First off , hello all and thank you for clicking my thread. Down to business. We are about half way in to the trail of the beast and my players absolutley hate it. They are bored to tears and just want to skip to the next book. I dont think its my DMing style or methods that they hate because they loved the haunting of horrowstone (gave one of my players a nightmare about it , LOL horror ftw). Anyway , They keep saying things like " why should I care if the flesh golem burns or not" or " I wouldnt even be here if I wasnt getting paided". After the beast gets off I think they are planning to "farm its xp".
So anyway they killed the phase spider and got to town. Got hired to investigate for the defence ( although the general aditude at this time was "Why the Fu.....ooo cash!" ). So they killed the manicore and quickly traced stuff to vorstag and grine and killed them. They are in the process of killing brother swarm. The problem isnt that they cant reason out the clues , in fact one guy can take all the fractured bits and pieces and hit whats going on on the head everytime. They are just super bored doing it.
Have your players had a very negitive reaction to playting detective for a studdering lawyer and a flesh golem? Is it just that my players hate playing CSI:Ustalav? Does it pick up after the trial? Please tell me the next book is going to be more like the first one.
The "motivation" in Book 2 is in a place of limbo.
Book 1 had the PCs motivated to "save Kendra" (as per the "you must know/like the professor" hook) which naturally morphed into "clear out Harrowstone."
And then after you finish Book 2, you get the motivation "track down the WW", which is what then carries the motivation for the entire campaign.
However, between those... yea, motivation is at a low point. If your PCs are the "farm it for XP" type, they might enjoy crawling Schloss Caromac for the sheer joy of dungeon-ing. To that end, my suggestion might be to have the Beast freak out, become evil, and storm off the the Schloss, and the PCs have to chase it there. Certainly not what the author intended, but such a desperate move might be needed to save your campaign.
And since you asked: the play experience of Book 3 is unique from both Books 1 & 2, and has its own weird quirks. However, I think Book 4 has a very similar structure to Book 1, so you might really enjoy that segment.
thanks guys. I've tryed to keep things a little vague for spoilers sake. It is true that they are not invested in the story as they where in the first book. The only motivation seems to be to get the thing tried and get paided.
I might just have the beast found guilty out of sheer hate and ignorance of the towns folk and have it flee to schloss caromac. So maybe something like;
beast is found guilty
Judge daramid doesnt agree and all the evidence points to a not guilty verdict but the judgement of the court is legally binding and she has no choice but to go along with it
Hires the Pc's one more time to trace the beast and slay it. This also gives them the moral grey area or kill the beast that they know is innocent or break the law.
Found at caromac , after all the fighting is done and the prometian is dead it flees to a balcony/cliff edge and starts the ending.
Small fight with the beast , then a "cut scene" for beasts death
got to write it but something like - "Enough" The beast yells , Its voice echoing off the cliff walls. He drops to his knees bleeding heavily. "I haven't done anything wrong." Its face tightens in to a strange half smile grimace. " People like you have taken everything from me. My home , my freedom....ellsa." Although you know that he can not cry you can swear you spot a tear rolling from his eye. " Now its my life that you claim. I only wanted to live in peace." He claws his way to his feet and stumbles back towards the cliff edge. " You people , destroying everything you deem unworthy for your society. Unequal in your eyes and unfit for justice or sympathy. Your the true monsters." He stumbles back again falling from the balcony to the water below.
Something like that. I think they might enjoy it more. Did some preaty heavy rewriting in horrowstone as well.
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I agree with Thenobledrake re: making the Beast more sympathetic. My players *loved* TotB and still consider it one of the high points of the AP. The main reason for this was that I went all-out in playing the Beast as a sympathetic, child-like character who loved poetry, was scared of being locked up, and began to cry at the mention of the murdered children.
After a couple of meetings with him, he asked them if he could have a name, to which they christened him "Edward", and from then on, they fought tooth-and-nail to save him.
In the final confrontation, I had him actually be critically wounded, and they linked hands, forming a human (well, a half-orc-human-dhampir :) ) chain to conduct a lightning strike to try to revive him. They were very low on hit points, and I warned them of the danger, and they still did it.
That's how much my players loved Edward the Beast - they were *literally* willing to sacrifice their characters to save him.
But yeah, it all comes down to a sympathetic Beast. Win them over with that, and you'll have them eating out of your hand.
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I agree with Thenobledrake re: making the Beast more sympathetic. My players *loved* TotB and still consider it one of the high points of the AP. The main reason for this was that I went all-out in playing the Beast as a sympathetic, child-like character who loved poetry, was scared of being locked up, and began to cry at the mention of the murdered children.
After a couple of meetings with him, he asked them if he could have a name, to which they christened him "Edward", and from then on, they fought tooth-and-nail to save him.
In the final confrontation, I had him actually be critically wounded, and they linked hands, forming a human (well, a half-orc-human-dhampir :) ) chain to conduct a lightning strike to try to revive him. They were very low on hit points, and I warned them of the danger, and they still did it.
That's how much my players loved Edward the Beast - they were *literally* willing to sacrifice their characters to save him.
But yeah, it all comes down to a sympathetic Beast. Win them over with that, and you'll have them eating out of your hand.
My GM did that same (as far as portraying the beast as a child at heart)
It did give us the motivation to save him, but we also had a PC who's background was being a lawyer, and being the non emotional type, took to defending the beast simply because he was going to be the underdog. So being a lawyer in a remote town to show off his Caliphas credentials and skills was all that character needed. The rest of us were more NG/CG types, so we took to the fens to track down every clue and prove the beast innocent.
I enjoyed the AP.
Give them a pair of sunglasses of awesomeness. Can't play CSI: Ustalav without it.
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I was running the game for two different groups when I went through Trial of the Beast and I portrayed him two different ways.
For one group he was as the book described, simple and child-like, and for the other sophisticated, intelligent and brooding. I made sure to play up just how much the towns folk hate him and their clear misconceptions about him.
'He's a mindless killer!'
'Deserves to die!'
'Only creatures with minds and souls of their own deserve a fair trial!'
and so on.
I also always played on the fact that whenever they were in town people were getting progressively more and more agitated / furious that the trial was going in the Beast's favor. Sympathizers were being attacked in the streets. The barrister was afraid to even go home at night for fear of being attacked.
During the attack on the town hall I had the beast start 'crying' and begging to know why the townsfolk hated him so much... etc.
It might all be too late for stuff like that. It's specific to the group I guess.
We find it enjoyable.....till of course I read it after and realised no matter what the pcs do the story stays the same ( ie beast survives, escapes, save the day, blah, blah)
Castle after the trial should peek their interest
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My players ate it up. They loved the mad masses ignorantly demanding justice and them having to intervene. The detective stuff is some of their favorite bits of the whole AP. Could either be you are not playing it up or your palyers are just not enjoying the theme. /shrug
As GM I had to really work hard to sell book 3 its pretty boring to be honest. Though its much more straight forward about what needs doing and who needs killing so maybe it will be a good change of pace for you and yours.
Add a not-so-vague clue that a certain group is responsible for the recent murders... you know which one I mean!
Add a not-so-vague clue that a certain group is responsible for the recent murders... you know which one I mean!
The Prophets of Kalistrade?
When I and my fellow players played through this we loved it. I agree however, that the players must develop some level of empathy with the beast and his plight.