So I've been running a 5E campaign for a few months now. Once a week, generally for 3 hours a session.
The players are the descendants (or apprentices) of heroes that are now gone. They received a letter from the last living member of the old heroes calling for desperate aid, as he believed the world was doomed if nothing was done. This campaign is heavily inspired by Darkest Dungeon and similar horror themes.
Now, the problem: The players have been trying to rebuild a traumatized and nearly destroyed town. They've stopped the corrupted mayor-turned-monster, destroyed the portal that sent flying horrors out every night, and even found some Dwarven refugees and brought them to the town to help rebuild it. Every time though that the people in the town (traumatized, scared for their lives, etc) give any pushback or seem unwilling to go on suicidal charges, stretch already thin resources, get over fears and stigmas, the party (but especially 1 member) gets angry and belligerent with them.
So cruel have their words been at times I've considered doing the worst thing and lowering their alignment. I just cannot believe how rude and cruel they are to the victims of such abuse.
I can only chalk up this attitude to Player Privilege. They know their doing the "right" thing, but they can't seem to empathize with the natural irrationality of scared, hurt people. How do I help them remember that not every NPC can take more than 4 damage, how do I remind them that to the NPCs, this isn't a game, its their one and only life on the line? How do I make them remember that their characters are a step above the common man, and that the common man can't just pick up a sword and smite for 30+ damage??
Well there's a couple of things you can do. Use thier passive insight and literally tell them those things. Usually this is enough. If they continue to push, use some sort of reputation system where they will drop rep when they do things that would be considered rude/distateful. Depending on the drop, things may cost more, people will be less likely to provide any assistance, or maybe they won't be welcome in the inn or even in the town. Things like this lets the charaters know that their actions have consequences.
Things like this are what session zero is for honestly. Discussing with the table how certain situations would be handled and where people draw the line with situations they may face. As Lathius mentioned above. Perhaps give them some kind of rep with said NPC's. Make stores unlikely to sell them any goods. Have the inn not accept them as patrons. Though, you want to be careful because where an NPC can deny giving help to the players themselves, so too can the players also deny giving aid to the NPC's. It might be best to speak to the group outside of the game itself to resolve this issue though. It sounds like not everyone at your table is happy with how the game is going and a restructuring is in order.
Speaking to the most outspoken player, they claim that they feel no incentive to help the people. They feel there's no reward for doing the right thing.
If saving lives and helping the downtrodden is not a motive for that character, then perhaps this isn't the campaign for them. Especially since they *are* being rewarded, a safe haven to rest in, a place to purchase supplies and repair gear, an area to de-stress during downtime, etc. I guess to at least this one player its not enough.
Worst case scenario you send a hoard of orcs or goblins after the party and do a TPK!! Best case scenario you use one of your gods who are tired of their shit to crush the party with their thumb! Mwahahahaha....ahem.... *cough*....Sorry...
Remember you're allowed to straight up tell the players things you think would be clear to their characters. "Just to be clear, you can tell that this npc is traumatized by X event and seems especially tense in Y situation. They're terrified by what you just suggested."
You don't have to keep secrets from the players and expect them to realize things on their own. They can't see the world, you are their eyes.
+1 to Charles the plant. Just tell them. It could be the players themselves lack empathy and so have a hard time brining it out through their characters.
Or they just don’t get it. Some people do not understand subtly and need to be whacked over the head before they really get a concept.
Or it could be you are being too subtle. I’ve played with DMs who thought they were making things clear and giving the party lots of plot hooks, but none of the players were actually getting it. You might do with an out of character check in, to see if they are understanding things the way you are intending them.
Speaking to the most outspoken player, they claim that they feel no incentive to help the people. They feel there's no reward for doing the right thing.
If saving lives and helping the downtrodden is not a motive for that character, then perhaps this isn't the campaign for them. Especially since they *are* being rewarded, a safe haven to rest in, a place to purchase supplies and repair gear, an area to de-stress during downtime, etc. I guess to at least this one player its not enough.
when was the last time a white dove swooped down from the dawn mists to drop a divine blessing onto someone's shoulder? nothing like a pat-pat from a higher-up to let you know that the company appreciates how thanklessly you slay dragons for peanuts.
((boss makes a dollar while i make a dime, and that's why i forums on company time!))
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unhappy at the way in which we lost individual purchases for one-off subclasses, magic items, and monsters?
tell them you don't like features disappeared quietly in the night: providefeedback!
It kinda sounds like the players want to play in a different style of game. No one here can help with that, you need to have a sit down discussion with the players out of game to discuss their expectations and your own.
P.S. I don’t do subtlety, I don’t get hints. If you want something from me then tell me straight. I won’t get eye rolls or nudges.
With the risk of being brutally honest in an effort to help you, a lot of what you relayed here is a DMing problem, not just a player problem (that is not to say the players might not also be problematic, but others have been talking about them and you have not had someone point out your own flaws).
Here are some major DMing red flags I noticed in your posts:
1. Your campaign seems like it is floundering and stuck in a rut. The party already has done the D&D thing--saving a town by stopping a magical threat--and now you are trying to get them to play Sim City: D&D Edition with rebuilding the town. There might be parties who like that--but it is very clear based on what you have said that your party is not looking for a housing simulator.
You need to give them something to do - something that gets them out of the town and actually doing some adventuring--the easiest option would be rumors of other portals opening so they go investigate those and eventually stumble across a conspiracy related to those portals. Give them a story that keeps moving forward--right now you have them stuck in the falling action of a narrative, rather than a narrative that is going anywhere.
2. You seem almost flabbergasted that players might not want to play traditionally good heroes. One of the joys of D&D is that you do not have to be the traditional neutral good hero--you can play as an antihero, an evil character who is working for some sinister end, etc. and still work within a party dynamic. It sounds a lot like you are expecting your players to be something they are not--and that can really strain the DM-Player dynamic.
3. Reading between the lines, it seems like you put a lot more effort on the town than individual NPCs. Without compelling NPCs, they are all the faceless background characters in the town, so, even if the town feels like something worth saving, the players are not going to see the characters inside as anything other than disposable.
4. You are putting too much stock in "they should do the right thing because it is the right thing." If "the right thing" is the only motivator, that is generally a sign of bad storytelling and is very likely not to resonate with all your players or all your characters. You need to give each of them a motivation that would actually appeal to their character--that's not going to always be "the right thing" and it very likely will be different for each individual character.
I think you should also do some of the above and figure out what your players might want or need, but it is important to be able to recognize your own flaws and realize the blame might not solely be on them if you are to engage in meaningful dialogue and get your campaign back on track.
Every time though that the people in the town (traumatized, scared for their lives, etc) give any pushback or seem unwilling to go on suicidal charges, stretch already thin resources, get over fears and stigmas, the party (but especially 1 member) gets angry and belligerent with them.
I would go over these moments again and think about any subtext here.
If a player is asking an NPC for help or saying, "Why don't you help yourself?" What they're often saying is, "I don't really want to do this," or, "I feel like you're railroading me into this one way to handle things."
It's funny that I have the opposite problem. My players are just trying to be nice and proper players, if I give them any pushback they just accept it and follow whatever plot hook that I happen present to them. They don't even question Fey when they interact with them lol.
I really wish they would be more chaotic, especially since they're just kinda following whatever the BBEG tells them to do. I can't figure out how to bring it up to them without spoiling the surprise, because every time I drop a clue, they look at each other and go "That's odd.. Ok let's go do X"🤣
Mysterious;y reward good actions with "found" magic items usable pretty much only by the good acting players.
But yes get the party out of town and let the town rebuild itself. The party has obviously not been hired to be the local police and they should not be expected to do that job. They can be tasked with getting nearby towns to join the 'rebuilding' coalition. And in so doing more missions could be given to them in order to get more towns to join.
And you can always start using the characters Charisma stat and use an appropriate modifier for the good or bad they have done verses the trauma the NPC has gone through.
So cruel have their words been at times I've considered doing the worst thing and lowering their alignment. I just cannot believe how rude and cruel they are to the victims of such abuse.
I don't get this part - lowering their alignment is "the worst thing"? Are players only allowed to be Good in your campaign? Sounds like your "player privilege" might just be people wanting to RP a chaotic neutral or even an evil character
So cruel have their words been at times I've considered doing the worst thing and lowering their alignment. I just cannot believe how rude and cruel they are to the victims of such abuse.
I don't get this part - lowering their alignment is "the worst thing"? Are players only allowed to be Good in your campaign? Sounds like your "player privilege" might just be people wanting to RP a chaotic neutral or even an evil character
also like...forcing an alignment change may seroiusly **** with a character, as characters are not just their alignment but a whole mesh of things, which is partly why so many want the alignment chart gone because its misused by many dms to be the only thing you should judge your characters actions by
I'm not sure how it would mess with the character... Alignment should represent how you want to play the character, not what the character is allowed to do. If one of my players picked Lawful Good, but goes around killing innocent civilians, I'm going to force a change on their alignment, not tell them "No you can't do that". If they picked a class or feature or item that requires Lawful Good, then that's their fault. Otherwise, you're dangerously close to saying that a Paladin that breaks their Oath shouldn't have any consequences.
It's funny that I have the opposite problem. My players are just trying to be nice and proper players, if I give them any pushback they just accept it and follow whatever plot hook that I happen present to them. They don't even question Fey when they interact with them lol.
I really wish they would be more chaotic, especially since they're just kinda following whatever the BBEG tells them to do. I can't figure out how to bring it up to them without spoiling the surprise, because every time I drop a clue, they look at each other and go "That's odd.. Ok let's go do X"🤣
Send something different against them, so that they can learn that they don't have to accept everything that the DM offers.
I would say that you can always try leaning into it. He who fights monsters should be careful lest he become a monster and all that, if your players are leaning towards becoming tyrants then why not play into that and try to entice them further down that path with scenarios that tempt them to do less than righteous things for what they may consider to be the greater good slowly ramping up the evil and selfishness of the actions until the reveal where it was revealed that they were the true demons all along!
But that said I do think you do need to have some sort of consequence for their actions, if the players start becoming tyrants then the villagers start losing faith in them which leads to them being less likely to offer aid or go along with their plans, if the players get too pushy then it leads to a fight, just need to escalate things to an appropriate level to the actions of the players.
Speaking to the most outspoken player, they claim that they feel no incentive to help the people. They feel there's no reward for doing the right thing.
If saving lives and helping the downtrodden is not a motive for that character, then perhaps this isn't the campaign for them. Especially since they *are* being rewarded, a safe haven to rest in, a place to purchase supplies and repair gear, an area to de-stress during downtime, etc. I guess to at least this one player its not enough.
To be honest doesn't sound like my type of campaign either, of course if it is made clear from session zero that our characters are supposed to be selfless heroes helping the downtrodden for little more than to see them smile I can create a suitable character and go along with it, but personally I generally like campaigns with a bit more moral flexibility, rarely are my characters motivated by altruism alone.
I think you probably needed a session zero to make things a little more clear and to hear what your players wanted from the game, lay out the game you want to run and take feedback from the players on the game they want to play and work something out from there.
It's funny that I have the opposite problem. My players are just trying to be nice and proper players, if I give them any pushback they just accept it and follow whatever plot hook that I happen present to them. They don't even question Fey when they interact with them lol.
I really wish they would be more chaotic, especially since they're just kinda following whatever the BBEG tells them to do. I can't figure out how to bring it up to them without spoiling the surprise, because every time I drop a clue, they look at each other and go "That's odd.. Ok let's go do X"🤣
Send something different against them, so that they can learn that they don't have to accept everything that the DM offers.
"what this adventure party needs is a monorail!"
have a charismatic salesman sell those gullible, naive players something they don't need. even better, maybe the purchase causes problems. then have the mysterious merchant sell them a sure-fire solution to that problem. which causes a new problem. which has a new costly solution! if they don't catch on, repeat until they're going to the merchant automatically and then break the cycle: "when he sees you on the path he jumps into the cart and starts whipping his mules to go go go, scattering a few coins in his haste. Sylvester McMonkey McBean is skipping town and he's taking all the gold you invested!"
...and getting back to the thread topic, what if the 'privileged' (and i say potentially 'under-rewarded') players found a lightly guarded cart full of gold held by unethical persons? well, rather than rob some merchant, perhaps a small mercenary army has set up around a neighboring town. this undisciplined force fears no other local armies and so only sets light pickets to defend their backside and supply train. scouting it briefly, the players immediately spot the daily payment cart being trucked in to keep the mercenaries appeased. part of the payment is daily rum rations and the lucky guards that day aren't shy about taking taste tests en route. if the players could hijack even just one of the gold (and rum!) shipments it could splinter the army fast. and the players could do whatever with the loot: take it back to town, trade it for magic items, hire their own mercenary band to speed up un-grim-darking their town so they can go off in a direction of their own choosing...
Well there's a couple of things you can do. Use thier passive insight and literally tell them those things. Usually this is enough. If they continue to push, use some sort of reputation system where they will drop rep when they do things that would be considered rude/distateful. Depending on the drop, things may cost more, people will be less likely to provide any assistance, or maybe they won't be welcome in the inn or even in the town. Things like this lets the charaters know that their actions have consequences.
This is really good advice; based on your account of what's happening OP, you're either playing with people who A) don't understand the emotional stakes or context based on the context CLUES you've given them [e.g. YOU know it's a destroyed town with traumatized people, but have -they- really put two and two together and thought about what that means? or are they just not thinking deeply/realistically enough about it? have there been enough clues to begin with for them to even figure that out?] or B) sociopaths who totally understand they're being actual cruel jerks to helpless townspeople who are traumatized.
I would not really care to play with group B, personally; the mentality that NPC's are just fun to torment and kill because they don't actually exist and it doesn't matter has never been very 'fun' to me, but it IS a mentality that proliferates male gaming spaces quite a bit and I've run into it often enough to see the pattern. I suspect in your case, or hope anyway, that it's option A and really they just haven't been picking up the hints and clues you've been laying down. Sometimes what seems obvious to us may not be obvious or inherent to others, and they'll likely feel bashful once you really more thoroughly explain the situation so try and be kind about it. If it's group B though, just ditch em, because that's just basically signing up to be emotionally abused every week as the DM who is playing those NPC's that they see as worthless and abuse-able.
edit: seeing some of OP's replies, yeah your group doesn't sound like they value the good guy stuff very much! My last PC did all of his adventures for the very expensive cost of... a hug. He was a total dingus Kobold comedy relief sidekick type character but like... Yeah doing the right thing in the world is often it's own reward? So getting anything, even a hug, is like... Nice. If they're not really pleased with that, maybe they need to be doing an evil campaign where you can go in and cut off their fingers during scenes and tell them 'hey, you're evil' and give them a real taste of their own outlook, idk!
So I've been running a 5E campaign for a few months now. Once a week, generally for 3 hours a session.
The players are the descendants (or apprentices) of heroes that are now gone. They received a letter from the last living member of the old heroes calling for desperate aid, as he believed the world was doomed if nothing was done.
This campaign is heavily inspired by Darkest Dungeon and similar horror themes.
Now, the problem:
The players have been trying to rebuild a traumatized and nearly destroyed town. They've stopped the corrupted mayor-turned-monster, destroyed the portal that sent flying horrors out every night, and even found some Dwarven refugees and brought them to the town to help rebuild it.
Every time though that the people in the town (traumatized, scared for their lives, etc) give any pushback or seem unwilling to go on suicidal charges, stretch already thin resources, get over fears and stigmas, the party (but especially 1 member) gets angry and belligerent with them.
So cruel have their words been at times I've considered doing the worst thing and lowering their alignment. I just cannot believe how rude and cruel they are to the victims of such abuse.
I can only chalk up this attitude to Player Privilege. They know their doing the "right" thing, but they can't seem to empathize with the natural irrationality of scared, hurt people. How do I help them remember that not every NPC can take more than 4 damage, how do I remind them that to the NPCs, this isn't a game, its their one and only life on the line? How do I make them remember that their characters are a step above the common man, and that the common man can't just pick up a sword and smite for 30+ damage??
Well there's a couple of things you can do. Use thier passive insight and literally tell them those things. Usually this is enough. If they continue to push, use some sort of reputation system where they will drop rep when they do things that would be considered rude/distateful. Depending on the drop, things may cost more, people will be less likely to provide any assistance, or maybe they won't be welcome in the inn or even in the town. Things like this lets the charaters know that their actions have consequences.
Things like this are what session zero is for honestly. Discussing with the table how certain situations would be handled and where people draw the line with situations they may face. As Lathius mentioned above. Perhaps give them some kind of rep with said NPC's. Make stores unlikely to sell them any goods. Have the inn not accept them as patrons. Though, you want to be careful because where an NPC can deny giving help to the players themselves, so too can the players also deny giving aid to the NPC's. It might be best to speak to the group outside of the game itself to resolve this issue though. It sounds like not everyone at your table is happy with how the game is going and a restructuring is in order.
I think you are right. About the restructuring.
Speaking to the most outspoken player, they claim that they feel no incentive to help the people. They feel there's no reward for doing the right thing.
If saving lives and helping the downtrodden is not a motive for that character, then perhaps this isn't the campaign for them. Especially since they *are* being rewarded, a safe haven to rest in, a place to purchase supplies and repair gear, an area to de-stress during downtime, etc. I guess to at least this one player its not enough.
Worst case scenario you send a hoard of orcs or goblins after the party and do a TPK!! Best case scenario you use one of your gods who are tired of their shit to crush the party with their thumb! Mwahahahaha....ahem.... *cough*....Sorry...
Remember you're allowed to straight up tell the players things you think would be clear to their characters. "Just to be clear, you can tell that this npc is traumatized by X event and seems especially tense in Y situation. They're terrified by what you just suggested."
You don't have to keep secrets from the players and expect them to realize things on their own. They can't see the world, you are their eyes.
+1 to Charles the plant. Just tell them. It could be the players themselves lack empathy and so have a hard time brining it out through their characters.
Or they just don’t get it. Some people do not understand subtly and need to be whacked over the head before they really get a concept.
Or it could be you are being too subtle. I’ve played with DMs who thought they were making things clear and giving the party lots of plot hooks, but none of the players were actually getting it. You might do with an out of character check in, to see if they are understanding things the way you are intending them.
when was the last time a white dove swooped down from the dawn mists to drop a divine blessing onto someone's shoulder? nothing like a pat-pat from a higher-up to let you know that the company appreciates how thanklessly you slay dragons for peanuts.
((boss makes a dollar while i make a dime, and that's why i forums on company time!))
unhappy at the way in which we lost individual purchases for one-off subclasses, magic items, and monsters?
tell them you don't like features disappeared quietly in the night: provide feedback!
It kinda sounds like the players want to play in a different style of game. No one here can help with that, you need to have a sit down discussion with the players out of game to discuss their expectations and your own.
P.S. I don’t do subtlety, I don’t get hints. If you want something from me then tell me straight. I won’t get eye rolls or nudges.
With the risk of being brutally honest in an effort to help you, a lot of what you relayed here is a DMing problem, not just a player problem (that is not to say the players might not also be problematic, but others have been talking about them and you have not had someone point out your own flaws).
Here are some major DMing red flags I noticed in your posts:
1. Your campaign seems like it is floundering and stuck in a rut. The party already has done the D&D thing--saving a town by stopping a magical threat--and now you are trying to get them to play Sim City: D&D Edition with rebuilding the town. There might be parties who like that--but it is very clear based on what you have said that your party is not looking for a housing simulator.
You need to give them something to do - something that gets them out of the town and actually doing some adventuring--the easiest option would be rumors of other portals opening so they go investigate those and eventually stumble across a conspiracy related to those portals. Give them a story that keeps moving forward--right now you have them stuck in the falling action of a narrative, rather than a narrative that is going anywhere.
2. You seem almost flabbergasted that players might not want to play traditionally good heroes. One of the joys of D&D is that you do not have to be the traditional neutral good hero--you can play as an antihero, an evil character who is working for some sinister end, etc. and still work within a party dynamic. It sounds a lot like you are expecting your players to be something they are not--and that can really strain the DM-Player dynamic.
3. Reading between the lines, it seems like you put a lot more effort on the town than individual NPCs. Without compelling NPCs, they are all the faceless background characters in the town, so, even if the town feels like something worth saving, the players are not going to see the characters inside as anything other than disposable.
4. You are putting too much stock in "they should do the right thing because it is the right thing." If "the right thing" is the only motivator, that is generally a sign of bad storytelling and is very likely not to resonate with all your players or all your characters. You need to give each of them a motivation that would actually appeal to their character--that's not going to always be "the right thing" and it very likely will be different for each individual character.
I think you should also do some of the above and figure out what your players might want or need, but it is important to be able to recognize your own flaws and realize the blame might not solely be on them if you are to engage in meaningful dialogue and get your campaign back on track.
I would go over these moments again and think about any subtext here.
If a player is asking an NPC for help or saying, "Why don't you help yourself?" What they're often saying is, "I don't really want to do this," or, "I feel like you're railroading me into this one way to handle things."
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
It's funny that I have the opposite problem. My players are just trying to be nice and proper players, if I give them any pushback they just accept it and follow whatever plot hook that I happen present to them. They don't even question Fey when they interact with them lol.
I really wish they would be more chaotic, especially since they're just kinda following whatever the BBEG tells them to do. I can't figure out how to bring it up to them without spoiling the surprise, because every time I drop a clue, they look at each other and go "That's odd.. Ok let's go do X"🤣
Mysterious;y reward good actions with "found" magic items usable pretty much only by the good acting players.
But yes get the party out of town and let the town rebuild itself.
The party has obviously not been hired to be the local police and they should not be expected to do that job.
They can be tasked with getting nearby towns to join the 'rebuilding' coalition. And in so doing more missions could be given to them in order to get more towns to join.
And you can always start using the characters Charisma stat and use an appropriate modifier for the good or bad they have done verses the trauma the NPC has gone through.
I don't get this part - lowering their alignment is "the worst thing"? Are players only allowed to be Good in your campaign? Sounds like your "player privilege" might just be people wanting to RP a chaotic neutral or even an evil character
also like...forcing an alignment change may seroiusly **** with a character, as characters are not just their alignment but a whole mesh of things, which is partly why so many want the alignment chart gone because its misused by many dms to be the only thing you should judge your characters actions by
I'm not sure how it would mess with the character... Alignment should represent how you want to play the character, not what the character is allowed to do. If one of my players picked Lawful Good, but goes around killing innocent civilians, I'm going to force a change on their alignment, not tell them "No you can't do that". If they picked a class or feature or item that requires Lawful Good, then that's their fault. Otherwise, you're dangerously close to saying that a Paladin that breaks their Oath shouldn't have any consequences.
Send something different against them, so that they can learn that they don't have to accept everything that the DM offers.
I would say that you can always try leaning into it. He who fights monsters should be careful lest he become a monster and all that, if your players are leaning towards becoming tyrants then why not play into that and try to entice them further down that path with scenarios that tempt them to do less than righteous things for what they may consider to be the greater good slowly ramping up the evil and selfishness of the actions until the reveal where it was revealed that they were the true demons all along!
But that said I do think you do need to have some sort of consequence for their actions, if the players start becoming tyrants then the villagers start losing faith in them which leads to them being less likely to offer aid or go along with their plans, if the players get too pushy then it leads to a fight, just need to escalate things to an appropriate level to the actions of the players.
To be honest doesn't sound like my type of campaign either, of course if it is made clear from session zero that our characters are supposed to be selfless heroes helping the downtrodden for little more than to see them smile I can create a suitable character and go along with it, but personally I generally like campaigns with a bit more moral flexibility, rarely are my characters motivated by altruism alone.
I think you probably needed a session zero to make things a little more clear and to hear what your players wanted from the game, lay out the game you want to run and take feedback from the players on the game they want to play and work something out from there.
"what this adventure party needs is a monorail!"
have a charismatic salesman sell those gullible, naive players something they don't need. even better, maybe the purchase causes problems. then have the mysterious merchant sell them a sure-fire solution to that problem. which causes a new problem. which has a new costly solution! if they don't catch on, repeat until they're going to the merchant automatically and then break the cycle: "when he sees you on the path he jumps into the cart and starts whipping his mules to go go go, scattering a few coins in his haste. Sylvester McMonkey McBean is skipping town and he's taking all the gold you invested!"
...and getting back to the thread topic, what if the 'privileged' (and i say potentially 'under-rewarded') players found a lightly guarded cart full of gold held by unethical persons? well, rather than rob some merchant, perhaps a small mercenary army has set up around a neighboring town. this undisciplined force fears no other local armies and so only sets light pickets to defend their backside and supply train. scouting it briefly, the players immediately spot the daily payment cart being trucked in to keep the mercenaries appeased. part of the payment is daily rum rations and the lucky guards that day aren't shy about taking taste tests en route. if the players could hijack even just one of the gold (and rum!) shipments it could splinter the army fast. and the players could do whatever with the loot: take it back to town, trade it for magic items, hire their own mercenary band to speed up un-grim-darking their town so they can go off in a direction of their own choosing...
unhappy at the way in which we lost individual purchases for one-off subclasses, magic items, and monsters?
tell them you don't like features disappeared quietly in the night: provide feedback!
This is really good advice; based on your account of what's happening OP, you're either playing with people who A) don't understand the emotional stakes or context based on the context CLUES you've given them [e.g. YOU know it's a destroyed town with traumatized people, but have -they- really put two and two together and thought about what that means? or are they just not thinking deeply/realistically enough about it? have there been enough clues to begin with for them to even figure that out?] or B) sociopaths who totally understand they're being actual cruel jerks to helpless townspeople who are traumatized.
I would not really care to play with group B, personally; the mentality that NPC's are just fun to torment and kill because they don't actually exist and it doesn't matter has never been very 'fun' to me, but it IS a mentality that proliferates male gaming spaces quite a bit and I've run into it often enough to see the pattern. I suspect in your case, or hope anyway, that it's option A and really they just haven't been picking up the hints and clues you've been laying down. Sometimes what seems obvious to us may not be obvious or inherent to others, and they'll likely feel bashful once you really more thoroughly explain the situation so try and be kind about it. If it's group B though, just ditch em, because that's just basically signing up to be emotionally abused every week as the DM who is playing those NPC's that they see as worthless and abuse-able.
edit: seeing some of OP's replies, yeah your group doesn't sound like they value the good guy stuff very much! My last PC did all of his adventures for the very expensive cost of... a hug. He was a total dingus Kobold comedy relief sidekick type character but like... Yeah doing the right thing in the world is often it's own reward? So getting anything, even a hug, is like... Nice. If they're not really pleased with that, maybe they need to be doing an evil campaign where you can go in and cut off their fingers during scenes and tell them 'hey, you're evil' and give them a real taste of their own outlook, idk!