Help, my players are scared!

[TheGM]

So they're not suicidal bloodthirsty sociopathic murderers out to slaughter everything that looks at them funny. D&D is generally more than a wargame, and the fact that your players are exercising the option to not fight everything in sight is a Good Thing, not something to be deplored as stupid and boring.

Wow, I couldn't agree less with you and everyone else that wants to classify fighting monsters and bad guys as sociopathic.

While DnD is more than a wargame, it is still basically a heroic game. You do not get to be a hero by compromising with evil. Ruins the whole feel.

Now, the poster mentioned "occasional fight", so reactions that translate that into "non-stop slugfest" are over-reacting.

I would definitely have NPCs treat them like dirt for their fear-mongering ways, I might even have a Duke or King consider them renegades for "leaving that village to die". Running into bards singing about their "well-known cowardice" helps too

I had a group that just got too attached to their characters at higher levels. They didn't want to fight because they didn't want to die. I had to have the "but is this what your character would do?" conversation with them, and they quickly got over it.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Never had a TPK with this group.


The same group has being playing the same campaign for 9 years straight now (we play about once a month) and we have had zero PC deaths. That's right, 0, nothing, nada, zilch!

There's your problem. They're too attached to their characters, because they haven't learned to be callous about death. Set up an overmatch, and TPK them. Do the same for the next party.

Once they're used to having characters die, they'll happily charge into a fight!

Spoiler

I'm only partly joking!

 

[SpiralBound]

These are moderately high level characters (12th or so) right? And thay're no longer involved in minor events, but are more concerned with intrigues of national proportions, right? Ok, then they must have a lot of npcs who uphold in one way or another their power/influence. The head of the church, the local king, members of council, a powerful fellow wizard, general of the army, etc. So, have a bad guy start targetting those people. If the PCs are always either running away, avoiding conflict, and only fighting when the odds are in their favour, then have a "evil mastermind" type notice this and use it against them. Have him deliberately use diversionary tactics, manipulating the pcs due to their easily predicted behaviours.

Imagine a villian who deliberately scares the PCs away with false "overwhelming odds" and tempts them away from detecting his true activities by feeding them a series of easy kills. Have the villian's goals be directly counter to the pcs goals and also put prominent npcs that the pcs rely upon directly into harms way.

An example: The pcs want to further the prosperity of the kingdom of Almaria, maintain peaceful relations with the recently ex-enemy the Kingdom of Falorea, find the ailing King Gregor's long-lost son Prince Bregin before the king dies, thus leaving the kingdom in the hands of a divided and bickering Council of Nobles.

Meanwhile, the evil Count Malegar has been observing both the PCs rise in power and their pattern of conflict-avoidance. Furthermore, he seeks to assume control over the Kingdom of Almaria, which is why he has been secretly poisoning King Gregor, subverting the Council of Nobles and promoting their bickering, and why years ago he had Prince Bregin kidnapped and magically enslaved to his will. Once the king dies, he plans to send in the mind-controlled Prince and rule from behind the throne. Then, enacting his long range plan of world domination, starting with Falorea...

Knowing the PCs by their previous actions, it should be a cakewalk for Count Malegar to jerk around the PCs like puppets on a string. After a few important NPS die due to the PCs always falling for the Count's manipulations they're going to get a real hate on for him. You'll quickly see them become willing to fight once 90% of the structures of what makes their world familar to them are put at risk!!

 

[Buzzardo]

As the campaign progressed my players have become ever more anxious about conflict and their PCs try to avoid combat whenever possible. It is now not uncommon to play one or two sessions without any combat at all. When they do enter combat, its often amidst screams of "we can never win, we are all going to die!".

As a DM I like having a tense combat now and then. And when we do have a combat the players always say they enjoyed it. But still they are getting ever more scared. By now I feel that I have to force the PCs into combat to get them to fight anything. What am I to do?

The way I read this is that you are a ruthless and bloodthirsty killer DM. Well... Somebody had to say it.

-JK

 

[Storyteller01]

It might be that they don't want to see their 9 year characters die. But then again, this is why that barkeep in the [pick a name] Tavern retired from adventuring.

Unless you plan to give noncombat solutions to all encounters, your going to have to find the cause of their fear. Best thing I can say is talk to the group out of game, and see what they expect. Advise them as to what you expect from the sessions/story, and see if an understanding can be reached.

If they expect to be able to run a session with no risks, then you may hve a huge problem on your hands. Them higher level camapiagns end all too often with a failed die roll.