I'm not 100% sure where to post this so I guessed here =P I'm a pretty new Dm and the only reason I am is because my friends believed it was time for me to step from being a player. So following their advice I started a homebrew 4e game. It started off with the 4 of them waking up in a prison cell. All they could remember was fighting a horde of goblins. After managing to convince the guards to let them out they head to the cities local Inn. There the get into a fight with some guards causing 2 of them to be arrested, and the other 2 to flee to the docks. From there, the prison birds escaped, and the other 2 decided to recruit all the homeless dock workers and the local crime-lord to make a revolutionary army.Dice were rolled and fights were won, and they killed the king, took over the city, then decided to leave it in control of the crime-lord. I've started making a second scenario for them, but I don't know how to keep them from doing this again. I don't want to rail-road them, but I need a way to keep them from pulling stunts like that again... Any advice on how to keep the story going, but not force it on the players? P.s. sorry if this is the wrong board, and if my question was a little vague =P

Rail roading, unfortunately is a valuable tool in a DMs toolbox, which must be used subtly. in this case you can call it an adventure closed and done with and they can roll up new characters, or go DM vs PCs and create a new more powerful revolution to dethrone the crimeboss and if the PCs swear fealty or loyalty to the crime boss, they can die off one by one. If they gripe moan and whine, remind them that in RPGs as well as life decision the characters make will have consequences. Not everyone in the realm is going to want that kind of social element on the throne.

The process of railroading is sometimes necessary. I remember the one 4e game I dm'd I had the party try to steal a kings crown. He was a corrupt sorcceror king though and nearly killed two of them before they leapt upon a magic disk and floated down, with lightning scorching their backsides. scared the daylights out of them cause they assumed they were invincible because they were PC's.

Well my idea for their next adventure takes them to a town ruled over by a powerful wizard, I'm also adding two more friends into the campaign by making them the wizards sons. what would be the most subtle way to rail-road them in to the quest, with out the wizard having to kill them, or horribly horribly maim them?

is the wizard-king the quest giver?

why cant he do it if he is so powerful?
promised rewards are ___?
is there any way to play on their morality?

Yea the wizard is the quest giver, he needs the adventurers to slay a young green dragon and take some scales, claws, teeth and saliva from it for powerful alchemical ingredients he needs. the rewards are around 1000gp, 500gp in gems, some potions, and some magic items. I guess he could smite them, but I prefer my Pc's alive for the quest. and I'm not sure how to play on their moralities, they're all neutral or chaotic neutral.

If there are religious characters the wizard, perhaps, could offer to have their weapons/armour blessed (2nd DM guide). Or alternatley the Dragon could send minions to attack them at some point, believing that they are allied with the wizard (although they might not be). This then opens the option for you to reverse the quest, have the PCs seek out the Dragon and make peace with it in a skill challenge and then go back and slay the wizard instead, bringing his staff back to the dragon as proof (and getting some magic items/potions from the Wizard's vaults).

I could do that, but the two people I'm adding to the campaign are the wizards sons, They wouldn't be willing to kill their own father. It would start some player vs Player thing.
:-/