DMing 5e campagin

>DMing 5e campagin
>Players and I have a few previous campaigns under our belts
>Players say this time they want more of a sandbox type game where they're free to wander and find quests on their own
>I'm glad because this saves me a lot of prep time
>Generic start, players begin adventure in tavern
>I give them multiple hooks and tell players of the troubles plaguing this particular town and its outskirts and leave them to decide what they want to do
>They just sit there
>I tell them it's up for them to look for quests as they said they wanted and that people aren't going to randomly approach 4 nobodies for help
>They look confused and start looking around the tavern itself and asking random people if they have any quests for them
>Most of them are poor as fuck peasants but one or two have a few odd jobs if the players are desperate
>Session falls apart an hour later as the players are utterly unable to act on their own initiative
>Players complain that there was "nothing to do"

Who was in the wrong here?

>Who was in the wrong here?
You for being retarded.

They asked around the tavern to look for quests. Just because they're peasants doesn't mean they can't have leads and rumors and shit.

But I already told them about the town's leads and rumors. My players didn't want leads and rumors they literally wanted some random NPC to approach them out of the blue and give them a job.

I think that would be against what OP said his players wanted

Out of character?

They told me this after the session

I don't believe you.
People don't behave that way.

The players definitely were.

This is similar to a case where a DM was going to run one of the WH40k systems, letting us vote on which one we wanted. I voted on Only War while all the other players voted on Rogue Trader. I told them I didn't want to play RT because it's sandboxy and doesn't tend to have much of a narrative focus, with the players having to come up with what they want to do. They voted on it anyway.

The campaign eventually fell apart because the other players didn't like the lack of narrative. I called the lot of them cunts.

Your players are a bunch of fucking retarded manchildren

Not the OP, but they definitely do. I'm not going to give any examples because there are too fucking many to recount.

They sound stupid but you kind of fucked up.

Once you realized they were retarded you should have had the FIRST npc they encountered be the one with the quest you wanted them to do.

The best railroad is one the players don't even know they're being put on.

>"X it's your turn. What are you doing?"
>"Okay ummm I shit on the floor! hahahahah!"
>"nah, nah, what I actually do is I start beatboxing hahahahahahaha!"
>"Alright, but not seriously I raise my sword and start sucking on it hahahahahahaha!"
>"Alright X since you apparently can't decide what to do you stand rooted on the spot, Y it's your turn now"
>"What the fuck I was just about to do something!"

Only when viewed through the eyes of a retarded autist, like yourself and OP.

Ah you got one of the too much freedom, so they get stumped and not realizing they are rug bottom trying to make a name of themselves. Happens time to time. Usually that point the players should think what are their characters goals and use that as a personal guide of the sort.

The players were retards, but you kind of were too for assuming they wouldn't be.

>People always behave perfectly rationally
>Miscommunications never happen
>People always know what they want
>What people say they want and what they actually want are always the same thing

I mean, you seem literally autistic not even Veeky Forums parlance, you sound like you're literally autistic compared to the other two, but whatevs man.

so why didn't you have that happen

oh wait probably because this greentext story never really happened

>so why didn't you have that happen
Because they told me before the game that they wanted something different. Did you even read the first post?

You for thinking players meant it when they asked for a sandbox. They always, without fail, want railroads with plenty of pretty scenery to look at. They just don't like being told it to their faces.

If the game is clearly boring you are supposed to try to fix it.
It doesn't matter what they said a week before.

I would only try something like this if at least one player in the group ran a game of his own. At least that way you've (probably) got someone with the intelligence, creativity and giving-a-fuck to actually get shit done.

>oi! There's a ghost that lives up in the old mill, it impregnated my goat and stole me iron plow just before the harvest! Get it back and I'll give you a reward.

Took me literally 20 seconds to find this picture, save it, type this post, solve the captcha, and send it to you.

Kill yourself.

Sandbox Goes Wrong thread?
>GM gets out of burnout, feels like dusting off a setting
>gives us a few things to do to get the party together
>kickstarts us with running errands for a magic academy to latch onto the setting
>we go through a lot of the hooks without issue
>realizes most of the party only has abstract or long-term goals, or isn't smart enough to dig up a "step 1" mission out of
>the ones that can come up with something are ideas the rest of the party doesn't want to do
>GM loses motivation to run the game
>no one can match up schedules to play a game since