How do you get your PCs to run away?

[Darkness]

Perhaps the DM does not like repeatedly handing out TPK's to "dumb" players?

Addendum: If your players are generally too "dumb" for your adventures, you should create adventures that mesh better with your players' style. (Or get other players.)

 

[DarrenGMiller]

This problem has recently improved in my campaign. Six months ago, there were 8 players in my game (not including me). Now there are 5. Only three of them are the same players. This improved the game drastically. I have always hated when people said, "Get other players." However, sometimes it is the correct answer, even if not usually practical.

Seriously, I had at least one player who was gamist. He HAD to win every encounter and prove he could build a better PC than I could build enemies. This often led to the deaths of other PC's or TPK's. I had another player who always had to be the hero. He could not tolerate something evil surviving to fight another day, even if it mean the death of his PC. After all, other heroes would be inspired by his example and come kill it, right? Now, both players are out of my campaign. While the party still has the metagame mindset to some extent and an overinflated sense of their own capabilities, they are more likely to run. I have warned them that I will occasionally throw in things that they cannot beat... yet.

DM

 

[S'mon]

Bearing in mind this is what they want out of DnD, I work towards providing it. I aim for a heroics campaign theme. Most challenges are beatable. If I intend them to run from something, I'll make it very obvious. Failing that, I use fate points, so TPKs aren't quite as bad as they could be.

I use Fate Points too, they've had a hugely beneficial effect and allow for a much more fun, swashbuckling campaign tone where the occasional tactical error leads to plot complications (eg PCs captured by evil cultists) rather than PCs bleeding out after a lost fight and players continually rolling up new characters.

 

[Vlos]

I have this problem as well. Often when starting a campaign I will state to the group, that at times "YOU WILL NEED TO RUN FROM SOME THINGS". Yet they rarely do, until it's usually too late, which causes a TPK, or close to it. Then they make you feel bad...

I definitly feel its a "training" thing. If the party never has any fear of dying then they often think less and less about it.

 

[ecliptic]

Kill one off really quick.

 

[S'mon]

This problem has recently improved in my campaign. Six months ago, there were 8 players in my game (not including me). Now there are 5. Only three of them are the same players. This improved the game drastically. I have always hated when people said, "Get other players." However, sometimes it is the correct answer, even if not usually practical.

Yup - my last campaign I had several players whose play styles didn't mesh with my own or with each others'. This time I've been pickier who I take, accepting only the creme de la creme of applicants (hi Dave!) and this has worked much much better. Also I've tried to be sure everyone is on the same sheet re the kind of game it is - one good idea I got off ENW was to put "metagame notes" on the campaign web page, describing the sort of game it is.

 

[S'mon]

Kill one off really quick.

I would rather avoid this "negative reinforcement" approach. It can result in players treating PCs as disposable pawns (the Gygaxian style), and I'm sick of dead PCs. Sometimes death is unavoidable, but if I didn't let a PC spend a Fate Point to survive I'd grant an extra FP to the players' next character.

 

[jasper]

Pc are disposable pawns. It is a game. A tpk or close to tpk will teach the players. I will give a verbal warning of doing really want to do that. if they do I have no trouble with the monster winning. As the saying goes "Sometimes the dragon wins!"

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

I use Fate Points too, they've had a hugely beneficial effect and allow for a much more fun, swashbuckling campaign tone where the occasional tactical error leads to plot complications (eg PCs captured by evil cultists) rather than PCs bleeding out after a lost fight and players continually rolling up new characters.

I really like them as a gaming tool! The death = interesting plot complication angle has really added to things from my point of view. Only had 1 'TPK' since using them and IMO it led to more interesting events than victory.

Found the fringe benefit of making 'back from the dead' magic much more interesting. Removed the usual array of Raise/Res./True Res. stuff and made coming back from the dead more of a greek epic kind of affair... it's just not needed often.

Edit: It also suits my style of game. I like to have the PCs entangled with my plots. Having a walking bundle of plot hooks go away is very upsetting.

Next time I run DnD, I'm contemplating some kind of action dice to go with them, but still not sure about that.

 

[S'mon]

Pc are disposable pawns. It is a game. A tpk or close to tpk will teach the players.

It'll teach them not to identify with their PCs and not to spend time & effort developing the characters' personalities. Personally I like the _roleplaying_ as well as the _gaming_ & I aim to encourage both - YMMV (and apparently does). PCs are not disposable pawns IMC and I'd quickly get bored of a campaign where they were - the only game I ever walked out on at Gencon was a Hackmaster game where the players were expected to roll up new PCs every few minutes as the old ones died.