kevintheradioguy
Salt
So, this has been bugging me for a long, long time now.
Currently, I have a D&D campaign I DM for a while now, and we have two players (well, one who does this often, and one who's just kind of forgetful), who tend to mix things up. As in, for example, a player had a vision from their deity "In the land of Far-Far-Away there is a werewolf I want you to kill", and the player agrees: "Yes, senpai, I will!". But two sessions later, she forgets that she has to go to Far-Far-Away, and starts collecting rumours about all the werewolves in hopes to find the one she needs.
Or, as a part of a contract with a mage, they must, say, collect the blood of twelve virgins, but not via stabbing them, when she after a few sessions (they're slow, btw, it's always at least two sessions between getting and starting the quest for them) she misinterprets as getting the blood without hurting them.
And sometimes... sometimes I do not have plot ways to remind what it really was. As in, sometimes, I can throw an NPC at them, or go with "while you manage the camp, you stumble upon a contract, and you notice that you should not, in fact, only stab virgins, which makes your job easier, as you understand you can slice, pierce or punch them" (...well, that turned too dark for no reason!). But at other times, such as with vision with their god, I cannot use any such things without breaking the immersion. The vision was supposed to be blurry, as the god wants for her to interpret it in her own way, and see what she does, so he won't clear this out.
Hell, I even explicitly say "If you forgot something, if you have questions, or doubt - ask the DM, DM is nice, DM will remind you certain things.", but they reply "Nope, we remember everything correctly." - "Are you sure? Are you absolutely, absolutely sure?" - "Yep!" - "Really!?" - "Really!"
So, there goes my struggle: on one hand, I should help my players - I do not want them to end up in a ditch with no pants on, just because they forgot one important plot point; on the other hand, I want to allow them to make mistakes, and misinterpret things. So, there. A poll! Help me out here, please, they kind of went too far at this point. Not that I won't make a story as we go, but they want to follow the story they began with (and me as well), but they are now headed to an absolutely wrong place.
Currently, I have a D&D campaign I DM for a while now, and we have two players (well, one who does this often, and one who's just kind of forgetful), who tend to mix things up. As in, for example, a player had a vision from their deity "In the land of Far-Far-Away there is a werewolf I want you to kill", and the player agrees: "Yes, senpai, I will!". But two sessions later, she forgets that she has to go to Far-Far-Away, and starts collecting rumours about all the werewolves in hopes to find the one she needs.
Or, as a part of a contract with a mage, they must, say, collect the blood of twelve virgins, but not via stabbing them, when she after a few sessions (they're slow, btw, it's always at least two sessions between getting and starting the quest for them) she misinterprets as getting the blood without hurting them.
And sometimes... sometimes I do not have plot ways to remind what it really was. As in, sometimes, I can throw an NPC at them, or go with "while you manage the camp, you stumble upon a contract, and you notice that you should not, in fact, only stab virgins, which makes your job easier, as you understand you can slice, pierce or punch them" (...well, that turned too dark for no reason!). But at other times, such as with vision with their god, I cannot use any such things without breaking the immersion. The vision was supposed to be blurry, as the god wants for her to interpret it in her own way, and see what she does, so he won't clear this out.
Hell, I even explicitly say "If you forgot something, if you have questions, or doubt - ask the DM, DM is nice, DM will remind you certain things.", but they reply "Nope, we remember everything correctly." - "Are you sure? Are you absolutely, absolutely sure?" - "Yep!" - "Really!?" - "Really!"
So, there goes my struggle: on one hand, I should help my players - I do not want them to end up in a ditch with no pants on, just because they forgot one important plot point; on the other hand, I want to allow them to make mistakes, and misinterpret things. So, there. A poll! Help me out here, please, they kind of went too far at this point. Not that I won't make a story as we go, but they want to follow the story they began with (and me as well), but they are now headed to an absolutely wrong place.