Uneventful Events - Keeper Advice?

[Jwfortune]

During an investigation, there will be times when the team does something for which you have nothing prepared.  For example, while in Paris, they may visit the Eiffel tower.  Or they may travel by train to a different part of France.  Or they may make a bad Library use roll and find nothing of interest during research for the entire day.

When things like this happen, do you just wave your hand and say ok, nothing happens.  Or you make it to the South of France without incidents.  Or do you try to jazz these things up with some kind of encounter.

My first inclination is to usually just move past it, and say nothing happens, lets move on to the good stuff.  But this might take away from the Red Herrings or the sense of place.  But when is this boring and when does at add color to the adventure?

 

Thoughts?

 

[mvincent]

4 hours ago, Jwfortune said:

When things like this happen, do you just wave your hand and say ok, nothing happens.  Or you make it to the South of France without incidents.  Or do you try to jazz these things up with some kind of encounter.

All of the above:

1) If they want to sight-see, I will use google maps (especially street view). Major European cities are often still similar to how they were in the 20's. Sometimes I will peruse these sites ahead of time so that I can describe the sights from memory.

2) If possible, I might try to move a scenario encounter to one of these spots.

3) If it's just a failed library use roll (and there is expected to be several days of library use), I will just hand-wave it.. and make it clear to the players that they are expected to have several days of down time, so they don't get anxious to get everything done on the first day.

I don't like to waste play time on red-herrings though. As adults, my groups don't have a lot of extra free time. If nothing is going to happen, I try to make that clear so we can move on.

 

[Darius West]

There are a number of potential ways that this sort of excursion can be resolved.  Remember that the dynamic of Investigators versus Cultists is a lot like that of 2 opposed espionage cells working against each other on mutually foreign soil.  So much so that that le Deuxième Bureau de l'État-major général (French Counter Intelligence, aka Bureau XX, from which the term "to double cross" comes), may take an interest in these nosy foreigners if they start making too much noise.

Remember that just because the characters have gone off on a wild goose chase doesn't mean that the Cult will.  On the other hand, depending on how much the Cult has invested in thwarting the characters, the wild goose chase may actually force the Cult's hand.  Boss cultist might be saying "They are headed for Marseilles?  Are you sure? What the hell are they up to?  Oh no!  You don't suppose their research has discovered some sort of asset we aren't aware of?  We can't afford to be in the dark about this..."  Normally the players are the reactive element of the scenario, but this sort of accidental proactivity may have unforeseen consequences for some cults.

The easy answer is of course for them to make a couple of rolls to determine that their investigations in the new area have hit a dead end, and precious time has been wasted, but game time has been saved.

Yes, there is the opportunity for the players to get involved in something "off the reservation", depending on how familiar the Keeper is with 1920s France, and there is nothing wrong with a Keeper winging something, just rememer to keep notes on the salient details of what has occurred, especially the names of NPCs they meet.  Bumping into someone famous is always a possibility.  There were many US citizens of note in post WW1 Paris for example, and if the players aren't too far deranged they might find themselves hobnobbing with the Fitzgeralds or Ernest Hemmingway in the Ritz-Carlton bar.  If you have it available, consider watching the movie: 

"Midnight in Paris" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1605783/

I am not saying it is an awesome movie, but it might help set the mood for such interludes.