Oringinall posted to (Reddit here)
So I recently cracked open the beginners box with some friends. We ran through Black fang. That was a great game.
For our second session. i placed 4 jobs on the jobs board at the Rusty Dragon, I placed 4 more randomly around town, I secretly started an event that would make low level monsters invade the town so if they keep wandering around things will still happen. I also planned 4 triggers for events with different NPCs and locations around town and planned a monster to raid the Rusty Dragon.
My intention was partly to take some time exploring random encounters just so we can get used to how the game works, and also to give my players the freedom to explore at their own pace and experience driving the game themselves by choosing where to go.
I didn't plan a lot of form for this session. I wanted them to feel their ability to explore. Maybe they would wander into another quest i had ready for next session, maybe they would run into one of the smaller encounters I had ready. Partly i also wanted them to reach level 2 with random encounters so we could learn the level up mechanics.
Well things didn't go well. One player spend almost 2 hours repeatedly going back to to the Rusty Tavern's Landlady trying to get her into bed, after failing that 2 of my players spend most of the session wandering around town looking for a brothel. They didnt find one. It seems prostitudes do not parade down the streets of Sandpoint and Ameiko isn't attracted to overly forward fighters.
Now this session I avoided pushing them in a direction because I wanted them to firmly grasp the idea that they could go anywhere and do anything.
However I imagine this is going to come up a lot, do you guys have any advice on dealing with it.