Players Ignore the Plot Hook – The Untold Story of My Campaign

An eerie fog rises around as a little hamlet somewhere in the Noman-lands holds breath, preparing to defend against bandit raiders. From the mist, only one person emerges, speaking riddles. The tension is high, and everyone wonders what to make out of this. Or I supposed they would because the players seem not interested in the puzzles at all. What should GM do when the players ignore the plot hook?

After Ingolf of Dale enters the village and tells his riddle, he feels snapped out of a dream. He doesn’t know what this “pale head” puzzle means or who told him to deliver it – save for it was a message of sorts. He only remembers being captured along with the rest of the caravan and thrown into some dark cave. But the danger of a bandit assault is more immediate, so the players turn to defenses. Everyone seems to ignore this (quite explicit, I thought) plot hook. Only one person pays attention to the bizarre scene of Ingolf’s arrival – the elf Althain, an NPC.

There is no plot hook that couldn’t be ignored

Briefly telling the rest of the session, the players decide to put up watches throughout the night and then scout the area the next day. They discover another nearby settlement’s smoking cinders and the track of captives. They pursue the raiders and discover their camp in the Raven’s Gully to the east. When they return to the Limesplice, they find out that the elf is not there, although he told them he’d scout the other side of the nearby creek. Referring to the player character’s supposed friend (I purposely developed him in Eradom’s backstory) may seem like a big plot hook – not big enough, though, for the players not to ignore it.

Misunderstanding of what a “plot hook” is and why it’s OK when it’s ignored by the players

I felt frustrated that the players ignored the thread I was trying to underline. I did it a few more times until I realized that the ignored plot hook wasn’t as important as I thought. Essentially, RPG is about telling the story together – by the Game Master and the players. The means for both are different, though. The players decide what threads they pursue. Those that they don’t may develop into alternative versions of how the GM envisioned them – adding a twist to the story, not ruining it. On the other hand, I’m with all the GMs of the universe that painstakingly crafted their narratives only to see them overlooked. The problem is, I think, in how the GM understands their role.

The common misconception is that Game Master provides amusement for the players. It could be so, but everyone should agree on it being that way. Otherwise, GM and the players should enjoy the game all the same. If GM sees their purpose in crafting an intriguing plot, with the hooks needed to engage and experience it – that’s OK. But when they think only about their perfect scenario, when the players interact with and live out the narrative in a “correct” way – that leads to frustration when they ignore it.

So, in my story, I was expecting that the Eradom’s player would at least take note of his friend’s disappearance. I connected quite a big part of the story to it, my first mistake. The second one was just around the corner, but I realized what I should do instead.

Keep the things consistent instead of insterting plot hooks

Althain was the only one who understood Ingolf’s message. It was a Dol Guldur’s servant’s trap for the elf, who could otherwise thwart the Enemy’s plans. And the Noldor took the bait, setting out almost at once to the east as expected. Both he and Eradom were looking for a man supposedly able to commune with the spirits of the dead. That was especially important to Eradom, whose mother apparently died on the other side of the Misty Mountains. Also, for Althain, who fought along with his beloved one in the War of the Last Alliance. She was slain and left in the Dead Marshes, and when he heard the rumors about the medium, he unconsciously felt moved and pulled to the place. So I let him walk right into the trap – that’s logically consistent.

But this could also be kind of a double-edged sword. Suppose I’d leave the ignored player character’s friend lost to the Enemy without giving him a second chance. In that case, that’d be like punishing the player, punishing for not realizing the perfect scenario, that is. And the punishment is not a very good way of building relationships. Instead, I’ve returned to the topic one or two more times after a few sessions. And when they still did ignore this thread, I told myself it was OK that the plot didn’t develop as expected – and even that its whole part was left untold. Instead, the elf was to play a different role in the story. But just leave him there, lost in the dark magic of the Dead Marshes, as we’ll return to the player characters next week.

PS – A note on the setting

A Tolkien fan reading this may catch a few details that are a bit out of place. First, Tolkien described the Brown Lands as an empty area where no one lives, and nothing ever grows. But Middle-earth is, after all, a place of legend, where blank parts, not essential to the story, often seem just that – blank. Hence, in “my” Brown Lands, some short woods do grow among the wind-swept hills, people do live in a few scant settlements, but the landscape is still desolate and unwelcoming. Because it seems reasonable enough in the setting, and it provided good story material for me. Also, a person hearing the spirits of the dead may seem strange, but I’ll explain it more near the end of the campaign.

Meanwhile, take care and think about how you feel about your stories not getting much attention from the players. Do you feel like they ignore the plot? Do you try to convince or attract them to follow it? Or maybe you try to change things on the fly and follow the players attentively instead? Or do you have your golden middle way and care for sharing the means to achieve an enjoyable game for everyone?