Different player types hogging the spotlight?
blargney the second
blargney the minute's son
We changed dead to mortally wounded in our games for characters with important information. It's just like the movies: the bad guy is wounded to the point where death is seconds away, and the PCs get a couple moments to grill him before he cacks it. Just make sure that they understand that there's nothing anybody can do to prevent him from dying, and he can't take any actions (just like he was dead) - he's a completely neutralized threat. It's pretty simple, really.
-blarg
-blarg
rossik
Explorer
how about a adventure with no weapons?
maybe they can be tricked by a beautifull girl, who actualy poison them (you arte the DM, they dont have to know that you dont roll for resistence
) and they fall sleep.
then, they wake as prisioners/gladiators or just plain naked in the street.
or something like that
maybe they can be tricked by a beautifull girl, who actualy poison them (you arte the DM, they dont have to know that you dont roll for resistence
) and they fall sleep.then, they wake as prisioners/gladiators or just plain naked in the street.
or something like that
TheAuldGrump
First Post
Many, many years ago, in the first homebrew world I ever did for AD&D, I had the party hanged for murdering an orc.
The orc was unarmed, walking down the middle of the road, and did not try to hide when he saw the humans, elfs and dwarfs.
So the party killed him and took his head back to town.
A town that had a peace treaty with the orcs....
The baron made the best of a bad situation, after all, here was a chance to show the orcs that he was fair in dealing with them, and these so called 'adventurers' meant nothing to him. So he had a trial, they were sentenced, and hanged the next dawn, high point was when they heard the orc widow telling the orc child 'daddy isn't coming home'. It sunk in about then that they had committed murder.
One character did Detect Evil on the baron and found nothing 'but he has to be evil! He's dealing with the orcs!' 'You didn't use Detect Evil on the orc, did you?'
The baron and the orcs split the party's goods between them, and their bodies were left in gibbets as a warning to others.
The PCs were a bit more careful after that.
The Auld Grump, so if the guards catch him give him a fair trial, and have him executed.
*EDIT* And for that matter, do the local authorities know that the BBEG is breaking the law? If not then they likely will treat this as murder....
The orc was unarmed, walking down the middle of the road, and did not try to hide when he saw the humans, elfs and dwarfs.
So the party killed him and took his head back to town.
A town that had a peace treaty with the orcs....
The baron made the best of a bad situation, after all, here was a chance to show the orcs that he was fair in dealing with them, and these so called 'adventurers' meant nothing to him. So he had a trial, they were sentenced, and hanged the next dawn, high point was when they heard the orc widow telling the orc child 'daddy isn't coming home'. It sunk in about then that they had committed murder.
One character did Detect Evil on the baron and found nothing 'but he has to be evil! He's dealing with the orcs!' 'You didn't use Detect Evil on the orc, did you?'
The baron and the orcs split the party's goods between them, and their bodies were left in gibbets as a warning to others.
The PCs were a bit more careful after that.
The Auld Grump, so if the guards catch him give him a fair trial, and have him executed.
*EDIT* And for that matter, do the local authorities know that the BBEG is breaking the law? If not then they likely will treat this as murder....
Varianor Abroad
Explorer
Excellent solution The Auld Grump!
I think what the OP might have to consider is going metagame for the solution. Tell the powergamer (who is hogging the spotlight) that everyone gets a little spotlight time. Tell him out of game. Point out that Casual Gamer was trying to get some information. Then, every time he still jumps in, make the penalties higher and higher, with everyone hunting them (as suggested).
I think what the OP might have to consider is going metagame for the solution. Tell the powergamer (who is hogging the spotlight) that everyone gets a little spotlight time. Tell him out of game. Point out that Casual Gamer was trying to get some information. Then, every time he still jumps in, make the penalties higher and higher, with everyone hunting them (as suggested).
As others have mentioned, indiscriminately attacking folks can have steep in-game consequences.
It's a little something called karma.
If adventurers attack everyone they are remotely threatened by, they end up as desperados. Running a game in which the PCs are bandits can actually be cool, but there are definite cons. I ran a few games for a family I know. The husband has a major CN bent, and his character always ended up being a desperado, and he pulled his wife and son's characters into it as well. But it was fun to have the village turn against them and have them start dealing with the local crooks.
Also, this is D&D. You can't expect players to get information from obvious enemies before fighting. Sorry, they're not going to stand around and talk for twenty minutes with an enemy and THEN attack, just because that's where you get your "interaction" time. (And ever notice how hard it is in D&D to mechanically go between talking and combat?)
And why can't they get the information afterward? -1 HP is defeated, but certainly not dead.
It's a little something called karma.
If adventurers attack everyone they are remotely threatened by, they end up as desperados. Running a game in which the PCs are bandits can actually be cool, but there are definite cons. I ran a few games for a family I know. The husband has a major CN bent, and his character always ended up being a desperado, and he pulled his wife and son's characters into it as well. But it was fun to have the village turn against them and have them start dealing with the local crooks.
Also, this is D&D. You can't expect players to get information from obvious enemies before fighting. Sorry, they're not going to stand around and talk for twenty minutes with an enemy and THEN attack, just because that's where you get your "interaction" time. (And ever notice how hard it is in D&D to mechanically go between talking and combat?)
And why can't they get the information afterward? -1 HP is defeated, but certainly not dead.
(Psi)SeveredHead
Adventurer
Does the powergamer PC ever talk to non-hostile NPCs?
cougent
First Post
I had a similar problem in my group when they first started. Of the 5 regulars, 3 had played before and 2 of them were definite hack first talk later types. They tended to dominate the others and essentially coerced them into following suit. This was a real problem for me since I am not a hack and slash DM. I did not want to just hammer them that they were not "playing right" or anything like that, so I set out to "train" them to play differently.
I used several of the items listed above, letters in treasure, cryptic notes found on dead bodies that only the dead body could decrypt, and for the most stubborn 2 whose favorite saying became "bring it on!"... I did. They came up against a party and went for their usual attack first tactic only to be beaten in initiative. After the ensuing TPK in one round they were all sitting there in total silence and completely stunned. Essentially I just had the group (they were not even an evil group, just competition) do to them what they always did to others. After discussing it for a while, I engineered a way back for them through the aid of a benevolent high level NPC, and they did learn the lesson and began to think first... then attack second and talk third, but they continued to improve over the years and became quite intuitive later on.
I used several of the items listed above, letters in treasure, cryptic notes found on dead bodies that only the dead body could decrypt, and for the most stubborn 2 whose favorite saying became "bring it on!"... I did. They came up against a party and went for their usual attack first tactic only to be beaten in initiative. After the ensuing TPK in one round they were all sitting there in total silence and completely stunned. Essentially I just had the group (they were not even an evil group, just competition) do to them what they always did to others. After discussing it for a while, I engineered a way back for them through the aid of a benevolent high level NPC, and they did learn the lesson and began to think first... then attack second and talk third, but they continued to improve over the years and became quite intuitive later on.
ShadowChemosh
First Post
The powergamer in this in this case IS doing something wrong. He is expecting his play style to be the ONLY one to be catered to at the game table. The problem is that not all your players share that playstyle.Oryan77 said:
Some of the examples above may be able to 'teach' players a lesson, but personally I would never use such a method in my games. Using in game methods to 'teach' usually just gets you frustrated players instead of better players. Usually because the issues has NOTHING to do with the game, but with players expecting the game to be all about what they like. Unfortunately D&D is a group game that will very often have players with different likes and playstyle in the same group.
Simply talk to the powergamer and explain that he gets hours of combat(his playstyle) each session. In return he should be courteous enough to let the roleplayer in the group get at least that long or at least 15 minutes a game roleplaying. If the powergamer can't do that than again the issue shows its a player problem not a game issue.
BeauNiddle
First Post
ShadowChemosh said:
I agree with this.
If the players are already complaining they can't keep up with the plots then throwing more in-game activities at them isn't going to help.
Talk to the player, ask him to dial it back. If he does then offer him some nice simple straight forward encounters to let him get his bloodlust / showing off out of his system. Having a session of deep roleplaying, plot points and pure discussion with a 'random bandit attack' part way through is fine and wont break the mood.
If you want the player to get involved more in roleplaying then throw a few fans his way. At the next bar have people asking for stories of how he defeated the evil menance that has been threatening them for ages, etc. REWARD him for fighting, don't penalize him for having (what he considers) fun.
I fear that sending bounty hunters after him is going to do little but teach him to leave no witnesses.
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