Im slightly frustrated with my group. Be careful there may be SPOILERS AHEAD
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So my group joined the AOW at 4th level as I was already running a campaign and incorperated the two. I skipped whispering cairn and planned on jumping them right into 3 Faces. That way I didn't have to heavily tweak every module for the rest of the setting. To make up for the information gap I included plot hooks that would give them all the information from Cairn as well as the important items. It also dovetailed nicely into a meeting with the free city champions, my version of allustan, filge and his twisted observatory and lead them right to the mines.
So what does the party do?
They make it to Hap (my version of diamond lake) hot in pursuit of a Cleric of Bane that is investigating the Ebon Triad (of which some members of the church of bane had left to join) They discover his journal that tells them:
a. he hired filge then fired him as he was crazy
b. he hired the freecity champions but they left after the whispering cairn and took off with the talisman of the sphere
c. He investigated strange green worms
d. He discovered the cultist were at the mines and set off for them (and never returned)
SO they go after filge and stop him, and won't even talk to him despite his attempts to talk before hand, and after they were whooping on him and he escaped for a bit and tried to surrender information for his freedom. 0 information gained. THey overlooked the green worm in his lair, despite heavy handed clues that this is the worm being discussed.
Alustan like person offered his services, and acted very helpful and interested in their goals. The party asks if he sells magic stuff, and when he says no, but offers to identify anything they find, they ignore the request and just decide to leave.
THey encounter the free city champions, and KNOW that they worked with the cleric of bane (they are looking for) and investigated the whispering cairn AND had the talisman of the sphere needed later. The extend of their conversation (paraphrased a bit):
party: Hey
freecity champions: Hey, and well met! what brings you guys out this way?
Party: Um looking for stuff
freecity champions: what kind of stuff, maybe we can help?
party: doubtful, see ya
freecity champions: Thats odd, your out in a remote area, you must be after SOMETHING?
party: um just looking for ruins and stuff.
They had the paladin cast detect evil, so knew these weren't enemies, and knew that they left the bad guys because they were disgusted with their evil ways. Yet they made up a story and left. So they again have 0 information (AGAIN!), and despite the journal clearly saying how the whispering cairn was looted by the clerics of bane, they are off looking for it.
How do you deal with such thick headed players? All of them are teenage or older (45 is the oldest) and the young players all attend a highschool for the gifted and talented. They just don't seem to understand how to get information from anything despite me trying to throw it at them at every turn.
On a side note, in filge's observatory is a 10x10 cell with what is described as a "unremarkable open empty chest". They of course spend 15 minutes of game time searching every knook of it taking 20's the whole time then ended up dismantling it looking for compartments. sigh......
[/rant] Thanks for letting me share. :(
I think what you've hit upon is a group who is A) uninterested in the story and focused only on finding loot, as exemplified by the thorough searching of a simple, empty chest vs. total lack of follow-up on any story clues, or B) extremely wary of being railroaded into the storyline, and refusing to bite the obvious bait in fear of some trap. From your descriptions, I'd sooner go with A. They probably want monsters to kill, loot to plunder, experience and levels to gain, and then more of all the same. These are just assumptions of course, and without knowing the dynamics of your group more thoroughly, I'd hate to throw around anything that sounds judgemental. They may just be looking for a dungeon-crawl game if they've played a lot of epic storylines, or if they're new to the game then they may simply not think the story is supposed to be important and that wandering off in search of loot and monsters is all they're supposed to be concerned with.
I get the impression that your group wants to do things on their own without the help of NPCs. That makes it difficult to dispense the needed info. You will probably need to let some of the NPCs be a little more loose lipped and also make the info that they do let out be more appealing to the players. Now maybe it was just how I read it, but the group seems like a stereotypical, looking for stuff to fight, we want treasure group (I could be totally wrong). So the info that the NPCs let slip needs to be geared in that direction, so the player can't help themselves.
If they do go to the Whispering Cairn, let them. By now everything the place is empty of monsters and treasure. When they go back to town complaining about a waste of time, maybe they can hear about all the treasure/monsters in the mine. Hopefully that will get them going.
i feel your pain, but u may have a group that just isnt interested in the story arc.
try to emphasize the monsters and treasure and reward characters for following the story with xp
if that dont work i dunno what to tell ya i had a similar party that refused to follow up on clues,so thats what i did
good luck
With me its much diffrent. They all remember I spent time getting a storyline and like to follow it instead of forcefully doing there own thing. We are also a lot more 'open'. I mean as in when they first saw a sign for the free city games I got a fishing pole with a sword cut out that said adventure hook on it on the hook. "Hoke, line, sinker"
They thought that was funny.
Sounds like you're playing with a bunch of morons!
I think obtuse players like these is why so many adventures "railroad" you into doing something specific. It's the writer's way of trying to make the adventure "idiot proof".
Monte Cook wrote a great article about "playing into the game" that all players should read. I'll try to locate it (maybe someone else here can help?) It's either in an old issue of Dragon, or else on Monte's website. The gist of it is that if you really want to play, sometimes you have to "play along" and follow the obvious clues. Otherwise you wander around aimlessly having random encounters and doing nothing heroic, and nobody has any fun - especially the DM, who spent lots of time preparing the adventure you fail to ever begin!
Think of it another way - if you spent all day preparing a fancy dinner, then none of your guests wanted to eat - not even one bite - how would you feel? Would you ever want to ask them over for dinner again? It's the same concept.
I think I have to agree with VedicCold's assumption A - your party may not be interested in anything other than killing monsters and finding treasure. While those are clearly not the most interesting character motivations in role playing history, they are valid ones.
Clearly, if the players aren't interested in things like plot and story, you'll have a hard time running something as plot driven as AoW. However, all hope is not lost. You just have to find something that interests them.
If they followed the cleric of Bane to a small out of the way village like Hap, there must have been something about that NPC that was interesting enough to motivate them. Think about their earlier encounters with the cleric. What did you do differently with the Banite than the NPC's in AoW?
It might give you a clue to what drives them. At least it's worth a shot.
If the party has a cleric, you could always have their deity appear to them in a dream and tell them to get on with it. There's a nice spell in the Complete Divine if they don't take that hint; it's called Cometfall...
"Good idea, o Lord!"
"Course it's a good idea!"
You could always have one of the PC's get hit by a Kyuss worm and have a wandering cleric or ranger just happen by to cast remove disease on him right before he turns. Might be just the smack upside the head to get them into the story arc.
If all else fails, have a little off-line chat with everyone and agree that either they are going to get into the story or resign yourself that you are going to be running a "kill the monster, grab the loot, advance in levels" game and let the NPC's worry about saving the world from Kyuss.
Or let them get further along and see how they respond when the countryside is crawling with spawn of Kyuss, a la Dawn of the Dead. That could be pretty cool to play, actually... Hmm...
What about revenge? Can they be motivated by that? There are two things that really get my party going- the promise of big treasure, and a thirst for revenge. I was planning to use Fiend's Embrace on them, figuring when the mage split witht he cloak, he could be a plot hook for an entire campaign (revenge and money combined: something they cannot resist).
Be particularly cruel (they've earned it): Hit them with a few slow worms. THAT aught to get them at least aware of things going on around them (in a very paranoid way!). Then drop a line about who could be responsible, and you should be able to drag them through at least SOME of AoW that way. Just keep having villains get away (fudging roles when neccessary to ensure this most of the time, but actually let them stop some of the villains occaisionally). Those villains should then be marked for vengeance, and if not immediately, have them keep pestering the party until either A) they do something about it, or B) they're all dead.
Considering the density you described, a megaphone might also come in handy. Try to avoid keeping any blunt/sharp objects around your game table- you may be tempted to use them. I know I would be.