ever have one of those games?

[RandomNPC]

so we decided to play a city game, and part of every big city is organized crime. so says I. So the mob, a.k.a. House Illinak has hired the bard to perform at a function, hired the party to salvage a ship, and has paid for a few other services the party supplied in the game.

the group has: (all level 5)
Cleric
Bard
Rogue Soon to be Dread Pirate
Sorc.
Barb.
Wizard
Ranger

so they know about the crimes, they have ways in with the history the group has with house Illinak, and they keep getting more job offers and things they find that tie into the house.

also there's a set of 13 artifacts that are prety much fairy tales because nobodys seen them in so long, think zodiac stones from final fantasy tactics. the party has one and when a nearby clan of kobolds sent the party after another one because an etherial filcher made off with it all they found was a bag of holding with house Illinaks seal on it.

another one: when the soon to be dread pirate found a known Illinak employee nailed to the inside of his new boat with daggers he took the guys boots back to the guard out in front of the home of the elder Illinak family, and told him to tell the family thanks but they're not my size.

so all in all they should know Illinak is up to something but the party is afraid to bite on mobbish plot hooks, any ideas? the pirate had to clean his new boat and still doesn't feel the need to retaliate, i need some ideas to make the party mad at the mob, not at the DM. please?

(any ideas outside of rail roading with no plot hooks outside of mob, please.)

[Ent]

Are any of the players/characters easily offended?

I find players can take personal insults, even incredibly slight and trivial ones, far more to heart then the most important plot hooks. Cut a purse, steal one of their items, mug one of them in an alley, hell, spill a drink on them in the bar, and I've seen PCs leave a trail of blood through half a world looking for someone who wasn't really supposed to be all that important in the first place. Then just make that NPC a part of your antagonists somehow.

[Tacoma]

So the mob is offering them jobs, but you want the mob to offend the PCs so they attack it, and the mob has been trying to intimidate the PCs?

Why is the mob still offering them missions?

Does the mob know they have some artifacts?

[Xenon]

give them a suicide mission. have a mob agent in place to recover their artifact when they die horribly. before they reach the suicide, have a friend warn them its a trap.

[Tacoma]

Isn't that a GTA mission? Where you're supposed to get into this car and deliver it but it's rigged with a bomb, and someone warns you with a pager beep?

[Prometheus]

Sounds like you need to decide the mob has them figured out.

However, if you need to use their leverage within the mob, than this will be trickier. Since they are responding well to employment, offer a counter-employer.

[RandomNPC]

Are any of the players/characters easily offended?

I find players can take personal insults, even incredibly slight and trivial ones, far more to heart then the most important plot hooks. Cut a purse, steal one of their items, mug one of them in an alley, hell, spill a drink on them in the bar, and I've seen PCs leave a trail of blood through half a world looking for someone who wasn't really supposed to be all that important in the first place. Then just make that NPC a part of your antagonists somehow.

this was my origonal attempt, with nailing the poor fellow to the inside of the dread pirates boat, he got smarmy with the return of the boots, but is ready to skip town.

the mob is giving them jobs because at first they asked for it, with the bard putting out his skill and getting his first gig to play at a "legit" gathering of family friends. the group has done good work for them since then.

i think the last two are going to do it, they're figured out as having an artifact, and if not a suicide mission then something else.

on a side note the dread pirate keeps the artifact on a fire trapped belt pouch mixed with four other belt pouches. he's basically got a batman utility belt.

anyway, thanks for the ideas, i'm going to see what happens with them.

[TheCountAlucard]

Are any of the players/characters easily offended?

I find players can take personal insults, even incredibly slight and trivial ones, far more to heart then the most important plot hooks.

Heck, some players take an insult to heart when it's not even directed at them! We were playing Star Wars d20 the other day, and my character (a Twi'lek Noble) got spat on while in a seedy-looking tavern, and while my character was more than willing to ignore this slight against him for the good of the mission, one of the other party members picks a fight with him.