Answers to This Months Question

Joseph Bloodrose :

FrIend, I somewhat understand your problem.
Try running a city based adventure, detailing about a score of npc's that the players 
will more than likely come across. A good place to start is the inn and tavern 
(provided they are in the same building). Think of the people that are usually 
there: barkeep, wenches, scullions, regular costumers, and throw in a few other 
adventurers just for the pc's to have someone to relate to or be rivaled by.
Determine the npc's relationships to the other npc's, develop their personalities and habits.
As an example, I'll show you a little bit of my world:
The Rusty Nail inn and tavern:

Hougel, a male human, forty years of age, is a jolly round "Santa Claus" type of man. He gets to know everyone that comes into the tavern frequently, has a weakness for Honey Mead and roast pork, and is the adopted father of Delsanora.

Delsanora, a beautiful lass of seventeen years, is the adopted daughter of Hougel. Neither Delsanora nor Hougel know who her parents really are, and Delsanora is too young to care about it. Hougel always is a bit nervous around her because he is paying for her wizard schooling and she's got a penchant for disappearing from time to time.

Borgin, The dwarven bouncer at the Rusty Nail, is a very quiet and somber character. He has no recollection of his past (he was found near death by a travelling paladin, healed, and dropped off here), and that is very disturbing to him. Borgin is constantly telling Hougel that worrying about Delsanora isn't going to stop her from growing bolder and eventually going out on her own, but Borgin won't push the issue too much for his respect of Hougel.

I think I've done enough gloating for now, and I hope that I may have in some way helped your game. But the thing to remember about keeping the game from being bogged down from dungeon to dungeon is add alittle bit of time to bring the rest of the world to life. The player characters aren' t the only people in the world, and it might be fun just to sit and talk with an insane half dragon/half kender sorceress :)

Array 50 :
Getting the players to think laterally. Though prob to have to deal 
with. Here are a few ideas to help you on your way.

1) Stop giving them laid out options. Give them the info they need,
then make them decide how to deal with the problem.

2) Flood them with possible choices. Make them look over the different
ones that are there and figure out whitch one is the right one.
Remember, the most visible path generally leads someplace unpleasant.
And its often hungry.

3) Start giving out experience points for non-combat actions like
finding new ways to solve a problem, and role-playing in character
properly.

4) Start making your plot line less linear themselves. If there are 3
or 4 different villains working at the same time, figuring out who to
take on first becomes very important.

Just a few Ideas to help you out. Good luck and let us know how it
goes!

Dennis Jensen:

First I'd like to say that usually its the GMs job to
create an interactive environment but that is because
most GMs don't share the load when it comes to story
creation ideas. I for one try to involve the players,
asking them what they would like to see in the
adventures sometimes I find the answer a bit
surprising.

Second when you create your seed adventure (the one
that gets the ball rolling). Be sure to plan into it
various other clues that lead to side adventures, red
herrings, and future adventures. You might want to
also create some kind of epic adventure for the
campaign and sprinkle a few pieces of it into the
first adventure but be sure to no answer the questions
just leave them hanging.

Don't be afraid to start a second adventure smack dab
in the middle of the first one.

For instance I have a group pursuing the exploration
of a old abandoned city (that they discovered by
following a map that led to an old wizards library)
that is filled with undead stuff. They are using the
nearest city as a weigh stop. While making a pit stop
in this city gearing up to head back to the dead city,
they fell right in the middle of a plot to turn the
city they were in into a cess pool of demons. This of
course was a secondary adventure that I had planned
for after their first adventure (in case they went back
and sat in the bar) but they decided (thank goodness)
to investigate some of the mysteries of this dead
city. Still (and here is the most important part) I
had slated this adventure on a timeline with certain
events happening a point A, then a few more at point B
and then the shoe falling at point C.

This last bit, creating a timeline of events for an
adventure and making it affect a larger scale of
things is one way to keep the world dynamic. I mean
players sometimes have a point, "So what's gonna
happen?" generally means nothing happens in the world
unless they are directly involved in it.

Many times I have created adventure seeds and the
players have completely missed the clues. Sometimes
this causes them to miss the entire adventure and
sometimes this means they miss the parts that would
lessen the destructive impact of that adventure. In
some cases I have either another adventuring group get
credit for beating the bad guy or being destroyed by
the bad guy depending on the outcome I think best
suits the overall campaign.

As a for instance I had a group once discover the
clues that would have allowed them to stop a village
from being sacked but they totally ignored them as
they single mindedly pursued their objective. The
timeline continued and they just so happened to be
away from the village finishing up their quest when
the village got totally sacked. When they returned
their was virtually no one left and definitely no
tavern to go sit in. Further they'd made a few
friends in the village most of whom either died or
lost loved ones. When they heard what had happened
they finally put two and two together and realized
their mistake. This kind of rude slap in the face
answers firmly the question "So what's gonna happen?"
And the more personal you can make this the more
effective it will be. It might even give the players
a personal quest of their own to pursue (such as
rebuilding the tavern so they have a place to sit and
wait for the next adventure <smile>).

Oh and as a final note some players are nearly
hopeless and even reminding them that they are
adventurers and should be pursuing their own
adventures -- a Gm still has to spoon feed them
adventures. However, these players tend to be
hack-n-slash dungeon crawlers and rather weak in the
role playing arena. Still with a bit of work some of
these players will step outside their box they just
take a bit more time.

The Dungeon Master:

The eternal newby question "What happens if I ______".

The answer any good DM should give? You will "______" where the
underscore is the exact wording the player just gave you.

Simply put, a player is only empowered to make choices, not see the
future. Unfortunately, there are a host of DM's who present "only one
right choice" scenarios, and they aren't just the bad DM's either.
Bruce Cordell is notorious for this in his modules, and he wrote the
Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, one of the most important (as
such things go) modules for 3E. He wrote the excellent "Evil Tide"
set of modules with the now notorious "Psionic stone" at the bottom
of the well.

So what to do?

Well it starts with DM retraining, not player retraining. Players
follow the lead of the DM and the DM will find that nothing he SAYS
will change behavioral patterns in players directly. Humans are
adaptable though and they respond to a changing environment. That
changing environment is something the DM must learn to provide
players will NATURALLY gravitate to the new way of thinking that most
benefits them in the type of game you provide.

So then, what does a DM have to do to accomplish this feat, right?

Well, first is to think in terms of threads and arcs.

The story arc is a long term goal the players simply cannot reach yet
and which does not NEED to be reached immediately. Yet, that one
story arc is setting in motion many events that cannot be stopped and
will come to a head, sometimes directly in the path of the players!
The story arc is where most DM's fail, even though its incredibly
basic to story telling. Why? Because when all those little
seemingly unrelated threads and pieces suddenly come together, you
get the "wowa" factor.

The "wowa" factor is imperative. The players will be full bore
committed to the game and engrossed from the point they realize that
all these little things, all these odd non-combat encounters and so
on had a CAUSE that you spring on them and they say "wowa, it all
makes sense, Scooby". The great part is, by then, they have a DOZEN
story threads that they can follow and any one of them is just fine
to follow to the core of the issue and will
provide hundreds of hours of game play.

That brings me to the thread idea. I use this extensively. You,
before you start, need a list of about ten different things the story
arc REQUIRES in order for the story arc to make sense or come to
fruition. In "The Rise of Psion" campaign, the story arc was,
obviously, the Rise of Psion in Krynn where it was unknown. That was
the whole story arc. That simple one sentence was it. My players
didn't know that until 300 hours into the game!

To make that campaign successful I listed nine things that needed to
happen for this to work: A source for the knowledge in the first
place. A tie to that past knowledge. An antagonist that would use it
for ill. A compelling reason for any player to want to pursue the
issue. A way for those pursuing the story arc to its logical
conclusion to distribute the knowledge and make it useful. A thread
dealing with those who would see the power as a threat that weren't
just "more bad guys". Enemies of those whose assistance the party
accepts. Pawns of the primary antagonist and a reason for THEM to
care enough to help. Geopolitical strife that represents diplomatic
opportunities for the players to do more than kill in order to oppose
their common foe.

Again just very nebulous sentences to describe the conflicts and
wheels within wheels that I was looking for.

I looked at a map, and decided what kinds of enemies I was going to
need, and put a face to the sentences above. Here were my answers and
yours could be anything since a lot of the questions I asked could be
asked of any story arc, more or less anyway.:

A tie to the past knowledge: Descendents of monks who long ago were
close to discovering the secrets of psionic Power, before the
cataclysm wiped them all away. Knights of Solamnia who saw Psionics
as the answer to magic, which they deeply distrusted in conjunction
with the King Priests church which they were generally sympathetic to.

An antagonist that would use it for ill: Enter my namesake Jancoran.
Jancoran, prime Minister of Tarsis is forced into changing bodies
with an evil Illithiad who sees this opportunity to enslave mankind
by using the Power of Psion to depose magic and erect a society in
the Illithiad image. With him at its head.

A thread dealing with those who would see the power as a threat that
weren't just "more bad guys".: The Conclave of wizards was a perfect
fit. THEY would definitely see Psionics as a risk, no matter whose
hands its in. This also creates interesting interparty interests,
even among evenly aligned folks...

Enemies of those whose assistance the party accepts: In other words,
if the players accepted help from the Conclave to end the threat of
Psionics or, accepted help from another source, then there
needed to be enemies of that source, setting up "the enemy of my
enemy is my friend" situations. This one had to wait a bit because
who knew whose help the players would ultimately ally themselves
with. But one thing was for certain...there were enemies of that
help and they would come into play later...this thread I left open
for later development, but made sure not to forget it.

Pawns of the primary antagonist and a reason for THEM to care enough
to help. Geopolitical strife that represents diplomatic opportunities
for the players to do more than kill in order to oppose their common
foe: I answered this in part using a module I had and in part with
imagination. I decided that Jancoran would dupe the Monk of the
Spirulex Order into thinking he was helping the monk achieve his
goals and by so doing, was able to use the monk to get the things
needed to advance it. I decided that the Sahaugin, the Ogre Titans,
A White Dragon Army, Sea Elves and Jancorans own forces would form
the coalition of land sea and air needed to pull off the nefarious
plans. After all, this is a continent spanning effort and would
require superiority in all three areas.

You can see that in very little time I came up with a massive
tapestry of ideas, forces and ongoing struggle from which to generate
action on a lot of fronts.

You could come up with answers of your own, but the important thing
is to create multiple threads and the players get used to following
the leads whenever and in whatever order they like. The end of the
tapestry is so far reaching and long in the coming that they need not
fret as much about which one to unravel first...and it makes it more
interesting for the DM as well. Of course, this requires a DM who
can avoid thinking in just linear terms. If you aren't one, then
this advice is not for you! I hope this helped.

Zalco vs. Hulk:

You could let the PC meet more NPC. Not all NPC have to be part of
the plot; Make some NPC that just live in your world. That will add
more "life" to the campaign.
Also when the PC meet a creature don't tell them the name of the
creature. Just tell what the creature look likes and what it do.

On what will happen; One way to do it is to let the PCs meet a
fortune teller that tells them about their future - some of it could
be hints for thing you have planed.
If they are asking all the time when if could also be a sign of that
the campaign it moving a little too slowly, so maybe you could skip
more or the boring stuff. Like if the PC have to travel for a week
and nothing happens on the road, then just describe the trip - then
don't have to role-play the hole thing.

I hope that you got some ideas but since I haven't been in your
campaign I can't be 100% sure about how your campaign is. You could
always try to ask the players about what they like in your campaign
and how the campaign could be improved.

(Sorry for me crappy English I hope you understand some of it anyway)

Starlight Storyteller:

Advice for this last part:

>they also have a habit of saying, 'what will happen' over and over
> again. Any advice?

Yes. When my players ask "what will happen if...", I tell them, "Try
it and find out." It encourages them to think for themselves before
they act. And if they think "what will happen" is a BAD thing, they
will think creatively and come up with a better course of action.

Exceptions to this is if their character has a reason to have a
reasonable guess at what will happen. For instance, if the PC has
lived in a city for years, and he asks, "If I steal this jewelry and
get caught, what will happen?" In which case, he knows other thieves
have had their hands chopped off for less. Note that this doesn't
tell him what WILL happen. It tells him what his character knows it
LIKELY to happen. If he wants to find out what WILL happen, the only
way to do so is "try it and find out".

James Radloff :

Also, it is important not to tell them exactly what will happen.
I.E."What will happen if I open this chest?" "It is trapped, you will
be blown to bits."

Astraldrake :

Hey all,

In response to what I see as the basic premise of what was asked, I
can offer a few pointers:

First, take whatever pre-written, preprinted adventure you had
planned for the evening and throw it over your shoulder. Then, after
it hits the floor, ask the players "What are your characters doing
tonight?" Build from what they want to do.

Second, if they have written backgrounds, start there for the
adventure. These characters do not exist in a vacuum. Build the
adventure around the characters. They have people to interact with on
a daily basis. We all do, even in RL. Make use of those interactions.

Third, look into different writing styles for adventures. The RPGA
has writer's suggestions in their submission guidelines for breaking
the linear cycle. If you have to use a formula, try a matrix that
leaves several possible outcomes to each encounter, as best you have
time for. Of course, no plan ever survives contact with the PC's, so
be willing to adapt/improvise a lot.

Last, don't think of each adventure as a string of non-combat
encounters that lead to combat encounters. Try running a session with
NO combat. Try running a session with no one having to pick up dice
for any reason. (You only have to try it once, if they don't like it,
don't do it again...)But don't tell the players this ahead of time,
either. One of the most intense gaming experiences I ever had was a
group of PC's traveling through a forest for the first time, on their
first adventure ever and just trying to cope with basic necessities.

Well, hope this helps. Just my opinion and all...

Thrandorian:

My gosh, if you made it all the way down here you are a true die-hard. The other folks pretty much left me little to add except this:

My philosophy is to involve the players as much as possible in the development and direction of my campaign world. Like anything, people will value the game more if they have a direct involvment in whatever is being built or created. Under the best circumstances, the players create personla strongholds, track NPC's and contribute substancially to the depth and detail of your world.

In order to reach this ideal relationship, the players must first get comfortable with initiating actions. One way to ease them into the world of self-determination is to give them clues for two or more possible adventures at the same time. Make them choose. Let them know that they should pay close attention to all things they see or hear. Premake good clues. Maybe some deceitful info that could send them to disaster. You should play this deceit kind of obvious so that the players can assuredly figure (not too easy though) that there is something wrong.

Then they end up:
1) Determining who to believe.
2) Choosing between clues.
3) Choosing an adventure from multiple possibilities.

Here are a couple of an adventure choices you might give:
1) One adventure might have clues that indicate it is too tough for them right now.
(they learn to make the right decision by not undertaking the quest at this time.)
2) One adventure with clues that suggest it is a false lead.
(clues lead them to make the right decision by not undertaking the quest at this time.)
3) One adventure with clues that suggest it is reasonable and potentially profitable.
(clues lead them to make the right decision by choosing to undertake the quest.)

You have carefully provided them with the info and subtle guidance but they are the ones who have made the right decision. Next time the clues and guidance are a bit less and the group should make small forward steps until they start moving the run forward as much as you do. There are of course an unlimited number of other decisions large and small that you can use to get your players thinking more in terms of proactivity.

The players just have to be coached into the concept.