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12:05, 29th March 2024 (GMT+0)

SIde quest rejected ...

Posted by w byrd
w byrd
member, 2051 posts
I coudn't think of
a really cool screen name
Fri 3 Jun 2016
at 15:44
  • msg #1

SIde quest rejected ...

The behavior of Players never fails to be entertaining in the strangest ways...

so I set u a little side quest involving a murky old tomb with a few undead in it to give the players a chance to do a little wanton Skull smacking if they wanted to. The hit the initial speed bump, and easily defeat a hand full of Skellies....Discover the recently busted in door of the mausoleum.

Fearing that any undead within might be a menace to the nearby town they take action...but shoving blocking the entrance with eh trunk and branches of a large fallen oak that had initially blocked the train they were traveling on...

I just had this mental image
Down in the catacombs, a fictional baddie has just finished looting the grave of a long-dead local champion from years gone by for the Chalice of McGuffin.

"Ah HAH!!!, Th ancient forgotten chalice of McGuffin is mine. Soon I shall raise a legion of undead to swarm across the countryside...But first the simple matter of leaving this forgotten tomb before the dead Knights Of Azzwoop rise to protect the Chalice"

"It's a good thing I can simply walk away if the guardians of this place find me. I shall be ripped to pieces in moments. But not to worry the doorway is ...Blocked by a Fruiting Tree! How the Streusal did that happen!!!!!."

The party rides away never knowing they had just saved the world from the unspeakable plans of Derpin The Mad Necromancer...

I had a good laugh at that bit of imagery...and a group remaining on Mission despite the sirens all of the random sidequest...

Seems when you dangle bait in front of the players they sometimes show unusual good sense and handle it in the strangest ways.... I mean who expect them to look into the creepy tomb, imagine an undead horde within and go "NOPE, Uh-uh, ain't doing it"....and close up te entrance with a flipping tree trunk too heavy to be moved by someone inside.

It was just a couple of low rent grave robbers/bully boys from a village down the road..but I'm thinking bonus XP for defeating their larcenous plans in a most unusual manner.
engine
member, 108 posts
Fri 3 Jun 2016
at 15:51
  • msg #2

SIde quest rejected ...

I'm glad you're able to see the bright side of it. I see it differently, and it's why I stopped being the one to make up quests to dangle and prefer not to give in-game benefits for people who refuse to engage with the game in more-or-less the intended manner. If there's going to be a side quest, I ask the players what they'd like to do and we work up something that lets them do it. People don't tend to block ideas that they themselves came up with.
T.S.
member, 192 posts
I stand in noone's shadow
except my own...
Fri 3 Jun 2016
at 16:10
  • msg #3

SIde quest rejected ...

I'm just glad to see GM's who don't treat their games like the old side-scrolling NES games where, once you start moving, you go the direction the game wants you to go and there's no other way to go. I'm all for GM's working with players who don't particularly want to do a given sidequest so that it becomes something appealing to them. I'm firmly against the "So, here's what happens when you walk into the tomb..." before the players have even said they wanted to go in and especially when the players have said that they do not want to.
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