How do I get my role-players to stop role-playing so much?

It seems that I have a problem in my current game. It's not a problem with munchkins, but rather with role-players. Last session we had a big climatic battle in which one of the characters was killed. After the battle, one of the players had to give a 20 minute long eulogy to his fallen comrade. While I normaly would encourage some role-playing, I was bored to death listening to the copious eulogy that was given. The surviving characters then forsook violence because they "had seen the tragic results of the living by the sword" and decided to devote the rest of their careers to regaining their lost humanity. Moreover one player recently had his 19th level fighter commit suicide. When asked why he had done that, he simply replied "That's what my character would do" (He had been playing a chronically depressed fighter who had been bumbed out by the death of his lover.)
It's not that I don't like role-playing, but my group has too much of it. A while back one player asked if his new character could have the vampire template. I immediately suspected munchkinism, so I asked him about it. He said he didn't want it for the vampire's cool powers, but rather he wanted the opportunity to experience an angst filled monster that is trying against hope to redeem himself and regain some measure of his lost humanity. Another player tried to argue that humanity should be a stat, and that a humanity stat was more important than strength. I'm getting a little tired of being called the "storyteller" (Dungeon Master is too much of a hack n' slash term, my players argue) How do I rid my group of their excessive role-playing?

wow.

Haven't seen a troll with this much ranks in Disguise in a while....

Well, you've pretty obviously got some folks who would rather be playing Vampire: the Masquerade. You might want to give it a look, my group had a lot of fun with the game a few years back, and I've used it more ofthen tht D&D to bring new people into the hobby (particularly women).

Anyway, if you really want them to stop roleplaying (and I assure you, this is indeed a "be careful what you wish for" situation), then just don't ever give them the chance to roleplay.

1) The Baron calls them forth and demnds silence as he outlines their mission.

2) Humanoid races are, indeed, mindless, evil automatons.

3) etc.

But I don't recommend this. RP without any action is a dull, slogging pain in the ass for a DM.

The reverse is also true, however.

24 hours of Unreal:Tournament or Doom is what yer old Dwarvish Doctor will prescribe! Let them blow away at each other with Nuke guns and they'll be cured and primed for some hacking and slashing deity-style!

Put them in meatgrinders like the Temple of Elemental Evil. Hehehe.

shadow said:

It seems that I have a problem in my current game. It's not a problem with munchkins, but rather with role-players. Last session we had a big climatic battle in which one of the characters was killed. After the battle, one of the players had to give a 20 minute long eulogy to his fallen comrade. While I normaly would encourage some role-playing, I was bored to death listening to the copious eulogy that was given. The surviving characters then forsook violence because they "had seen the tragic results of the living by the sword" and decided to devote the rest of their careers to regaining their lost humanity. Moreover one player recently had his 19th level fighter commit suicide. When asked why he had done that, he simply replied "That's what my character would do" (He had been playing a chronically depressed fighter who had been bumbed out by the death of his lover.)
It's not that I don't like role-playing, but my group has too much of it. A while back one player asked if his new character could have the vampire template. I immediately suspected munchkinism, so I asked him about it. He said he didn't want it for the vampire's cool powers, but rather he wanted the opportunity to experience an angst filled monster that is trying against hope to redeem himself and regain some measure of his lost humanity. Another player tried to argue that humanity should be a stat, and that a humanity stat was more important than strength. I'm getting a little tired of being called the "storyteller" (Dungeon Master is too much of a hack n' slash term, my players argue) How do I rid my group of their excessive role-playing?

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Once again WOW! a 20 min eulogy, thats pretty shoty!

i know many people will consider this thread a troll, but i personally would hate to play in or DM a group like this. role-play and "deep immersion storytelling" are all well and good, but like "hack-n-slash," it can be taken too far.

i prefer a more action-based game than a "talking" one. YMMV.

to the point, i don't really have any advice. it seems your players enjoy a different style of game than you. if you can't adapt to their style or they to yours, perhaps you shouldn't be gaming together?

Huh. More than a troll, I consider it a joke. I don't see it generating much hard reaction, but it is somewhat funny. In the extremely remote possibility that it is true, and also as a way of keping up the joke, I would suggest to throw a good bunch of adventures/encounters where negotiation is basically impossible.

While you're there, explain the players that vampires in D&D aren't angst-ridden creatures who struggle to cling to their humanity, but are instead bloodthirsthy monsters who don't really have anything in the humanity department except maybe the basic body shape (that's what "Always Chaotic Evil" means).

Zappo said:

(that's what "Always Chaotic Evil" means).

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Only problem is that, by the book, Always XXXXX Alignment doesn't actualy mean Always XXXXX Alignment, just Usualy XXXXX Alignment

Always != Usually

There's an entry for Usually already in the MM, Always tends to mean "more than 90-95%" rather than "Around 75%" which I take Usually to mean... I could have gotten the exact numbers wrong, actually, I probably have (the MM is on the bottom of my stack and I don't want to get it)... On that note, I hate it when certain players consistently want to be that "One-In-A-Million" humanoid/evil race PC. Once is good, twice is refreshing, but... man...