Am I a Mean DM?

[ptolemy18]

But that shouldn't really take very long.
And if it somehow does, that in itself implies that gathering the information was doing something important. If it wasn't important, then why did you wast time actually playing that out?

Everything's "important." I prefer to do things as encounters ("You go to the temple. The priests let you in and you see an old wizened woman with one arm. "What may I help you with?" she croaks.") rather than summaries ("You ask the priests at the temple and they tell you that there are goblins to the north.")

Of course, sometimes I do summaries... like "Okay, you spend a few hours picking peoples' pockets and make 5 gp." But I like to mix it up and make it unclear who's an important NPC and who's just some random schmoe I made up on the spot.

Jason

 

[arscott]

Not sure why nobody's pointed this out yet, but with an eight person party, I'd expect them to still be at 2nd after 13 sessions.

 

[reanjr]

Why the hell are you still carrying around 4 NPCs?

No kidding. NPCs in my games (those that were once PCs) have an extraordinarily high mortality rate. It's absolutely amazing. They make valient last stands, sacrifices, and mistakes like they are going out of style.

 

[reanjr]

ANYHOW: how many encounters do people think should there be in the average 3 hour session?

Combat encounters? 1 at most. I shoot for two in a 6 hour session but sometimes can't fit them in.

 

[Psychic Warrior]

No kidding. NPCs in my games (those that were once PCs) have an extraordinarily high mortality rate. It's absolutely amazing. They make valient last stands, sacrifices, and mistakes like they are going out of style.

You too??!! Isn't that a coincidence! former PCs drop like flies in my campaigns too.

That's problably the biggest mistake made here. Once it was obvious that the players weren't comign back (especially the guy who dropped out after a couple of sessions) the former PCs should have been 'dropped' too. From great heights if need be.

Otherwise, while I personally would have gone out of my way to have the NPCs show up at the fight (remember even if they are beign run by a player you can still control them), it really isn't that big of a deal. Just have the guy run the other character (he'll probably like the change of only having a single character) and start bumoing off the NPCs in the final showdown.

 

[NTZ]

That's problably the biggest mistake made here. Once it was obvious that the players weren't comign back (especially the guy who dropped out after a couple of sessions) the former PCs should have been 'dropped' too. From great heights if need be.

I agree. When I play or dm I don't like having too many NPCs hanging around with the group. As a player, I don't want to run someone elses character. One is enough for me.

On the topic of 'how many encounters per 3 hours'. - a lot depends on the party level and how many players there are. My guess for a 2nd level party of 4 would be about 3 combat encounters in 3 hours. But that depends on the style of play.

At higher levels I have seen one combat encounter take over 3 hours. The options at 15th level really take a toll on game time.

NTZ