It has been a while....
Set in Wilowisp's Oaky Wood region, my trollspawn have been exploring this setting this spring and summer, and now autumn, I guess. They've cleared out the Ghostly Alchemist's lair and other minor excursions and were moving on to Merchant's Rest by traveling through the Oaky Wood. Without going into great detail, they were accosted by the thieves in area 9. I had intended it to be a brief shakedown and then we would get on with exploring the rest of forest between Lake Fall and Merchant's Rest. Instead, they wanted to get back at the thieves and their guerrilla attacks on the thief camp took up the rest of the session. I have to say their tactics were pretty solid, especially for kids (14, 12, 10, 8). The oldest said he was inspired by reading the Guardians of the Flame books that I gave him. An interesting tactic was the idea to cast Will-o-wisp on a makeshift staff as a decoy in the woods at night while the PCs escaped in another direction.
My point, I think, is that it is always interesting what the players will focus on and how they drive the play. A good GM (if I can flatter myself by pretending to associate with such) will go with this. I always have ideas to pursue if the PCs have nothing motivating them, but I always enjoy play more when the PCs have an axe to grind.
