D&D 5E "The so-called '5-Minute Workday' is Something I've Seen Regularly Playing 5E D&D" (a poll)

[Willie the Duck]

When the only thing the players care about is their own character...you have nothing to leverage for story and drama. They don't care about the town or the townsfolk, so threatening them doesn't evoke story or drama...it evokes a resounding "meh." Same goes for basically everything else. If the only important thing to the player is their character, that's the only leverage you have as a referee.

What exactly is it that they want their characters to do? Just stand around and bask in their their-character-ness? Do they not want to do anything with these characters? Cause if they just want to sit around talking in character, I'm not sure why you need to show up.

Well, look at all the other kinds of games that exist and have existed before D&D. The parlor games, story games, card games, non-D&D RPGs, etc.

Absolutely. The players are not interested in D&D as I understand it. They want something else. But, because of the dominance of D&D as the RPG, they try to play D&D like...whatever it is that they're actually after.

Alright. Doesn't sound like something a rules structure can address. Forget the 5-minute workday, the individuals you describe sound like they aren't interacting with the day at all, or place, or story. It's bizarre, frustrating, and more than a little puzzling, but honestly it sounds so far afield that in seems a mile past the thread topic.

 

[overgeeked]

What exactly is it that they want their characters to do? Just stand around and bask in their their-character-ness? Do they not want to do anything with these characters? Cause if they just want to sit around talking in character, I'm not sure why you need to show up.

Near as I can tell, they want to always succeed at everything with no or utterly minimal effort, face zero risk, and to constantly be told how awesome they are.

Alright. Doesn't sound like something a rules structure can address. Forget the 5-minute workday, the individuals you describe sound like they aren't interacting with the day at all, or place, or story. It's bizarre, frustrating, and more than a little puzzling, but honestly it sounds so far afield that in seems a mile past the thread topic.

Absolutely.

 

[Mort]

Near as I can tell, they want to always succeed at everything with no or utterly minimal effort, face zero risk, and to constantly be told how awesome they are.

Absolutely.

Honest question,

How often have you actually encountered this?

 

[Oofta]

I'm going to agree. (modern*) D&D frustrates me that you have to put in time pressures (or other, similar things) to make not going and resting after every encounter not be, frankly, the strategically optimal choice. However, I still don't see it come up continuously, and I certainly don't see players actively resisting time pressures.
*BITD we played that the play session ended when you went to rest (or that the dungeon occupants would plan traps/run away with the loot) when you went to rest. Gameplay has moved away from the style without anything coming it to replace it as a mechanism other than DM finding yet another reason why they need to rush

When has 1 fight followed by resting not been the optimal choice in D&D if there were any casters in the group? I remember playing Pool of Radiance(?) video game and climbing a crumbling tower, repeatedly hitting the "rest and heal" button until I didn't get "rocks fall and your rest is interrupted".

The 5 minute work day has always been a potential issue. It's different in 5E, it's not new.

 

[overgeeked]

Honest question,

How often have you actually encountered this?

Well, it's supposition based on evidence not something that any player has flat out said to me. But in aggregate, based on a few hundred 5E players that I've run for and played with, it happens to fit the facts as I've encountered them. See my previous posts in this thread about turtling risk-adverse players as one example.

 

[Mort]

Edit: upon further reading, looks like question was answered.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Not exactly 5 min workday, but effectually the same:
1 encounter per day more often than not.

Houserule: long rests take a whole day instead of a night on the road and no worries anymore.

 

[Jer]

Well, it's supposition based on evidence not something that any player has flat out said to me. But in aggregate, based on a few hundred 5E players that I've run for and played with, it happens to fit the facts as I've encountered them. See my previous posts in this thread about turtling risk-adverse players as one example.

A few hundred players like this?

Wow. I've literally never seen behavior remotely like this when I DM. Not even at cons when I'm a player. You must have some serious bad luck.

 

[Shardstone]

Not exactly 5 min workday, but effectually the same:
1 encounter per day more often than not.

Houserule: long rests take a whole day instead of a night on the road and no worries anymore.

This is really all it took for me to solve the problem too. I spiced it up with ye old standard haven-requirements, but otherwise, ya, solved a lot.

 

[overgeeked]

I meant my question to be more general. Out of the few hundred 5e players, roughly how many actually exhibited this kind of behavior (turtling, refusing to engage the plot, refusing any combat etc.)?

About 80%. It's a rough guess that feels right. Way more than half, but certainly not 100%. My recently ended West Marches game had 37 players at its peak...and every single one of them behaved that way.

To be clear. They didn't refuse any combat. They refused to take risks. As long as they could go into a fight with full resources they would. If they were even a hit point down from full on everything, they'd turtle. "Plot" consequences be damned. I'm fine with players making amazing plans to make a combat moot...diverting a river to flood a dungeon is wonderful as far as I'm concerned. I would gleefully hand the players the list of treasure. But that's not what they did. It's was pure mechanical manipulation and cheese. Using the rules of the game to defeat the spirit of the game. The spirit being high risk, high reward fantasy action-adventure, risking life and limb, etc.

A few hundred players like this?

Wow. I've literally never seen behavior remotely like this when I DM. Not even at cons when I'm a player. You must have some serious bad luck.

Around about 200 players, yes. Over the decade that 5E has been out. My recently ended West Marches game accounts for about 60 of those.