Too Much Roleplaying - Not Enough Hacking - keeping the action flowing
- Thread starter pogre
- Start date
Storminator
First Post
I was DMing for my teenager and his friends. There were 9 of them, and they lived for combat. We ended one session with the sacking of a frontier town.
The next session was rounding up the townsfolk for slavery, searching all the houses for valuables, burning the town, escorting the slaves to market, selling them, and returning to the frontier. That took a few hours (nothing is efficient with 9 teens), and I was ready to call it a night. One of the boys said, "it's not D&D if there's no combat!" and all the rest agreed. Sooooooo......
"Orcs jump out of the bushes and attack you!" Thus begins the most one-sided rolling session I've ever seen. PCs are between 3rd and 5th level. No one makes a spot check, so the orcs surprise and toss some javelins. The wizard PC (a munchkin if ever there was one) claims he has his Pro vs Arrows spell up. So I roll off against him, he wins, and I let him have his spell running. So the barbarian takes a couple points of damage and the wizard doesn't. So the wizard stands in front of the barbarian (protecting him?!?) and taunts the orcs. Who draw greataxes and charge from all directions. First charge critical hit on wizard, DEAD. Critical hit on Fighter, DEAD. Not down, but under -10, dead dead dead.
No PC can hit. No orc can miss. Soon these 10 orcs have 2 dead PCs, 2 downed PCs, two PCs with single digit hp, and haven't taken a point of damage. Priest of Kossuth steps back and casts Burning Hands on one side of the battlefield. Half the orcs die. Players are shocked. "These are regular orcs?!?" Evil grin, "yup."
The law of averages asserts itself, and most of the other orcs go down. Last two run away. Barbarian chases one, monk chases the other. Both PCs try to grapple. Both orcs crit with the AoO. Monk goes down, barbarian is in single digit hp, and that's only because of rage. Last orcs run away.
In the end, 6 PCs down, 2 dead, a total of about 12 hps in the whole party. And we hand out XP! 75 each.
But it was a real D&D session!
PS
The next session was rounding up the townsfolk for slavery, searching all the houses for valuables, burning the town, escorting the slaves to market, selling them, and returning to the frontier. That took a few hours (nothing is efficient with 9 teens), and I was ready to call it a night. One of the boys said, "it's not D&D if there's no combat!" and all the rest agreed. Sooooooo......
"Orcs jump out of the bushes and attack you!" Thus begins the most one-sided rolling session I've ever seen. PCs are between 3rd and 5th level. No one makes a spot check, so the orcs surprise and toss some javelins. The wizard PC (a munchkin if ever there was one) claims he has his Pro vs Arrows spell up. So I roll off against him, he wins, and I let him have his spell running. So the barbarian takes a couple points of damage and the wizard doesn't. So the wizard stands in front of the barbarian (protecting him?!?) and taunts the orcs. Who draw greataxes and charge from all directions. First charge critical hit on wizard, DEAD. Critical hit on Fighter, DEAD. Not down, but under -10, dead dead dead.
No PC can hit. No orc can miss. Soon these 10 orcs have 2 dead PCs, 2 downed PCs, two PCs with single digit hp, and haven't taken a point of damage. Priest of Kossuth steps back and casts Burning Hands on one side of the battlefield. Half the orcs die. Players are shocked. "These are regular orcs?!?" Evil grin, "yup."
The law of averages asserts itself, and most of the other orcs go down. Last two run away. Barbarian chases one, monk chases the other. Both PCs try to grapple. Both orcs crit with the AoO. Monk goes down, barbarian is in single digit hp, and that's only because of rage. Last orcs run away.
In the end, 6 PCs down, 2 dead, a total of about 12 hps in the whole party. And we hand out XP! 75 each.
But it was a real D&D session!
PS
Thornir Alekeg
Albatross!
I'm in the 1 combat per session camp. I have two players in my Scarred Lands campaign who are all about the combat. On rare nights where we didn't have a good fight, I heard quite a bit about it afterwards. They really look forward to the chance to kill things - one is a nurse, I think it is therapeutic for her to hurt instead of heal 
. The only time I had a combat free session they did not hate was when they attended a fair and participated in other contests, but even then they were looking for a real fight by the end of the session.
Sessions that are pretty much only combat are a little disappointing for me. I like some balance.
. The only time I had a combat free session they did not hate was when they attended a fair and participated in other contests, but even then they were looking for a real fight by the end of the session.Sessions that are pretty much only combat are a little disappointing for me. I like some balance.
I'm playing in a Scarred Lands campaign now. The DM apparently loves combat above all else. I swear we cant walk 5 feet without a random encounter. I'm level 7, I dont even have a weapon on my fighter, we've fought so much and so varied stuff in the wilderness, I am now fighting with a dagger, my greataxe broke in the fight against the acidic hoojits. So now I fight featless and basically weaponless. I have no magic items, no good armor, no weapon, but I fight a lot. Getting back to the city to buy a new axe? Lets roll on the random encounter table. Hey look! Another encounter!
I dont think I have spoken to anyone but my party members in 3 months of gametime. Its retarded.
I dont think I have spoken to anyone but my party members in 3 months of gametime. Its retarded.
Henry
Autoexreginated
Rel said:
I suppose it could be fun in a.... "grinding the sword down to the pommel" sort of way...
BTW, Rel, drop me a line or a thread on how your first session went! Anything memorable?
As for combat in my games, I usually plan for at least one a session. I have too many butt-kickers in my games to not have one. We occasionally have a combat-less session, but it's pretty rare, and seems to tank the morale of the session. In fact, in some sessions with no combat, it seems to tip over the other way, and the next session the party intentionally CAUSES a fight no matter what! One of those was a rather infamous "Waco, Texas"-mimicking incident in our group...
My thanks to Old One's reminder to always have a ready-made combat handy. If we do it with our NPC's and our world-setting, then why not with our combats?
Wombat
First Post
In general, we have 1-2 combats per session. We also have a fair number of tense situations not involving combat (dismantling traps, sneaking into/out of guarded locations, etc.).
We also do a lot of roleplaying, getting into character.
Sessions with no combat are no despised. Such sessions can still be tense, involve a lot of dice rolling, etc.
The amount of dice rolling, combat, etc., is determined by the general plot, the choices of the players, and interactions with NPCs. It is not a matter of combat-or-roleplaying.
We also do a lot of roleplaying, getting into character.
Sessions with no combat are no despised. Such sessions can still be tense, involve a lot of dice rolling, etc.
The amount of dice rolling, combat, etc., is determined by the general plot, the choices of the players, and interactions with NPCs. It is not a matter of combat-or-roleplaying.
pogre
Legend
I appreciate all of the reflections I have read here.
Someone mentioned it is about knowing your players. I quite agree. And I know they love a good fight, at least one - preferably more.
My instinct about having a fight in the bullpen appears to be in line with what a lot of others do. My ideas were very much along the lines of OO's suggestions - scary!
BTW - this was our 32nd session of this campaign and the first without combat.
I'm not sure I agree with those suggesting disappointing players is a good thing that spurs them into action. I try to keep things flying at them to insure lots of conflict - although I quite agree it does not have to result in combat.
Thanks for many of the insightful comments!
Someone mentioned it is about knowing your players. I quite agree. And I know they love a good fight, at least one - preferably more.
My instinct about having a fight in the bullpen appears to be in line with what a lot of others do. My ideas were very much along the lines of OO's suggestions - scary!
BTW - this was our 32nd session of this campaign and the first without combat.
I'm not sure I agree with those suggesting disappointing players is a good thing that spurs them into action. I try to keep things flying at them to insure lots of conflict - although I quite agree it does not have to result in combat.
Thanks for many of the insightful comments!
Patryn of Elvenshae
First Post
Old One: Is that e-mail at the Military Officer's Association of America, as in the former The Retired Officer's Association of America?
Good on ya!
Good on ya!
