HunterOfJello
2011-08-23, 01:02 PM
People seem to avoid the threads I've made that have too much text in them so I'll put the full information in a spoiler and the TLDR out in the open.
I've been DMing a gestalt tabletop Eberron game of 3.5e for over a year now and the players have gotten their characters almost to level 12. The focus on the game has been mainly on dungeon crawls, short adventures, monster hunting, two long modules, and some roleplaying in between.
I enjoy DMing for dungeon crawls, roleplaying, and for fights in all sorts of different settings. However, the two players now want to take some land that they were awarded by the King of Breland and turn it into a base for creating an army to stage a long series of battles in order to conquer Droam and/or Breland. They're both highly enthusiastic about the idea too. More enthusiastic about it than any of the last few adventures we've run.
There's just one small problem with this development. I have absolutely no desire to DM a large scale battle game, don't enjoy wargames anywhere near as much as they do, and don't think I can properly DM a game like this. The two of them enjoy playing week long games of Risk and months long games of Rome Total War, but I get bored playing Starcraft matches that last longer than 20 minutes.
I had a problem in the past of railroading the game and being too restrictive because I'm still working on becoming a better DM, but I think I've made a lot of progress on fixing that. I do my best to go along with whatever the PCs want to do while maintaining verisimilitude in the game world.
A few examples in my defense and by way of explanation:
The PCs decide to kill everyone in the town instead of just the werewolves hiding in it? Alright, all of the towns people fight tooth and mail for their survival, they hide their children in cellars and all 30 of them attack the PCs with pitchforks and old weapons from the Last War. A number of people are seen running out of town and return several rounds later with a large pack of werewolves.
The PCs are invited to meet the King of Breland and are considering killing him upon meeting him. They are summoned to The Citadel and enter into the courtyard that is filled with men who are well armed in full plate or chainmail practicing with well crafted weapons and keeping watch over the inside and outside of the area. Knowledge Check? "You don't know many details about the men who work as soldiers inside the Citadel." Sense Motive and Martial Lore? "Many of the men seem to be on an slightly lesser level than your own prowess with a blade. Some of the older men have the appearance of grizzled war veterans. Some of the older men seem like they would provide a fair fight in a duel. One of the older men in full plate walks towards a practice dummy and executes a Bonecrusher maneuver."
I wasn't trying to railroad in the second example, merely provide an accurate description of the strength of the melee npcs in the courtyard based on the description of their strength from the Five Nations book slightly modified by adding in Tome of Battle by changing one of the paladins to a crusader. The PCs changed their mind about the combat strength of the npcs in the area, but received appropriate information based on the results of their skill checks in my opinion.
Anyway, I'm not too sure about what to do right now. I had been planning on introducing 1 to 2 of the Elder Evils from the book of the same name and have already introduced information on Zargon the Returner. The players have very little desire to go destroy a powerful aberration and pillage the ancient city he was trapped beneath now though. They seem to want to turn the game into a wargame using Heroes of Battle rules, but I really don't want to start doing that stuff.
I suggested starting off a new game and running the Kingmaker adventure path modified for 3.5e if they were interested in playing a sandbox game based around building a kingdom, conquering others, and becoming rulers, but they hate the idea of switching to low level characters after achieving level 11 gestalt. Kingmaker I could deal with, but this stuff just looks like it's going to be a ton of work to start playing a game type that I have no interest in playing.
I mentioned to one player that I really have no interest in playing a game type like that and was accused of being too restrictive as a DM. I'd like to avoid being the DM that just shuts players down or railroads them, but I think that will happen anyway if I maintain verisimilitude since both Breland and Droam still have powerful armies at the point in time the campaign is set in. Choosing to not let the players play the game type they want by shutting them down seems like a **** move, but incidentally shutting them down by having the armies of the world act appropriately to the new threat they may present seems like a **** move too if that's the game type that they're interested in.
What do you guys suggest that I do?
TL;DR: I DM a level 11 gestalt game. The two players have a strong desire to turn the game into a large scale wargame instead of adventures and dungeon crawls. I have absolutely no desire to DM a d&d wargame. What should I do?
I've been DMing a gestalt tabletop Eberron game of 3.5e for over a year now and the players have gotten their characters almost to level 12. The focus on the game has been mainly on dungeon crawls, short adventures, monster hunting, two long modules, and some roleplaying in between.
I enjoy DMing for dungeon crawls, roleplaying, and for fights in all sorts of different settings. However, the two players now want to take some land that they were awarded by the King of Breland and turn it into a base for creating an army to stage a long series of battles in order to conquer Droam and/or Breland. They're both highly enthusiastic about the idea too. More enthusiastic about it than any of the last few adventures we've run.
There's just one small problem with this development. I have absolutely no desire to DM a large scale battle game, don't enjoy wargames anywhere near as much as they do, and don't think I can properly DM a game like this. The two of them enjoy playing week long games of Risk and months long games of Rome Total War, but I get bored playing Starcraft matches that last longer than 20 minutes.
I had a problem in the past of railroading the game and being too restrictive because I'm still working on becoming a better DM, but I think I've made a lot of progress on fixing that. I do my best to go along with whatever the PCs want to do while maintaining verisimilitude in the game world.
A few examples in my defense and by way of explanation:
The PCs decide to kill everyone in the town instead of just the werewolves hiding in it? Alright, all of the towns people fight tooth and mail for their survival, they hide their children in cellars and all 30 of them attack the PCs with pitchforks and old weapons from the Last War. A number of people are seen running out of town and return several rounds later with a large pack of werewolves.
The PCs are invited to meet the King of Breland and are considering killing him upon meeting him. They are summoned to The Citadel and enter into the courtyard that is filled with men who are well armed in full plate or chainmail practicing with well crafted weapons and keeping watch over the inside and outside of the area. Knowledge Check? "You don't know many details about the men who work as soldiers inside the Citadel." Sense Motive and Martial Lore? "Many of the men seem to be on an slightly lesser level than your own prowess with a blade. Some of the older men have the appearance of grizzled war veterans. Some of the older men seem like they would provide a fair fight in a duel. One of the older men in full plate walks towards a practice dummy and executes a Bonecrusher maneuver."
I wasn't trying to railroad in the second example, merely provide an accurate description of the strength of the melee npcs in the courtyard based on the description of their strength from the Five Nations book slightly modified by adding in Tome of Battle by changing one of the paladins to a crusader. The PCs changed their mind about the combat strength of the npcs in the area, but received appropriate information based on the results of their skill checks in my opinion.
Anyway, I'm not too sure about what to do right now. I had been planning on introducing 1 to 2 of the Elder Evils from the book of the same name and have already introduced information on Zargon the Returner. The players have very little desire to go destroy a powerful aberration and pillage the ancient city he was trapped beneath now though. They seem to want to turn the game into a wargame using Heroes of Battle rules, but I really don't want to start doing that stuff.
I suggested starting off a new game and running the Kingmaker adventure path modified for 3.5e if they were interested in playing a sandbox game based around building a kingdom, conquering others, and becoming rulers, but they hate the idea of switching to low level characters after achieving level 11 gestalt. Kingmaker I could deal with, but this stuff just looks like it's going to be a ton of work to start playing a game type that I have no interest in playing.
I mentioned to one player that I really have no interest in playing a game type like that and was accused of being too restrictive as a DM. I'd like to avoid being the DM that just shuts players down or railroads them, but I think that will happen anyway if I maintain verisimilitude since both Breland and Droam still have powerful armies at the point in time the campaign is set in. Choosing to not let the players play the game type they want by shutting them down seems like a **** move, but incidentally shutting them down by having the armies of the world act appropriately to the new threat they may present seems like a **** move too if that's the game type that they're interested in.
What do you guys suggest that I do?
TL;DR: I DM a level 11 gestalt game. The two players have a strong desire to turn the game into a large scale wargame instead of adventures and dungeon crawls. I have absolutely no desire to DM a d&d wargame. What should I do?