Help in reducing the wargaming aspect of DnD

[Zoatebix]

Actually - I have to stress how good of a suggestion a strict 10 second time limit is. Keep it moving!

 

[diaglo]

The best way to remove the war gaming is not use minis and battle mats.

Arrrrggghhhh. why play D&D if you are going to do that...

you might as well go in the backyard and beat each other over the head with sticks.

...oh, wait, that's the wargamer in me speaking.


yeah, to get rid of wargaming do what Crothian suggests. it is the first step down the path of never playing the game right again... i mean... you can roleplay with minis too, but they can be a crutch for some.

not me, though. you can have my minis when you pry them from my cold dead...

 

[Retro-Rocket]

It sounds like that he does not role-play because he is not very good at it. Some people just are not any good at role-playing so they then to make up for it in other ways. We had a guy in my old group who could not role-play himself out of a paper bag. He would just sit there quiet at the table until a combat occured. But he could mini-max a character like a genius and his characters where always very combat capable. Some people are just like that. Maybe the problem is having someone who cannot or will not role-play as the leader of the group just because their character has the highest charisma.

I also agree with Diaglo. Just taking away the battle mat and mini's will not make someone role-play. It can just make the game harder for you and your players.

 

[Frostmarrow]

Shout, shout and shout again! It's all down to shouting. If you shout during combat you stress the wargamers out and rush their decisions. Moreover, shouting makes the game more intense.

Blackadder : Tell me do you ever stop bullying and shouting at the lower orders?
Wellington : NEVER! There's only one way to win a campaign shout, shout and shout again.
Blackadder : You don't think that inspired leadership and tactical ability have anything to do with it?
Wellington : NO! It's all down to shouting. WAAGGHH!

 

[Will]

Another suggestion... give out flat XP per session.

When the pressure of 'well, if we KILL STUFF, we get XP!' off, people might be more willing to dress up like clowns for harvest festival or whatnot.

 

[squat45]

Another suggestion... give out flat XP per session.

When the pressure of 'well, if we KILL STUFF, we get XP!' off, people might be more willing to dress up like clowns for harvest festival or whatnot.

Love it actually, would probably have the players revolt if I tried it. The character in question has suggested going the LONG way to the adventure so that they can meet more monsters... thus more xp! And this is from the paladin

Great suggestions all. I'm going to start working on some of these ideas for our next session (in a week) and see what happens. I've been thinking that this guy needs to change characters, he is just not much of a Paladin - and I'm going to suggest that soon (we have a long break for the holidays, so it makes an ideal time to switch characters). He would be a much better fighter anyways, so I'll suggest it.

There is really only one other player with ANY of the rulebooks... and the other player is probably the best role-player in the group.

Thanks all.

 

[Carpe DM]

I would strongly caution against making him change his character. A player's only "toy" in the world is his character; taking that away because you don't like his roleplaying is rough.

Further, some people enjoy combat. Some people enjoy drawn-out political discussions. I think that you should explain to him that both of these are OK, and that he should back off a little bit when the other type of gaming is going on.

But, as I've said elsewhere, the difference between wargaming / powergaming and roleplaying is a false dichotomy. People can do both. And blaming someone because he is not as smooth a talker as his 21 Cha paladin is pretty rough. How many of us are as strong, fast, smart, or beautiful as our D&D characters? (Ok, fine, yes, I'm the prettiest of them all, but you get the point. )

Point to take home: Explain that there are two different styles, and that both need to have a place in the game, not just kick-in-the-door. But then let him know that booting head and taking names is a part of the game, and that you appreciate his contributions to the tactical side of the game.

best of luck,

Carpe

 

[Snapdragyn]

I would recommend as a first step - force everyone into character by enforcing a 'if the player says it, the character says it' rule.

I second this suggestion. The best rp group in which I've played had this rule, with a hand signal we could use if we really had to say something OOC (though the DM would get on us for too much OOC talk). That DM also watched time (not a hard 10 second rule, but just a general 'OK, you've had time to think about it, now what do you do?' sort of thing). I've thought about trying to get these into the 2 groups I'm in, but since I only DM one of those groups (& that only half of the time), I'm not really in the position to say. It would be nice, though, since both groups are just total wargaming tabletalk. *sigh*

I really like the suggestion of flat xp/session! Did you just decide how fast you want the campaign to progress, or did you ask your players for input on that? Also, what about sessions that are longer or shorter; do you scale the standard xp/session then?

 

[deltadave]

I've noticed that players tend to emphasize the aspects of play that a DM rewards. If you want more roleplay happening, come up with a way of rewarding that and de-emphasize combat xp. Try reducing CR for xp purposes by 1 or 2 for combat encounters.

I use poker chips and toss them to players when I think they are roleplaying well... white chips are CR(1/2*level), red chips are CR(level-1) and blue chips are CR(level). red is for great roleplay, blue is for stellar play. The last time I gave out a blue chip all the players at the table applauded and cheered the player who won it, the roleplay was that great.

Currently, the players earn about 1/4 of their xp from combat, the rest comes from story goals and roleplaying rewards.

 

[painandgreed]

Everybody else pretty much covered all my suggestions:
1) "You say it; your character says it." Cutting the kibitzing down usually makes things run faster too.
2) Reward attempts at good role playing (and other desired behavior) while presenting less of a chance for roll playing.
3) While roll-playing(combat and such) invoke time limits on actions. if using a battlemat, then use the old chess "take your hand off the mini and its final" rule. If they're still taking too much time, give them a time limit and the mini ends up in whatever square its in when the time limit is up (or last legal square it was in anyway).
4) After init is rolled, go around and get statements of intention from everybody. Make them follow them or give out a pentalty if they don't. If they get really bad, make them give a statement of intent and the DM actually moves the characters around on the battlemat. This is what I usually do. I figure out movement, tell them their choices and ask which one they want.