Stop Helping the PC's!

[El'the Ellie]

Hi fellow DM's! I frequently run into a pitfall that I'd like some help with. Namely, when the PC's are charged with saving the world, how would I stop NPC allies from giving anything and everything the PC's ask for?

When PC's need help and have proven to be capable of dealing with a very real threat, I often find myself having to come up with excuses not to have NPC allies give them wildly outleveled aid. Why shouldn't the local church teleport the PC's right to their destination (assuming they have capable casters)? Why shouldn't the king donate his best weapons and magic items to the PCs as they go to fight the demon on his doorstep? Why don't the shopkeepers give unbelievable discounts when it's that or let the world end?
I know some people are greedy or selfish to the extreme, but it feels cheap to have everyone of power be that way. And the 'I don't believe you' story feels so forced after a time, especially if the PC's have pretty solid proof they need to save the world.

Have any other DM's encountered this problem? And if so, how have you handled it? Thanks!

[Honest Tiefling]

Hi fellow DM's! I frequently run into a pitfall that I'd like some help with. Namely, when the PC's are charged with saving the world, how would I stop NPC allies from giving anything and everything the PC's ask for?

Don't. Just make it a proper challenge. The PCs know they're saving the world, but the NPCs don't know that. Have them convince and prove themselves worthy. Especially if you have characters invested in diplomacy! Reward them for it with plot hooks.

When PC's need help and have proven to be capable of dealing with a very real threat, I often find myself having to come up with excuses not to have NPC allies give them wildly outleveled aid.

Why do these NPCs have the aid, and aren't using it? Perhaps they need it elsewhere, like for that giant fire. Maybe they have vast amounts of magic, but there are a lots of restrictions (rituals, alignment restrictions, location restrictions, race or bloodline restrictions) that make it impractical to hand it out.

Also, if they have this stuff, why do the PCs matter? Reconsider your world building if the NPCs have the means to help themselves, but aren't using them. There are plenty of reasons they might not be able to, but we'd need more information to help with this particular snarl.

Why shouldn't the local church teleport the PC's right to their destination (assuming they have capable casters)?

Do they have sufficient recon to ensure they aren't going to get dropped into the middle of an army? No? Then teleport them, but not too close so they still have some travelling but not as much. This is great for high level play to distinguish it from low level play, and to reward the players for buttering up the casters. Also helps if you don't have any events for their journey planned...

Why shouldn't the king donate his best weapons and magic items to the PCs as they go to fight the demon on his doorstep?

If the demon is THAT close, then the king isn't in a position to stop the PCs from taking what they want to begin with. It could be that said artifacts are cursed and might cause more issues using them. And again, what is the king doing with those items?

Personally, I try to make very strong limits for crazy magic NPCs have. For instance, most teleportation in my opinion, for most settings is best handed by portals. You can't build them in a jiffy and you got a limited number of destinations. Weapons and magic items are probably already in use, so by the time the poop has hit the fan they're no longer in the picture.

As for shopkeepers, maybe a few have decided to switch sides or refuse to part with anything that might protect their family. Or they've bailed and are running away from the issues and aren't even in their shop. This would likely result in mass looting, so finding anything of value or importance is impeded by chaos and a large mob trying to steal everything including that which is nailed down.

I hope this has given you a few ideas.

[Darth Ultron]

Have any other DM's encountered this problem? And if so, how have you handled it? Thanks!

Sure, it's not much of a problem....

The classic is They Have No Help to Give. Often this is done by making ''them'' weak. The tiny kingdom of Puddledorf only has 1,000 gold in the treasury, for example.

The Bad Guys got There First. The high clerics are already dead...in a mysterious fire. The high knights all left to fight a troll horde that...um...suddenly came out of the Far Forest. Wingledum the wizard is locked in his tower making a new spell and ranger Roz is missing. All part of the bad guys plot....

Make the help matter less. Much like when doing a plot for a high level game, make the power not matter. Lord Doom has the princess, but not at his castle...so you could teleport there, but you won't find anything.

Your average folk, like a shopkeeper, might not believe ''the world is ending'', so why give a discount?

Why would the king give the Sword of Omens to a ''rag tag bunch of adventures''? He will need it to defend the kingdom if it comes down to that. Same with most items.

[HidesHisEyes]

It may depend on the system you're using, but if it's D&D 5E at any rate, remember that it's really designed for low magic settings. I think the assumption is that if the party are higher than about level 6 then they're probably the best resources available. The King isn't supposed to have an armoury full of magic weapons. Those weapons are lying around in dungeons and ruins that are too dangerous for anyone but level 6+ adventurers. So have the King open his armoury of at best finely crafted normal weapons to the party but that's about it. Similarly with mages and clerics: by the time the party is saving the world as opposed to the town, the party's mages and clerics are the ones with the most powerful magic, for teleporting or otherwise. Just aim to have a setting that doesn't provide a support network of power and resources for the PCs. They're pretty much the only ones powerful enough to take on the forces they are facing by that point. They're on their own.

[El'the Ellie]

Hmm, fair points, thank you. Follow up question though: if NPCs can't help because they're weaker/have less resources than PCs, then doesn't that kind of invalidate any law force? I realize a lot of running a game trusts PCs not to be 'chaotic stupid', but that seems to give PCs a ton of agency in a city even if they don't make use of it.

Edit: in my view this mainly concerns D&D 3.5 games of levels ~8 and higher

[SirBellias]

Yeah, 3.5 has some issues in that regard without an established chain of authority for what happens when adventurers get involved in crimes.

I make it so that the PCs are the ones most available to help, as others with power are limited by location (watchmens authority only goes so far, highpriests only working miracles from inside the temples) or by being highly specific (only really useful thing they can do is with a ritual involving x, y, and z costs, in a certain place, at a certain time, otherwise useless). Magic items aren't available, due to being lost through the ages, stolen, or never actually existing in the first place (myths and legends aren't all they've cracked up to be).

[HidesHisEyes]

Hmm, fair points, thank you. Follow up question though: if NPCs can't help because they're weaker/have less resources than PCs, then doesn't that kind of invalidate any law force? I realize a lot of running a game trusts PCs not to be 'chaotic stupid', but that seems to give PCs a ton of agency in a city even if they don't make use of it.

Edit: in my view this mainly concerns D&D 3.5 games of levels ~8 and higher

Yeah. I make sure the players understand right from the start that they're supposed to be the good guys. I know some people think the players shouldn't be "supposed" to be or do anything, but those people play a very different form of D&D to what I like to play (or run).

[Thrudd]

Hmm, fair points, thank you. Follow up question though: if NPCs can't help because they're weaker/have less resources than PCs, then doesn't that kind of invalidate any law force? I realize a lot of running a game trusts PCs not to be 'chaotic stupid', but that seems to give PCs a ton of agency in a city even if they don't make use of it.

Edit: in my view this mainly concerns D&D 3.5 games of levels ~8 and higher

A. If the PC's are saving the world then either they must be the ones the world is going to, because nobody else is powerful enough to do it, or they are the only ones who know the world is in danger and don't have the time or ability to get anyone else to help. Otherwise, it doesn't make sense that the most powerful heroes in the world wouldn't assemble to save everything. If there are high-powered resources, armies, magic artifacts, those things would all be brought to bear to save the world, assuming everyone wants to save the world.

B. Don't use the "save the world plot" at all. Think of other things to do.

C. Once characters become high level, yes, they are not kept in check by normal laws. They can become rulers in their own right, conquer or found cities and kingdoms, and make up their own laws. Or become villains of the highest order and loot and pillage everything. However, when they are that high in level, the things that are easy for them to take from others should not be things that are very exciting or powerful. So they take over a town, and force the blacksmith to make them mundane armor and weapons and steal jewels and gold from the treasury: when they can do that, they each probably already have more magic items and treasure than any normal town. If they want more powerful items and spells, they still need to go hunting for them where they are hidden, in demon-infested abysses and ancient dragon hoards and mind-flayer hives, etc. People and things who have weapons and spells better than the ones the players already have will be powerful enough to be a challenge for them. If the players want to play "Highlander" (There can be only one), and spend the game hunting down all NPC's with magic items and spells and killing them and taking their stuff until they are the most powerful in the world...well, let them try, and don't make it easy.

D. PC's should have a ton of agency to come up with solutions to problems. The setting and the people in it should behave in a logical manner consistent with the reality they understand. Try to consider how the world and NPCs will react to the events that are happening were the players not there, and what the important people in the world want and how they pursue their goals. That should help you decide how people will react to the players when they get involved. If the players come into town and tell everyone that a zombie hoard is heading their way and everyone should get ready to fight, what reaction makes sense for them? Whatever it is, do that. If the town is home to a church full of high level clerics, then you've chosen a poor way to threaten this town, because the clerics will provide a pretty effective defense unless there is a really gigantic number of zombies.
Populate your world however you want with whatever level NPC's you want, but consider the repercussions of having lots of high level characters and powerful magic everywhere and what that means for how the PCs fit in and what sorts of things are a threat and to whom.

[PersonMan]

Hmm, fair points, thank you. Follow up question though: if NPCs can't help because they're weaker/have less resources than PCs, then doesn't that kind of invalidate any law force? I realize a lot of running a game trusts PCs not to be 'chaotic stupid', but that seems to give PCs a ton of agency in a city even if they don't make use of it.

Edit: in my view this mainly concerns D&D 3.5 games of levels ~8 and higher

There's a difference between "can stop world-ending threats or provide significant aid in doing so easily" and "can fight a PC".

If a big city has three to five champions who can be called on to defend it, they can give the level 2 guards the weight of a much higher level character's strength, but in a world-ending situation they're all going to be busy keeping the city running and ensuring that the coming events don't destroy it even if the world is saved.

[Darth Ultron]

Hmm, fair points, thank you. Follow up question though: if NPCs can't help because they're weaker/have less resources than PCs, then doesn't that kind of invalidate any law force? I realize a lot of running a game trusts PCs not to be 'chaotic stupid', but that seems to give PCs a ton of agency in a city even if they don't make use of it.

It's kind of a myth that ''the law'' is....or must be...super powerful. Plenty of ''law people'' live off the idea that ''everyone will just be good''.

But even if you have all super cops....well a cop is not the best one for an adventure. Cops don't slay dragons, they serve and protect people and up hold the law. A cop wizard would know sleep and hold person, but not fireball, for example.

But if you feel the need for super cops...you can add them. Say the city has seven iron golem ''robo''cops...but they can't leave the city limits.

[ClintACK]

Depends a lot on the kind of story you're telling.

There's the Buffy the Vampire Slayer version where most of the world has no idea that she and her ragtag band of heroes need to know the plural of Apocalypse. And if they did know, they'd be trying to help in all the wrong ways. But that's not really D&D.

Also from BtVS, you could go the way of "The Zeppo"

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... in which Xander saves the school from getting blown up by a group of zombie bullies while the rest of the cast is busy fighting a tentacled horror that's trying to force its way through the Hellmouth in the school library. The higher level party (Buffy and Faith and Giles) are busy with other things -- and never find out that Xander saved them all from a fiery death.

In other words, your 8th level heroes are dealing with a plot that could endanger their home city... while the local 17th level wizard who could probably deal with that problem in between breakfast and lunch is rather busy saving the world from a Great Old One that means to eat the sun.

It's the same reason the 8th level party isn't taking the afternoon to help little Jimmy find his dog that wandered away. Or help the innkeeper with the giant rats that have broken into his wine cellar. The trick is to phrase this so it doesn't trivialize the level-appropriate heroic deeds of the party.

If you want it to be an all-hands-on-deck world-threatening problem, then perhaps the high level NPCs are busy doing things like managing the evacuation and commanding the army (that is just barely holding off the enemy hordes, for now) or holding the hell-rift closed while the PCs hunt chase down the cultists who opened it and bring back the evil artifact so the rift can be permanently closed.

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PCs: "Can't you just teleport us to the cultist temple?"
Archmage: "This isn't as easy as it looks. If I stop concentrating, this cosmic rift will crack open again and more demons will come through."
PCs: "How about a location spell?"
Archmage: "Seriously, this is straining even me. Go and get the McGuffinator2k so we can close this thing before it eats the whole city."
PCs: "Uberknight, we could sure use your strong sword arm in the fight."
Uberknight: "Alas, someone has to stand guard against the demons sneaking through the rift, lest one of them distract Archmage long enough to destroy us all! Go, and return as swiftly as you may. You carry the hopes of us all. Now, go!"
etc.

Think about Lord of the Rings -- Elrond, Galadrial, Gandalf, and Aragorn would have made a kick-ass epic-level adventuring party. They probably could have fought their way through the Black Gates... until all the Nazgul showed up and the Great Eye turned on them. Aragorn and Legolas and Gimli did change the course of battles (at Helm's Deep and Minas Tirith) that could have seen whole nations slaughtered. But still Sam and Frodo carried the ring to Mordor -- and so, saved the world.

[JNAProductions]

Hi fellow DM's! I frequently run into a pitfall that I'd like some help with. Namely, when the PC's are charged with saving the world, how would I stop NPC allies from giving anything and everything the PC's ask for?

When PC's need help and have proven to be capable of dealing with a very real threat, I often find myself having to come up with excuses not to have NPC allies give them wildly outleveled aid. Why shouldn't the local church teleport the PC's right to their destination (assuming they have capable casters)? Why shouldn't the king donate his best weapons and magic items to the PCs as they go to fight the demon on his doorstep? Why don't the shopkeepers give unbelievable discounts when it's that or let the world end?
I know some people are greedy or selfish to the extreme, but it feels cheap to have everyone of power be that way. And the 'I don't believe you' story feels so forced after a time, especially if the PC's have pretty solid proof they need to save the world.

Have any other DM's encountered this problem? And if so, how have you handled it? Thanks!

What system is this for? That'll affect my advice.

[Honest Tiefling]

Hmm, fair points, thank you. Follow up question though: if NPCs can't help because they're weaker/have less resources than PCs, then doesn't that kind of invalidate any law force? I realize a lot of running a game trusts PCs not to be 'chaotic stupid', but that seems to give PCs a ton of agency in a city even if they don't make use of it.

Consider adjusting the scope of the story if this bothers you. If the group of PCs are not heroes fighting for the whole of the universe, they need to be more powerful then anything else. If they are instead fighting an evil kingdom enslaving people, the kingdom is likely to have plenty of people on equal or better footing then them. Situations like this also give you more opportunities for NPCs to not simply aid the party, such as threats to their family.

And trust your players. No game will work without that. Presumably they are your friends and want you to have fun as well.

[Knaight]

Consider adjusting the scope of the story if this bothers you. If the group of PCs are not heroes fighting for the whole of the universe, they need to be more powerful then anything else. If they are instead fighting an evil kingdom enslaving people, the kingdom is likely to have plenty of people on equal or better footing then them. Situations like this also give you more opportunities for NPCs to not simply aid the party, such as threats to their family.

The scale of the conflict in this regard is largely tangential. If the PCs are heroes fighting for the whole of the universe, and so are a bunch of other people, then them not getting all that exceptional aid makes sense. They aren't the only hope, aid granted is likely to be wasted from the perspective of the people granting it, there are other groups they might support, so on and so forth. If the PCs are the extent of the military resistance against an evil kingdom enslaving people, then everyone up against the kingdom has a pretty good motivation to provide exceptional aid to the PCs.

[El'the Ellie]

And trust your players. No game will work without that. Presumably they are your friends and want you to have fun as well.

Actually therein lies the crux of the problem: I've DM'ed a lot of games IRL with friends and we have a gentlemen's/lady's agreement not to try the DM on things like this. I plan on running my first PBP game on the boards soon, and I know players may not have that level of courtesy. But you're right, I should start by giving the benefit of the doubt, right?

[Tiktakkat]

As to how much assistance NPCs provide:

First is, as mentioned already, how much assistance can the NPCs actually give.
Just how high level are these NPCs to be able to dispense so much WBL-busting largesse in the first place?
More critically, if they are that high level, why aren't they dealing with such a critical issue themselves? Clearly it is "THAT" serious, so why rely on flunkies in the first place?

If you are still stuck after getting past those, then you should probably be re-examining both your game assumptions and your setting assumptions.
You may just have too much level inflation of NPCs going on, and possibly too much favor inflation as well.
And with those two in mind, you have to remember - the game is about the PCs completing the mission, not some NPCs sending hirelings out to resolve it "off-camera" with a "die roll".

Even with that, it is still possible to keep things under control by a simple shift in your adventure design:
No Loot, All Rewards
Just do away with gratuitous loot on dead bad guys and in locked chests, and have the majority of the WBL the PCs have come from rewards or donations or what not from their patrons, contacts, allies, and random helpful merchants.
It may not be as cool as battle loot, but you can have some of that and still have NPCs provide "reasonable" support without breaking WBL.

As for whether weaker NPCs will have trouble enforcing the law:
Then they have trouble.
The PCs can go anti-establishment and burn down the place they rest between adventures, eliminating all their patrons, contacts, allies, and random helpful merchants in the process; or,
The PCs can support the establishment, chasing and "dealing" with wandering monsters who might want to break the law for fun and random adventure hooks.
The key is to just have consequences when the PCs go all street thug. NPCs refusing basic help unless intimidated, then hiding critical information anyway if threatened, refusing to contribute for rewards, and similar fallout.
If the PCs insist on going the full evil, then make them all the way with suppressing any uprising. Make them have to protect their peasants from "marauding" heroes. Then when they realize how much trouble it involves to be in charge, indeed when they are the ones getting hit up for "help" in stopping the world-destroying evil, they will get back into acting just enough like heroes that the locals don't all plot to poison them in their sleep.

[Slipperychicken]

People aren't as sensible or generous as we'd like them to be. We've got a few save-the-human-race plots going on now IRL, and the people working on those are often ignored and underfunded, much to their frustration.

[GrayGriffin]

Well, NPCs still have to provide for themselves. And honestly, in a lot of my recent games, our GM has let us have NPC allies in battles, but the opposition also gets scaled up as a result. And on some occasions the NPCs help hold off just some of the enemies in the background.

[HidesHisEyes]

Thinking about this more and reading others' posts, I think a good general rule of thumb might be that whatever level the PCs are, they should be the local NPCs' best hope of overcoming the threat.

[Winter_Wolf]

No aid to give/spare is a real thing. To law enforcement, it's generally accepted that it's reactionary, bogged down by organization and bureaucratic red tape, and intended to defend rather than take the fight to the enemy. Proactively patrolling the streets is a deterrent for basically law abiding people to keep up good behavior, and the lawless just get more creative. Military can take the fight to the enemy, but then there's the risk of leaving the core weak and exposed to other threats.

The ruler probably is more powerful than the party, but it's like being filthy rich but all your money is tied up in investments so you don't actually have any cash to spare. I might have 100,000 dollars (ha, I wish) but I still can't afford to give or even "loan" someone 1000 because none of it is liquid assets. Literally everything except what I need to survive is tied up.

The holy avenger that you could use in your battle to save the world? One, it's not "mine" to give, it's the property of the line of kings protecting the kingdom from evil, and the peasants who toil here. You want it to save the world, you say? While you're out saving the world with it (if you live and we somehow can reasonably expect to get it back instead of losing it when you die horribly), our neighbors come and sack and pillage everything. No one in my realm will care about "the world" when their sons and daughters are feeding the ground with their blood. So no, there's nothing to spare; if you can't manage with what you've got, clearly your reputation isn't as accurate as We thought, and We had best look for heroes actually capable of this deed.

[Max_Killjoy]

It's an ongoing challenge in some sorts of games to make the PCs important -- vital, even -- to what's going on, while not forcing the rest of the world to hold the idiot ball. I've found that too often in fiction and in games, the importance of the PCs is based on the ineptitude and/or foolishness of everyone else, and I always try to avoid that (sometimes even overcompensating, I admit).

[Thrudd]

People aren't as sensible or generous as we'd like them to be. We've got a few save-the-human-race plots going on now IRL, and the people working on those are often ignored and underfunded, much to their frustration.

Too true. In the RL examples it's a mix of people not believing the world is really at risk, people who might accept the human race is in danger but don't care because they think they will be dead already before things get bad, and people who don't care because they believe they personally possess the power to weather whatever happens and rebuild: holding on to their wealth and power is more important than anything or anyone else. And maybe a few nutters who are looking forward to the human race's demise and want to help it along.


This is what Game of Thrones is like: almost nobody believes the White Walkers and wights are real. Even though this is an existential threat to all human kind, only the wildlings and the Night's Watch and a few northerners have seen them first hand and nobody but maybe a couple maesters in the citadel would believe them if they talked about it. The people who recognize and could actually help deal with the threat are few and far between. It will take wights overrunning their towns and keeps to get anyone to believe it and start fighting the real enemy, and by then it might be too late.


In shared-universe comics like Marvel, you often have groups of B-list heroes saving the world without help, even though the world is absolutely packed with super heroes orders of magnitude more powerful than they are. The explanation is usually that the really powerful heroes were involved in their own world/universe-saving adventure and weren't available to help. This is a world where the world is constantly under attack from threats ranging from take-over-the-world tyrants to aliens-want to enslave and consume our flesh to cosmic godlike beings are overwriting time and space. There just conveniently isn't anyone stronger than the PC's around to deal with this problem. They're in space, or on another plane, or in the underdark, or whatever.

[Flickerdart]

Hi fellow DM's! I frequently run into a pitfall that I'd like some help with. Namely, when the PC's are charged with saving the world, how would I stop NPC allies from giving anything and everything the PC's ask for?

When PC's need help and have proven to be capable of dealing with a very real threat, I often find myself having to come up with excuses not to have NPC allies give them wildly outleveled aid. Why shouldn't the local church teleport the PC's right to their destination (assuming they have capable casters)? Why shouldn't the king donate his best weapons and magic items to the PCs as they go to fight the demon on his doorstep? Why don't the shopkeepers give unbelievable discounts when it's that or let the world end?
I know some people are greedy or selfish to the extreme, but it feels cheap to have everyone of power be that way. And the 'I don't believe you' story feels so forced after a time, especially if the PC's have pretty solid proof they need to save the world.

Have any other DM's encountered this problem? And if so, how have you handled it? Thanks!

If the local church has better magic, and the local king has better items, the PCs should not be the ones fighting the demon.

[Ninjattack]

In my campaign I've sort of circled around having the NPC's constantly offering the heros aid because the NPC's don't realize there is an actual threat to the entire world. My players like to refer to my campaign's final villains as being "the ultimate hyper threats", because they've actually seen what this world ending threat is like and what it's capable of.

The NPCs though, not so much. I've countered my world ending threat with a war going on in the background between this really big empire and a bunch of spirits. Not enough to threaten the world, but enough to distract the NPCs from the actual problem. I mean, a few people still can probably tell that something big and world endy is up, but not enough so that they actually care to try and help the PCs stop it.

[CharonsHelper]

Too true. In the RL examples it's a mix of people not believing the world is really at risk, people who might accept the human race is in danger but don't care because they think they will be dead already before things get bad, and people who don't care because they believe they personally possess the power to weather whatever happens and rebuild: holding on to their wealth and power is more important than anything or anyone else. And maybe a few nutters who are looking forward to the human race's demise and want to help it along.

To be fair - for every IRL group who is saving the world from an actual threat, there are three dozen asking for funding for things which aren't a threat at all. (I'm not going to get into current examples as I don't want to debate which ones are real - but back in the 70's there were actually scientists who promoted the idea of covering the ice caps with coal dust in order to heat the planet and prevent the next ice age. Needless to say - that would have been a bad idea.)

So - to bring it back to gaming, the PCs and a few others KNOW that they're saving the world, but the rest of the world thinks that they're like the guys on the street corners with signs saying "The End is Near!".

[Kami2awa]

One thing I'd say is that not every plot has to end with the PCs saving the entire world (for a start, what happens if they fail?) You can have much lower stakes than that and still create a great adventure story. Sometimes, saving one character is a triumph.

[ILM]

Well, NPCs still have to provide for themselves.

Exactly. Even if the PCs have convinced everyone that the threat of the Demon King is real and that they're the only ones who can slay him, and that they need all the help they can get to assault his fortress, the good people of the world have their own problems. Like the Seven Sinful Generals rampaging across the world. Maybe Lord Mithdras wants to hang on to that legendary sword in his vault, considering its the only thing that might give him a chance to save his city...

[Max_Killjoy]

To be fair - for every IRL group who is saving the world from an actual threat, there are three dozen asking for funding for things which aren't a threat at all. (I'm not going to get into current examples as I don't want to debate which ones are real - but back in the 70's there were actually scientists who promoted the idea of covering the ice caps with coal dust in order to heat the planet and prevent the next ice age. Needless to say - that would have been a bad idea.)

So - to bring it back to gaming, the PCs and a few others KNOW that they're saving the world, but the rest of the world thinks that they're like the guys on the street corners with signs saying "The End is Near!".

Hey, we can also use this as an example of how the popular understanding of history can be so wrong just 40 years later, even in our modern education-rich and communication-saturated society, and how in the sort of setting most fantasy games are set in, people could believe all sorts of crazy things to be true.

[DigoDragon]

I have a campaign where the party beat up some members of a cult and found a book among them that gave clues on where the cult may strike next. A light-hearted comment was made that I'm a terrible DM for taking away PC agency by giving hints like that. XD

Actually therein lies the crux of the problem: I've DM'ed a lot of games IRL with friends and we have a gentlemen's/lady's agreement not to try the DM on things like this. I plan on running my first PBP game on the boards soon, and I know players may not have that level of courtesy. But you're right, I should start by giving the benefit of the doubt, right?

It's good to trust players, but make them aware of the kind of shenanigans that push your buttons too.

[JeenLeen]

Something like this came up in a oWoD Mage game I was in. An archmage was messing with Pluto and do something close enough to ending existence (avoiding technicalities due to irrelevance.)

Some NPCs helped, some did not.
Those who helped went all-in as much as they could.

• sworn enemies of the archmage fought him while we prepared, buying us time and weakening his forces before we arrived
• NPC allies provided us with buffs, teleportation, and magic items

Many others did not help, for some of the following reasons (note that many of these are related to 'the world almost ends about once a month'):

• they are busy saving the world from another threat
• if they intervened, it would break old promises and let another threat be free to destroy the world, and this threat is worse than the archmage
• they are creatures of balance, and although what the archmage was up to is bad, reality would probably work itself out on its own.
• reality seems like to like mid-level dudes saving it. Heck, last week a group of vamps less than a 100 years old stops an Antedeluvian from sinking North America, so you guys will probably be okay.
• politics. Yeah, it's stupid compared to this risk, but if you win and it turns out we helped you, we are in a worse position. Others will likely help you out enough.
• hurt relationships. They hated us, didn't trust us, and/or weren't willing to help us.

Or they helped, but in a limited fashion due to mistrust that we'd abuse the resources if they went all-in, so sort of a mix of politics and somebody else will help.

Lastly, some enemies of us helped indirectly, but they weren't willing to offer aid directly (nor probably would we accept it) and they used it to attack us after we saved the world.

In a D&D game, I could see free access to mundane items and minor magic items (potions, minor items), but have some reason that the major stuff isn't available or isn't available for free.