Posts from Expedition: general discussions. Auto-translated

a suspicious offer

Players will never suspect a suspicious offer if all offers are made suspicious.

After everything that happened, every suggestion seems suspicious.

The party was travelling from one city, where they had just finished some quest to kill stuff and collect objects, and were on the way to the next city to do more of that. I decided, in the moment, to throw in a small, random encounter, of no consequence whatsoever. As the party was travelling down the road, they encountered a young, plain, very unarmed woman, carrying a basket of flowers. I don't know why I did this. I suppose I just wanted to see how paranoid they were, or how they would react to something completely unimportant. I certainly learned.

My players haven’t figured it out yet that their kindly old NPC quest-giving wizard is actually the big bad of this story arc.

See, the heroes with all good alignments have a bounty on their heads for doing a good deed the local king didn’t like because it interfered with his plans. The wizard took advantage of this.

I keep sending them on missions. At first, the wizard did send them out against bad guys, but the quests he’s been giving them have been progressively morally suspect.

I might have to start changing alignments soon. I thought after they robbed a bank and terrified everyone inside that they would start to question the motives of the wizard. NPCs on the street run as soon as they see them.

I've given them so many hints that this guy isn't what he seems. They literally do whatever he tells them to even if there's nothing in it for them. Another npc told them he is evil multiple times and they didn't believe it.

How do I get them to realize there's something up with this guy? They didn't mind when he disappeared for 3 days randomly, mysteriously knew to hide all their belongings when the Watch raided their base, and stole a magic item with a flimsy excuse. They just trust this guy.

Do I continue to try, or let the betrayal be a complete surprise?

Edit: the party is all evil to begin with and has no issues doing terrible shit for no reason

What would you do if this were an expansion pack?

We would have spent five pages exchanging messages in plain text before deciding to simply ignore the non-player character.

Besides, you know, who knows what kind of person she is, and what kind of flowers she has – they could be a weapon of mass destruction, or even a breeding ground for coronavirus.

Message from players refuse to believe npc is not their friend, help?
I've given them so many hints that this girl isn't what she seems. They literally do whatever she tells them to even if there's nothing in it for them. Another npc told them she is evil multiple times and they didn't believe it.

How do I get them to realize there's something up with this girl? They didn't mind when she disappeared for 3 days randomly, mysteriously became empress of Rheim, and forced everyone to kiss her feet. They just trust this girl.

Do I continue to try, or let the betrayal be a complete surprise?

Edit: the party is all good to begin with and has big issues doing terrible shit for no reason

I would probably write something like, "Don't approach the flower seller from closer than 200 meters, don't turn my back to her, carefully go around her, paying close attention and looking for traps everywhere. At the first opportunity, hide in the bushes and run away as far as possible."