Game help...

[Sarlon]

So I'm running this game, and my players have utterly destroyed an NPC that I had planned on using for a while, ignored a blatant plot hook to go check on something, and are now heading in a different direction.

So unknown to them the Adventures guild is corrupt, sending out people to do jobs with deeper meaning that if something goes one way instead of the other could make some subtle changes....

Example: Children of the major lords of the town are being kidnapped, no ransom notes, no sign of struggle, literally just vanished off the face of the earth. some think its just an evil cult doing blood sacrifices. DEEPER MEANING: the people doing the kidnapping are looking for the direct descendents of an anicent blood line of heros that keep the world from ending, known as the forgotten 4.

So I'm looking for ideas to help point in this direction. I know where I wanna go with this, but ideas to help get the creative juices flowing.

[BlaqueKatt]

hmmm does the NPC have any family? possibly a look-alike?

could they stumble upon an artifact alluding to the forgotten four?

Maybe one of them mistaken for a corrupt member(that one of your adventurers resembles) and told/hinted to/questioned about a mission, (not enough to give away but enough to interest them in checking)before being identinfied as "not who I thought, sorry"(possibly with a later assassination attempt)

Just throwing out ideas.

[SongsOfDragons]

Players do this all the time You give your players the option of A, B or C, and they'll take option 7.

You can do it. Make up a new NPC and come at them from a different direction? Find a distraught family looking for their child? Or any of BK's ideas above? I would probably go with the third one there, re-reading it, if the players really are missing clues...

I'm writing a Legend of Zelda-based roleplay right now where I INTEND for the players to go BOTHER THIS NONSENSE right at the beginning and go to the Milk Bar, where the adventure will really begin. I'm going to have to make sure I have loooooads of different threads they can cling at Oh and they're all playing Link. C'moooon, if the Hero is always going to be called Link don't you think half the mothers in the known world will be naming their sons that? It's set just before the new game, A Link Between Worlds, and if you know what's hung on Link's wall and can work out where the game said item is referencing is in the Zelda timeline...yeah, that thing...you can see where one of the threads will be going...

[Gizmo]

Have them meet a courier on the road. Courier mistakes one of them for said NPC. Delivers a note which refers to what said NPC would have told them. Say from a relative - "why are they taking our lovely boys with only brown hair and hazel eyes" equivalent.

[EricKei]

I'm writing a Legend of Zelda-based roleplay right now where I INTEND for the players to go BOTHER THIS NONSENSE right at the beginning and go to the Milk Bar, where the adventure will really begin.

That's actually a good idea -- no matter how much players whine about adventures starting in taverns, the party always seems to end up there anyway

'Twas quite memorable in one game I played, however -- this group had a grand tradition of taverns they had just left all just happening to burn down as they were leaving, or shortly thereafter. On this one, we manged to start a wonderfully-rousing bar brawl, which culminated in explosions, the obligatory fire, and it yielded a very, very burnt, very, very late NPC who was immediately deemed "Crispy." One of the players decided to thank Crispy for his trouble by leaving a gold coin on his forehead, which promptly half-melted and stuck there.

'Twas a weird group.

[Sarlon]

weird? that sounds normal for mine actually. This isn't the same group that blew up a village at least/

[Geek King]

Back on topic

Want to be really nasty? One or more of the PCs end up being related to the forgotten four, leading to the group suddenly being sought after by a group of very powerful folk.

[Kittish]

The group I game with does this to our Game Master ALL. THE. TIME. No matter which one of us is running the game. It's to the point where my boyfriend, when he's prepping to run us through something doesn't plan out details, just general outline because he knows we're going to wind up somewhere off in the wild blue yonder.

If any of the PCs have siblings, have one of them kidnapped by this group maybe. Or if more than one of them do, have ALL the siblings be kidnapped, all at the same time. Especially if they're in widely separated locations.... PCs get frantic messages from parents, all dated the same... How can they possibly ignore their family needing them?

Or, maybe, have the PCs meet up with one of the kidnappees who managed to escape. The escaped victim wants retribution on their kidnappers, or to help the other victims escape (whichever motive is more likely to hook your group).

[Tyg3rW01f]

weird? that sounds normal for mine actually. This isn't the same group that blew up a village at least/

yeah.... THANKS Barb; ya wet mukluk... and if you recall, Sarlon, we DID try to warn him NOT to do it in the first place.

[Kara]

You are the GM. Kill them until they learn to respect that

[El Pollo Guerrera]

Players do this all the time You give your players the option of A, B or C, and they'll take option 7.

Which is why the cry "FOR BOTANY!" will forever be repeated in my local gaming club...

(Story: RPG group organized around one character who was hired to collect rare herbs and plants for a wizard. Player outright ignored any attempts to direct the group into the 'bigger story'. Player wasn't doing anything wrong, just sticking to character. Hilarious game, that one)

[Jetfire]

Yeah, my group is notorious for doing the exact opposite of what sanity and the GM would expect us to do.

Big group of well experienced adventurers/heroes, encountering some low level minions that the GM tossed at us to kill some time basically? We paranoialy look for the other shoe, then bravely run away!

Gigantic dragon that's already decimated the city we're in, that vastly outclasses us in every way, shape and form (with clear exit routes already in place?) Party doesn't think twice and Charges! (At one point our zerker got eaten and managed to hack his way out of the dragon's cheek.)

And that doesn't begin to cover all the times where we have the choice between A,B and C, and we decided to take Choice Kangaroo.

We've been playing together for years, so our GM does know our styles. Like when I'm really on my game, he knows I can turn an encounter completely on its head within a couple of rounds just by logically using stuff that's around us.

Attacking a fire elemental robot in a modernish city? Party keeps him busy, I run into a nearby building and find their fire suppression system and use it against the elemental.

Party in a tunnel trapped by a large spider? Druid character does Stone to Mud + Mud to Stone + Control Rock == 1 squished spider.

Adam (my GM) has said that he knows an encounter is over when he gets a message from me asking about something completely out of left field (amounting to "Is there any blah around? or "Could my character do X?" where X is something normally innocent and nonthreatening.)

[EricKei]

Back in my old group, we did have a couple of useful rules that developed over time...

One was, "The cuter it is, the more deadly it is" (read: NPC looking like a cutesy-wootsy-widdle 8-year-old girl shows up? Assume it is a major diety who doesn't like you, and run lik ehell)

Another, which I'm fairly certain they stole from somewhere else, was: "If you can't reason with it, kill it. If you can't kill it, run. If you can't run, NUKE THE PLANET"

[Sarlon]

He may not be a cutesy wootsey 8 year old little girl but I have a npc halfling that loves pulling pranks on the players. These include stealing their weapons, dropping them in the middle of strange situations

[Ironclad Alibi]

NPC looking like a cutesy-wootsy-widdle 8-year-old girl shows up? Assume it is a major diety who doesn't like you, and run like hell.

That scene brought the following one to mind:

ZED: May I ask why you felt little Tiffany deserved to die?

EDWARDS: She was the only one who actually seemed dangerous. At the time.

ZED: And how did you come to that conclusion?

EDWARDS: Hook-head guy. You explain to me how he can think with a hook for a head. Answer; it's not his head. His head is that butt-ugly bean-bag thing over there. 'Cause if you look at the snarling beast-guy, he's not snarling, he's sneezing -- he's got tissues in his hand. No threat there, and anyhow, the girl's books were way too advanced for an eight-year-old's. And besides, from where I'm looking, she was the only one who appeared to have a motive. And I don't appreciate your jumping down my throat about it.

Sideways glances from the other recruits. Zed sighs.

EDWARDS: Or, uh -- do I owe her an apology?