Greedy Players? No Roleplaying?

DJ_draken07 · Feb 12, 2009

I Know this may sound weird but How can I stop greedy players and make Role Playing be more Effective to them?

Only thing they wanna do is Kill and Loot.. Thats it...

Its kind of annoying

Any Suggestions?

kk14 · Feb 12, 2009

Introduce more storyline roleplaying, or situations which require pure role-playing to navigate and escape.

My GM started a new campaign, and the first thing he told us was that we each needed to know 2 of the other characters. We spent roughly an hour figuring out who knew who and fitting it into our respective backstories.

Are any of them good-aligned? Warn them, and then set up situations in which they have to act according to their alignments or character story instead of looting and killing. If they loot and kill, move them to evil, or neutral (hopefully this won't happen, especially if you warn them), and deny clerics and druids spells, make paladins and monks fall etc.
Note: that is quite extreme, and it hopefully won't go that far if you warn them about upcoming dilemmas first.

After a few encounters like this it becomes the routine to act/play in character.

A simple start line can be getting them to explain their character's actions and motivations at the the end of every few sessions.

Mostly, just make character depth etc. important to the game. Maybe someone will earn roleplaying XP (that's always a good incentive). The others will quickly follow suit.

SolosAddie · Feb 12, 2009

First off, it's as much their game as yours, so if they're really having fun hacking and slashing, i'd say that needs to be a big part of the campaign for the group.

1)On the other hand, can you level with your group, discuss with the a major part of the game they're missing out on that you want them to look at.

2) Start including some challenges that can't be killed. Puzzle traps, mazes, you get the idea.

3) Start rewarding, players for role-playing, announce straight xp awards at the end of sessions to the best roleplayer, have in-game results (good and bad) according to actions they take (if they turn over the bandit chief, he'll end up reforming and giving them x info/stuff, if they just brutally slaughter everyone, more enemies are formed or something).

4) include cursed items, some of my current party members were a bit to hasty in looting some items, and now labor under a creative (and powerful) curse

hopefully this all helps. good luck

moritheil · Feb 12, 2009

I totally sympathize with this. However, what I have learned is that it's far easier to find the kind of people who want to play your kind of game than it is to try to change the first people you find into the kind you want.

Now I know that you might not have a choice: these could be your friends and relatives, and you might be forced to game with them. However, if you do have a choice, strongly consider finding players devoted to roleplay if that's the kind of game you want to run.

frankthedm · Feb 12, 2009

DJ_draken07 said:
I Know this may sound weird but How can I stop greedy players and make Role Playing be more Effective to them?

Only thing they wanna do is Kill and Loot.. Thats it...

Its kind of annoying

Any Suggestions?

Some people want to play D&D as a game of Murder, Magic and Money through a flowchart disguised as stone rooms and 10' foot corridors. If all they want to do is kill and loot, I'd say start the the session off at the dungeon entrance. After they clear the dungeon, just ask for their shopping lists and afterwards put them at the next dungeon entrance with a brief description of the overland travel if random encounters were not an issue.

D&D does not have to be run as a hack and slay fest, but some folks want just that.

Shin Okada · Feb 12, 2009

Well, while this is a 3.Xe forum, I suggest you to get and read 4e DMG. Maybe you can just borrow it from someone, as all you need to read is first 2 sections of it.

RPGs, including DnD, have many aspects. And each people have their own tastes. And yet, there are possibilities that people with different appetite can play around the same table and have fun... or not. It really depends on each play groups. But 4e DMG has really good suggestions for such an issue.

Kask · Feb 16, 2009

DJ_draken07 said:
Only thing they wanna do is Kill and Loot.. Thats it... Any Suggestions?

What do they do when they have to interact with NPCs in order to solve a mystery?

Ogrork the Mighty · Feb 16, 2009

The whole loot and kill thing is nothing new but is becoming more commonplace with the popularity of games like Diablo and World of Warcraft. It shouldn't come as a surprise that players familiar with those games want to import the "loot and sell" aspects to D&D.

If you're okay with that, no problem. I was fine with it for a while but eventually I got sick of the players tracking every bit of equipment (mundane or magical) so they could sell it all back in town. Eventually it starting lessening the "heroic" aspect of the game and turned it into an exercise in accounting.

I strongly encourage you to discuss your expectations and theirs upfront. Let them know what you do/don't want the game to become.

In my game I've flat out told the players they can only take what they're going to use when it comes to mundane items (non-magical weapons, equipment, etc.). There's no hoarding stuff to sell back in town. If they really insisted on doing that, I'd give them market value for the first item and then the price would drop off very steeply after that ("What do I need another oak door for? You already sold me three!"). Magic items I let them keep for resale.

This has dramatically cut down on the WoW looting/resale aspect of the game, which IMO is a good thing.

irdeggman · Feb 16, 2009

Here is a suggestion I gave in another thread which I think may help.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/4662511-post30.html

Also the "story award" for initial character development (look up on the posts).

green slime · Feb 18, 2009

Well, I write up a list of story rewards pertinent to each PC and their background.

So for the guy playing an ex-slave, ex-pirate captain on the run, I make list of pirate related XP rewards that his character will recieve if he achieves any of those things, and add in a few more for good measure so for instance:

Goal-------------XP reward ------ influence* -------- reputation
Free slaves------1 xp / slave ----- +1 /event--------- (+1)
Captain a ship--- lvl*100 --------- +1 ---------------- (+1)
Captain a Fleet-- lvl*10 / ship ---- +1 --------------- (+1/ship)
Join pirate crew-- lvl*10 xp ------- -1 ---------------- (+1)
Captain pirates-- lvl*100 --------- -2 ----------------- (+1)
Find Fiancee----- lvl*100 --------- - ------------------ (+1)
Kill X ....

This helps the player visualise how important certain events/characters are in their lives: it directly affects their level, their standing in the community in which they live (influence), and any organisation they are part of (reputation). In the above case, the player first has to join a ship's crew before gaining reputation.

Additonally, the player may get inspired and provide input and feedback for more goals and challenges that he feels he'd like to achieve.

It all makes for a more interesting game than Room-Orc-Pie.