Party Composition Concerns - Need GMing Advice

[pukunui]

Maybe look for opportunities for the non-combat characters to shine--possibly with custom tailoring based on their character. If the players see opportunities where they could have been super-awesome as the faceman, they may be enticed to play one over a combatant.

Or similarly give them roleplaying rewards based on the non-combat feats and talents they take to encourage more rounded characters. For example if they take the talent that lets them make a computer hostile to everyone but them, make sure it comes up in the game in meaningful ways. When they see how that scored them a big victory they may go for another computer hacking feat/talent instead of a purely combat one. (Although this may take some finagling with the Dawn of Defiance encounters.)

Oh definitely. I always try to make players' choices meaningful. Like one player chose the Spacehound talent because he said it fit with his character concept even though I warned him there wasn't much space combat in DoD ... but he insisted, so now I'm going to try to work in a bit more space combat so he can use that talent. For instance, I've got an encounter coming up where their ship gets hijacked by a shapeshifting bounty hunter who turns off the gravity to make it harder for the PCs to get to him in the cockpit (but the little Jawa PC with Spacehound won't have any trouble with navigating in the zero-g, so she'll get to shine a little bit more than she sometimes does).

When you spoke about the party having poor tactics and noted the past campaigns where PCs died often, the possibility came to mind that maybe you are "to blame" for their deaths. You mentioned that you were seen as the most tactically savvy of the group. Could you be too good compared to them? One of the most tactically minded guys I play with in one game, GMs his own D&D game that I don't play in. From what I understand he's had a number of character deaths and I often wonder whether he needs to put on the kiddy gloves a little. Maybe you need to do the same?

Yeah, it's possible. It's occurred to me before. But the thing is: the players always tell me not to hold back. They want me to go all out. Plus, it happens sometimes in the other GMs' campaigns too, not just mine.