Too Much Roleplaying - Not Enough Hacking - keeping the action flowing

[Arnwyn]

Next time I will have an encounter planned that will happen no matter what! Do you have an encounter in the bullpen like this?

Yep. My players like the action as well, and if they just seem to be in the wrong place... well... the action finds them. (It's good that in my campaign, virtually everywhere is somewhat dangerous.)

 

[Old One]

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!

Uh-oh...my secret is out ! Yep...on staff here.

~ OO

 

[Henry]

Old One: Is that e-mail at the Military Officer's Association of America

Probably so, if I recall correctly. Let me also add that Old One can DM one hell of a siege combat.

FOR THE GLORY OF THE EMPIRE!

 

[azmodean]

I'm definitely what you would call "simulationist". Before each game I make sure I have enough challenges statted up to last at least two game sessions, and the party can take them or leave them, though I can get away with it because my party rarely ignores a hook.

Just last session I let the party know that a group of giants in sieging their base of operations (the party was out of the country) and the player of the *death knight* said something about diplomacy, I was completely floored. Good thing he said something, now I'm ready to run it either as a combat or as a diplomatic encounter

I don't usually worry about "at least one encounter a session", my players made combat characters, they could use noncombat means to get through encounters, but they usually don't.

 

[cmanos]

I aim for at least one combat per session. Even if it is totally unrelated to the plot. My characters tend to think everything is related to the metaplot, so they try and figure out how it all fits in. What they don't know is there are multiple secondary plots. "Random" encounters tend not to be so random. Some are, just to throw them off, though. But I always try to figure out, "WHy is this combat occurring? What are the bad guys trying to accomplish?"

 

[Seeten]

Death Knight? Like from Secret College of Necromancy Death Knight? heh. Choice is good though. See, I like that. The ability to get out of the fight by rp, if I choose. Thats what RP is about. Making decisions that meaningfully affect the game.

Thats what our game lacks.

 

[ivocaliban]

I suppose my campaign averages a battle every two out of three sessions. Personally, I would rather do without combat than have to throw something in that seems forced or out of context. If I had a larger group of players I'd probably aim for more combat (one per session), but as it is no one minds when there's no encounters...as long as the roleplaying is engaging.

 

[Desdichado]

I aim for at least one combat per session. Even if it is totally unrelated to the plot. My characters tend to think everything is related to the metaplot, so they try and figure out how it all fits in. What they don't know is there are multiple secondary plots. "Random" encounters tend not to be so random. Some are, just to throw them off, though. But I always try to figure out, "WHy is this combat occurring? What are the bad guys trying to accomplish?"

The good thing is; even if it isn't related to the metaplot when they actually have the encounter, you can figure it all out later. Some of my "gratuitous" encounters end up being not so gratuitous once I start to figure out how they can tie to one or more of the big bad organizations of the campaign.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Huh. Must be something in the air-- our last session was nearly combatless, as well.

Which is not to say they didn't accomplish a lot-- here's what they did (in terms I know you can understand, pogre):

• After a brief interrogation, they made it back to town with a crazed elf prisoner (Pale, of Vorban and Pale)
  
• Paid a priest in town to cure the elf of his insanity, and re-interrogated him
  
• Gave the elf the magic axe they'd looted off his crazy dwarven comrade (who the paladin had "thumped too hard" trying to subdue)
  
• The elf, grateful that he'd at least be able to take his comrade's axe back to his people, gave them his own belongings as "loot" instead
  
• The priest gave them two fresh wands of cure light wounds for their good deeds
  
• For good measure, they paid to have the priest cast remove curse on the entire party (good thing, too-- two out of five were infected with the crazy)
  
• Bought several scrolls of knock they'd been needing for a while
  
• At great expense, they had the wizards' college anaylze/ID the Arm of Gromm-- the magic, lightnin' throwin', undead-whackin heavy mace (in my game, the mace head is shaped, literally, like a massive fist-- guffaws all around)
  
• Returned to the cave and tried some keys they hadn't tried in a while, opening a door that revealed a magic "cube"-- key to the lower parts of the dungeon
  
• Got stymied by the magical wards keeping them out of Devron's prison
  
• Backtracked over all the riddles/clues they had accumulated so far
  
• Spent 4 game hours digging through the rubble to reveal a hidden room with some major information, including the knowledge that the Chaos Stone could be destroyed with the magic sword they have been trying to find, as well as how to find the sword (finally!)
  
• Deciphered the key riddle that opened a secret door to the first "Flame"
  
• Lit the first "Torch"
  
• Descended down a staircase they still hadn't tried and found "The Halls of Fear"
  
• Barely managed to solve the riddle of the first Hall of Fear and found the secret door leading further into the dungeon

That was over 3 hours of gaming, 10:00 PM, and time to call it a night.

The players demanded we keep playing, I suspect, cause there had been no combat, despite their great advances in plot and position.

Fortunately there was a werewolf nearby, so by 10:15, that combat was over, and everybody seemed pretty satisfied.

(I'm especially a bit worried that the party rogue assured everybody that, despite being mauled by the werewolf, there was no risk of lycanthropy... In truth, the wolf never actually bit him, so he actually isn't in any danger, but he is reinfected with the crazy, so I think that, based on my suspicion that he wants to be infected, the least I can do is let him think he is.)

I really wanted to award them all some XP just for having accomplished so much really, really key plot stuff that night, but they're already dangerously close to making another level after just 3 sessions of play at 4th level, so I didn't do it.

And consistently, it's the lone female gamer at the table who is the most frustrated at "all the talking and shopping crap" and no combat.

God bless 'er.


Wulf

 

[GlassJaw]

One thing that I've found over the years of DMing is that the players really like to roll dice as solutions to stuff.

I'm definitely no hack n' slasher but I still like to roll dice. And if there's no combat in a session, I still want to feel like something was accomplished.

All in all, 1 combat/session is a good guideline to follow.

it's the lone female gamer at the table who is the most frustrated at "all the talking and shopping crap" and no combat.

Wulfwife?

but he is reinfected with the crazy

There seems to be a lot of this in your game Wulf.