Players find a mysterious satchel at the end of the first plot arc

>players find a mysterious satchel at the end of the first plot arc
>at the beginning of the first session of the second arc, remind my players that they have the satchel
>make it clear its contents are unknown
>the PC that owned the satchel dies in a boating accident (player wanted to play another character)
>"the only things he left on the ship were his longbow, and his mysterious satchel, the contents of which he never shared with the party"

>"okay cool"
>"so, you get the satchel."
>"yep."

>players never ask about the satchel again
>it contains the critically important plot hook

what the fuck

Then let the goddamned cat out of the bag. Just have it spill open or something.

Maybe they think it’s empty. Next time they get gold or an item just say they open the satchel to store it and oh look theres a train set with the DMs initials on it

>DM mentions a merchant is selling a leather handbag
>half the party spergs out that
"Its a BAG OF HOLDING GET IT GET IT"
>they waste almost all our currency since we put it to a vote.
>get bag
>completely ordinary. Merchant bamboozled us

Every. Fucking. Time. I hate playing with these chumps.

players can autopilot in retarded ways. sometimes you have to just tell them to do obvious things.

Does the satchel have anything to do with hitting monsters real good? If not, then it's a waste of time.

God I hate players for this sometimes
Just because I spent a millisecond longer describing an item or a character doesn't mean its a fucking ultra important plot hook item that I'm TOTALLY HINTING for everyone to pay attention to.

>The planet is barren, dusty, and scattered with canyons that stretch across the land. In the distance, there are tall mountains, capped by snowtop peaks which glint in the scorching sun
>OMG GUYS THE MOUNTAINS ARE IMPORTANT

>Just because I spent a millisecond longer describing an item or a character doesn't mean its a fucking ultra important plot hook item that I'm TOTALLY HINTING for everyone to pay attention to.

The problem is that this mentality runs contrary to much of fiction and storytelling in general.

Let’s say you tell a joke about a chicken, and start out by saying “the chicken was white”. People will expect this fact to come up because it makes no sense to mention if it doesn’t become important later. In the same vein, taking care to describe “the NPC wears a sword looking like this” will signal that this sword is important, otherwise why spend time describing it?

The problem as I see it is more one of communication than of players being dumb.

>Putting only ONE "critical" plot key
Assuming this is true, and let's agree it probably isn't, I don't think I have an anime girl that's smug and condescending enough to convey how utterly retarded you are. Every plot hook should have no less than three clues/items/whatever that lead to it. THREE. Lest you fall victim to idiotic players like this who never pick up that something is important. Or, in this specific instance, MOVE THE IMPORTANT ITEM. Players don't know where it's "supposed" to be. Now it's in a chest they opened. Never opened the chest? Now it's in a glass case behind a bar counter. Don't steal the item from the bar? Now it's an award for winning a wrestling tournament at a local festival.

I know that "GMs can change things" is a pretty new and experimental concept, but may you could take a leap of faith and try it sometime.

>it contains the critically important plot hook
No it doesn't. If the plot hook really is critically important, you FUCKING PUT IT WHERE THE PLAYERS LOOK.

If they don't look in the bag, the bag is not important.

it depends if the DM is good enough to be describing things well consistently - if they don't and they then describe something with extra effort, of course it's going to attract the players' attention

Like with most problems, the answer is simply to add ninjas.

While the party sleep, ninjas descend on their camp/tavern/brothel and attempt to kill them all. The target of their attack is clearly the satchel - perhaps one asks a PC where it is, or they awaken just as it gets picked up. Keep up the attacks until they check it, or if they don’t, simply move the plot item somewhere else and the satchel now contains gems.

They likely have the crappy GMvsPlayers mentality and expect that satchel is important, so they're not opening it out of spite

If they don't look in the bag, they are idiots.
OP, let your player characters get mysterious disease.
> They start losing health - not just current health, but total.
> They also auto-fail all poison checks.
> Then they start losing points in physical ability scores.
> Then their hair starts falling off.
> Bard notices he cannot fuck sluts any more, ranger goes almost completely blind, his eyes just go solid white one day.
> Then they start dying. Once dead, the corpse rises as a zombie.
> If they open the satchel after that, they find multiple small pieces of what looks like iron but is heavier and glows in the dark.

Are there any magical contents OP? You could have the bag react to something, or give off a feint presence. Or have a NPC try and steal the bag, or be unusually interested in it, etc.

So let me get this straight - you didn't allow them to open a container when the got it (WHY?!) and then you are surprised they simply forget about it.
What was even the whole fucking point of this bullshit?

>Like with most problems, the answer is simply to add ninjas
Holy shit he's right

>THIS
THIS
>THIS

Whilst the basic idea of moving stuff about in order to dance around the players' actions is good, I don't agree with the idea that you should use plothooks like milestones or breadcrumbs for the players to follow. That's too much like reading a (bad) book.

Also, you have to understand that there's a whole branch of GMing style that relies on simulating the realistic workings of a world, without GM finagling. And it does work just as well as finagling, so long as players are aware they might get fucked out of left-field due to something they missed.

>So let me get this straight - you didn't allow them to open a container when the got it
Where are you getting this

THREAD
FUCKING
OVER

they probably assumed that they checked the satchel and it was empty.

It's good because it's about showing rather than telling.

Thats a lesson for ya. Never bottleneck things you consider important to campaign or be prepared that they will be completely forgotten in five minutes.

Where in the OP does it say the players weren't allowed to open the satchel at any point?

INTRODUCE THE PLOT HOOK IN ANOTHER WAY

fucking millennials i swear

Reminder you automatically know whether an item is magical by touching it unless someone's used magic to mask its magic.

> "so, you get the satchel"
> "yep"
> "as you pick up the satchel you feel the shifting weight of something heavy inside. Do you look inside?"

If they say no, then fuck them and move the plot hook. If yes, problem solved. Now was that so fucking hard.