I have a new party of low-experience players. Our fourth session is coming up Saturday and I feel as though I've been short-changing them on the experience they're looking for. We only get two-hour sessions, usually spills over to be close to 3. There have been a few encounters, most of them... unavoidable. Each encounter they tried to talk to the adversaries, and they did, but to little effect. One was a group of tight-knit bandit/cultists that they tried to convince they were new recruits. I regret making the bandits so hostile to the idea because that would have been pretty fun. The second was a bounty hunter after one of the party members. His entire deal is "Never leave a job unfinished" so them trying to pay him off didn't really work. Finally, there was a crazed Satyr that was partaking in a kind of vision ritual and just freaked out on them.
I'm planning on finally giving them an encounter they don't have to fight their way out of and I was wondering if I could get feedback on my moral dilemma. See, they're going to get word of a creature that sounds fey-like (Ranger w/ favored Fey enemy in the party) causing trouble in a podunk little town. They go, find its nest, and it's a [two-headed griffon-ish thing?]. Since I'm sure they're going to talk to it, they'll find out that the "awake" head is the dad who is a terrible screw-up. But he promised the "mom" head that despite his past mistakes, he could totally handle setting up a nest for them and the eggs. Now some creatures have stolen the eggs and he's freaking out because a) his eggs are missing and b) his wife is gonna be piiiiiised when she wakes up and he's lost the eggs. Her mother was right about him.
So the plan is that the party will strike off to find the eggs. Maybe do some investigative work and find they were stolen by some poachers. Then FUN dilemma comes when they find out the eggs were sold to a doctor in the village and are about to be used in a medicinal way to cure... something. I dunno. Orphan cancer.
Any fun twists or details anyone wants to throw my way are greatly appreciated. I'm running low on the inspiration end of this so any boosts would do me wonders. Thanks a ton!
Moral dilemmas are great - gives the Players something to chew on.
You need a dilemma to present two concrete, sympathetic, mutually exclusive outcomes, which are roughly balanced in terms of (un)desirability.
I would work out the details on that the doctor is going to use the eggs for. That's a purpose the Players need to feel sympathetic towards. For example, the "podunk little town" could be suffering from an illness/plague, and you make sure the Players are fully aware of because you make sure they travel through it on the way to the creature, and emphasize the plague when they first arrive, complete with likeable sympathetic NPCs who are suffering from it. How serious is the plague? Just serious enough to balance how well you think you can "sell" the plight of the fey creature.
I would be very careful here though. You are say that you're "sure they're going to talk to it" - and your entire ability to present the dilemma to your Players hinges on that. You need to figure out how you're going to manage the situation if they attack the creature without talking to it, or decide not to go investigate the creature at all.
You narrative should never hinge on Players selecting particular adventure paths, or performing certain actions, unless you provide solid motivation for them to go down that path - and not always, even then.
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I have a new party of low-experience players. Our fourth session is coming up Saturday and I feel as though I've been short-changing them on the experience they're looking for. We only get two-hour sessions, usually spills over to be close to 3. There have been a few encounters, most of them... unavoidable. Each encounter they tried to talk to the adversaries, and they did, but to little effect. One was a group of tight-knit bandit/cultists that they tried to convince they were new recruits. I regret making the bandits so hostile to the idea because that would have been pretty fun. The second was a bounty hunter after one of the party members. His entire deal is "Never leave a job unfinished" so them trying to pay him off didn't really work. Finally, there was a crazed Satyr that was partaking in a kind of vision ritual and just freaked out on them.
I'm planning on finally giving them an encounter they don't have to fight their way out of and I was wondering if I could get feedback on my moral dilemma. See, they're going to get word of a creature that sounds fey-like (Ranger w/ favored Fey enemy in the party) causing trouble in a podunk little town. They go, find its nest, and it's a [two-headed griffon-ish thing?]. Since I'm sure they're going to talk to it, they'll find out that the "awake" head is the dad who is a terrible screw-up. But he promised the "mom" head that despite his past mistakes, he could totally handle setting up a nest for them and the eggs. Now some creatures have stolen the eggs and he's freaking out because a) his eggs are missing and b) his wife is gonna be piiiiiised when she wakes up and he's lost the eggs. Her mother was right about him.
So the plan is that the party will strike off to find the eggs. Maybe do some investigative work and find they were stolen by some poachers. Then FUN dilemma comes when they find out the eggs were sold to a doctor in the village and are about to be used in a medicinal way to cure... something. I dunno. Orphan cancer.
Any fun twists or details anyone wants to throw my way are greatly appreciated. I'm running low on the inspiration end of this so any boosts would do me wonders. Thanks a ton!
Fun twist: the eggs have been replaced by someone to fake ones :)
Moral dilemmas are great - gives the Players something to chew on.
You need a dilemma to present two concrete, sympathetic, mutually exclusive outcomes, which are roughly balanced in terms of (un)desirability.
I would work out the details on that the doctor is going to use the eggs for. That's a purpose the Players need to feel sympathetic towards. For example, the "podunk little town" could be suffering from an illness/plague, and you make sure the Players are fully aware of because you make sure they travel through it on the way to the creature, and emphasize the plague when they first arrive, complete with likeable sympathetic NPCs who are suffering from it. How serious is the plague? Just serious enough to balance how well you think you can "sell" the plight of the fey creature.
I would be very careful here though. You are say that you're "sure they're going to talk to it" - and your entire ability to present the dilemma to your Players hinges on that. You need to figure out how you're going to manage the situation if they attack the creature without talking to it, or decide not to go investigate the creature at all.
You narrative should never hinge on Players selecting particular adventure paths, or performing certain actions, unless you provide solid motivation for them to go down that path - and not always, even then.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.