the Demon become paranoid and send mercenaries/assassins after them.

[shadow_archmagi]

Many years ago, in the heart of the desert, there was a tribe of magnificent dancers. Everything they did was fluid and rhythmic. The bravest of warriors would travel for days through the searing sun just to spend a few days watching them go about their lives.

One day, a powerful demon lord appeared, and demanded they sell their souls to him, so that when they died, they could entertain him. They refused, claiming nothing he could offer would ever compel them to abandon their religion. Enraged, he cursed the entire region. The tribe refused to leave, and gradually, they began to change.

They became huge, sinuous worms, capable of burrowing through the sand at great speed. To cope with the transformation, they retreated deeper into themselves, letting the dance control their lives and shield them from the outside world. Now, they wander the sands endlessly, desiring only to keep moving, to keep the beat, so as not to risk comprehending their fate.

Anyone who walks without rhythm shatters that isolation, disturbs them, and is ruthlessly hunted by the worms. As a result, every desert caravan includes a bard, and spotters watch the horizon for the telltale disturbances. At the first wormsign, the music begins, and everyone prays while they do the two-step.

[obliged_salmon]

The best advice I can offer is to sit down and talk to your players about what kind of story they want to tell with their characters. It doesn't sound like they're interested in demon mayors. You might look at their character sheets for inspiration, or use backgrounds if they came up with any. Come up with a solid plot hook as a group and they might be more invested in it.

[Warlawk]

Have the Demon become paranoid and send mercenaries/assassins after them.

Or show them that their actions have consequences and when they return they find that the demon has gathered power and is operating more openly. The town has turned into a nightmare with many citizens enslaved. Drugs run rampant, enslaved prostitution is the norm, children are sold as slaves, murder is commonplace etc. The town is large, growing and actively preparing to attack nearby settlements. Be sure to have a number of peasant NPCs lament the tragedy that no one stopped the demon before it came to this.

Alternatively, just roll with it.

Let them find clues that lead them to an ancient dungeon beneath the sands where they find some important McGuffin that will help them defeat the demon back home.

Personally I like the first a lot better, however the second is more appropriate for a light hearted casual kind of game.

[Tengu_temp]

I think they do it purposely to "get off rails", aka ignore all plothooks the DM throws at them and to be rebellious just because. Which means that's it punishment time! If you're playing DND, shift all the good PCs towards neutral for abandoning innocent townsfolk to a demon for selfish reasons. Make everything about their journey either a boring drudge, or totally unfair encounters against overwhelming odds. If they actually manage to reach the desert, good. Let them wander it aimlessly until they run out of the scroll's power first, then supplies, then their lives. Then offer to take the campaign back to the point where they haven't left on their stupid venture yet.

Vindicative? Yes. But players who are rebels without a cause deserve such a lesson.

[Telonius]

I do think that a key question here is why the players/characters left. Did they think they were following a clue? If so, it'll be fairly easy to guide them back on. Or was there some other reason (up to and including "this is boring")? If the players want more of a sandbox campaign (no pun intended), go ahead and give it to them.

[Totally Guy]

I do think that a key question here is why the players/characters left.

Totally! Why is way more important that what. Yet it's always getting ignored.

[Talakeal]

Yeah, players fixate on the strangest things, and miss the most obvious clues.

One time I had an adventure where a demon worshipper was attempting to smuggle a genie's lamp to the lower planes as a gift for their master, but was killed on the way and stashed the lamp, and the current bad guys are trying to recover it. The players completed the mission, and got their hold on the lamp, but then wanted to keep going, believing their mission was to complete the journey into hell and defeat the arch devil. They ended up wasting all three wishes, their "reward" on getting into hell, attacking the arch devil, and then escaping when things turned out as you would expect.

[Delwugor]

"Players do the darnedest things" Is practically a matra in my group.
For me GMing is a combination of preparedness, flexibility and improvisation. Can not count the number of times my plans have been completely derailed within the first hour of play.
The nice thing is adjusting to the players allows them to take some ownership of the campaign and invest even more in it.

[Jolly]

Do they know the mayor is demon possessed (both ic and irl)? If you tried to convey that and they didn't get it, that would explain their behaviour. Did you over describe the scroll, or make it's acquisition seem purposeful? Could be meta-gaming. Maybe they don't feel ready to take on a demon possessed political figure and think this is either a McGuffin expedition or a means to level so it's a fair fight. Finally, they may feel railroaded and are deliberately refusing to co operate with the plot they don't like.

[Amphetryon]

Many years ago, in the heart of the desert, there was a tribe of magnificent dancers. Everything they did was fluid and rhythmic. The bravest of warriors would travel for days through the searing sun just to spend a few days watching them go about their lives.

One day, a powerful demon lord appeared, and demanded they sell their souls to him, so that when they died, they could entertain him. They refused, claiming nothing he could offer would ever compel them to abandon their religion. Enraged, he cursed the entire region. The tribe refused to leave, and gradually, they began to change.

They became huge, sinuous worms, capable of burrowing through the sand at great speed. To cope with the transformation, they retreated deeper into themselves, letting the dance control their lives and shield them from the outside world. Now, they wander the sands endlessly, desiring only to keep moving, to keep the beat, so as not to risk comprehending their fate.

Anyone who walks without rhythm shatters that isolation, disturbs them, and is ruthlessly hunted by the worms. As a result, every desert caravan includes a bard, and spotters watch the horizon for the telltale disturbances. At the first wormsign, the music begins, and everyone prays while they do the two-step.

As a player who has jumped at a random treasure drop's lure before, I'd advise against this. While not universally the case, most players who go off on a tangent do so because there's something about the main plot that's not holding their attention. When the DM shows that it's not actually possible to get away from his/her plot regardless of the players' actions or desires, the DM is telling the players that their motivations don't matter. That rarely ends well.

Your best bet in my opinion is to have them find things to do in the desert, since that's where they apparently want to be. Ancient ruins swallowed by the shifting sands of a desert are a common enough trope that you should be able to work out something fairly easily, or seek advice from helpful forum-goers.

Alternatively, if you're really confused by the turn of events and stumped for direction, talk with your players. Maybe one of them got a copy of Sandstorm recently and saw something intriguing in it. Maybe the storyline had fallen into familiar territory for them and they wanted a break - or it was unfamiliar and they wanted back to the familiar territory of a desert campaign.

Remember, D&D is a social activity. "Punishing" people for not doing what you expect is rarely a good choice in a social gathering of friends.

[icefractal]

Many years ago, in the heart of the desert, there was a tribe of magnificent dancers. ...

As a player who has jumped at a random treasure drop's lure before, I'd advise against this. ...

I don't disagree, but why did you pick that post to reply to? There were several actual "punish the PCs for doing this" posts, and the dancing sandworms seems more like an interesting thing to encounter while they're there (or possibly a joke).

[LansXero]

I don't disagree, but why did you pick that post to reply to? There were several actual "punish the PCs for doing this" posts, and the dancing sandworms seems more like an interesting thing to encounter while they're there (or possibly a joke).

Id say an interesting joke; its funny to think of dancing worms, or it can be tragic; and on-topic, its a goood idea: You may run away from THIS plot, cool, wasnt your thing. But you cant run away from ALL plots. Unless thats what you really really want, in which case you shouldve made that clear at the start,

[Rixx]

Anyone who walks without rhythm shatters that isolation, disturbs them, and is ruthlessly hunted by the worms. As a result, every desert caravan includes a bard, and spotters watch the horizon for the telltale disturbances. At the first wormsign, the music begins, and everyone prays while they do the two-step.

That was quite an elaborate setup for that joke!

[huttj509]

That was quite an elaborate setup for that joke!

If you walk without rhythm, you'll never learn.

/fatboy slim

[Amphetryon]

I don't disagree, but why did you pick that post to reply to? There were several actual "punish the PCs for doing this" posts, and the dancing sandworms seems more like an interesting thing to encounter while they're there (or possibly a joke).

I chose that post because it veered slightly away from straight-up "punish the PCs for doing this" (which I think is also bad), toward the more subtle "all roads lead to Rome" trope. The advice was less "punish the players" and more "push the plot into the players' path regardless of their actions" as I read it, which is a different message, IMO.

[Maryring]

Tell them they screwed up their navigation and ended up in the dessert, rather than the desert. Just cause.

[Ravens_cry]

Let them do it, spending a session or two travelling through the desert and back and then follow through with the natural consequences of them not fulfilling the quest in a timely fashion. Demon-mayor obviously had some plans, have them come to fruition in their absence. Yes, it's a lot of work for you, but a world with verisimilitude does not stand still when the players look away. Now instead of merely a quick and quiet assassination, you have whatever nightmarish situation that demon-mayor has cooked up. I don't think you should punish players in a free-form game, but you should not be afraid to use natural consequences for their actions. Freedom includes the freedom to mess up and choose badly.

[Traab]

How far away from the demon mayor is this desert? Im a fan of the "let the kiddies play" route, but I also like the idea of consequences. Try this on for size. Let them go to the desert, let them explore, fight encounters, even give them some random meaningless to the storyline dungeon to crawl through. Then when they get back to the oasis town to sell their loot and whatnot, they hear these terrible rumors of a town taken over by demons. It would be harder on you to redesign the campaign a bit to say, turn the town into a small bit of hell on earth, but at least it might show them that their actions had a consequence, and with a different setup of encounters and issues, they might find it more interesting to have a house to house battle against the forces of evil, instead of trying to assassinate a demon possessed mayor, or whatever the original setup looked like.

[Arrakiz]

I salute You in account of having a great group of players! No- really this isn't a joke nor sarcasm! Even though their trip to desert seems a bit chaotic and underplaned- it's great they came up with a scheme of their own! See- my players tend to go along the way of "let's just follow the plotline to the end". they don't think it's even possible there might be a part when they HAVE to come up with a plan and try to find a solution for problems on their freakin' own! And the worst thing that can happen- and I am not joking, it actually happend to me a few times- is when the weight of the plot shifts from "acting" to "planning for prelonged future"- they completly shut down and they actually either go on "guns a' blazin'" (much like the mentioned trip to hell to kill the archdevil- i know right? Somehow they got the idea that the world just keeps playing along with THEM...) OR either they start to wander aimlessly trying to figure out what should they do now. They never can figure since they never have a bloody AMBITION to start with! And the VERY WORST thing that happend to me was when they actually started complaining to "why nobody (no NPC they meant) showed up to tell them what to do...". My player actaully told me that next time I'll be creating a camaign he wanted me not to make parts where they should plan but I should make the campaign carry them around to the end... And so i thought- hey! Let's punish them for they lack of thinikg about consequences! Methodically- for the next year they've been constantly dying bicouse of their stupidity and lack off planning and precociousness. One time at the end of the campaig their characters caused global genocide of all the humans on the planet, they own souls where stripped off them, memories crushed and they were frown to the other realm of existance with an enchatment forbidding them from ever returning. And that's just bicouse the guy who schemed this and kept using PCs like puppets (of which they where, of course, to dumb to notice) was damn NICE to them. He wasn't even evil. And the lesson i learned from that? It doesn't work. Punishing them- serves no purpose. I learned that the only way to teach my guys to start planing is to REWERD them whenever their scheming serves a practiacl conclusion. So my advise in this manner is, ridiculous as it sounds, "baby steps". You are actually very fortunate to heve players capable of creative thinking. If they can develop a long term goal which they will pursue- to me it's outstanding! Of coures- by all means, show them consequences of them abandonig their post, make an archvilian out of the demon, make NPCs contantly remindthem what have the players done. Fill them with guilt. But DO NOT stop them from developing their own goals- reward them for that with an awarness of important NPCs- let them have influence and power, let them use it how they see fit. If it will make them to drunk with power? Show them there are those more cunning then them, those who still remember of their primal failure. NEVER let them sleep peacfully. But don't be afraid they did something You did not taken into account when creating a plot- be flexible and never let them think you didn't see their action coming. show them- You knew what would they do all along. The best games are those not planned in advence- the best are those made by response to players actions.