How do you add more combat to a campaign?

[alsih2o]

try the occasional long drawn out fight.

past the guard shack, through the gate, past the ramparts, in the door, throught the room, downstairs, in the tunnel to the room, then bbeg.

whole heaping loads of underlings protecting a pasageway can have soemhting for every class and make it seem like there is a lot of combat.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

When in doubt: Wandering Monsters (tm).

 

[MeepoTheMighty]

1) Roll for Initiative!
2) ...
3) Profit!

 

[Graf]

Without knowing more about your game it's hard to say...

Generally the only two things I can think about are
Do you like fights? Are you prepared as a DM to run them?
Do you have things in the world (groups, religions, organizations, etc) the players are totally opposed to?
(slaver's guilds, the red wizards of thay type villians, races of monsters which are Align: always XX Evil, etc)?

Are your players looking for fights because they want to roll more dice? Engage in tactics?
Or are they frustrated with the gray-world and want a black and white situation where they can emerge victorious after a difficult struggle without compromising themselves?

 

[Oni]

Well you don't want to squash their roleplaying habits. So you probably don't want to have too many situations where, the baddies won't budge in their position or go back on their word because you don't want to get to the point where your players start saying whats the point of negotiating at all. I recommend the inclusion of the occasional enemy that comes out swinging. This includes mindless and near mindless enemies such as the undead or beast, that might be used ala attack dogs by badguys who the players may or may not be able to negotiate with once they reach them. Also hired mercenaries and killers, as noted by others above, aren't likely to wait around for negotiations as they don't get their money if they don't do their job.

 

[hong]

And then there are always ninjas. Crazy assassins leaping out of the woodwork, fully intent on returning with the PCs heads in a duffle bag. =)

I heartily endorse this product, service, venture, and/or lifestyle accessory.

My Britannia 3E group has recently picked up a renegade assassin, whose guild is after her. They've already had two nicely vicious encounters with ninjae as a result, and there should be plenty more in the future. Things can only get more interesting from here on in.

As far as I'm concerned, there's no such thing as too much combat. I play this game for a chance to righteously kick butt and take names, and I believe most of my players are in the same category. I do try to ensure that challenges are believable, there's a coherent tone to the campaign, NPCs have personalities, etc, but in the end, what gets us going is the big climactic fights.

 

[Olive]

Have them offend a demon cult who then sends fiends after them, all day and all night.

Don't just make it combat. make it nasty combat.

 

[bardolph]

Dude! How about this??

Put the PC's into a highly volatile "international Diplomacy" situation, where WAR is pretty much the only possible outcome (however, the PC's can influence WHO goes to war, and HOW BAD the war gets).

Then, send them off to battle the enemy!!!

This gives them perfect justification to slay bad guys (TM), but doesn't compromise your "gray" morality.

 

[Psion]

My first thought was Demons -- they never negotiate (unless they are up to something), but Kugar beat me too it.

Also, revenge melodramas are nice... negotiations are just preludes to a fight.

 

[tonym]

...my encounters while they can erupt in violence usually have a non fighting solution...

When players know their DM strongly prefers non-violent solutions, then every encounter becomes a puzzle. The players constantly ask themselves, "How do we solve this situation without spilling a drop of blood?" They know a violent solution equals a 'wrong' answer.

This can get old after a while. Especially when you secretly think that the most 'realistic' answer to many a puzzle is to kill every non-PC within a fifty-foot radius.

I'd suggest you throw some of those Evil-NPCs-Converted-Into-Allies at them. Let them finally kill the punk who tortured their brother, or whatever.

That, and ninjas!



Tony