My players want to hire higher level adventurers to go deal with

Sure, so long as they can pay.

How are lower level adventurers planning to pay to hire higher level adventurers, exactly?

I would. And then I'd end the campaign.

>>49922671
Allow it and then kill the high-leveled adventurers.
>>49922729
With sexual services, of course.

No. Yes.

>>49922671
If their doing it for cash and not for justice, I imagine their already working for the BBEG

Sure, the BBEG now becomes the concept of needing to find enough money to pay the higher level adventurers.

>>49922671
Yeah totally.
I would do it a number of ways.
>party hires high level adventurer, spending most of their gold to do so. He does it, then the big bad is dead.

>party hires him, he dies to the big bad, they have an "Oh shit moment"

>party hires him, he fucks off.

There is a lot you can do with this if you aren't lazy.

I would roll randomly to determine his class and alignment. If he's evil and they have a paladin then there are plenty of ways for a high level adventurer to hide their alignment. The possibilities are endless anon

>>49922671
Apart from the good ideas som anons are giving, you might want to question yourself about why your players want to pay some dude to do their job instead of going on an adventure. The awnsers can be infinite.

What game are you guys playing?

>>49922858
You forgot

>party hires high level adventurer, spending most of their gold to do so. He does it, then the big bad is dead. The high level adventurer usurps his foes position and it's now an even worst BBEG

>>49922878
Exactly!!!
Endless possibilities

>>49922671
Not a question that's easy to answer without context

>>49922818
>Save the world campaign derailed into an adventure into financing
>Players travel the world getting investors and partners
>Drive all preexisting mercenary groups and guilds out of business to create a major adventuring company
>Hire, train, and supply up-and-coming adventurers to go defeat the original BBEG on your behalf

I'd play it.

>>49922859
>why your players want to pay some dude to do their job instead of going on an adventure.
You know what, that IS a good question!

HEY! OP! Why the fuck are your players trying to get out of the plot?

>>49922753
> Allow it and then kill the high-leveled adventurers.

This. Play up the power of the higher level adventurers. Make the party work for it to get enough money to hire them.

And then let the issue rest for a while. Don't bring up the BBEG for some time, have a couple of stories floating around of the more badass adventurers fighting the forces of the BBEG.

And then bring news that when they tried to fight the BBEG directly, the higher level dudes got slaughtered. Only a couple of them survived to escape. They might be convinced to serve as allies in future attacks on the BBEG, but they won't be going after him again anytime soon and certainly not on their own.

The BBEG now has one of the adventurers you hired raised as an undead/possessed servant that serves as a miniboss.

>>49922930
I should mention that I'm not even questioning OP skills at creating an interesting adventure, by the way.

But, for example, if I'm playing in world of darkness as a vampire businessmen and I have a troublesome dude, most of the time I'm gonna pay a stronger but poorer dude to do the job for me. Even if the adventure sounds cool, I didn't make the kind of character suited for it.

Maybe theyre hinting at wanting a higher level campaign? Allow it, then have them play the high level adventurers.

An old group I had did this, GM kept pushing his GMPCs till we said no more and paid him to do all the job, GM got mad, we didn't care.

File: capitalism.jpg (30KB, 420x522px) Image search: [Google]

30KB, 420x522px

>ITT:

File: IMG_0319.jpg (166KB, 640x414px) Image search: [Google]

166KB, 640x414px

>>49922905
>>49922797
>>49922753
>>49922729
A bit more context, to explain my situation:

Early on in the campaign, the PCs went into a dungeon to investigate what happened to the local big-name heroes after they ventured into it to investigate some local disappearances and went missing. It turned out that they got themselves petrified, so the players finished off the heavily-injured Infant basilisk that the previous heroes had done most of the work killing (they had already struck down the mother, so all that was left was dealing with the left over babies) and then went on a quest to reverse the heroes' petrification.

The hig-level heroes, after being freed, explained that they had found a treasure map hidden in the basilisk's lair and decided the PCs were competent enough to hold down the fort and protect the kingdom in their stead until they returned from their journey.

The adventurers made it clear that this treasure map was of incredible importance to their leader's family and that they couldn't return to the kingdom until they retrieved it. Covertly, one of the PCs made a copy of the map for safekeeping.

Trouble has, in fact, cropped up while the big-league heroes were away, but instead of gearing up to fight the big bad warlock themselves the PCs have decided that the threat is so out of their league that their mission is now to beat the big league adventurers to the treasure and ransom it off as payment for the other heroes to go back to the kingdom and solve the problem for them.

>>49923145
You know how when, you were learning to ride a bike, you had training wheels, and when you took them off, your mum, dad or weird but helpful hobo would hold onto the bars but unexpectedly let go?

You've got to do the latter part. I have no idea how though.

>>49923145
>but instead of gearing up to fight the big bad warlock themselves the PCs have decided that the threat is so out of their league that their mission is now to beat the big league adventurers to the treasure and ransom it off as payment for the other heroes to go back to the kingdom and solve the problem for them.
I think you're players should've done a little more troubleshooting before putting their plan into motion, because I'm seeing a few problems with their plan.

File: 4BED5BD841C82C35A57136FB7AA21F9B98FB77FF[1].png (361KB, 800x645px) Image search: [Google]

361KB, 800x645px

>>49922671
>>49923114
>Hire a bunch of high-level adventurers to take out the BBEG
>Take 10% of their profits in loot
>Use that to buy all the forges in the capital
>Decide the high level adventurers are getting too close to killing the BBEG
>Pay the BBEG to kill the adventurers
>Use your smith-profit to set up an adventurers guild
>Demand a subscription fee from all members, in exchange for offering information about good quests
>Also demand 5% of all their loot
>Pay the BBEG to create level-appropriate threats in various regions of the world
>Perpetuate this cycle of murderhoboing for mad profit
>Also sell weapons and armor to both sides
>Use your profits to buy a shitton of alcohol
>Use the remaining money to convince the local government to make alcohol illegal
>Now you can sell your stockpiled alcohol at double the price on the black market
>Import more alcohol from abroad, keeping a very lucrative black market business going
>Pay adventurers to kneecap anyone else who dares sell alcohol on your turf
>If the government keeps giving you shit for breaking the law, pay a rival kingdom to invade them
>In fact, pay a rival kingdom to invade them anyway to boost your arms and armor sales, as well as reduce the number of guards hampering your underground alcohol business
>Sell weapons to both sides in the war but ensure your kingdom wins
>Then bribe the government until slavery is legal
>Buy a shitton of former-POW slaves, force them to brew alcohol all day
>Buy even more slaves
>Start an exotic brothel where customers can have sex with men, women and all kinds of in-betweens from all breeds and races
>Develop an unhealthy golddust-snorting addiction

>>49923145
Do the PC's have a way to travel quickly? If not the warlock will destroy the kingdom before they pull off the missing.

Is honestly easier to get this treasure then to kill the warlock? If not then stress to the PC's that this side mission will kill them.

If neither of these are problems, then I'd go with an idea above; let the plan go through, and then have the players play the higher level adventurers. (Levelling up the Warlock as needed to make it feel liie they made the right choice.

Also, you could have the higher level adventurers get trapped in some way that the PC's can't pull off their plan. Paralyzed by a crystal basilisk, which can't be undone with their current resources. Trapped in another dimension which the PC's can't even find right now. Alternatively, both if these routes launch tuebpc's onto a new adventure, although recovering the legendary treasure can be a great quest in and if itself.

After the high level adventurers get their epic treasure you can just have them unceremoniously destroy the dire Warlock, turning what you had planned as a more in depth adventure into a simple reward for their hard work. It's definitely not the adventure you planned, and it sucis when your hard work s basically thrown away, but in the end the players may find it t be an extremely rewarding adventure.

>>49923145
>>49923172
Orchestrate events so that in their rush to get money, they actually level past the warlock and bowl him over in order to get at the rare gems he was using for a ritual?

>>49923145
This sounds like an awesome plot setup. Have the PCs work to procure as quick travel is possible, going on a mad rush to get to the dungeon. Once they make it they find the high level NPCs are already halfway through the dungeon. Your players goal is now to get the treasure before the NPCs. Maybe they sneak and try to steal it at the last minute, or catch up and offer help, only to betray them at the last minute, or just straight bolt past them to the treasure

The actual coercing/blackmailing will be a challenge in of itself, with the finale being if you PCs go full murder hobo and decide to betray their friends right after they kill the BBEG or survive the vengeance they so rightly deserve when they hand the Macguffin over.

>>49923145
I don't see any issue.
In the end, they're not just saying "we don't wanna do anything, let the big boys handle it", they are taking matters into their own hands in a way. They ARE working towards a goal and will probably have to go through a lot to achieve it.
If this is the path your players have chosen, I'd just roll with it. Change the focus of the campaign on their treasure-hunting adventure, a race against bigger heroes, catacombs, indiana jones shit...!
In a way, they ARE trying to save the world, after all.
That's how I'd do it.

>>49923145
How far away are the NPC adventurers and the treasure? You could just tell the smart characters to roll intelligence and tell them that the threat of the warlock is too immediate. The PCs can go to find the treasure and extort the adventurers, but none of the two groups will be back in time to save the kingdom. They can abandon the people if they want, but they will have to face a stronger and better located enemy.

>>49923353
>Lord, what's become of us?

>>49922930
>HEY! OP! Why the fuck are your players trying to get out of the plot?
Obviously "stay safe and never risk losing more than 1 HP the entire campaign".

>>49923353
towhatend.jpg

>>49923507
>stay safe and never risk losing more than 1 HP the entire campaign
Me thinks the players may have missed the point.

>>49923353
The real question is - how do we get someone to open portal to another plane of existence so we can further expand portfolio?

>>49922671
>Would you let your players do this?

Many games allow characters to hire retainers. It's a pretty standard thing, OP.

>>49923145
Sounds like your players are tired of feeling like all they are doing is being stand ins for your big damn heroes when they wanted to do something else the entire time.

>>49922671
Anyone remember that storycap about the players who became a business empire and just solved all the plot hooks with money and trade negoiations?
>Lich raises an army of the dead; players buy him his own land and set up trade between his land and their city.
>Dragon is going on rampage. They offer it gold.
>Monsters pop up; players hire people to go fight them.

Anyway, you can candidly tell them that that's not what you envisioned for the game. Or you could tell them there are no heroes- either at all or within distance. You could also let them hire the hero and just add more stuff. So aure, the hero is fighting the bbeg, but in the meantime someone has to defend the orphaned kitten shelter from his lieutenant.

>>49923587
Actually I can see how that happened, GM wanted the party to fight a basilisk, but the party was too low a level, a full-grown basilisk would annihilate them, give it the infant template and now the party should be able to handle it, but why would there be this lone basilisk infant running around without it's parent? another group of adventurers killed it!... and you see where it goes from there.

I don't fault the GM for that, hell even created a plausible reason for the adventurers to piss-off right out of the story. If only the players got the hint.

>>49923145

Honestly that sounds like a fun setup.

Indiana Jones that shit.

File: IMG_0320.jpg (38KB, 1024x521px) Image search: [Google]

38KB, 1024x521px

>>49923145
This actually comes really close to the story in our game, except our heroes are more explicitly assholes about the whole ordeal.

>Magic tower appears on the horizon
>The beloved famous local heroes are dispatched to look into things
>They're gone for a week
>An emergency group of backup nobodies (that's us) are gathered to figure out what happened to them
>Most of the monsters in the tower are dead already
>The heroes are trapped in a magic mirror
>We solve a puzzle to break the heroes out
>During the process of solving the puzzle, we meet the wizard who the magic tower belongs to. He's been impaled on some wizarding gizmo, is dying
>He'a from the setting's Not!Arabia and accidentally teleported his tower in a ritual. Apologizes for the trouble, hints us how to solve the puzzle, dies
>Our rogue is afraid of going back to being some nobody after the heroes are freed
>We lie to them and tell them the wizard foretold some terrible oncoming evil in Not!Arabia and teleported his tower to the coast of our country to find heroes
>We're appointed local heroes while they go off on their big farcical adventure
>Life is good for about a week
>The king'a bastard son allies with a goblin king and leads a coup
>And so our heroes' epic journey to find the heroes they sent on a wild goose chase so they can actually save the day begins

>>49923587
>Projecting this hard.

Many settings have multiple heroes, the gm needs a reason for the players to be the ones that matter.

File: 1454178563136.png (919KB, 1004x715px) Image search: [Google]

919KB, 1004x715px

>>49923353
I'd love to play a campaign like this.

>>49922671
It's definitely something to have on the cards.
For one thing, it solves the Elminster problem quite handily.

Shit, your players sound amazing.

>>49922919
>having established a global financial economy with such a stranglehold on competing businesses that they can never counter-offer you, you have become the true BBEG yourselves

>>49923145
That's great and you should just roll with it. I'm 100% serious. Do not fuck with your players here, they have basically ran with your plot and you should be grateful for that. This only opens up more possibilities for RP and for the game.

>>49924025
This, the players have a plan they're still working to defeat your BBEG, albeit with a degree of separation. Their plan may not great in my opinion, but there's no reason to stop them arbitrarily, just remember the hurdles they have to face, the other group has a headstart on them, make sure they work out a way overcome that, and don't forget there's going to be fallout. If my group has taught me nothing else it's that adventurers do not like being coerced into doing things.
Also what is this treasure they're after, could it bear some sort of curse? or unleash an even worse menace than the warlock?
And should they succeed and get back, make sure they can't just sit back and let the big heroes do everything, maybe the warlock has summoned some form of demon offsider who's up to shit at the same time, maybe even granting the warlock some form of invulnerability, forcing them to go after it, while the big damn heroes take on the Warlock themselves.

>>49924985
The point where this is going to fuck up and derail inevitably is the point at which they try and ransom the other party with their treasure. They may also fuck up rushing the dungeon, but that next bit is DEFINITE.

>>49923556
What plane do you have in mind?
The plane of salt, perhaps?

>>49925254
Well assuming the big damn heroes are light heroes, they should be willing to defer the grudge match to deal with the Warlock, but yes, this should definitely bite them on the arse.
Maybe not directly again, if the heroes other heroes view themselves as good guys and the party as being on their side of the good/evil dichotomy, they'd probably not just attack them directly, but they make act indirectly against them, besmirching their reputations and using influence to cut them off from needed resources, maybe even getting them run out of town.

>>49923145
I'd also suggest to the players to mull over a bit of the alternative: they catch up to the heroes, tell them about the big bad warlock and urge the NPCs to go deal with him while the PCs get the treasure for them.

But overall: it is an acceptable way for them to try and tackle the issue. Yes it is a derailment of the planned plot; but it's not derailing into pointless fuckin about, it's just trying a different path to the goal so it's kosher.

>>49922671
i guess but getting that kind of money will be an adventure in itself

>>49925834
I remember that storytime.

>>49923145
that plan doesn't seem to make any sense, but it might just be the way you are explaining it

it seems like it would be better to actually do nothing, the adventurers would come back after getting the treasure and save the day without any blackmail, instead of making an enemy of them for no reason

if that is actually their plan, then i would have the kingdom take some serious damage after the party leaves, and the adventurers would attack the party for leaving it defenseless and for attempting blackmail

but i think you probably just didn't describe their plan right

>>49922671
Let's say the players' current characters are successful in finding higher-level adventurers... are they open to the idea of roleplaying these stronger characters when it comes time to fight the BBEG? Or do they just want to avoid that altogether and have you, as the GM, defeat the bad guy off-screen for them?
Because if it's the latter, then... shoot, just fold up the game and play something that's less combat-oriented. Like Golden Sky Stories or something.

>>49931908
It was a good campaign