Players characters evading direct questions

[Mordar]

Except that's not what they did. They told them what the Formori were doing "in their building", and not about some (seemingly unrelated) bit of information. Imagine this scenario as played out at a gaming table:

A child calls 911 for help.

Child: "Masked men have broken into my house and are holding mommy and daddy. Come help!".
Police: "Ok. What are the plans of the masked men?"
Child: "They're in our house! And they're mean and bad. And they're hurting mommy and daddy. Please come quick!"
Poilce: "But what plans do these masked men have?"
Child: "Why wont you come help? They're beating up mommy. I can hear her screaming in pain. Why wont you help?"
Police: "Well. If you'd just tell us what their plans are, then we might be able to"

(player playing child character): "Seriously? WTF is wrong with these people? This is the dumbest thing ever!"

GM (after the session is over and everyone is upset about what happened): "Why didn't you tell the police that you overheard one of the masked men talk about how they will beat up mommy until daddy gives them the password to his computer, so they can log in and gain access to the secret government site and steal the launch codes for the nuclear missiles?". If you'd just told them that, they'd have rushed right over to help.

Players: Because we didn't think that was significant. We assumed they would want to help us because we are playiing children and they are powerful adults and (good guys) and they would help protect us from the bad guys. You know. Cause we're playing kids, and that's how kids think. You honestly expected our children characters to relate that sort of detailed plot to the police? That's... crazy.

And then the GM posts on an online forum asking about why players don't give straight answers to direct questions and cause game sessions to blow up.


Yes. I get that this is not a perfect analogy (but the Fae aren't police and that's the analogy you used, so goose/gander, right?). The point is that the GM expected the characters to talk about a threat to someone else instead of the threat to themselves when asking for help. That's a fair leap to make and certainly to assume. The GM should have assisted in making that less of one.

[ASIDE: I picked cops because it was the closest good guys/bad guys option. So yes, we're geese and ganderers]

Totally not my read, and if I have lost the truth of the matter, then I will recuse...but here is the version I see:

Child: "Bad guys live nearby. Come make them go away!".
Police: "Ok. What are the bad guys doing?"
Child: "They're bad! You're good guys. Come get them."
Poilce: "But what what makes them bad guys?"
Child: "They just are. Why wont you help?"
Police: "Well, because you haven't told me why they are bad."
Child: <click><dialtone>

(cop): "Seriously? That's the seventh crank call from a kid this shift!"

Talakael says if they had suggested they had mommy and daddy and were beating them that would have advanced the conversation. But they just went with "They are bad guys and you are good guys, so fight!".

Or did that get revised somewhere along the line? Because if there was a statement about building forces than that opens the next obvious question in the dialog.

Remember, before giving too much credit to the "kids" angle...they then went to bad guys to get them to blow up the building...right?

EDIT because new post:

And... even if we assume that the players should have at least tried providing X to the NPCs, we could say the same in the other direction. Was the freehold in Muir woods a secret? Why could the PCs not have learned this information from the NPCs during the course of the evening? Then the PCs would have X and Y, and realize that it might just add up to a solution. Why is the requirement for information flow only going in one direction? As a GM, you don't want to bottleneck adventures, and should avoid them whenever possible. Sometimes, it's a bit unavoidable to at least veer close to a bottleneck (somehow, the two pieces of information must get together for action to happen, so this counts).

The requirement for flow of information is based on which side is asking which side for help. The PCs had no leverage, so it is on them to convince the Fae to help...and it seems the bar for convincing was low.

But yeah. If that's happening in the game. Treat it like you would a bottle of ketchup. Whack the darn thing until the ketchup flows. Keep the game moving.

100% agree...certainly was an opportunity to have two background Fae discussing having just come from the House in the Woods to ring the bell. Of course, the PCs could have just answered the question as reasonably posed.

- M