Question about DM'ing

[JChung2003]

Help! I'm not sure if this is the right forum (or even the right Web site) to ask, but here goes:

My players are split up right now, each doing their own thing. This seemed to be a really bad idea. All of my encounters were tuned for groups of four level 1 characters (EL 1), not four level 1 soloists.

Also, as I describe a potentially dangerous situation to one player who is about to uncover the first clue of the antagonist's evil plan, suddenly another player "mystically" senses that his fellow player is in danger and takes off on horseback, completely ignoring the NPC and cleric henchman he was with.

So now I've got a bard who apparently has ESP and is on horseback looking for the rest of the group and a ranger who left the group as soon as they made it to town and has been doing his own thing. The other ranger was actually a latecomer to the game so I have been trying to work him into the plot. Nobody in the group wanted to play the cleric so I am playing him as a henchman, and he's more or less doing his job and staying close to the NPC noblewoman who hired these adventurers to protect her and her daughter.

Meanwhile, there are about a half dozen wandering groups of orcs and other creatures that wouldn't be too much of a challenge for the group (2 rangers, bard, cleric) but would likely kill any soloist.

How do I fix this disaster, or should I just throw my hands up in the air in frustration and watch the orcs and other groups of monsters wipe out the group one by one?

 

[lokiqc]

kill them!

Next time I bet they'll stay together

mwaaaahahahahha

 

[Shallown]

Though lokiqc Maybe enjoying it a little too much. You may have to kill them. There is suspension of disbelief and there is just being stupid. Yea orcs exist and you are suppose to be heroes and such but doesn't mean you go wondering around counting on the Gm to be kind.

I wouldn't be out to kill them but I wouldn't bend over backwards to avoid it if they aren't trying to avoid it.

As far as the esp ranger goes. I had a player who use to do this but I just transposed time. Meaning he would ride off to save someone using OOC knowledge who had not even entered into the situation yet or who already was done dealing with it. Play loose with such things as time and distance to give you as a GM breathing room.

The word around is useful... Around an hour... around a mile. Hell do they have stop watches and mile markers?

Also "You think" is also a key phrase "You think it takes an hour to ride where you last saw so and so" etc. Hell I think lots of things that are wrong on a daily basis why not the characters.

And the NPC's should react. I take it they are the cleric and mother/daughter who hired them. Have them catch up and ask WTF? and force him to explain. Mystically knowledgeable characters often don't have an anwser especially to why did you leave your two charges behind.

Hopefully that helps.

Later

 

[MonkeyBoy]

Afternoon!

Certainly the right kind of place

OK, so you have 2 rangers and a bard as PCs, and there's a Cleric NPC who is following around an NPC patron.

I'll call them Ranger1 and Ranger2, with Ranger1 being the one who's wandered off immediately and Ranger2 being the new guy.

I'm concluding from this that the 4 party members are in 4 places?
(i.e. that neither ranger is near the NPC patron?)

Problem 1; out of character knowledge used in character (or, psychic bards)

Solution 1; this is bad roleplay, and should incur docked XP - be open about this, state that the player is using out of character knowledge in character, and that this is bad play, and therefore will take a (small) hit in XP. They're likely to bleat that "the ranger needs help", use this as an opportunity to point out that if the group worked as a team, this would not be an issue!

If this seems harsh, you can cover by suggesting that the bard "suddenly realised how rash they'd been by splitting up" - ham this up and announce it loudly to give the players a none-too-subtle hint!

Problem 2; party splits up.

Solution 2; (solution 1 not withstanding) give in character incentives and reasons to come back together. maybe Ranger1 spies a bunch of orcs (being obviously more than he can take alone) making their way towards town. Maybe he will trail them, maybe try to get ahead to warn the town? (hopefully not do nothing, hopefully not attack outright!)

The remaining characters can then be pulled together when the orcs attack the town. Once they're together, try pointing out how much better they'd do as a team...

(its possible that having a big orc attack is counter productive to your game; take it only as an example of a means to regroup the PCs by DM "influence"...)

If all that seems over complex as a means to get around your players, try talking to them, and discuss how this splitting up is making the game difficult to run, and stalling things.

Its possible that the player of Ranger1 thinks he's cleverly playing the "loner type", in which case you need to either re-educate the player, or play to this.

Finally, in the case where 1 PC leaves the group and wanders off alone (for the sake of it), my rule is this; I ask the loner what they're doing, and QUICKLY run through most of what they get up to. And I mean QUICK; no in character interraction, simple yes you can / no you can't answers, no real exiting developments.

Then I go back to the main group, and do their stuff as normal, in detail. (be sure to account for the time the loner is away; no skimping and coming back to the group because they're doing more fun stuff)

Then I quickly nip back to the loner, tie up the loose ends, and we regroup the party when it makes sense in the game.

Now, its important that if the group decides to mostly go and do part A of a plan, and one person will go to do part B (agreed by the group) then you deal fairly with every party member. But there's no reason to either invent vast rafts of detail or squander the whole gaming group's time on one person who wants to go it alone for no good reason.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

If they're just splitting up and ignoring the plot to be annoying, let them play out the consequences of their actions. The people they were supposed to be protecting die. The PC's may die.

If (or more likely when) they get annoyed, tell them that you weren't trying to kill them, you were just letting them know that by deliberately not playing as a team, they put themselves in trouble.

It's harsh, but it may make them realise that D&D is a social, team game. And if they persist, try and find some new players. If they are your friends, suggest that someone else DMs. If not, don't DM for them! You're not having fun, by the sound of it, so why should you do it?

 

[maddman75]

Here's what I'd do.

Have them encounter the orcs as normal. Since they are alone, the orcs capture them (by beating them into negatives then binding wounds if need be).

They all awaken in a wooden cage in a small orc village, destined either for a slave market or the stew pot. All their gear is gone. Here's the important part - let them escape IF and only IF they work together. If instead they all keep trying to be the star of the show cook them one by one in front of the others. However, if it sinks in that this is supposed to be a TEAM effort then let them succeed, even if its a rather foolish plan. The gods favor them .

Tabletop RPGs tend not to handle splitups. I mean if they are all going to go their seperate ways, why bother coming over on the same day?

 

[Whodat]

It sounds to me as though the players have wandered off and have become more interested in doing their own things than they are in advancing the story. Okay, DM, now you have to understand that your story is beginning to suffer. You are going to make this bad situation worse if you (the DM) are afraid to retake the initiative.

If these players are friends of yours explain to them (out of character) that the situation is getting out of hand. Their lack of teamwork is beginning to affect your story.

If they aren’t friends of yours (rather just a group that you game with), then stop protecting them.

The key here is communicating with your players. Remember, however, that communication is a two-way street. If your players are telling you that they are not interested in helping the NPC, for whatever reason, then that is another story. If your players don't feel compelled to get involved, you may have to ditch your current story for something else. I’ve found that giving the characters a good reason to get together (and stick together) is best left up to the players themselves.

You can put an end to the whole “psychic character” thing quickly. If someone wanders off to do their own thing, ask that player to get up and go into another room. You will now play their game separately. That way both solo-player and separated-group have no idea what is happening to the other. Tension levels will begin to rise once someone somewhere runs into combat. Or you can have the main group find a little stash of treasure and imply that the guy who wandered off may not be entitled to a share, since he wasn’t there to face the danger with the rest of the group.

Remember: If all else fails use fear and greed. They will either be drawn together, or rip each other to shreds. Either way it makes for an interesting night’s gaming.

Good luck. It sounds like you have a rocky road ahead.

 

[Ravellion]

Just remember that if they are your friends, you have some elbow room with screwing up. Just explain why, how and in what intent later.

I know I posted several non-rule related questions to these boards 2 years ago, usually after the fact, but even though some decisions were good, some were pretty crap. Hindsight is 20-20, but every decision you'll take increases your DM'ing skills (if you'll let it). Just not be afraid to be the DM. Any action will suffice.

That said... my advice is to roll on random encounter tables and mumble a bit... something like: "mumble mumble table 3-1: Forest encounters...22 on a d100 mumble mumble *suddenly loud* Ranger! Roll spot!"

Actually having a random encounter table helps, if you aren't that good of an actor (or if you are a random table lover, like me)

And before someone jumps in to this: Yes. I really LOVE random tables. I really really do! Especially on friday nights!

Rav

edit: "And" is spelled without an "s"

 

[Mark]

Before the next session, I'd suggest that you roll up two of each type of the basic classes of characters. Keep them in a folder.

Next, ask the Bard why he would think that the Ranger is in trouble. If he is honest, and says that it is because he was sitting right there at the table when he heard what was happening (as a player) tell the Bard's player he is not allowed to go and help because his character does not have that knowledge. If he stews about it, let him and remind him that it was his own choice to put himself in that position. If he gives you some other feeble, concocted reason why he should be able to go and help the Ranger, allow it but let him know that he is obviously using knowledge that the character does not possess. Allow him to rejoin the Ranger (since that is the goal anyway) but remind him that the next time you will not be so lenient.

When the characters begin to die, hand the first who dies the character sheet for the (current) NPC Cleric. Then have the Matron start to complain to the Cleric about hiring a group that has absolutely no sense of teamwork. Have her tell the Cleric to escort her back to town to hire more professional party members.

If the other player characters eventually go back to town, allow them to give some explanation of their screw up and be rehired at a lower rate, and only if they apologize and promise to stick together.

If they die before getting back to town, randomly roll which of the other characters you have in the folder they will be playing. Let them know that you don't have time to hold the game up while they each roll up whatever they want. Tell the players that before the next session they can roll up new characters if they like.

Keep the game moving along throughout all of this. Make it obvious that you plan to run a game that will require them to ustilize one another's talents both as players and characters. Once they realize how important it is to play as a group, they will find no better game than yours and will enjoy themselves all the more for it.

 

[CTD]

My two cents:

Have the orc's press their agenda. Players are usually resourceful and might end up surviving, unless they are bull headed and don't know how to retreat, trial, and hide. Even if they are bull headed, the orc's are not entirely stupid. Send the main force in from the flank and have just a few token orc's keep the PC's busy while the real dirty work gets done.

Let the orc's win the field and rampage, killing the NPC client, and the Cleric. Have them kidnap the daughter.

Surviving PC's can figure out that they 'failed' in their job, because the client is dead. Failed as a friend as their buddy the cleric is dead, and failed as a team as they were individually mastered by the orc's.

Better yet with the cleric, have them get there to hear his last gasp: "Rescue the girl... <cough, spit blood> She is more important than you think... <cough violently> My church will reward you... <hack sputter> Together you can do this!<die>"

This plays on their greed and gets them to do the moral thing. Have that cleric suddenly sport enough potions to heal the party up after a quick round of drinks and stop the session. Then your next session involves persuit and rescue.

At the end of all things, when they go for the reward, have the priest at the church be confused, and then laugh at them. Seems that their friend, the dead cleric, lied so they would save the girl.