Good idea?

[CrimsonWineGlass]

Currently I have a pretty new party (comprised of 1 semi-new person, 1 with a couple campaigns under her belt and 1 with some experience and a tendency for malicious intent) and I have decided to run Return to the Temple of Elemental evil but I'm having a problem with the 3 newest falling back into their "comfort zones" in regards to class. We have the elvish rogue, again and the druid aiming for master of many forms, again. The experienced player is simply going human barbarian. Since the former two characters have appeared, in concept and personality if not in name, twice each I'm wanting to get them to try something new. I'm thinking about using an old AD&D dice rolling style where you roll your stats and you get them as they come up, the first roll is str, second is dex, etc. That will encourage them to try something new without being too forceful, hopefully. Good idea? Bad idea? Any suggestions?

 

[Mouseferatu]

Bad idea. All it's going to accomplis is forcing people to play concepts they don't want to play.

D&D = game = about having fun. If they'd rather stick to their comfort zones, let them. It's their loss, but it's also their choice.

 

[diaglo]

the old system also had pregens available.

make some pregens

 

[Kafkonia]

the old system also had pregens available.

make some pregens

Very good idea. You might want to focus on variations on what they like to play (elven rogue, elven scout, half-elven rogue, drow ninja, druid with variant class abilities, etc) to at least have the feel of something different. I wouldn't force anyone to play anything, because that can take away a lot of the fun.

If you wanted to encourage variety in a sneaky way, though, you could always salt the treasure with some items particularly useful to races/classes that they don't have. Then when one of them dies (and they likely will, see below) they'll be more inclined to come back with someone who can take advantage of some of these goodies.

And the RtToEE can be quite deadly, so it wouldn't hurt to have a few pregens in any event. Heck, why not have the players make a couple of pregens for each other as back-up characters?

 

[smootrk]

Honesty is best policy.

Explain your concerns, and see if anyone will voluntarily try something new.

One method I used, and it was very effective, was to create the framework for the overall group's history. In my campaign, I decided that I wanted some really bizarre character types, so I said that the characters all worked for a traveling Circus/Carnivale, and I wanted them to create as bizarre a concept as they could. We ended up with a Knife-thrower halfling, a blind fortune teller (cleric), a mute drow mime (bard/beguiler), a wild man halfling wrestler (and the tattooed man at that), and an automaton man (warforged wizard called CLOCK).... and this was all in the Forgotten Realms.

Once the theme was agreed on and established, it became a really fun exercise. Your players would probably have fun too, as long as the theme is acceptable to them.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I agree with Smoot. Having everyone come up with a group framework -- all the same race, all relatives, all from the same town, all veterans of the same military unit -- will give the group personality, built-in hooks, a rationale for playing together and will almost certainly move them a little from their standard grooves.

 

[CrimsonWineGlass]

My problem with is that though I repeatedly encourage trying something new, they always find some way to slide past my attempts. And my problem is not that they are keeping to faves, its that they found something their first or second time that worked and refused to ever look at the books again. I've made campaigns that encourage other classes strongly but they have no problem with remaking a character with the same tricks and calling it a sibling of their old character. Its driving me nuts.

 

[Ozmar]

Currently I have a pretty new party (comprised of 1 semi-new person, 1 with a couple campaigns under her belt and 1 with some experience and a tendency for malicious intent) and I have decided to run Return to the Temple of Elemental evil but I'm having a problem with the 3 newest falling back into their "comfort zones" in regards to class. We have the elvish rogue, again and the druid aiming for master of many forms, again. The experienced player is simply going human barbarian. Since the former two characters have appeared, in concept and personality if not in name, twice each I'm wanting to get them to try something new. I'm thinking about using an old AD&D dice rolling style where you roll your stats and you get them as they come up, the first roll is str, second is dex, etc. That will encourage them to try something new without being too forceful, hopefully. Good idea? Bad idea? Any suggestions?

I'd love it. IME, though, most players are whiny brats who pitch a fit if they don't get their way. So YMMV.

Ozmar the Bitter

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

Why do you care?

Seriously, if those options are viable for your campaign world (and they certainly aren't outside the 'comfort zone' of a typical D&D game), why shouldn't the players use them over and over again if that's what they enjoy? You don't seem to be annoyed by the characters themselves, only by the fact they keep cropping up, and I just don't get that.

 

[EyeontheMountain]

I think rolling stats in order is a good idea, but then step back and let them play the race/class they want to. In the gmae, let them know what classes the NPCs are and show whatthe NPCs can do with those abilities. maybe they will get intrigued.