Fighting The Power Level

[On Puget Sound]

Get a copy of Munchkin and play that instead. Exactly what they want and goes much better with alcohol.

 

[Wik]

Yeah. If it's an excuse to get wasted, I'd just say roll with it, and start running Dungeon Delve adventures.

There's nothing wrong with boozing it up and playing D&D. But if you're taking it seriously, and they're not - it's not really their problem. It's yours. Trying to change what the group expects out of things is just a recipe for disaster.

 

[TheNovaLord]

only some of our group drink alcohol

we thought that one or two there where drinking a bit where detrimental to the goup, so we have know got a 2 beer max.

I think for the OP game he needs to go down the 2heavy interaction with the environment" rather than npcs

-exploring dungeon heavy
-clues are on scraps of paper, magic mouths, written on the base of statues etc
-a few tricks and traps
-mindless monsters
-BBEG that dont wanna talk

if you GM to this, it may be time to change group, system, or something.

good luck

 

[grufflehead]

I feel your pain, as this is not too dissimilar to a group I have played with before (minus the alcohol, but the general approach was similar).

I walked away, as I'm of the opinion that a crap game is NOT better than no game at all. Pbp is at least scratching the gaming itch for me - come and try it here sometime. Lots of people much more on your wavelength, who would appreciate your effort if you run, and would welcome you with open arms as a fellow player.

Otherwise, take up some of the other suggestions about just hitting them with brutal dungeon crawls, which seems to be what they want (although I suspect you're not going to get a lot of satisfaction out of it). I don't really agree with the ideas of writing encounters where they wil be penalised for wanton slaughter - everything you said in your post suggests they a) won't give a sh*t and/or b) it will start to get adversarial and the group will fragment one way or another anyway.

Good luck finding people who want to game the same way as you.

 

[Beginning of the End]

I'm really at a loss and I don't know what to do. Someone help, how do you show this person it's better to interact rather then what he's doing.

Design a scenario in which combat cannot generate a successful outcome.

And don't be afraid to let them fail if they screw it up.

A 100% mystery-based scenario is probably a good way to go. Basically your players have found a tactic that is working for them ("beat the out of it, ask questions later"). As long as that tactic keeps working, they're not going to change it.

The other option is to spend considerably less time designing these encounters. I don't know what you're spending your prep time on, but if the only interaction the PCs are going to have with an encounter is "bash it on the head", then you can probably design that encounter in 5-10 minutes: Grab some monsters out of the MM and go.

I'd recommend using a blended approach: They clearly like combat, so don't eliminate it entirely. (Although one or two completely non-combat scenario will be useful to make them aware that they'll need to start thinking in non-combat terms from time-to-time.) But until their modus operandi changes ("combat first, other options only if it doesn't work") then any additional details or roleplaying bits you include in a combat-solvable encounter will be a waste of your time.

 

[ruemere]

Ok I really didn't have time to search through all the forums so if this is a repeated question then please direct me to the answer. Anyway I have not just a small or even moderate problem. This guy is a huge problem. [...]

You need to create a challenge which cannot be solved by violence and looting. For example:
- treat him to magic poison - the only alchemist capable of manufacturing the cure is long dead, but he left a set of puzzles in a dungeon. The puzzles lead to traps, several monsters and, eventually, the cure.
- annoying fanbase from hell - let him be followed by a group of imps who became his fans. Let him known, through that audience, what you think about his crude ways.

Regards,
Ruemere

 

[RangerWickett]

I like Firelance's suggestion, but if you're not up for the slow process, the fast solution is just to convert the game to hack-and-slash. The key thing to remember is not to get angry with your players. You're all friends (hopefully), getting together to have a good time. You don't want your fun to become as tedious as work.

 

[Marius Delphus]

Echoing what's already been said:

They want hack, slash, and loot? Give them hack, slash, and loot.

Not comfortable giving them hack, slash, and loot? Don't DM for them.

 

[Ikademi+Beer]

Have to agree with ruemere on this one you just have to put them on a situation were bloodspilling is not an option. For example a long time ago our DM was tired of our senseless killing so he created a time repeating event as we escorted a caravan that each time we failed the "obectives" we repeated the same events over and over again. Up until the moment we decided to take it easy and talk around the caravan and between ourselves to find the solution.

 

[Chainsaw]

What's worse is no one cares but me, The group is a bunch of people that get together to have an excuse to get wasted with each other. They care about the game untill there 15th beer in (which only takes an hour) and I spend a week planning all these small details and bits of information that they don't even bother doing.

Sounds like you have different needs than they do. Is it possible to share your discontent? Or will they just mock you mercilessly? If so, then you're left with two choices: find another group or put up with how they like to play.

Finding a group with your same playstyle is *imperative* to a good experience.