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So here's where we're at in the game. I've been running prelude to Hunter as if it is actual story. So the outcome is basically set. Two of the PC's are/were related, and the motivation is that the sister/wife (and child) were killed by something supernatural.

The culprit is a fairly powerful Strix, who'd been riding around in the Mother's body.

"She" had been gruesomely killing people, and straight up said she killed the daughter after she was taken into custody. The mother is now dead, the Coroner says she probably died of throwing herself into walls after she'd been institutionalized. The Coroner's assistant suggested, privately, she'd been dead for 2 days even though she'd been talking to them hours earlier. update a few more hints that were given, a patient released was singing her favorite song, obnoxiously at the same time they were leaving the hospital, around the time "she would have died" (OOC Joke "time is on my side" from movie fallen. Other pieces got avoided by character choices or dice rolls (the cops beat the players to finding the wife, and then the husband chose to have her instantly commited to an institution and didn't talk to her long).

A piece of my problem is that our supernatural specialist left the game, she was not happy, and no one else was really happy with her role play/participation. That generally left the party with a bunch of bruisers, who now have been only mildly respeced to have some more occult/investigation.

How should I go about ensuring the players continue to pursue this?

The problem, as I see it, is that it does fly in the face of reason that they should continue to pursue it. It's almost like metagaming to pursue it. Though I'm not sure suggesting a bit of metagaming is bad in this case (we are wrapping up a prelude after all). I personally feel a bit like saying, I know it doesn't make sense in the real world to pursue anything, but the thing about hunters is that they contiue to pursue in even when the most obvious solution (wife went nuts) would answer the question.

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Time for an NPC

The quickest solution to this problem is to take a little break from this plot line, and develop a relationship between the players and an NPC. This NPC is what I like to call the 'plot giver'. This NPC is used to fill in the gaps of a party, to get the plot back on track.

Don't be a jerk

The plot giver is not a god, and is only there to nudge the party towards plot.

Kill them, kill them in fire

You need to kill off or remove the plot giver once the game is back on track

Write more robust future plots

The problem you experienced is due to the plot being hinged on one player's character. This is wonderful for a session or two to explore a character's plot hooks. This really should be avoided for larger story arcs. Design your future plots so at least two of the party are hooked, if not all of them.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ hinged on one player's character actually it's 2 of the now 3 players. "Sister/Wife" maybe I could have written that better? one player's sister, the other's wife. \$\endgroup\$ Nov 2, 2014 at 19:26
  • \$\begingroup\$ No, you hinged the continuation of the plot on the investigator - the one who left the group. \$\endgroup\$
    – Tritium21
    Nov 2, 2014 at 19:28
  • \$\begingroup\$ fair point, maybe I did, though that character had no emotional investment, I mentioned that because I had no idea that I'd end up with just bruisers in the middle of a mystery, when players had asked for more mystery. I was also trying to ensure I was including the brainiac, since they wanted less combat. \$\endgroup\$ Nov 2, 2014 at 19:30
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    \$\begingroup\$ And that is the crux of this. You have a mystery plot with no investigator. You hinged the continuation of the plot on investigation - no matter the emotional investment, they would call it case closed if they don't have that investigative motive. \$\endgroup\$
    – Tritium21
    Nov 2, 2014 at 19:35

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