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Painted My Campaign Into a Corner Again
Posted On 11/13/2008 10:52:58 by Cosmic_Emu

So, it has happened again. Once again I have bitten off more than I can chew, painted myself into a corner, put the cart before the horse and other assorted cliches. How did it happen? Impatience? Trying to grab my players? Trying to counter an unpredictible play schedule? Who knows.

What has happened is that I seem to have put my players (and their characters) in a position that they may not have the means to get out of. The party averages about 6th level and has unleashed a great evil on their rustic valley home. The region they live in is not well-equipped for this sort of threat, having no major cities, central governing body or anything resembling a military. Their are local populations of elves and dwarves but the characters haven't had much luck in gaining help from the elves (I didn't want NPCs to necesarrily do all the saving). To add to this, the characters have spent a bit of time skirting around the issue, trying to remain close to home until they can find a solution to the situation. They have made a few attempts to take it on themselves but this only illustrated to them how ill-equipped they are, personally, to handle the situation

I find myself, as DM and friend to my players, feeling like I may have let them down by letting my desire for a cool plot get out of hand. I am considering ways to swing this very distastful situation into something fun. The one plot angle I have considered is to let the evil force win the first round and change the focus of the game from trying to stop it to trying to find a way to undo it. This will accomplish a number of things -

1) Cut the apron strings, so to speak, and sever the characters from their safety zone (at least in the short term).

2) Motivate them to seek grander adventures. They will need to seek out more than just the satisfaction of wander lust to overcome the evil that has befallen their home.

3) Redirects the game onto an entertaining story arc where the young characters become heroes (reluctant or otherwise) who also have the character-building trait of having been partially responsible for the evil that befell the valley.

I am not sure if this is the way to go, but I'd rather not abandon the campaign as the players really do like the setting and their current characters. Anyone else have any thoughts on other ways to handle such a situation?

Thanks,

-Eli

Tags: Rpg D&D 3.5



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Viewing 1 - 8 out of 8 Comments

From: Cosmic_Emu
11/15/2008 02:58:13
Laggy,

It is more a case where the characters actually set a into motion a chain of events that made sense, given the situation, but that was beyond their ability to handle. I guess you could say that they did excede my expectations of what they would do. Part of the blame goes to me, though for not working hard enough to stear them in a direction away from getting things rolling the way they did.

The silver lining to this whole situation is that the characters have been having a hard time making the jump from inquisitive commoners to true adventurers, and this may very well make that happen. My hope is that if I can ruin things back home that the characters will set out into the world and seek further adventure. Once they start with that, home will beome a place to keep your stuff between adventures.

-Eli


From: Laggy
11/14/2008 20:47:46

I don't know the specifics here but did you create an obstacle which your characters were supposed to overcome and did not work in a the means within your notes for them to do so? I do like how you are avoiding the "Deus Ex Machina" approach to solving your dilemna. Better stories come through working out the quirks of a game.

From: Cosmic_Emu
11/14/2008 11:48:29
My players may be lurking but they are good enough to rp properly even if they have a little inside info.

What sort of details would you like?

-Eli


From: BLAMM67
11/14/2008 10:36:51

I agree with the idea of letting evil win the first round. That is typical of many heric stories. Bad thing happens, worse thing happens, heros have nothing to lose and go for the gold.

Can you give some details of the current situation, or are your players lurking? 

From: Cosmic_Emu
11/13/2008 18:10:17
Hmmmm, not sure I'm going to go the demon route, though that is kind of a cool angle. If the evil overcomes the valley that they call home, there isn't going to be much room for a resistence. There are some ideas here that can be used, though. What I can see happening is the dwarves and elves being forced into action to try to contain the evil in the valley.

What I thought might be cool, sort of ends up doing a LOTR and having the characters set out to try and find the secret to undoing the evil while the other races of the valley fought their battle of containment. The last time anything like this threatened the valley it was defeated through a means that was never truly understood by those who lived through it. And the only other answer the elves ever came up with for containing such evil is the prison that this thing just escaped from.

I think the stage is set for a hastey retreat and quest for a way to defeat the evil and all the side quests that come with it.


From: Mountain_Guardian
11/13/2008 16:53:46
I kinda like the idea. You could even turn this into a social/emotional driven scenario by having other locals join forces with the enemy as time goes on, and/or some findout the players are at least partly to blame and blackmail or create other trouble for them. 


From: Drohem
11/13/2008 13:39:50
Well, I'm not so sure that I would resort to cavorting with demons as a first response, .  However, if the character are just not able to stand toe-to-toe with the evil coming to their neck of the woods, then you may want to change the focus of the campaign.  I like your idea of letting the evil win the first round.  This has great potential for a subterfuge or resistance type story line.  Seriously, the characters, and players, have to understand that there are just some opponents that cannot be dealt with directly, and that sometimes it's the better part of valor to run away and come and fight another day. 


From: calico_jack73
11/13/2008 11:53:07
4) Pazuzu offers as solution.  No seriously, in 1E Pazuzu was described as a demon prince who always comes when called and offers aid and assistance in return for favors rendered in the future.  Use such a deal to get out of the "painted into a corner situation" but then let the favor provide you plot material later on for a whole extra string of adventures.  Pazuzu need not get directly involved in combat but may point the PCs towards a powerful single use magic item that they can use to vanquish the great evil that they have released.  He may even provide transportation in the form of winged demonic steeds (he is the lord of all flying abyssal creatures).


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