I am having a problem with my group.
I am running a 3.5 campaign set in the Forgotten Realms using the Vault of Larin Karr. It's a great module but I think its a bit too open ended for these players. Two of the players are fairly new, they have been playing for about two months, another player has been playing for about a year and the last player is a good friend of mine and has been playing for 15+ years. The party is currently 7th level with a good mix of classes.
Last night they made an excursion from the campaign by scouting the mountains to the north of the valley where they heard rumors of hobgoblins. This is something I wanted to put on the back burner for the furture but the newer players insisted on checking it out. They came across a keep set into a mountain. They saw a group of 60 hobgoblins leave the keep. They then started planning an attack on the keep without considering the possibility that they may be out matched. No one thought to scout ahead and see how many hobgoblins are in the keep (which is about 500 hardened warriors). I decided to give the a bigger hint by having a pair of Frost Giants walk by their position leading slaves to be sold. At that point, one of the players thought it would great to attack the giants. Fortunatly, they didnt, they are not ready for that fight.
The big problem is that by running an open ended campaign, the PC dont have a clue when they are outmatched. I have told them previously that somethings that they encounter may be too powerfull for them. This happed after they encountered 2 wraiths at 4th level. It was a tough fight but they won.
I am afraid that eventually they are going to bite of more than they can chew and that will be the end of the campaign. They veteren player of the group is getting tired of the indecision, poor tactics and foolhardyness of the other players. He currently going along with the others because he's sick of his ideas being shot down all the time.
Sorry about the long post but I need some advice.
Thanks
I am running a 3.5 campaign set in the Forgotten Realms using the Vault of Larin Karr. It's a great module but I think its a bit too open ended for these players. Two of the players are fairly new, they have been playing for about two months, another player has been playing for about a year and the last player is a good friend of mine and has been playing for 15+ years. The party is currently 7th level with a good mix of classes.
Last night they made an excursion from the campaign by scouting the mountains to the north of the valley where they heard rumors of hobgoblins. This is something I wanted to put on the back burner for the furture but the newer players insisted on checking it out. They came across a keep set into a mountain. They saw a group of 60 hobgoblins leave the keep. They then started planning an attack on the keep without considering the possibility that they may be out matched. No one thought to scout ahead and see how many hobgoblins are in the keep (which is about 500 hardened warriors). I decided to give the a bigger hint by having a pair of Frost Giants walk by their position leading slaves to be sold. At that point, one of the players thought it would great to attack the giants. Fortunatly, they didnt, they are not ready for that fight.
The big problem is that by running an open ended campaign, the PC dont have a clue when they are outmatched. I have told them previously that somethings that they encounter may be too powerfull for them. This happed after they encountered 2 wraiths at 4th level. It was a tough fight but they won.
I am afraid that eventually they are going to bite of more than they can chew and that will be the end of the campaign. They veteren player of the group is getting tired of the indecision, poor tactics and foolhardyness of the other players. He currently going along with the others because he's sick of his ideas being shot down all the time.
Sorry about the long post but I need some advice.
Thanks