Jade_Tarem
2007-02-21, 03:45 AM
No, it's not a thread about substance abuse :smallamused:.
I have a problem in my campaign, having to do with the preferances of my players in terms of roleplaying vs. combat. A little bit of background explanation is needed, though.
For the longest time, on the occasions that I DM'd, it was for a group in my hometown that was, so to speak, a little light on roleplaying. "Yeah, yeah, let's kill stuff." Was only halfway a joke in this group. After moving to college I now DM more consistantly, and for a much smaller group (small enough that we have to gestalt to create a full party and run a module if someone doesn't show up). The campaign that I created had some of the most extensive alterations and histories that I had ever made to the standard DnD ruleset and through either luck or inspiration I managed to balace the changes beautifully. It also helps that the party has no primary casters in it, in terms of keeping a lid on radical actions.
The basic gist is that of a military campaign, where animals and some plants, and all monsters, have the basic intelligence equivalent to humans and the other "civilized" races. The details are best left to a homebrew thread but, due to a prophecy, the civilized races, the forces of nature, and the monster races are now bound into a three-way battle for racial supremacy (Outsiders are out - the only appearances made by any such will be as mercenaries or special agents of factions not related to the war). The winning group gets to be the dominant force on the world for the next 1000 years (it's cyclic).
But back to the problem: going into the campaign the newly reduced party and I got a "feel" for one another and we could actually, truly do some reasonable roleplaying (the party actually makes decisions not to kill stuff sometimes - I was nearly knocked flat the first time it happened) and are willing to make intelligent decisions, in character decisions, that allowed me to craft a more interesting plot than normal. This sounds wonderful right? It kinda is - twice now I've run a sort of "mystery thriller" module in the context of a Military Police action, and more or less removed them from the big battles by means of making them a special operations unit. One thing that I noticed when running the last session though - they become bored, easily bored, with protracted combat. Even with combat with a good bit of flavor added in, the players seemed fairly listless. The attitude was not "Oh noes! Zombies breaking through the wall!" but rather, "geez, how long is this gonna go on?" Considering that one player almost wet himself on a vague threat from an unknown wizard during one of the "mystery" mods, I would think large-scale undead attack would be slightly more disturbing, but there it is. I don't, I really don't, think that my "atmosphere" for the battle in question was done with any less forethought than the modules. I think that the players here at college are just tired of the mechanics-play. They've built up a tolerance and rolling the dice to bump the ugly is no longer the kick it once was, or any kick at all.
It didn't bother me that much until I had the Realization. It was a realization similar to what Bond must go through every time he finds out that the girl he just had sex with is actually a communist spy hell-bent on the destruction of the free world, or what that guy in Minority Report experienced when he realized that the precog system was fundamentally flawed, right before his boss shot him.
This is a military campaign.
The modules are fun, but the main plot centers on the action between the three factions, and while diplomacy is an issue I can't keep the PC's from participating in battles much larger and longer than the one that nearly put them to sleep. I think I sorta have a fix, but I'm now unsure. So now I ask for help.
1. I have access, at least for the moment, to Heroes of Battle.
2. The PC's (a barbarian, a sniper-type ranger, and a demo-type rogue) all belong to a special ops unit (Unit 20) of an army in the base race faction (the KSA). This unit, at the moment, also includes an awakened wolf druid, an elven wizard, and a half-elven bard, all NPC's.
3. I have created, currently, two additional adventures that will take them away from the main combat. After that, there's going to be an Azure-City type siege for them to defend against. This will involve a large battle, but it may not need to be an endless stream of attack rolls. After that, there will be an equally large battle in an almost reversed situation (the PCs are not yet to the level where what they do fundamentally alters the timeline.)
4. Currently, they're in a situation where they're in the middle of an overrun city, trying to get people out (the wizard is split off from the main group). This will need to feature a large number of rolls. I at least need to get them out of there without looking like I'm rushing them out.
5. I don't think any of them read these forums.
6. Paladin is, at the moment, banned for PCs and unlikely for NPCs.
My current and only fix that I can think of is to make future missions, fights, and battles heavily objective based, with the fighting treated as more of an obstacle than an actual combat. I can't tell how well that would work, and would appreciate feedback. I'm welcome to any suggestion, really, which is why the constraints are appropriately vague. I'll take any help I can get.
Thanks.
I have a problem in my campaign, having to do with the preferances of my players in terms of roleplaying vs. combat. A little bit of background explanation is needed, though.
For the longest time, on the occasions that I DM'd, it was for a group in my hometown that was, so to speak, a little light on roleplaying. "Yeah, yeah, let's kill stuff." Was only halfway a joke in this group. After moving to college I now DM more consistantly, and for a much smaller group (small enough that we have to gestalt to create a full party and run a module if someone doesn't show up). The campaign that I created had some of the most extensive alterations and histories that I had ever made to the standard DnD ruleset and through either luck or inspiration I managed to balace the changes beautifully. It also helps that the party has no primary casters in it, in terms of keeping a lid on radical actions.
The basic gist is that of a military campaign, where animals and some plants, and all monsters, have the basic intelligence equivalent to humans and the other "civilized" races. The details are best left to a homebrew thread but, due to a prophecy, the civilized races, the forces of nature, and the monster races are now bound into a three-way battle for racial supremacy (Outsiders are out - the only appearances made by any such will be as mercenaries or special agents of factions not related to the war). The winning group gets to be the dominant force on the world for the next 1000 years (it's cyclic).
But back to the problem: going into the campaign the newly reduced party and I got a "feel" for one another and we could actually, truly do some reasonable roleplaying (the party actually makes decisions not to kill stuff sometimes - I was nearly knocked flat the first time it happened) and are willing to make intelligent decisions, in character decisions, that allowed me to craft a more interesting plot than normal. This sounds wonderful right? It kinda is - twice now I've run a sort of "mystery thriller" module in the context of a Military Police action, and more or less removed them from the big battles by means of making them a special operations unit. One thing that I noticed when running the last session though - they become bored, easily bored, with protracted combat. Even with combat with a good bit of flavor added in, the players seemed fairly listless. The attitude was not "Oh noes! Zombies breaking through the wall!" but rather, "geez, how long is this gonna go on?" Considering that one player almost wet himself on a vague threat from an unknown wizard during one of the "mystery" mods, I would think large-scale undead attack would be slightly more disturbing, but there it is. I don't, I really don't, think that my "atmosphere" for the battle in question was done with any less forethought than the modules. I think that the players here at college are just tired of the mechanics-play. They've built up a tolerance and rolling the dice to bump the ugly is no longer the kick it once was, or any kick at all.
It didn't bother me that much until I had the Realization. It was a realization similar to what Bond must go through every time he finds out that the girl he just had sex with is actually a communist spy hell-bent on the destruction of the free world, or what that guy in Minority Report experienced when he realized that the precog system was fundamentally flawed, right before his boss shot him.
This is a military campaign.
The modules are fun, but the main plot centers on the action between the three factions, and while diplomacy is an issue I can't keep the PC's from participating in battles much larger and longer than the one that nearly put them to sleep. I think I sorta have a fix, but I'm now unsure. So now I ask for help.
1. I have access, at least for the moment, to Heroes of Battle.
2. The PC's (a barbarian, a sniper-type ranger, and a demo-type rogue) all belong to a special ops unit (Unit 20) of an army in the base race faction (the KSA). This unit, at the moment, also includes an awakened wolf druid, an elven wizard, and a half-elven bard, all NPC's.
3. I have created, currently, two additional adventures that will take them away from the main combat. After that, there's going to be an Azure-City type siege for them to defend against. This will involve a large battle, but it may not need to be an endless stream of attack rolls. After that, there will be an equally large battle in an almost reversed situation (the PCs are not yet to the level where what they do fundamentally alters the timeline.)
4. Currently, they're in a situation where they're in the middle of an overrun city, trying to get people out (the wizard is split off from the main group). This will need to feature a large number of rolls. I at least need to get them out of there without looking like I'm rushing them out.
5. I don't think any of them read these forums.
6. Paladin is, at the moment, banned for PCs and unlikely for NPCs.
My current and only fix that I can think of is to make future missions, fights, and battles heavily objective based, with the fighting treated as more of an obstacle than an actual combat. I can't tell how well that would work, and would appreciate feedback. I'm welcome to any suggestion, really, which is why the constraints are appropriately vague. I'll take any help I can get.
Thanks.