Branching Out: When Your PC’s Refuse To Follow the Leader…
Last night I came dangerously close to forcing my will onto my group of players. Every DM comes face-to-face with this quandary at some point or another, whether they are running their own homebrew adventure or a canned pre-made one.
In my case, it’s a homebrew adventure that was percolating in my mind even before I came back to D&D after a long absence. In fact, it was the reason I came back. I’ve been leading my group towards this very point in the adventure ever since we began last summer. We played through an altered Keep on the Shadowfell in order to learn 4th Edition and to shake the rust off, but other than that this is the adventure I concocted, inspired by Jack White’s Dream of Eagles series of novels.
The plan was for the characters to develop a sense of post-apocalyptic dysfunction regarding Faerûn, and to inspire them to want to build a society from scratch, based on the principles of people-power and the desire to do good. As I mentioned earlier, this vision was inspired by the Dream of Eagles series, where post-Rome Britain is in chaos and a group of former legionnaires take it upon themselves to establish order, starting with a small colony in Western Britain which they call Camulod.
And so for the past year, I’ve been working on instilling this sense of chaos, of evil winning everywhere, of material gain being the sole motivation of every organized group. I used a set of devices to convey these conditions.
In Darromar, successful businesses were being acquired in relative secret by a shadowy group called WritMarque Holdings. In most cases, the people were tricked into selling these properties, only to be rehired at poverty level wages to “manage” the holdings.
In Winterhaven, a group of children were kidnapped to be sacrificed to Orcus (the altered Keep on the Shadowfell), where the children DID die before our PC’s could rescue them, but the group managed to destroy the evil cult. It left a whole generation of future Winterhaven residents dead, a death sentence for the town.
In Mistham, the town’s water supply was being poisoned by unknown sources, and the village had been thrown into abject poverty out of having to sell everything of value to purchase clean water. Our adventuring group uncovered the plot for what it was: the water was being brought in to be sold by the same group poisoning the water supply.
All of these events were linked, and that’s a storyline slowly coming to fruition as the group uncovers more clues.
Also, I gifted the group with a trojan horse of sorts. One of the characters in the party is an eccentric wizard who is a follower of Erathis (Goddess of Society). After one of their many good deeds in helping the village of Mistham, Erathis gifted the group with a large magical ballista. The ballista, after inspection, was extremely powerful. The implication was clear: perform good deeds for society, and be rewarded. Such a weapon would not be accepted by a small village like Mistham due to the unwanted attention it would garner, nor could it just be dumped off to anyone. I was leading my group to the idea of The Colony.
Last night after the Mistham storyline was wrapping up, I decided to explicitly reveal the idea of establishing the colony. I did this by using the Reeve of Mistham, Jethro Gallant, a character the PC’s had grown very familiar with and who was a friend to their cause (and very grateful to them for saving his village). Gallant waxed poetic of his former existence as an adventurer, and how he had botched his attempt of establishing a safe community. He rued the choice in location for Mistham, arguing that by settling next to a major road, too many shady characters wandered through his village. No, if he were to start over, and gosh was he ever jealous of the group’s youth and opportunity, he would pick a better spot away from prying eyes and start small. He would recruit talented tradespeople with the right disposition, and build a town truly built around principles of common interest, generosity and fending off evil. All of this took place in a discussion around the table, as in a fireside chat.
If you’re still reading this post, it’s probably because the theme interests you or you simply want to know how it turned out. Remember, I started out by stating that I almost forced my will on the party. There were four PC’s around the table, and two of them were enthusiastic about the idea of establishing their own town, subsidized by their adventuring. One was apathetic, and one was downright scornful of the idea.
I was gutted; I had expected them to love the idea as much as I did.
Here I was, months down a road that led to this reveal, and I was meeting stern resistance. The main opposition to the idea was how much work was involved, and why would they even want to do that? Why not give the magical ballista to the people of Mistham or Winterhaven to help them rebuild in safety? No, came the answer from my other players, an item of such power would attract all kind of undesirables intent on securing it for themselves. No, the ballista had been god-given to them for a purpose, and here their purpose was revealed!
The discussion ran a long time. At least 45 minutes. It was a good debate, which I was careful to steer away from frustration or confrontation between the players.
All I could think of was that in wanting to give the group a sense of meaning, of togetherness, a capital “C” Cause, all I had done was create a rift! I’d inadvertently discovered this group’s wedge issue! Here was a group that had always agreed on the next course of action, arguing now because of my interjection.
Plus, I’ll admit I was a little pissed. This was SUCH a good storyline for them, those in opposition just didn’t realize it! And that’s when it clicked. It’s not about me. I was reminded of Michael Shay’s excellent Sly Flourish’s DM Tips, where they urge you to “Build your stories from the actions of your players.” The players need to be the masters of their destiny, so I now had to take what they were telling me and incorporating it into the storyline.
My DM ego took a small hit, but if I can weave their desires into mine and make all the members of the party happy with the solution, it will be a grand achievement in my DM career. I think I know how to do it, as well. Stay tuned…
How about you? How have you reacted to PC’s who take your story into unexpected places?
Related stories on Nevermet Press:
Back From The (Un)Dead: How a 15-Year D&D Hiatus Ended
Time-Shifting: A Revenant Crashes My Birthday D&D Session
Your Character’s Worst Fear
Slumbering Heroes – A Super-Powered Campaign Setting
Hunting the Beast: The Real Reason I Left D&D (Only To Return)
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