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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5483288" data-attributes="member: 42582">I've not had the experience you describe, and so am not sure what to recommend. If my players want to play a game of heroics, then they do so.I had a <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/299362-why-i-dont-like-alignment-fantasy-rpgs.html" target="_blank">fairly recent thread</a> discussing in some detail why I don't like mechanical alignment at all - because instead of letting the players make the choice to have their PCs be heroic, it simply invites unecessary disagreement between the players and GM over what counts as heroism.Tenatively - because I don't know you, your experience as a GM or your players - I would suggest having a look at the sorts of scenarios you are running, and the way you try to engage the players. There has been some recent discussion of these issues <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/301668-pleasure-rpgs-alternatives-overcoming-challenges.html" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/5479030-post107.html" target="_blank">here</a>. The short version - if your problem is that your players are opting for expedience over heroism, present situations where the most salient options are heroic rather than expedient. One way to do that is to inject things that the players have shown they care about directly into the situations you present to your players. Don't use heroism just as a hook or lure ("Look, here's a quest that any heros worth their salt would take on!"). Imbed heroism within the situations.(Conversely, if the scenarios you run are indistinguishable from a standard kill-and-loot adventure, except the prize in the last room is the princess who needs resucing rather than the dragon hoard, you will push your players back towards an expedient rather than a heroic approach to play.)A fairly recent example from my own game: I ran an encounter in which the PCs had to stop a ritual to rescue the prisoners they were searching for. The prisoners, as part of the ritual, were located in sacrificial circles at the back of the room, behind the monsters. This encounter design gave the players an immediate choice over whether to act safely - and tackle the monsters first - or act heroically, and try to rescue the prisoners. They started the safe way. Then a round or two in one of the prisoners died, his soul sucked out by magic. The players then had their PCs act much more heroically, taking the risks necessary to free the second prisoner. Their heroism had meaning within the immediate context of the encounter. I would suggest focussing on this, rather than on mechanical systems for regulating PC behaviour.</blockquote>

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