• NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.

Role play problems

Amanchanamun

First Post
As a dm , one of my problems is how to deal with players who are greedy. For instance after a fight all try to open the chest , even in a fight they try to loot dead bodies and what ever.

Even to open a chest they ask for to throw initiative.. ???

its. ok . Imagine one of them takes what ever inside a chest and one spots with nice perception and they start word fight.

One says i am intimating the other . what does success mean here ? And other says i throw diplomacy to convince him.

How do you solve these problems ? Ineed to find a solution.
 

log in or register to remove this ad

If that kind of game isn't fun to you, tell your players. I think it's OK for people to be silly occasionally, but in most games the characters are intended to be Heroic. It sounds like they aren't keeping up with their part in the FUN rule. See below...

DMG Pg 7
FUN!
"The last essential component of a D&D game is fun. It’s not the DM’s job to entertain the players and make sure they have fun. Every person playing the game is responsible for the fun of the game. Everyone speeds the game along, heightens the drama, helps set how much roleplaying the group is comfortable with, and brings the game world to life with their imaginations.

Everyone should treat each other with respect and consideration, too. Personal squabbles and fights among the characters get in the way of the fun. Different people have different ideas of what’s fun about D&D. Remember that the “right way” to play D&D is the way that you and your players agree on and enjoy. If everyone comes to the table prepared to contribute to the game, everyone has fun."
 
Last edited:

In my experience having "skill-offs" between players doesn't work too well. On rare occasions where both players are willing to allow their characters to be "forced" to do something by another character (a diplomacy check to make a character fork over treasure) can work, but requires total cooperation between players.

That doesn't seem to be the case with your players as they can't even loot in a civilized manner. My suggestion to you is that you take look out of your game. It is a perfectly viable method to give all your players a +1 to attack and damage rolls and a +1 to all defenses every 5 levels.

This will keep their attack and damage bonuses along with their defenses in line with what the game expects players to have.

Also, are you players 6? Not being able to split loot seems like a very immature thing to do. I mean honestly, is the rogue taking plate armor just because he got to the loot chest first?
 

For all of my parties we use group treasure. Everything we find automatically belongs to the group as a whole. At certain intervals usually when we reach town we figure out the sale price of all of the loot we have found to date and if an individual wants a particular item the can buy it off of the group at the same price it could be sold for. Example there is a party of four that finds 5 +1 Greatswords with a sell price of 1,000gp each. The total party treasure is 5,000gp with an individual share of 1,250. If the fighter wants a greatsword he will 250gp (1,250 less 1000 sell price) and the rest of the party will get 1,250gp. If we find an item that two people want they roll off for who gets it (no modifiers just straight roll). Its a little more complicated and you need a group accountant but it makes everything fair and reduces the party infighting as their is no monetary advantage to claiming an item.
 


One idea is, before the campaign, ask each player to give you a want list of items. Each item is "earmarked" for individual players. Unless everyone is using similar weapon/implement types, armor types, etc ... there shouldn't be arguments over who gets what.

You might have the warlock and wizard fight over a wand, the ranger and intelligent warlord fight over hide armor, etc. A longsword might also be up for grabs. But ultimately, there is going to be enough loot to go around for each party member to get the weapon/armor they need ... the rest is gravy.

The harder part is choosing how to spend the money, IMHO, as it isn't as obvious how it should be spent, and the DM can't as strongly control giving players exactly what they need at any given time.
 

D&D has always had a strong 'treasure hunting' aspect. If your group enjoys that, then it might be fun to make it the focus. Instead of 'heroic quest' plot hooks, drop treasure maps and rumors of lost cities of gold and the like in front of them to get them motivated. Use plot twists like guides or other allies trying to trick them out of thier treasure, or enemies using fake rumors/maps/etc to lure them into traps. Go back to the AD&D paradigm of traps and cursed items, to make being the first to dive into the treasure horde and claim the choice items an act of bravery as well as greed.

As far as PCs using skill checks on eachother to settle arguments, it doesn't work per the rules, but, if the players come to an IC or OOC impasse, but are willing to agree to lettting a contested skill roll decide it, it's as good a way as any of getting past the dispute and moving on.
 

they are greedy

Problem is what ever they see they try to get before others. Imagine that they kill goblins 5 of them. Each of them tries to loot , for instance if they kill a brute boss who has axe in hand. Wizard and rogue runs to capture it even they wont use it.

After then role play starts. Fighter says please give it to me, i may need it.
Rogue says which one ooo axe. its from my father not from this goblin. and he says i am bluffing he want to throw dice. ok totally he makes 25 with his bonuses.

So what will happen now? Fighter says that i have every right to act as my character wants. so i do not believe. he says after then i am intimidating gim to give me the axe otherwise.....

Chaotic neutral characters is chaotic so what can you do ? I can not imagine what i can do if they were evil. :))))))))))

Best solution for me has to be in the game. There has to be a rule for that. for instance two of them together throw dice for diplomacy who is higher wins. something like that ?
 


Well, in your situation I would say that there are bigger problems than trying to find a rule in the game to enforce roleplaying.

However, here are a two rules that may assist you in ruling on some of these problems.

Opposed Skill Checks (Player's Handbook p. 178):
I would use this rule when two of your PCs are using skills on each other. For example, say the fighter wants to use his Intimidate skill to force the Rogue to give him the axe. Then I would say that this is an opposed roll which involved the Fighter's Intimidate skill vs. the Rogue's Insight skill.

Ability Checks (Player's Handbook p. 26):
I would use this rule for PC contests that don't involve skills. For example, let's say that both the Fighter and Rogue grabbed the axe at the same time, then each would make a Strength Ability check and the higher check wins. Now, let's say that both go to grab the axe at the same time, then they would make Dexterity Ability checks.
 
Last edited:

Into the Woods

Remove ads

Top