Why are players so fucking retarded?

>pathfinder campaign set in city
>players facing cult
>defeat one of the cult's plans
>cult starts randomly killing people
>random new leader shows up, party is suspicious
>go to try to meet with him
>are denied
>one character is good at stealth
>doesn't even try to sneak in
>characters BTFO cult members and don't seem to give a fuck
>never question anyone
>never try to investigate the suspicious dude any further
>get dispel magic cast on city guard once he's under the effect of suggestion
>do absolutely nothing proactive to try to find the cult hideouts in the city
>never try to capture anyone
>never question any prisoners
>never try to bait out or lure cultists into attacking them so that they could capture them
>never go back to investigate places the cult was meeting (such as an orc camp they damaged but didn't destroy)
>continue to do random "sidequests" (not even stuff I set out for them) while the cult is murdering civilians in terrorist attacks on a weekly basis

I feel like I haven't seen them do one intelligent thing the entire campaign. The character who wanted this type of mystery / investigation campaign, just sits in his tavern. The only player who actually gets shit done, does so by going to the people they suspect, and basically laying all the cards on the table to the point where the entire table is face-palming. They have also been lured out of the city by the cult repeatedly for "sidequests" provided in secret by the cult's men, so that the cult can blast a few people to death without the characters having any chance of noticing and catching them. They have not seemed to notice this highly-coincidental chain of events.

Anyone else feel like their players are completely mindless sometimes?

>>pathfinder campaign set in city
I don't even need to read the rest of your post.
This is your problem.

Came here to post this.

>Pathfinder

I don't even need to read the rest of your post.
This is your problem.

If you want better players, play something that's not based on DnD and requires thinking on a level beyond poorly balanced vidoegame mechanics where the players are demi-gods by level 5.

Have you considered that they just don't give a fuck about the cult plot?

You are like little baby. When your players don't understand why a church/cult stocks holy books that don't grant spells, you can come back.

>Pathfinder
I just came here to laugh at you.

Such as ?

Doctor Dildoni's Dickweasel Dash!

Such as the literally hundreds of results that even a cursory amount of research on your end would find.

If you can't even do that much then you and PF deserve each other.

Wow, the contrarian trolls are ANTSY tonight.

Looking for any mention of the game they hate just so they can shitpost, hoo boy.

You shouldn't have mentioned you were playing Pathfinder, now retarded 5e fanboys will just turn this into another Pathfinder bashing thread. Anyway

>Why are players so fucking retarded?
Because if they weren't they'd be on the other side of the screen.

You must be fun at parties

Not the person you're asking, but you may want to consider upgrading to DnD 5th Edition, it's infinitely better than Pathfinder if only because spells and magic have been tweaked to a state where you only become a game-ruining at level 14 or so instead of level 5 now.

Teehee Maccaroni, kill yourself you retarded nudist gnome.

Wow, the DnDfags are RETARDED as ever!

Looking for any mention of the game they have Stockholm Syndrome for just so they can "n-n-n-n-n-no u" as a futile defense, wew lad.

It's not really 5e fanboys, it's just plain and obvious trolls. Veeky Forums's been plagued by them for awhile, and they work really hard to try and pretend they're not obvious.

Nice try, I guess.

You can't be contrarian when you hold the more common or mainstream opinion. If anything, people who play pathfinder are the contrarians.

Takes one to know one.

>getting this butthurt
You must be really upset about no one playing the game you like.

What are the sidequests? What about the sidequests make them more enticing for your players to pursue than the plot you want them to?

Pathfinder is the 2nd most popular game after 5e.

It's contrarian to hate on popular things just because they are popular, and that's all you trolls are doing. There's worse games being discussed in other threads right now, but you're here now shitposting because Pathfinder specifically pisses you off because it's more popular than your favorite games,you silly contrarian.

>pathfinder
>popular
Nah.

...

>roll20 is the gaming world
Nah.

>It's contrarian to hate on popular things just because they are popular,
But we hate PF because it's shit, and "b-b-b-but it's popular so it can't be! XD" is the only argument you've made, because you're a troll who is ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''pretending'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' to be retarded.

>You can't be contrarian when you hold the more common or mainstream opinion. If anything, people who play pathfinder are the contrarians.

Where were you when the rest of us were learning to read?

Players are made of brainfarts. You need to accept this as the general rule of GMing. You can outright tell them "go there, there will be cultists" and they wont do it. They are expecting some sort of cue that will never come.

One guy springs in mind that in a VtM game, when they managed to get stranded in a wooden cabin and it's wall was being assaulted by a Werewolf, he just sat against the wall weapon in hand. When I asked him afterwards why the fuck he did that, he plainly said "I thought that he'd just put his arm inside the cabin, not burst through the wall."

Why he thought of that? I don't know, I'm not a wizard.

>laying all the cards on the table to the point where the entire table is face-palming
Yeah, I've been there. Those players who are so bad at interrogation that it turns into something out of Naked Gun, where they are negotiation to give their gun to the villain in exchange for a hostage who is also a bad guy. You would think that in this day and age, if you get a half dozen people around a table, at least one of them has watched enough cop tv shows to struggle through an interrogation. But no.

If you think that is bad, try having the cops show up and talk to your players sometime. I had the FBI interrogate a PC in a game I ran once, and he was so fucking inept at trying to explain his whereabouts that he actually ended up confessing to multiple crimes they hadn't even been aware of.

You're a mindless troll.
No one needs to argue it's not shit. What we're discussing is why you are so desperate to shitpost about it just because someone merely mentioned the game.

And, you shitpost about it because you can't stand people enjoying it or discussing it, and that makes you a troll. You're a contrarian because the game you hate is popular and it being popular makes you angry. Hence, you are a contrarian troll.

Or, do you want to be called something else? Impotent shitposter? Whiny baby? Cunt?

>walking through a swamp with my party
>I find a flower
>I pick it up and carry with me
>later a multi-eyed creature shows up
>fighting for a while, everyone is fucked
>elf shouts HIS WEAKNESS IS THE FLOWER
>DM smirking
>I approach the creature with the flower in my hand
>put it on it's mouth
>it swallows the flower
>nothing happens
>DM facepalms
>you just needed to make it stare at the flower, not feed the monster!
>I feel dumb

Idk man stuff is hard. Though we managed to kill it without it's weakness

>>you just needed to make it stare at the flower, not feed the monster!

Pathfinder is awful at urban intrigue. It sounds like the problems described in OP aren't system-related, but PF certainly doesn't do you any favors.

5e isn't much better at this sort of game.

Yep, I didn't get it either. The DM said it was 'obvious'
Just pointing out that the players have no ideia of what happens outside of the narration, so that's why they might come across as dumbfucks

>i suck at urban intrigue

Pathfinder has plenty of support for it, especially if you include 3.5 material that is either easily ported over or is universal in character.

There's entire adventures designed around urban intrigue. Don't fall for the "Pathfinder/3.5 can only do dungeon crawls" meme, because that's always been one that never made any sense and only is repeated by idiots who've never actually looked into the system and seen how it handles things outside of the immediate assumed genre.

It's just system politics, and it sad that you fell for it.

Maybe you just didn't make it interesting? It sounds like the players want more to kill stuff and get loot, make it more about that or find a new party who you have more in common with.

If they don't respond to what you're throwing at them then cater more to their will. Don't tempt railroading and adapt if they don't want your not-ISIS plotline instead of whining about them not willingly railroading for you.

As a DM, I'd have just run with it and made the flower give him PTSD flashbacks with a thousand-yard stare.

If the character had high charisma and/or animal affinities, possibly have the creature become semi-friendly until the flower-buzz wears off.

If it's supposed to be obvious, then he should've made it obvious.

>tl;dr
"it was obvious!" is an excuse for garbage DMs

Wut?

Stop being autistic and dismissing evidence presented to you.

True. But "political intrigue" always means a mix of investigation and combat. It just doesn't work otherwise.

They want it though. They name finding / killing this cult as their number one priority.

Well part of the problem is, only one player actually wanted the city adventure, but the rest of them really don't give a shit and they are all pretty passive. I think they just take what I give them at this point. Makes me want to do a west marches game next where they can actually have their own stronghold and stuff, and hire artisans to repair whatever ruined castle they capture as their new homebase.

This, honestly
>durr hurr PF sucks OP

No fucking shit. In other news the Earth is round. Give me my cleverness merit badge.

this always happens

the guy who bitches at your thing of choice will absolutely never name something specific that they like, ever

>he was so fucking inept at trying to explain his whereabouts that he actually ended up confessing to multiple crimes they hadn't even been aware of.
How the fuck did me manage this?