Alright my current campaign is basically a massive fetch quest. In short the players are retrieving the Mcguffin to save the life of the deathly ill NPC who raised all of them. This of course was partially to introduce a clock element to the campaign. They have had many tough challenges so far and I plan to wrap it up by new years. However they have wasted significant time doing random crap. We've had a great time doing it but seriously they wasted 3 days tonight so they could
1. Rob a bank
2. Enter a gladiator tornament to get souls to feed to a demon sword
3. Deliver mail cross country
4. Pin the bank robery on the rest of the party to jail to get an NPC to date his cohort
5. Build a hat shop
6. Go to the spa
I mean it has all been perfectly in character and fun. But they have wasted so much time. On the other hand I find it difficult to just say "Ooops she's dead" when the players get back. On a side note we are not doing another fetch quest to get revival magic(which is extremely rare in this world)
Sounds like your players have decided (or realized?) that you're going to stretch out the illness as long as needed for them to succeed. Give them a message from the NPC saying that a mage-physician has determined that they have three weeks (or whatever) to live, no more, no less. Let them know OOC that you mean it.
That may not have been the best idea for a campaign's plot hook. People die all the time, so one more death is hardly monumental consequences for failure. If we're talking "We only have X amount of days left to stop something bad from happening" in terms of something massive, like a campaign, generally we're talking about the destruction of the world, or the resurrection of a great evil, something like that.
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That may not have been the best idea for a campaign's plot hook. People die all the time, so one more death is hardly monumental consequences for failure. If we're talking "We only have X amount of days left to stop something bad from happening" in terms of something massive, like a campaign, generally we're talking about the destruction of the world, or the resurrection of a great evil, something like that.
Now hold on their if their low-level a world shattering obstacle might be to much. Saving a parental figure can be motivating to the right group. Not every objective needs to be the end of the world.
Now hold on their if their low-level a world shattering obstacle might be to much. Saving a parental figure can be motivating to the right group. Not every objective needs to be the end of the world.
TC said "current campaign is basically a massive fetch quest." To my understanding, a campaign is a massive, overarching thing. A sickly NPC definitely works for a smaller arc, but not a campaign.
Yeah I guess it does depend on what levels we are going through and how long it will be going. Also I suppose how long is this person suppose to be suffering from this illness in total. It would seem a bit silly if its a 2 year long illness. (least effective virus or curse ever)
I think linking the NPC to the party's treasure would work better. Most PCs are more afraid of losing their stuff than their life.
More seriously though, having the NPC's health change for the worse and giving the PCs an ultimatum with an actual time limit as Fuzzy-Wuzzy suggested might work pretty well.
I agree with the others, make the NPC get worse. A hard time limit might not be ideal, but perhaps something like the NPC suffering some permanent, irreversible (without access to magic the party lacks) drawback (such as a limb needing to be amputated to slow the spread of a disease, or the prolonged illness causing ability drain) due to the sickness going on too long.
Also, some of those things the party did seem like they would take far more than just three days even individually. Just how little does the party care...?
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I'm going to toss some ideas from the Apocalypse World family of games out, because those games often add clock elements and encourage NPC deaths. I presume the players know that the NPC is near death? If the PCs continue to do other stuff, kill the NPC. Not immediately, though. The AW games' clock is often structured like this: 12:00, 3:00, 6:00, 9:00, 10:00, 11:00, Midnight. The 12, 3, and 6 points have reversible consequences, and the 9, 10, and 11 are generally irreversible. Once the clock reaches Midnight, whatever bad thing was approaching happens, that's it.
So at 12 o'clock, the NPC takes ill. At 3 o'clock, the NPC begins hallucinating due to fever. At 6 o'clock, they go into a coma. At 9 o'clock, have a hand rot off. At 10 o'clock, the whole arm rots away. At 11 o'clock, a leg goes. At Midnight, kill them.
Now as the players go off on their side things, advance the clock to the next point every so often. Don't shy away from having the illness affect the NPC permanently. If they ignore it too long, then kill the poor NPC. Give them some opportunities to push the clock back a bit though. Have some healing herbs available in a swamp to delay the effect. That way they can continue on their own stuff as long as they put in a bit of work.
Is this railroady? Yeah, a bit, but if you want a clock on the players you need to hit them for ignoring it. Don't say that an NPC is deathly ill if you aren't willing to kill them.
If the mentor dies, now you can see if the players are just murderhoboes, or if they want to interact with the world as more than targets, merchants, and quest givers.
Kill the NPC. Unforseen complications caused the illness to accelerate and claim their beloved NPC. There's nothing wrong with them failing, it's not really your responsibility to constantly remind them of their motivation. However, in this case I would turn it into a murder mystery, strongly implying to the players that upon autopsy (or whatever) the death seems fishy.
Like have the NPC's cats eat her remains, but for some reason leave her eyes intact. Then have her eyes be the BBEG's McGuffin, and have them stolen during the wake.
Or something less grisly....
Kill the NPC. Unforseen complications caused the illness to accelerate and claim their beloved NPC. There's nothing wrong with them failing, it's not really your responsibility to constantly remind them of their motivation. However, in this case I would turn it into a murder mystery, strongly implying to the players that upon autopsy (or whatever) the death seems fishy.
This seems like a good idea^^ could turn out the NPC was tied in some big political ... thing and thus the PCs are dragged into that. New hook.
Sounds like your players have decided (or realized?) that you're going to stretch out the illness as long as needed for them to succeed.
Or, it's possible that they've decided that they enjoy setting their own goals more than following the railroad. It may be time to discuss the style of game they're looking to play.