Save My Game

[Guardsmith]

The recent Save My Game over at the WotC site (www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sg/20070126) brought up an issue that has been plaguing games I have been DMing/GMing for a while now. Essentially, my idea of how the game should be played and the way the players have been playing it has come into conflict. I've tried my best to deal with it, but I usually end up being frustrated, which the players sometimes interpret as anger towards them.

Now the article above does a good job at helping me identify my particular problem, but it really doesn't have any advice about correcting it. Has anyone out in ENWorld-land had a similar problem and found a good way to deal with it?

Thanks, in advance

 

[Shroomy]

Is your problem the more general GM vision vs. Player Vision, and if so, what are the specifics, or is the problem that the PCs are smashing down doors and walls with adamantine weapons?

 

[Crothian]

What is the way you feel the game should be played? And what do your players do that conflicty with it?

I like to talk to my guys and work things out. Or if I don't feel like that I go all Malkavian on them and manipulate them to play my way.

 

[Guardsmith]

The problem is more GM vision vs. Player vision, I think.

Example: PCs know BBEG has the evil artifact and is going to use it to take over the city. He's at the temple right now performing the ritual. Instead of rushing in and trying to stop it by themselves, they run to the City Watch and demand its help in stopping it.

Now, in the past I've just gone ahead and destroyed them and the city, but this happened to many times and the players started to complain ...

 

[Crothian]

What's wrong with the players seeking help?

 

[Guardsmith]

What's wrong with the players seeking help?

Nothing, I guess, but it's not very heroic in my mind.

Plus, it completely throws out of balance the encounter I had planned. Now the PCs will overwhelmingly win, and the players will complain that the game is boring ...

 

[Crothian]

Nothing, I guess, but it's not very heroic in my mind.

Plus, it completely throws out of balance the encounter I had planned. Now the PCs will overwhelmingly win, and the players will complain that the game is boring ...

Then talk to your players about it. I'd start by saying the more NPCs that help then win a fight the less XP they get for it. I've found Players hate to get less XP.

 

[Guardsmith]

Their reply is that they'd rather have less XP than have to make a new character.

 

[Dremmen]

Nothing, I guess but it's not very heroic in my mind.

Guardsmith, there is a fairly straightforward trick (much more complex in its execution) that I try to at least keep in mind when I run a game. RPGs are often more fun for the players when they are open ended (or at least *seem* that way), and the players can choose their own destiny - this, after all, is really intrinsic to the nature of the game. Yes, as a DM I have ground my teeth and lost a few hairs as players either miss important clues, don't care to follow a plot hook, or kill an important NPC. However, as a DM one has to roll with the punches. At the same time, there are consequences.

Now I am not saying that I side with your players...exactly. I would not fault them for going to the guard - given the circumstances, this seems a very in game, in character appropriate course of action. In your shoes, if I was dead set against them getting help with the quest, my response would be that the guard laugh at their assertion that there is some *mystical artifact* that can destroy a whole city, ignore them as drunken lauts and send them on their way. And if the players keep insisting then they can spend a day in the city holds for disorderly, probably drunken conduct, or even the local sanitarium for their crazy behavior. All in game, the players are dissuaded from seeking aid because noone believes them, and you are not railroading them, just sticking to the game world.

Personally I'd give them a couple of NPC guards as reward for thinking of going to the guard for help, specially if they made a good argument or had evidence. Of course, since they are getting help I'd have to make the encounters a little tougher...

My two cents anyways.

 

[Crothian]

Their reply is that they'd rather have less XP than have to make a new character.

Another way to do is make the guard first level warriors. Getting the towns guard all killed is never a good thing.