I am a very new dm- I currently run two games, each group playing Rise of Tiamat. My one group is more experienced and farther ahead, and I've generally had no problems. My second group is a party of three-my youngest brother and two of his friends, all around 14yo. The problem is, they-my brother, in specific-have managed to flummox me, and I have no idea how to fix it!
The situation is that they were supposed to get into the castle naerytar, and boot the cultists out somehow. One of the three players had to leave, and the other two wanted to keep going, so I allowed it, bc why not. Normally I do a oneshot if someone in this group cant make it, but we had already started, I wasnt sure if the one player was going to be back, and I thought it would be fine as long as they stealthed/mostly explored.
which they did.
for a bit.
they also proceeded to
-leave their unconcious friend as a prisoner
-almost get killed by a nest of centipedes
-explore a little bit
-my younger brother kept INSISTING that he would impress the boss-dralmorrer borngray- so much he would just. give him the castle, i think as a joke. despite multiple ppl telling him it was not going to work.
-meet borngray, and were debating abt attacking him when i ended the session out of self defense.
I know theyre young, and I do love the shenanigans they get up to-a few sessions ago, the same brother's solution to "you cant invite them to a pub, youre in the middle of a swamp, there is no pub" was to build basically a lemonade stand that sold beer. I want to support their creativity, but also keep them from getting killed, if possible-its most of their first campaign, and while I dont want to be a buddy buddy dm where everything goes smoothly, I also dont want to be a "rock falls everyone dies" dm. Is there a good way to get the game back on track, and possibly impress on him that while goofs have their time and place, he still needs to follow the general plotline?
Talk to them about it out character, explain how their actions and influence the storyline set before them. Then give them the choice how they want to proceed, do they want to funball their way through this and stick with it - fine - you offcourse should ask yourself if you are the DM who wants to play a game like this.
But explaining might also trigger a realization that they are going to get themselves killed if they proceed this way and/or that making fun of the storyline will change the game entirely. If that is the case you could either roll-back to the point where the previous player had to leave and start over (it might also be that this happened becaues he left?) or they proceed now knowing how 'stupid' they have been. In the last case scenario, I would think about how to narrate the story back into a suitable scenario. I don't know the scenario details and I don't want to (spoilers) but it might be that this bad guy needs them to retrieve something, or he impisons them for a ritual (where they get the oppertunity to redeem themselves).
This can be challenging as a new DM but just make something up yourself to bend the story back to the main storyline.
Letting players go off on tangents is fine as long as everyone is having fun, players and the DM. If you don't mind coming up with things off the top of your head, it's all good.
Something I'm sure someone on this site posted was that time goes on as the characters chose to do other things. The solution was to bring the plot to them if they didn't go to it. While some might say "waaah...railroad" or something similar, a plot line IS a railroading mechanic so, if you are playing Lost Mine of Phandelver, don't expect Tomb of Annihilation.
The basic idea is something like this:
Your story is Countdown to the Zombie Apocalypse.
1) The players run into an NPC that recounts a harrowing tale of zombies over running his village. Would the characters please investigate and save the village? The characters get side tracked.
2) Word arrives that the village was wiped out and that the zombie mob moved on into the surrounding jungles. The party could probably track the mob and catch up to it or, at least figure out where it might hit next. The characters are building a Pub.
3) The zombies show up at the Pub, like something out of Shaun of the Dead. The characters are inside making armpit noises and drinking brew until the next "customer"(a zombie) strolls in.
I am a very new dm- I currently run two games, each group playing Rise of Tiamat. My one group is more experienced and farther ahead, and I've generally had no problems. My second group is a party of three-my youngest brother and two of his friends, all around 14yo. The problem is, they-my brother, in specific-have managed to flummox me, and I have no idea how to fix it!
The situation is that they were supposed to get into the castle naerytar, and boot the cultists out somehow. One of the three players had to leave, and the other two wanted to keep going, so I allowed it, bc why not. Normally I do a oneshot if someone in this group cant make it, but we had already started, I wasnt sure if the one player was going to be back, and I thought it would be fine as long as they stealthed/mostly explored.
which they did.
for a bit.
they also proceeded to
-leave their unconcious friend as a prisoner
-almost get killed by a nest of centipedes
-explore a little bit
-my younger brother kept INSISTING that he would impress the boss-dralmorrer borngray- so much he would just. give him the castle, i think as a joke. despite multiple ppl telling him it was not going to work.
-meet borngray, and were debating abt attacking him when i ended the session out of self defense.
I know theyre young, and I do love the shenanigans they get up to-a few sessions ago, the same brother's solution to "you cant invite them to a pub, youre in the middle of a swamp, there is no pub" was to build basically a lemonade stand that sold beer. I want to support their creativity, but also keep them from getting killed, if possible-its most of their first campaign, and while I dont want to be a buddy buddy dm where everything goes smoothly, I also dont want to be a "rock falls everyone dies" dm. Is there a good way to get the game back on track, and possibly impress on him that while goofs have their time and place, he still needs to follow the general plotline?
Talk to them about it out character, explain how their actions and influence the storyline set before them. Then give them the choice how they want to proceed, do they want to funball their way through this and stick with it - fine - you offcourse should ask yourself if you are the DM who wants to play a game like this.
But explaining might also trigger a realization that they are going to get themselves killed if they proceed this way and/or that making fun of the storyline will change the game entirely. If that is the case you could either roll-back to the point where the previous player had to leave and start over (it might also be that this happened becaues he left?) or they proceed now knowing how 'stupid' they have been. In the last case scenario, I would think about how to narrate the story back into a suitable scenario. I don't know the scenario details and I don't want to (spoilers) but it might be that this bad guy needs them to retrieve something, or he impisons them for a ritual (where they get the oppertunity to redeem themselves).
This can be challenging as a new DM but just make something up yourself to bend the story back to the main storyline.
Good luck!
Letting players go off on tangents is fine as long as everyone is having fun, players and the DM. If you don't mind coming up with things off the top of your head, it's all good.
Something I'm sure someone on this site posted was that time goes on as the characters chose to do other things. The solution was to bring the plot to them if they didn't go to it. While some might say "waaah...railroad" or something similar, a plot line IS a railroading mechanic so, if you are playing Lost Mine of Phandelver, don't expect Tomb of Annihilation.
The basic idea is something like this:
Your story is Countdown to the Zombie Apocalypse.
1) The players run into an NPC that recounts a harrowing tale of zombies over running his village. Would the characters please investigate and save the village? The characters get side tracked.
2) Word arrives that the village was wiped out and that the zombie mob moved on into the surrounding jungles. The party could probably track the mob and catch up to it or, at least figure out where it might hit next. The characters are building a Pub.
3) The zombies show up at the Pub, like something out of Shaun of the Dead. The characters are inside making armpit noises and drinking brew until the next "customer"(a zombie) strolls in.