I'm writing a campaign and I need some help. The campaign is about finding a stolen ruby for the duke of a city who later turns out to be evil. In one part, the players go into a cavern that's often used by thieves to hide their stolen goods. The problem is I can't decide between two ideas of where it goes from there. Here are the two options.
1. The players find a message from the thief who stole the ruby telling them to meet him at a local tavern where he will tell them all the details about the ruby and the duke.
2. The players find and battle the thief and then the thief tells them everything to try to convince them to let him go.
Should the players learn everything from the thief during a secret meeting or after a combat encounter?
Well, it depends. Why did the the thief steal the ruby in the first place? Did he want it for himself/his patron/some other shady thieflike reason and yhe duke's alignment is merely coincidental? Then he's not going to give up easily and it's probably going to need some force in order to cooperate. On the other hand, is the thief a Robin Hood/a secret agent attempting to fool the evil duke's nefarious plans/some other well intentioned reason? Then he's likely to be trying to kraken peaceful content.
Forgive me, but it seems as though you are trying to create a plot driven narrative then struggling to justify it. You want to go to a cave, and now you're trying to figure out why the thief brought the party there. Instead, try a character driven plot. Figure out who and what the thief really is, and then use that to determine what they do. If the answer is boring (eg it would result in the solution being revealed too early or something), then add a complication that forces the thief to change direction into a more interesting course of action. For example, let's say he's the secret agent I mentioned before, but you want a fight with the party before revealing his intents. Rather than just have him attack, have him suspect that the party os actually in the employ.of the duke. If the stars align, incidentally observe an action of the party that would convince him of this. Perhaps habw a journal that details all of this that the party can find that explains this. While you may or may not tell the thief's story (you should leave hooks so inquisitive party members can figure it out), he should have one too. Then the answers to these questions will come inevitably and naturally.
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If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
The campaign is actually a lot more character driven than how I described it. I have pretty much the entire campaign thought out, I just can't decide how to get from the cave to the next part.
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I'm writing a campaign and I need some help. The campaign is about finding a stolen ruby for the duke of a city who later turns out to be evil. In one part, the players go into a cavern that's often used by thieves to hide their stolen goods. The problem is I can't decide between two ideas of where it goes from there. Here are the two options.
1. The players find a message from the thief who stole the ruby telling them to meet him at a local tavern where he will tell them all the details about the ruby and the duke.
2. The players find and battle the thief and then the thief tells them everything to try to convince them to let him go.
Should the players learn everything from the thief during a secret meeting or after a combat encounter?
Well, it depends. Why did the the thief steal the ruby in the first place? Did he want it for himself/his patron/some other shady thieflike reason and yhe duke's alignment is merely coincidental? Then he's not going to give up easily and it's probably going to need some force in order to cooperate. On the other hand, is the thief a Robin Hood/a secret agent attempting to fool the evil duke's nefarious plans/some other well intentioned reason? Then he's likely to be trying to kraken peaceful content.
Forgive me, but it seems as though you are trying to create a plot driven narrative then struggling to justify it. You want to go to a cave, and now you're trying to figure out why the thief brought the party there. Instead, try a character driven plot. Figure out who and what the thief really is, and then use that to determine what they do. If the answer is boring (eg it would result in the solution being revealed too early or something), then add a complication that forces the thief to change direction into a more interesting course of action. For example, let's say he's the secret agent I mentioned before, but you want a fight with the party before revealing his intents. Rather than just have him attack, have him suspect that the party os actually in the employ.of the duke. If the stars align, incidentally observe an action of the party that would convince him of this. Perhaps habw a journal that details all of this that the party can find that explains this. While you may or may not tell the thief's story (you should leave hooks so inquisitive party members can figure it out), he should have one too. Then the answers to these questions will come inevitably and naturally.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
The campaign is actually a lot more character driven than how I described it. I have pretty much the entire campaign thought out, I just can't decide how to get from the cave to the next part.