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Post by Scott on Jul 2, 2023 8:16:52 GMT -5
This is why I suck role playing NPCs. Here's an example of how every encounter plays out. Doug was exploring the upper (close to the surface) levels of Greyhawk Dungeon. Some bandits scouts had spotted the party and had prepared for their arrival. The party reached the bandit lair and pushed the door open. No surprise, but the party saw 10 armed men arrayed as if they were expecting them. One of themen greeted the party, "Greetings adventurers. This doesn't have to get messy. Drop your weapons."
Doug, "Can I see a spellcaster?"
Me: 'No."
Doug, "Game on! Maylin tosses his brass trolls (figurines of wondrous power) and Ronan will cast hold person..."
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Post by GRWelsh on Jul 2, 2023 10:42:02 GMT -5
I don't think it is your role playing -- I think it is the expectation that comes from a certain style of play. My players are the same way and I call it the "attack on sight" mentality. As soon as they feel the slightest bit threatened they attack. This makes it very difficult to have any sort of cinematic dialogues -- even with neutral sorts. I also don't think my player characters would ever surrender or throw their weapons down. They're more likely to fight to the death or to unconsciousness.
I had a similar situation with the party going through a narrow pass in the Stark Mounds. They could see the bandits on each side set up for an ambush, and the bandit leader started talking and was going to let them go past since it looked like a tough fight. So I started role playing the conversation, but the players simply charged and attacked.
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Post by geneweigel on Jul 2, 2023 14:49:03 GMT -5
Its like training a dog, it has to pay off. If players never get a peaceful pay off then its a pointless risk. You have to introduce them to civilized NPCs who foreshadow wilderness NPCs. "There is a hermit who wanders the north woods who is a healer..." etc.
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Post by Scott on Jul 2, 2023 16:12:51 GMT -5
I don't think it is your role playing… LOL, I didn’t mean it was my role playing. I meant with players like these I get very little practice role playing. |
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Post by GRWelsh on Jul 3, 2023 13:29:09 GMT -5
It's built into the AD&D system to reward certain behaviors over others since the game is XP driven and the way to maximum XP is to defeat monsters and get the treasure. There aren't any in-game rewards for peaceful resolution of conflict. So, just looking at the system alone it somewhat trains players to favor fighting over not-fighting/talking/role-playing. I agree with Gene in that you need to retrain your players, or as I would say it reset their expectations. Generally speaking, peaceful negotiation to resolution is best when conflict is clearly the worse option. If you drop hints to the players that an upcoming encounter is more than they can handle with pure force, they will probably get creative with other options like role-playing or sneaking. Still, players will generally find it merely acceptable to role-play to get out of a fight they cannot win, and not a success if they miss out on the treasure. I'm often trying to think of ways to make the role-playing more valuable, and a lot of times that is about getting important information. One of my favorite fantasy scenes is Bilbo talking to the dragon Smaug... Bilbo doesn't really have any other options than to talk since Smaug is too powerful, and Smaug doesn't really have any other options than to talk since he isn't sure where Bilbo is. Yet both are motivated to talk since each wants to find out information from the other.
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Post by geneweigel on Jul 4, 2023 9:54:54 GMT -5
In the early 2000's I was retraining players to act the way original players acted by not assuming that everything is lethal but finding out whether or not it is and avoiding. Which applies to NPCs, the environs, etc. Except in perhaps public civilized spaces out in the open but even then be aware of shapechangers and thieves.
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