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<blockquote data-quote="bento" data-source="post: 3859901" data-attributes="member: 36597">Sounds like our two groups could be interchangable at times.When I started with my current group at the pre-game meet-up everyone said they really like the story telling aspects, but once we got started most of them only responded to combat situations.&nbsp; I now feel that RPing seems a little strained for me and it's turning into a echo-chamber effect.I have one player, who, while a powergamer in the sense that his character is created to dish out maximum damage, invested skill points in six different languages so he can chat up most monsters.&nbsp; Another player is a fighter with only Intimidate as a social option, and a third that can be easily de-railed into combat at a moment's notice.For the most part I've stopped trying to be too elaborate with parlay encounters.&nbsp; Anytime I want them to parlay rather than outright kill an NPC I make (and clearly show) the NPC as someone they don't want to mess with.&nbsp; I had one old wizard who had several wands dangling from his robes.&nbsp; Another was a slave master had two ogres for bodyguards.I think the best thing to do (and it worked for another group I GMed last year) is to play something besides &quot;standard D&amp;D.&quot;&nbsp; I find D&amp;D (D20) brings out the tactical nature of players more than I like if I want to have decent RPing.&nbsp; When I moved our game to True20, their need for XP was taken away and shifted to successfully completing missions to level up.&nbsp; They were more willing to parlay and find non-lethal means to get what they want.&nbsp; If you don't want to go that far, you can always use player tokens, where users reward each other for role playing their characters (and you give XP to the person with the most tokens won). There are too many options for changing things around to not try them.&nbsp; And if your players complain they want more combat, you could always try board games or DDM.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="bento, post: 3859901, member: 36597"] Sounds like our two groups could be interchangable at times. When I started with my current group at the pre-game meet-up everyone said they really like the story telling aspects, but once we got started most of them only responded to combat situations. I now feel that RPing seems a little strained for me and it's turning into a echo-chamber effect. I have one player, who, while a powergamer in the sense that his character is created to dish out maximum damage, invested skill points in six different languages so he can chat up most monsters. Another player is a fighter with only Intimidate as a social option, and a third that can be easily de-railed into combat at a moment's notice. For the most part I've stopped trying to be too elaborate with parlay encounters. Anytime I want them to parlay rather than outright kill an NPC I make (and clearly show) the NPC as someone they don't want to mess with. I had one old wizard who had several wands dangling from his robes. Another was a slave master had two ogres for bodyguards. I think the best thing to do (and it worked for another group I GMed last year) is to play something besides "standard D&D." I find D&D (D20) brings out the tactical nature of players more than I like if I want to have decent RPing. When I moved our game to True20, their need for XP was taken away and shifted to successfully completing missions to level up. They were more willing to parlay and find non-lethal means to get what they want. If you don't want to go that far, you can always use player tokens, where users reward each other for role playing their characters (and you give XP to the person with the most tokens won). There are too many options for changing things around to not try them. And if your players complain they want more combat, you could always try board games or DDM. [/QUOTE]

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