D&D 5E DMs: How do you handle purely combat-focused groups?

[Joddy37]

I recently begin to experience the dillemma of a DM that ended up with a lot of adventure material and role playing hooks, interesting scenes and colorful NPCs due to a group who are totally ignoring all this stuff and trying to find and kill the bad guys (that means those whoever is evil by race stereotype) and hurry the adventure towards the final goal. Too many times they just blundered into enemies, ran them through, killing nearly all those they captured, hiding behind the dull concept of ''we are good, they are evil, so we kill them''. Until now, because some of them are new to role playing games and coming from MMORPGs, I let them do whatever they like, but changed the development of the scenario according to the results of their actions. These results mostly include the bad guys changing tactics, relocating, scheming different plots, NPCs acting differently and following new agendas etc.. But although I worked hard to steer the PCs to a more exploration-interaction oriented play, they just dismmised my hints and advices, continuing the same stuff of doing things with the blade. Until now they were very lucky in the combat scenes, noone died because of their carelessness, they have abundant healing abilities (which I find way too much in this edition). But they were very slow to progress through the adventure (it is the Starter Set), since they were unable to get enough information from any source. Now I wonder, what can be done to make them see that there is a whole different part of the game, to make them think combat is not the only way to solve issues? Any ideas?

 

[BigVanVader]

If they think this is what gaming is, trying to change their minds in the game world isn't going to do anything. There's a disconnect there, they aren't thinking of this as a world they're living in, they're thinking of this as a game they're playing.

Really, just talking to them about it personally, and explaining what you feel the game is, that would probably do a lot more good.

On the other hand, it would be really funny if you threw a Balrog on a skateboard after them or something. Have it wear a hat backwards and talk about Gogurt and Nirvana while it's tearing their heads off.

Actually, please do the other thing. Screw talking to them, I want to see a skateboarding Balrog.

 

[Paraxis]

I have found that players like most people respond to carrots and sticks, if you want to change the behavior change the rewards. Right now your players don't see any reward for all the social and exploration aspects of the game, they know if they kill things they get XP and gold, so thats what they want to do.

Tell them flat out you will reward them full value for encounters they avoid through diplomacy and subterfuge, and only half as much for defeating them in combat. Explain that whatever gold or items that might be on the monsters will pale in comparison to the rewards that the npc's will give them if handled without bloodshed. Traps that are defeated with thought and creative thinking equal full XP, traps defeated with just a brief description and a toss of the die, only half XP.

If they still don't change, break out the stick. Make the combat scenes even more deadly than they are, slowly at first then ever so greatly till they understand that violence will lead to death. In Warhammer Fantasy 2nd edition this was the standard, all combat was super deadly so you wanted to avoid it at all costs.

The other issue is have a talk with your players, they seem to want a kick down the door kill the monster style beer and pretzel game, and you want an in depth long lasting deep role playing experience.

 

[FireLance]

It seems like there is a potential market for a series of adventures for combat-focused groups: "Kill Them and Take Their Stuff".

The first module could be a remake of the classic adventure, Orc and Pie.

Possible follow-ups could be: Gnoll and Gnocchi, Bullywug and Bourbon, and Sahuagin and Sushi.

 

[wedgeski]

I'm going to cut through it and give you my take on situations like these: just give them what they want! The killing of the things and the taking of the stuff is what they want, so give them tons of things to kill, and loads of stuff to take.

If this is not what you want out the game, then you might need to consider a fundamental change of system (or even group, although I rarely advocate letting go of a group once you've got one). Trying to change their play-style in-game, on the assumption that they don't "get" TRPG's (which in itself can be a dangerously ego-driven thing to believe), is probably not going to work, carrots, sticks, or whatever.

They're having fun. They're probably not going to appreciate being told that their fun is incorrect.

 

[ExploderWizard]

They're having fun. They're probably not going to appreciate being told that their fun is incorrect.

This will only work if the DM will have fun running that sort of game. If not, then the DM will soon tire of preparing and running a game that isn't fun for him/her. The players fun that comes at the expense of the DM's will be short lived. Life is too short to spend preparing and running games that you aren't enjoying.

It is very odd that the players' fun is something that shouldn't be interfered with but the DM, who has to put more effort into whole thing is supposed to just do whatever regardless of their own enjoyment.

 

[was]

Betrayal is a good motivator for getting players more focused on the role-playing aspects of the game. Players not interested in the details can be misled by devious bad guys into working for them/furthering their goals.

 

[The_Gneech]

Talk to them about it. If that doesn't work, run the 1E Tomb of Horrors. Let 'em hack and slash their way through that.

-The Gneech

 

[wedgeski]

This will only work if the DM will have fun running that sort of game. If not, then the DM will soon tire of preparing and running a game that isn't fun for him/her. The players fun that comes at the expense of the DM's will be short lived. Life is too short to spend preparing and running games that you aren't enjoying.

Perhaps you didn't read the second paragraph of my post? If a "players come first" approach to DM'ing isn't for him, he should think about fundamental changes.

It is very odd that the players' fun is something that shouldn't be interfered with but the DM, who has to put more effort into whole thing is supposed to just do whatever regardless of their own enjoyment.

Ideally, both sides of the screen should be having a great time. The DM should want his players to be having fun, and the players should want their DM to be having fun. This is all so obvious that even saying it out loud sounds ridiculous.

Meanwhile in the real world, where finding games is often difficult and compromises need to be made, you can have a very good game where the DM isn't at maximum fun, as long as the players are having a blast. In my (long) experience, the same simply cannot be said in reverse.

 

[KarinsDad]

This will only work if the DM will have fun running that sort of game. If not, then the DM will soon tire of preparing and running a game that isn't fun for him/her. The players fun that comes at the expense of the DM's will be short lived. Life is too short to spend preparing and running games that you aren't enjoying.

It is very odd that the players' fun is something that shouldn't be interfered with but the DM, who has to put more effort into whole thing is supposed to just do whatever regardless of their own enjoyment.

Although I agree with this to some extent, I do feel that if the players are having fun, then the DM shouldn't try to browbeat them into a game where their expectations are not being met.

I think that one simple solution for 5E comes from Inspirations.


Personally, I would suggest that the OP be patient and gradually add in the elements that he wants. Many of us started out playing D&D a long time ago when a lot of the roleplaying stuff was strong at some tables and was weak at others, mostly because there was no Internet, Dragon magazine was one of the few ways to get good new ideas, and most of the direction on how to play the game came from the DM. That is no longer the case. Now, a large part of society has been raised to view "kill it and take its stuff" as pretty much the norm for computer games. It takes time to introduce different roleplaying concepts to people who have been taught this view.

The DM should discuss it with his players, but not only that, he should hand out Inspirations for when the players solve problems less with hack and slash and more with other solutions.

Carrot. No stick. No need for a stick.

If the OP really wants his game to go into this direction, he should actually start getting satisfaction when it starts going that way. And that should be more fun for him. The way to get it to go that way is a) patience, b) carrots, and c) a lot of combat too since combat is something the players obviously enjoy. Balance. Some exploration, some roleplaying, some problem solving with combat, some problem solving in other ways.