Dreams of the Yellow King - Issue with research

[denigreur]

I love the research part. But I'm stuck in a loop with my players.
They researched the journals, they know Lowls tracks lead there and I've more than hinted that.

But now, they're stuck into a thinking process that brought them to :
- Dreamland - Scary
- Ritual - Scary
- Boat - scary

So basically, i'm stuck with a group that doesn't want to go to the caravanserai unless they buff to every possibility (I have a silvered throne shaman with a 2 month plan of crafting), including items to buff his knowledge to complete the ritual (and funny thing they're not even priority items in the list).

Since that's a major blocker for the rest of the adventure, you see where i'm stuck.

Add to that that the players are scared to do the ritual on the boat.

And they want to research the books to milk everything they can on the dreamlands and caravansera. I tried to have them think back by asking, okay but what are you looking for. And they're arguing they should have information from reading them. I kind of gave them a chance and a bonus for thinking about the Shadow's Ship book when they spotted the Bloodwind near Illmarsh and they milk it and were surprise to find that the ritual can bring them to it and understand that the visit to the caravanserai will bring them to locations they need to visit.

But they're still stuck in the mindset of waiting for the 2 months of crafting and wait and see. I took the time to expose the whole thing to them, but they still won't budge.

Anyone else had that issue ? I'm curious to hear how you dealt with it.

[Robofallgames]

If they want to wait and see then let them arrive at Cassomir. They can still complete the Dream quests at Cassomir but will have to essentially "gauntlet" them since there won't be any ship events to break up the dream segments.

It also depends how much you told them at the end of Book 2.

Book:

IF you told them that Lowls is after the Necronomicon already and where it is located then they technically could skip Cassomir and the Dreamlands.

They would lose out on the chance to get their memories back, the stat boost, and the crazy experiences though.

If you told them that Lowls was just going to Cassomir then it can be more incentive to dig into the dreamlands. They will get to the town and have no idea what they are after besides looking for Lowls.

[denigreur]

Robofallgames wrote:

If they want to wait and see then let them arrive at Cassomir. They can still complete the Dream quests at Cassomir but will have to essentially "gauntlet" them since there won't be any ship events to break up the dream segments.

It also depends how much you told them at the end of Book 2.

** spoiler omitted **

They know that Lowls is after the Necronomicon, but beside that, they only know he went to Cassomir and that more information is through the caravanserai.

One player had a glimpse of an epiphany when they were juggling with stuff, asking themselve what are they looking for once there. I heavily implied that for now that's all they know.

But even then, they're relunctant to go in the dreams.

[Artofregicide]

Something feels off here, I've had players who said the same thing but really they were powergaming and trying to milk crafting (which is broken anyway) for it was worth. But you know your players better than me.

The dreamlands, ritual, and boat trip are honestly all less scary than the last book. If they're really digging their heels in, I'd both hint that the dreamlands really aren't as fatal as they're worried, and place some kind of time restraint. Give them time to craft, but not forever without consequences...

[Revan]

Robofallgames wrote:

If they want to wait and see then let them arrive at Cassomir. They can still complete the Dream quests at Cassomir but will have to essentially "gauntlet" them since there won't be any ship events to break up the dream segments.

My issue has been that it takes so much time between Illmarsh and Razmiran that there *haven't* been ship events to break up the dream quests, and most of the ship events are probably going to happen after they've completed the main meat of the book.

Possibly, I should have encouraged them more to take crafting feats...

[denigreur]

Artofregicide wrote:

Something feels off here, I've had players who said the same thing but really they were powergaming and trying to milk crafting (which is broken anyway) for it was worth. But you know your players better than me.

The dreamlands, ritual, and boat trip are honestly all less scary than the last book. If they're really digging their heels in, I'd both hint that the dreamlands really aren't as fatal as they're worried, and place some kind of time restraint. Give them time to craft, but not forever without consequences...

No, I wouldn't put it that way.

They have a sub-optimal group. I've killed their mutagen warrior in the prior book and the player left because reasons, I'm running a 3 players party with Winter as a NPC. But otherwise, they composed of an investigator, a shaman and a witch. They lack the damage dealing part and they know it, so that's why they're SUPER cautious (too much even). They do want to craft because they all feel that they need the edge to survive.

[Shaun Hocking]

If it were my players I would let them craft while on the boat and they could perform the ritual when they arrive in Cassomir, but I'd let them know that it might make problems for them later since they are on a (rather nebulous) clock. Or perhaps when they meet the Stardust Augurs, have them convey some urgency or portent of doom if they don't enter the Dreamlands soon. You could move the encounter with the Augurs to one of the stops earlier along the river if you didn't want to wait until the listed encounter in the book.

[Nathan Monson]

My players also delayed the dream quests, it wasn't really a problem; given the nature of the ritual they can happen at pretty much any point. Honestly Caution is very thematic for this sort of story, and avoiding the Dreamlands wont actually stop the story from advancing.