Lanefan
Victoria Rules
That's all part of War, truen enough; but War is also about what you're risking and how easily that risk might manifest.I find I disagree with that being the source of the mindset. Again, I've had that mindset in a game without those effects. To me, Combat as War is all about not fighting fair. Taking out a Goblin Camp by sneaking in and poisoning the soup pot instead of fighting them head-on. Luring the enemy into an ambush where two dozen crossbowmen pepper them with bolts, and the fight becomes 5 on 2 in your favor.
Where to me, knowing I can hold an enemy safely for three more rounds makes those three rounds largely Sport.I would also add, that knowing you can hold an enemy safely for three more rounds, and using that tactically to mean other things on the battlefield, can also be part of that process.
Should combat be the go-to means of solving problems? If they're not scared, or not often, then the answer will inevitably become yes. If they're scared, they'll at least look for other solutions...one hopes.It is more about the tactics you employ than whether the PCs are scared of fighting the monsters.
It would.I've rarely had people change characters if it wasn't for a new campaign. Most campaigns end within a year as well, which might have something to do with that.
A year around here is just nicely getting started.
Ah.And, I think you misunderstood what I was referring to with regards to your last paragraph. I meant plans as a GM.
For reasons such as this*, plus that I never really know what characters will be in play very far into the future, I rarely** tie long-term plotline to specific characters in this way. Short-term, yes: a specific PC gets given a mission and has to talk the rest of 'em into going along, that sort of thing; but even there if the character with the mission is the first one to die (or retire***), then what?For example, I just had a player who had to quit due to a new baby on the way. There was an antagonist I was building up, specifically because of his backstory, that the party had gotten hints of. Now that he is gone, and I told the party his character is acting to counter that villain at the moment. They have no interest in that villain. It doesn't connect to their stories, so the entire plot line is now dead.
* - my more usual reason is that the key character often dies at the very first opportunity even if that's the only death in the whole adventure!
** - exception being quests or geases, which usually need to be sorted quickly.
*** - this happened in the game I play in: one of my PCs (we had two each in this party) had good reasons to retire for a while and so I parked him in town, or so I thought; little did I know that the DM had built the next adventure completely around him. First night out of town he asks for our night-watch list and notices my guy's not on it. The following conversation went something like this:
DM: "Where is he?"
Me: "He's still in town - I told you I was retiring him."
DM: "What? I didn't hear you say that!"
Me: "I've said it three times tonight..."
DM: "Bloody hell." <to the other players> "He has to come! Go and get him!"
So the party turns around, heads back to town, and uses [Suggestion, I think] to get him to rejoin them....