Dungeon Masters, If Your Players Focus on Something, Make it Matter

It's a story as old as time. The dungeon master has carefully constructed an epic magic item meant to take the center stage of the dragon's treasure hoard, but no sooner are they through with the description of the legendary Seven-Body Blade than everyone in the party wants to ask about that weird jade figurine of the bird-headed woman the DM included just for atmosphere. Or when they walk into the tavern, and there's clearly a Mysterious Stranger with the words Quest Giver practically floating over their head, but the PCs would rather make small talk with the bartender, or dice with the shady-looking NPCs in the corner with the lip rings and strange accents.

"So, Boblin, what's up with the smoking man there? And what the hell is he drinking, eh?"

A lot of dungeon masters get frustrated when this happens, because they put a lot of work into major NPCs and set pieces, and having them ignored can feel like all your effort went to waste. When you compound that with the side of frustration you can sometimes get when throwaway items or set-dressing NPCs have now become the focus on your party, it can feel like a double slap.

However, instead of trying to push your players back onto the course you had planned for them, you'll get better results by just finding a way to get them where you want them to be using this new thing that's caught their attention. Or, at the very least, throw them a bone to show that interacting with the world (even in unexpected ways) garners results.

How, Exactly, Does This Work?

All right, let's start with the infamous tavern scene. As a dungeon master, you've put one figure in the bar who is clearly marked as an important NPC. Maybe it's the hulking man in the ragged cloak with his hood up, attended by three floating eyes of fire as he drinks from a skull that isn't the bar's standard cup. Perhaps it's the woman in the plain cape that keeps slipping, not-so-subtly revealing her badge of office, or the tattoo that marks her as a member of an infamous assassin's guild. Whoever it is, they may as well have a big, glowing sign over their head that they are the person the party is meant to interact with.

All right... but who ELSE is at the bar?

Instead of going and interacting with the NPC whose name, backstory, and prepared dialogue you've got ready, though, the party asks about who else is in the tavern. And you don't want to say, "No one, just go talk to the NPC you're clearly here to meet," so you toss out a few other random characters. There's the ogre-blooded bouncer leaning against the support post in the corner, the gnome waiter, the long-limbed bartender with her one eye, and a handful of other patrons. And for some reason the party just fixates on one of these other NPCs. Maybe it's that you made up something really cool and flashy on the spot, or there's something endearing about them, but now they're focused on the wrong thing.

Or are they?

As I said in Avoiding Railroading (More Than One Way To Skin A Cat), you get a lot more mileage out of deciding what goals need to be met instead of how the party needs to meet them. So instead of trying to figure out a way to get your players to focus on what you think of as the proper way to move forward, ask instead how you can progress from the direction they're currently facing.

It's all connected!

For example, say your party is at the bar so they can meet with the local thieves' guild rep to get some information. You already put together the dual-dagger wielding, slick-talking thief with the badass facial scar and black cloak, but the party decided they wanted to spend their time talking to Shengo the blue-haired gnome waiter instead. If the party doesn't actually know who the guild rep is, the easy thing to do is just to make it Shengo instead. Now you can take most of the information you were going to put into that guy in the corner booth that everyone's ignoring, and give it to your party via their new friend. This makes you look smart as a DM, and it lets your players feel rewarded for interacting with the scene you set up.

Another option you have is to connect this random thing the party has focused on to what you want them to pay attention to, making them part and parcel of the same overall scene.

Let's go back to that treasure chamber for a moment. There's this super-epic sword of legend in the middle of the room, but for some reason the party is focused on the jade statuette. Instead of just telling them, "Look, it's a normal statue, it's barely even worth gold at the level you're at, stop paying attention to it," add some flavor that connects it to the item you want them paying attention to.

For example, have your party make a check for the item's history, realizing that this statue was connected to the last-known wielder of that blade. A funerary statue, it was meant to contain her soul, and to keep it safe when she finally laid aside her weapon. Alternatively, you could put a legend into the back of the statue, the words declaring the origin and powers of the Seven-Body Blade. Now the party feels smart because they got to sidestep the check to know the weapon's history, and you still brought their attention back onto the item you want them looking at. You could even give them a cryptic warning about how once the sword is hefted, it cannot be put down until death, alluding to how it bonds to one wielder at a time.

Everything in Service of The Overall Goal (When You Can)

By focusing on the general goals of your game, rather than on the specific characters the party needs to interact with or the particular paths they have to take, you add an air of flexibility that allows you to respond more quickly with creative solutions to the actions your players take, and the things they show an interest in.

You just need to get into the habit of asking, "How do I point them toward the end goal?" rather than, "How do I get them back on track?"

Subtlety is your friend, here.

Admittedly there will be times where you can't come up with some way to tie this particular thread your players get stuck on into your overall plan. The scarf-seller on the corner isn't an undercover agent of the crown, and that beggar sitting in the shadow of the alley doesn't have some dire secret that the PCs need, they're just background that the players are zeroing in on. Sometimes that bauble they found in the dungeon really is just a bauble, plain and simple.

If your players are willing to put in the effort to interact with your world, though, give them a reward for doing so. Maybe let them buy a headscarf that doubles as a star char to help with navigation, or let them make a friend out of the beggar, who can come back later when he's in trouble and needs the PC's help. If they are fixated on finding the origin of a random ivory cat statue and its secret meaning, then give them something. It doesn't have to be big or important, but make it a unique item carved by a noted sculptor, or maybe it allows them to talk to cats as long as it's been dipped in milk that day.

Rewards, even minor ones, will get players more interested in the setting, and encourage them to explore. Which is more than worth the cost of shuffling around a few NPCs, and taking the long way to get to certain plot points.

Some Additional Advice

The first thing I would recommend for all the DMs out there is to not put passive situations in your game if you want the PCs to do something specific. If they really need to talk to the guard captain, or they have to get this piece of information from the duchess's chambermaid, then don't wait for them to figure it out and go looking. Have the NPCs approach the party, and get the interaction started. It immediately takes the guesswork out of the situation, no one gets frustrated, and no one will try to use creative (or "creative") solutions to figure out what will move the story forward.

But... but I had the molotovs prepped and ready to go!

Another thing I'd recommend is that, if you want to give the PCs freedom to mingle, put as few "strictly background" NPCs in the scene as possible. That way no matter who they approach, you can keep the scene moving forward in some way, shape or form. If you're looking for useful characters to add into the mix, I've put together 100 NPCs You Might Meet at The Tavern, along with 100 Merchants to Encounter and 100 Nobles to Encounter, all of which are filled with PCs that can provide rumors, give helpful information, and generally assist you in moving your plot forward.

Make sure you never fold your arms and wait for the PCs to hit a certain DC in order to go forward. I covered this more in my recent post Dungeon Masters, Embrace The Concept of Failing Forward, but if your PCs fail to disable a lock, or make a high enough Diplomacy check, don't just say, "nothing happens," and wait. Succeed or fail, if the situation was important enough to warrant a test, then something needs to happen whichever result turns up.

Lastly, remember the characters that are actually at your table. Who knows them, who are their friends, who are they related to, and what enemies do they have? These aspects can often help you come up with appropriate ways to tie things together in your game to keep everyone moving forward. You'll find more detailed advice along these lines in The Small Legend: Character Reputation in RPGs, as well as in my other recent post Who is in Your Character's Rogues' Gallery?

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That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. Hopefully you enjoyed, and if you've used this tactic successfully in your games why not leave a comment below?

For more of my work, check out my Vocal and Gamers archives, and stop by the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

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Instead of Gold, Why Not Give Players What They Actually Want?

How many times have your players slain the troll, defeated the wicked cult, or successfully put the corrupted crypt guardian to rest, only to find hundreds of pounds of raw treasure? Chests full of silver, coffers crammed with gold, and sacks of raw gems that are worth a fortune... once you haul them back to civilization, that is.

There's how much?! Woo, boy, I hope you've been doing your squats, Ragnar.

Even if your game ignores encumbrance rules, it can be frustrating to sit down and do the bean counting for changing your copper and silver into gold, selling off your gems, and doing all the conversions just so the party can turn around and commission magic items, spending almost all of the treasure you just gave them. So ask yourself why you're bothering with all that hairy change when, instead, you could just give your players what they're going to buy anyway, sweetened with a little pocket and saving money?

Rewards They Won't Want To Hock

If your players are going to get magic items, chances are good they already have one or two specifics in mind. Your fighter's going to want a weapon of the type he specializes in (or just likes), your wizard's going to want a stat booster, your monk will want an amulet of mighty fists, etc., etc.

So instead of making them carefully save their allowances, just give them what they want in an appropriately-leveled hoard.

A full adamantine suit! Dibs!

This strategy might require a bit of balancing on your part as the DM (since you're the one handing out toys), but it accomplishes several things. First and foremost, it allows you to make the items they use feel special. It's not just a random flaming scimitar that they traded a bunch of gold for; it's a dragon fang, one of the weapons wielded by the founders of the Sisters of Fire they discovered in a lost catacomb. That circlet that increases the magus's intelligence? That was forged for use by the commanders of the Arcane Army of Za-Los, and stolen by ghouls that you slew in the collapsed citadel.

And so on and so forth.

Finding these items gives you the ability to give them a story, and to tie that story to your players. That makes the loot feel special, and it incorporates it into the PCs' personal stories. In some cases, they might even become a signature piece of gear, or the characters may become so attached to the items they're reluctant to part with them even if they find something mechanically stronger.

Even better, if they don't need to hock their old stuff to be able to get more gold to buy the new stuff, then they can keep those treasures they've used without worrying if it's hampering their progress.

There are other benefits of using this strategy, as well. The first is that you no longer have players hoarding their gold coins and misering over them (to the point that they're still hunting their own food and sleeping in the wild even though there's an inn less than an hour away in a well-guarded city). If they want to spend money on getting fancy dress clothes, a house to live in, or the trappings of the treasure hunter, that isn't going to be what prevents them from getting that suit of armor they're going to need when they face that big dragon in two more levels.

Second, this prevents you from having to come up with how your players managed to find someone capable of crafting a +3 wounding short spear in the middle of forest country. Especially when they don't have the time for such an item to be made, according to the rules, as crafting objects of power isn't something you can do over a lunch break. Because sure, there are merchants who deal in specialized items (and I even made some of them for 100 Merchants to Encounter), schools of arcane learning where such crafters might be found... but it just doesn't feel as special as finding it right after you did the task for which you're being rewarded.

Hell, an industrious player might even grab the item during the fight if they're facing the ghoul king in his throne room, or fighting a dragon in the cave with its hoard.

How You Can Get These Items To Your Players

The obvious way to do this is to sit down with your players, and ask what sort of course you see their characters taking as they play (or just watching their play style to predict which items would be the most useful for their characters). Then, once you have their wish list (or a pretty good guess as to what would be on it), you sprinkle the items around the dungeons they crawl through. Perhaps the bandit captain is wielding a masterwork longsword he took from a slain knight. In a secret compartment of the crumbling Aethril Keep you find an enchanted bow made for the Commander of the Watch, and hidden away to keep his enemies from finding it.

And so on, and so forth.

There are other ways to slip your players some goodies, too. One is the idea of the legacy weapon. Because sure, when the fighter first found that sword, it was clearly of masterwork quality. However, as they fought and slew with it, something inside the sword slowly woke. Runes began to appear along the fuller, drinking in the blood it spilled. As it grows, the edge becomes keen, and the steel begins to glow a malevolent red when battle is joined. It heals the wielder, and then once it has drunk enough blood, the consciousness within it awakens to properly meet the who has broken its slumber.

Not every magic item needs to be huge and epic, though. For example, slaying the Hound of Hellfire Marsh and saving the local populace from its predations may not net you much in the way of treasure... that is, until the local lord thanks you for your service. Depending on his wealth, he may offer the party the services of his armorers, the pick of his beasts, or even give them objects that have long been held in his family, but not used in generations. A ring born by General Cassadar wrought in the shape of a shield, and which acts as a ring of protection +2, for example. Or, perhaps there's a deeper secret of a wizard takes it as a bonded item. A simple knight's brooch that, when the word is spoken, unfolds to cover the wearer in a suit of fine plate armor.

And stuff like that.

Whether your rewards come from a merchant prince, the royal family, a wizard's college, a swamp witch, or even a farmer who inherited the item from ten generations back, the point is that it feels more like a reward, and less like a purchase you just made. And there are untold numbers of ways you can make it work. Return a hatchling to its mother, get your choice of item from the dragon's trove. Free a genie from bondage, be allowed to wish for something within a limited range. Be accepted into a certain order, and get the right to wear/wield the items associated with membership.

Just remember, you don't always have to give your players exactly what they want. Make it unexpected, sometimes. Throw in some extra goodies. You know your paladin wants a holy avenger, but make him work his way up to it. You know your warpriest uses a morning star, and has all their feats specc'd for that weapon, so get creative with the kind of enchantments are on the weapon(s) they find. Your bard wears leather armor, but if they came across some enchanted mithril they wouldn't say no. Don't give them completely random stuff they won't be able to use, because then you're right back to the adventurer pawn shop. If they're employed by a powerful organization, let the rent out certain potent items for dangerous journeys, neatly side-stepping the issue of how much gold it cost them to get said item.

And, every few levels, ask them what sort of stuff they're on the look out for. Just to give you fresh fodder the next time they do something worthy of a significant reward.

If you enjoyed this bit of advice, then you might also find some value in the following posts:

- Run Smoother, More Enjoyable Games (By Removing XP)

- For Tighter Games, Consider Nixing Random Encounters

- All That Glitters Is Not Gold: Non-Monetary Rewards For Your RPG Party

That's all for this week's installment of Moon Pope Monday. Hopefully it gave some folks out there some ideas, and got the wheels turning! If you'd like to see more of my work, head over to my Vocal author page, or just go to my Gamers page if you want to see only my tabletop stuff. You could also stop by the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio where I help in bringing the world of Evora to life. If you want to get updates on all of my content, then follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. Lastly, I can't keep this blog running without all of your support. So consider giving me a one-time tip by Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or signing up as a patron on The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to give me a little something every month.

Or, if you're hankering for a good read, head over to My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife!

Just How Old Is Your Loot? Tips For DMs Trying To Spice Up Treasure Hoards

Your heroes have traversed the burning desert, evaded the traps in the bloody labyrinth, and fought their way to the throne room of the Ralthus, the vampire warlord. The undead warrior has been reduced to little more than dust and sand, and the party turns to his collections of treasures... which is around the time you start rolling on the charts, and tossing out whatever loot they find.

And you find *dice rattle* a +2 dagger, and 25 gold pieces.

If this part of the game always feels like a kink in your story's flow, you might want to take a moment to try and make your treasure feel authentic to where your party found it, and how long it's been there, instead of just rattling off a spreadsheet of valuables.

How Treasure Hoards Are Formed

Lots of creatures in fantasy RPGs have treasure hoards. Dragons are perhaps the most infamous for the practice, but trolls, ogres, goblins, kobolds, and even undead lords all have treasures in their lairs. The reasons why should be obvious, but we rarely think about it. You see, treasure accumulates either because the creatures seek out (or occasionally create) powerful items, or because adventurers have been killed by the creatures, and their enchanted items stayed where they fell.

This is the reason you find an ancient sword in a troll's lair, just laying on the floor. It's also why you find talismans of great power in the strongholds of necromancers. These items don't just magically appear when you win a fight; they represent the wealth (either purposeful or accidental) of the creatures you've defeated.

Which, as a DM, is a great storytelling hook that often gets overlooked.

Just How Long Has This Stuff Been Here?

I'm not suggesting that you lay out a hoard with the meticulous care that you do the dungeon the party has to go through to reach it. Down that road lies madness, However, by scattering a few details here and there when it comes time to reward your party, you can turn something that often devolves into a bunch of bookkeeping into a great roleplaying experience.

 

I found a WHAT now?

What sort of details could you throw around though? After all, treasure is treasure... right?

Well, if that treasure is only a few years old, then sure, it's going to be recognizable. But what about treasure that's been sitting in a hoard for decades? Or centuries? What about treasure that made its way to this hoard from a far away land, or which is from empires that don't exist anymore?

For example, let's say your mid-level party has descended into the corrupt necropolis, and smashed skulls until the dead went back to sleep, and the malevolent influence hanging over the tombs departed. What was left behind? Sure, there's probably gold and silver, but who minted those coins? The metal they're made of is good, but a coin with a face you don't recognize is an intriguing detail that will catch some players' imaginations. Especially if you can link those coins back to your world's history, or to your future plot, in some way. Perhaps there are weapons, but if those weapons were buried with the dead in ages past, what do they look like now? Are they pristine, their magic pushing back the forces of decay, or are they waiting beneath the ashes and dust to be discovered? And do these weapons look or feel different from the enchantments of today? For particularly potent weapons, especially named weapons, is the magic laced within them beyond what even the most powerful wizards could create in this day and age?

There are dozens of minor details you can add to your party's loot to make it unique, and to really bring across that the threat they defeated has not been challenged in many years. A shield whose crest belongs to a nation a thousand years in the dust, or armor whose protective enchantments are written in a dead language known only to a few scholars. A breastplate distinctive of a knightly order who is only known today in children's stories of long ago valor. Distinctive patterns of forging or creation thought lost to time (similar to the patterns of Toledo or Damascus steel) would make weapons even more unique, and give players a sense that they aren't just holding a pile of interchangeable numbers. They're holding a piece of the game world's history in their hands.

Don't Roll For The Important Stuff

Every DM has his or her own style, and not everyone is good at off-the-cuff description. Some DMs need to think things through, and write it down long before the party ever gets there. Which is fine. However, take my advice on this one; if you want to create unique descriptions for the treasure your party finds, come up with it in advance. That way you know what's in the room, and you have your descriptions primed and ready for when someone asks what they find.

Do you draw the serpent blade when you find it?

Also, if you're looking for more advice on this particular subject, check out my previous posts Alternatives to Traditional Magic Weapons and Armor, as well as How To Keep Your Magic Items From Getting Mundane.

As always, thanks for stopping in to hear what I have to say. If you'd like to help keep the content flowing, you can support Improved Initiative by visiting The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page and becoming a patron today! Also, if you haven't done so yet, you can keep up on all my latest posts by following me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter.

Old Adventurers Never Die

This week, as with every week, Improved Initiative brings you Moon Pope Monday! It's a day that everyone hates, so we try to liven it up a bit with a laugh, a song, or something epic. This week we show you exactly why you should worry about adventurers who have made it far enough to take age penalties.

And how.

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