Power games

[Strahd]

I will fully admit that some of this is my fault, but recently I have been haveing problems with players and power gameing. I have been playing the game for aboot 7 years and have recently tried to get the players into a more story oriented style of play. Some of the players like the idea but most of them seem to think that if they do not have a +57 everything slaying longsword, that the game could not posibaly be fun. Don't get me wrong I like a good fight as much as the next guy but I would also like to try the rest of the game. What I am getting at is this, if anyone has any suggestions on how to get my players more interested in a bit of story and not how many goblins they can kill in a minute please help me out.


Thank you in advance

 

[pogre]

One idea is to start with the villains. Make them recurring and tough to kill. Link them in some way. Make the key to defeating them - somehow knowing their background. Hack and slashers are always interested in how to kill something - before you know it they will be off investigating trying to gather information about this mysterious foe.

 

[AeroDm]

XP and death.

Players who love #s hate to die because death always makes numbers worse. When you begin awarding experience through non-combat encounters players will realize it is a way to get those numbers without risking their character. Still have really exciting and challenging combats, but because you have fewer make them even harder.

Now you have people who can get involved in the story to get their plusses to have a great time in the combat. It takes many campaigns and, for some reason, trust to work. If the players don't think this _IS_ how it is, they'll ignore your efforts. Plan to have a few campaigns not work out so hot, but stick to it and they'll turn around.

 

[Herremann the Wise]

Hi everyone,

I suppose it seems simple to me. Just have them do things that don't involve killing people or creatures. Use lots of characters that they can get things out of and then have lots of conflict between those characters - be it moral, political or whatever, just not physical.

However, this is most likely going to much towards anti-combat. I suppose what you could do then is restrict treasure and equipment that makes them more powerful to roleplaying encounters and then give them sessions here and there where they get to use their new found wares.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[hong]

I will fully admit that some of this is my fault, but recently I have been haveing problems with players and power gameing. I have been playing the game for aboot 7 years and have recently tried to get the players into a more story oriented style of play. Some of the players like the idea but most of them seem to think that if they do not have a +57 everything slaying longsword, that the game could not posibaly be fun. Don't get me wrong I like a good fight as much as the next guy but I would also like to try the rest of the game. What I am getting at is this, if anyone has any suggestions on how to get my players more interested in a bit of story and not how many goblins they can kill in a minute please help me out.


Thank you in advance

Have your stories involve healthy (or unhealthy) dollops of killing.

It's not hard.

 

[EtherHulkRending]

I went through this, it's not hard to remedy it just takes patience.

Start making combats easier. Seriously. Don't equip NPCs as well, toss more monsters with out treasure at them. and slowly start making attacks at their gear. Rust monsters, ethereal filchurs, Hamatulas and that thing from MM2 that rend armor. I mean don't make it obvious that you're gunning for gear, just do it to get rid of some of the problematic stuff.


Then, at the same time shift the focus of sessions to diplomacy, exploration, politics, etc. Get them away from hack n slash.

It will be a painful process for you as some encounters get massacred before they really begin. But adjust XP awards down for those encounters and up for the RP encounters. Make the RP situations the important focus, like convincing a mayor to elimate the aboleth in the bay that's taking people slaves, or convincing a nation to goto war. Multilayer politics are good for this, so are infiltration type things. Have the party deal with a thieves guild, have them need to infiltrate it or the like.

Plus thieves are good for assassinating PCs in their sleep and grabbing their gear.

10th level rogue with a +21 Sleight of hand and a potion of invisability will make that fighter's sword disapear right out of it's sheathe.



EHR

 

[Endur]

The next time you give a player a magic sword, tell them the name of the sword and give them a couple of paragraphs on the history of the sword, who made it, who has wielded it, etc. Don't actually tell them anything about the abilities of the sword.

Watch how it changes the game.

Then do that for all of your magic items. All of a sudden, every magic item is unique. Even the +1 longsword, because its now the Blade from the Wight's Tomb.

Never tell the players what the magic items do. Let them experiment and find out by effect. Eventually they'll realize that the Flame of the West is a more powerful sword than the blade they found in the Wight's Tomb. Put the wonder back into magic items.

I recommend doing the same for spells and monsters. Don't tell a player what spell was cast (fireball) instead describe the visual effects.

 

[Camarath]

I have been playing the game for aboot 7 years and have recently tried to get the players into a more story oriented style of play.

Two questions:
What do you mean by "story oriented style of play"?
Who is driving the "story" you or the players?

I think you can expect a fair bit of serious resistance and dissatisfaction if you try to reduce your players' power so that you can force them to follow your storyline. On the other hand if you can use the players' desires and actions to build a story you may be able to entice them into playing a game that is more focused on the story. If they like combat and loot you might try to use those as lead-ins for you story elements.