When the players are just eager to get one of their many tasks done they’re usually ready and raring to latch on to any plot hooks they see, so a lot of red herrings and dead ends can slow gameplay to a grinding halt.

Yeah, I have a horribly hard time with DM bragging, and it’s gotten me in trouble on more then one occasion! Hmm, I’m feeling a potential post might be in order on this topic, it’s kind of ringing true for me. I’ll keep you updated
.-= Storyteller´s last blog ..Holidays in D&D: Part Six – Party Time! =-.

You also bring an incredibly good point about DM bragging/talking about alternatives… this is a huge killjoy that many geeks, myself included, have a hard time avoiding. Keeping impassive (but empathic) about a negative turn of event is a hard trick to master.

@Eric: I am getting better, but I have never played a full adventures with such limited notes before. I’m satisfied with the experience and I’m learning a lot about how to do it the next time around. We’ll see what inspirations strike me when September rolls and we start our 11th season.

PS: From what I’ve seen and read, you’re already pretty good at “rolling with the punches” and improving on ideas given or sparked by your players.
.-= Eric Maziade´s last blog ..Meta != Crunch =-.

You make a very good point about introducing a large number of red herrings and questions to the players. With that approach, the players will take a step back and say “Wow, we’re getting a lot of imput from a lot of different people. None of which we know to be true. Lets dig a little further.” Even that little push can make players take the time to plan and to dig for the truth. If not, it can at least cover the DM’s butt should things go south. (Even though undead dragons are awesome).

Something else I’ve noticed that is generally bad to do, following that point, is to mention afterwards to the players “Well, that wouldn’t have happened if you’d done ____” or “Maybe if you guys had listened you could have had _____ happen.” Despite how much work a DM puts into creating possible outcomes and wants to share them all with the players, I’ve noticed that presenting “better” possible choices the players could have made only leads to them REGRETTING choices they did make.

I find it’s much better to let players ponder what might have been and usually that gives enough incentive to think out options in the future. Telling them what might of been more often then not leads to the blame game amogst players and a general bad time.
.-= Storyteller´s last blog ..Party Time: the encounter you’ve been waiting for! =-.

@Eric: Yes, I hope to one day be able to do so transparently. That’s why we have those summer ‘practice’ adventures.

@Yan: Yeah, I was wondering why all my tires were slashed when I came back to my car.

One thing that I like to do (not too often – if any of my players are reading), is push in “fake clues” and let the players “over analyze it”.

The trick is in using the player’s analysis to affect the plot. The players will often make links that I could not have come up with – or even come up with explanations that are way more creative than what I had planned.

Having my players talk amongst themselves to try and understand the motivations of an NPC for doing something has often yielded nice plot line inspirations and even shifted the course of a session dramatically.

I love that kind of stuff
.-= Eric Maziade´s last blog ..Meta != Crunch =-.

@Wyatt: I would much rather have to gently prod a group stuck in planning paralysis than leaving out there with not enough to play with. What this exercise in light-scripted adventure thought me is that more is better. If I repeat the exercise, I’ll probably have a table of clues both true and false that I’ll pick randomly and sprinkle in scenes once PCs look for info.

@Tiorn: Guess as much as you like. There’s one more session to go and the whole story should have played itself. Then I’ll take a few weeks off for Vacation and Gen Con and I’ll be ready to start the next mini-campaign in the City Within.

Source of energy… hmm… the Nexus is going to come back on at some point. Just place the artifact there and ZAP!

I should shut up. Now I KNOW this hasn’t been played out yet. But then again, I’m just guessing… I just know that I have to be wrong. lol

You also said that one such source was coming back every 200 years and that the lava was not fast enough to really destroy an artifact. Which really left no ambiguity to discuss about whether it meant the dragon or not…