D&D 5E Gaming session lessons: why moving slow is important all the time, and the kid learns kiting

[FormerlyHemlock]

What you won't see is a ton of time spent on poking and prodding, planning debates (we use "Yes, and..." improvisational techniques to avoid debates), unreasonable failure mitigation, or checking off all the boxes on a rote "standard operating procedure."

I see SOP as more of a PC thing than a player thing. PCs have a huge motivation to study military tactics, coordinate with fellow PCs, etc. Players might just want to skip to the next encounter, but why wouldn't PCs be planning tactics and SOP during their travels together? I would expect it to be a big topic of conversation during short rests.

TLDR; the tactical randomness displayed by players IME (especially in large groups) is baffling. Maybe it's just my area though. (Last session I played, six of seven PCs ate a 20d6 fireball to the face when a balor died even though they KNEW we were facing Mind Flayers as well and should not bunch up ( because last time we fought these exact sane mind flayers that's how they killed three PCs before we could retreat). So the balor blew up, and then the Mind Flayers got the survivors, and we were saved by deus ex machina. Mine was the only PC not huddled around the balor when it blew. Some of the players are new but others are 20-year vets. I can't explain it.)

 

[transtemporal]

TL;DR for the thread

OP - Here's a fun story to relate from my game...
ENWorld - That's not fun, you did it wrong! How can you be such a bad DM? RAWR.

First rule of internet forums: Always arbitrarily build up or tear down the OP, regardless of whether you agree or disagree with them!

 

[iserith]

While I don't think I would mind the OP's method, your way sounds like FUN. Engaging player skill is better than die rolls for fun-factor. I also like another poster's suggestion of rolling up random encounters in advance, although I don't yet have the ability to predict what PCs will do and where they will go. (So I will probably cheat: roll up the random encounter while the players are talking to each other. That way I get at least a couple minutes to think up spoor instead of mere seconds.)

Thanks for the thread!

Thanks for the kind words! I think a fun balance between rolling up encounters in advance and doing it in the moment of the game is to design a chart of somewhat more detailed encounters rather than a chart of just monster names and number appearing. Two examples of what I mean: Cragmaw Hideout (in the spoiler block) and Barrow of the Evensong.

Of course, I do love just having a generator throw out really random stuff where I'm challenged to use my improvisational skills to figure out an interesting scene for it. Like I can use this generator, set it to 4 PCs of 3rd level and environment to "swamp" and I get 5 giant rats and a yuan-ti pureblood. Ooo-kay? Hmm. Sounds like a servant of an abomination who is out catching food when she falls into quicksand. A simple log raft upon which is a cage containing the rats is just outside her reach. "What do you do?" Seems like this could be an intriguing situation for the PCs now.

I see SOP as more of a PC thing than a player thing. PCs have a huge motivation to study military tactics, coordinate with fellow PCs, etc. Players might just want to skip to the next encounter, but why wouldn't PCs be planning tactics and SOP during their travels together? I would expect it to be a big topic of conversation during short rests.

Planning is all well and good provided it doesn't bog down the game. Debates, not so much, at least at our table. The "SOP" in my experience is an outcome of how the DM runs the game. If there are a lot of potential gotcha situations, then the players break out a procedure that can apply to almost any context so as to mitigate the chances of being gotcha'ed. I prefer the players engage with the environment in a more specific and interesting way with the certain knowledge that I will never gotcha them (not on purpose anyway, nobody's perfect). Sometimes that'll mean approaching a challenge the same as one dealt with before, but often it sees the players doing things differently which I think makes for more interesting scenes and is rewarding for players.