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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Truename" data-source="post: 4802269" data-attributes="member: 78255">For my group, I've been constantly emphasizing that "every situation can be overcome; not all can be overcome by fighting." I used to remind them of this every few games, while slowly taking the gloves off... doing things like allowing one encounter to bleed into another, having the baddies focus fire on a "soft" target, and so forth. I combine this with rolling dice in the open and never fudging. (I'll accelerate encounters that are a foregone conclusion, though.)I think what really brought the point home, though, was when two PCs died at the end of the Scales of War adventure "Siege of Bordrin's Watch." In the next adventure, they faced a bunch of nasty critters and chose to run rather than stick around, although theoretically, they could have won. Recently, I put them in a situation where they were surrounded by over 20 guards... it was really obvious that fighting wasn't an option, and they didn't try.So now the stage is set for the next adventure, which is going to be more sandbox-like, and the gloves are coming all the way off... every encounter on its own will be within the level guidelines, but the monsters will do their best to bring in reinforcements that could well overwhelm the party.So that's how I'm doing it--I started out with reminders, and then gradually increased the possibility of overwhelming odds, as well as simple situations where it's obvious that fighting isn't an option.Oh, and finally, I always have a "TPK plan" in the back of my mind for how the party will get rescued (or imprisoned, or whatever) if they do bite it. So far, they've always managed to pull it off, if only barely.</blockquote>

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