D&D General Two sessions in a row without combat...

[Prakriti]

...and I think I'm going stir crazy. These are 4-hour sessions, by the way. The first one was good. It was filled with mystery, murder, and intrigue, and the players discovered a few things they didn't know before. I was really happy to pull that off. But the second session... It didn't need to be that way.

Synopsis: Party comes up with a plan. Call it Plan A. They make preparations. They decide to consult NPC A about Plan A. [Scene with NPC A.] They think up another plan, Plan B. "Let's ask NPC A about it." [Second scene with NPC A.] They make preparations. Someone suggests Plan C. The party discusses the merits of Plan B vs. Plan C. "Maybe NPC B can help with Plan B." [Scene with NPC B.] "Wait, I forgot to ask NPC A..." [Third scene with NPC A.] Someone remembers Plan A. Its merits were never discussed against Plan C's! [Party discusses Plan A vs. Plan C]. "Let's ask NPC B about Plan A." [Third scene with NPC B.] "Let's ask for more money and supplies." [Fourth scene with NPC B.]

Urgh!

I could tell that at least one other player was growing frustrated and bored, which makes me unhappy as a DM, but there's not much I can do about it. I try to keep dull scenes as short as possible, sometimes even saying that we aren't going to do them in real-time. "Just tell me what you're asking NPC A and I'll give you his/her answer." But everything invariably turns into an active roleplay scene that stretches on for far too long (one player still hasn't discovered the art of paraphrasing and embarks on a 5-minute recitation of the party's activities every time he wants to consult an NPC for advice).

Double urgh!

I don't know what to do. Maybe nothing. Hopefully it was just a bad session (for some of us) and the next one will be better. But if things start going the same way next week, I'm throwing monsters at the party. I don't care how little sense it makes. Orcs, goblins, red dragons, they're gonna fight them all.

 

[R_J_K75]

Id just throw some random off the wall encounter at them where theyre at the wrong place at the wrong time and get caught up in a situation that they have no choice but to try and fight their way out of. Have a demon that the summoner lost control of get loose in the market while theyre roleplaying buying a bushel of apples. Problem solved.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Not sure what NPCs A&B's goals and motivations are, but eventually they are either going to get fed up with all the questions; or want in on the action as a consultant ("I'll waive my normal fee, instead i'd like to get 10% of the gross"); and in both cases - the NPCs should be saying - get to the monkey already!

 

[Guest 6801328]

The 3rd time they ask the PCs for more information it turns out they've all been replaced by Doppelgangers.

 

[R_J_K75]

The 3rd time they ask the PCs for more information it turns out they've all been replaced by Doppelgangers.

Or they dont answer their doors because theyre quarantined.

 

[atanakar]

At the beginning of session 3 the PCs learn another group has done the job. They were just too slow. Maybe they will get the hint.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Synopsis: Party comes up with a plan. Call it Plan A. They make preparations. They decide to consult NPC A about Plan A. [Scene with NPC A.] They think up another plan, Plan B. "Let's ask NPC A about it." [Second scene with NPC A.] They make preparations. Someone suggests Plan C. The party discusses the merits of Plan B vs. Plan C. "Maybe NPC B can help with Plan B." [Scene with NPC B.] "Wait, I forgot to ask NPC A..." [Third scene with NPC A.] Someone remembers Plan A. Its merits were never discussed against Plan C's! [Party discusses Plan A vs. Plan C]. "Let's ask NPC B about Plan A." [Third scene with NPC B.] "Let's ask for more money and supplies." [Fourth scene with NPC B.]

I don't know what to do. Maybe nothing. Hopefully it was just a bad session (for some of us) and the next one will be better. But if things start going the same way next week, I'm throwing monsters at the party. I don't care how little sense it makes. Orcs, goblins, red dragons, they're gonna fight them all.

What you need to be asking and I don't think you are is WHY that happened with the PCs. Is this their normal MO? Do they constantly make complex plans, involving multiple NPCs and requiring special supplies and money? Because I'm guessing they don't.

And if they don't, something about the scenario you've presented to them, has caused this to happen. Unless this is their MO, this will have a reason behind it. Throwing random encounters at them isn't going to help, it may even make it worse, as they try and recover.

You've given very little detail, but reading between the lines it sounds like, whatever is happening, is very "high stakes" for the party, and the players/PCs are extremely keen to "get it right the first time" for some reason. This is atypical for adventurers, who usually blunder into stuff face-first (or with a 10' pole if you're lucky!). They usually fly by the seat of their pants, in my experience. But I've seen the same thing - a party who normally normally operate on naughty word, guesswork, bravado and bad ideas and good dice rolls, suddenly snap into elaborate plan mode, and double-checking all those plans.

Now, when this has happened with me, it's because I'd made the stakes seem so high, the consequences of failure seem so steep, that they snapped out of the "seat of the pants" mode and into this super-planner mode (they actually came up with an astoundingly good and resilient plan last time this happened, I was totally blown away by it - they were, for once, two steps ahead of me!).

So if I were you, I'd be thinking "why are they acting like this"? If because of high-stakes stuff, because of fear of failure or the like, don't throw monsters at them, just get their plan into motion. If something needs to change a bit to make the plan need to happen sooner, you can do that. I'm sure the plan will either involve some combat. Even if it shouldn't then you can have a surprise monster somewhere in it (just make sure it's one that can't talk, so they don't have to deal with it raising the alarm or some nonsense).

I strongly disagree with stuff like "have them fail because another group did it" or the like. That's basically throwing an entire session away and saying it was worthless, straight to their face, which is downright insulting, and will not cure the problem, if anything it's going to make it worse, because they're going to become paranoid about that sort of thing. A much better option would be for them to find another group was considering doing the job, or casing the area or whatever. That way they have a reason to go without you have just told them they suck and their plans suck and they can go to hell, which is kind of what @atanakar's suggestion amounts to.

 

[Asisreo]

I feel like this is exactly why the DMG recommends Random Encounters that enrich the story. Something to go "Boo! Get ready to fight!" During monotonous sessions.

 

[R_J_K75]

I strongly disagree with stuff like "have them fail because another group did it" or the like.

I disagree. As long as this is used sparingly and doesnt become the norm then I think its perfectly OK to do this, and depending on the circumstances of the scenario might even be a logical outcome. Id rather play in a campaign that seems real rather than one I feel the DM is placating a long winded overly thought out plan.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I disagree. As long as this is used sparingly and doesnt become the norm then I think its perfectly OK to do this, and depending on the circumstances of the scenario might even be a logical outcome. Id rather play in a campaign that seems real rather than one I feel the DM is placating a long winded overly thought out plan.

It's definitely not okay to just arbitrarily decide that the party fails, after spending a session planning, just because you, as the DM, wanted to do some combat which is literally the case here. That's abysmal behaviour. You should resign as a DM if you behave like that.

If you had a scenario which had always involved another group, and there being competition or a time element, and the PCs had a good possibility to find out about this, but didn't, due to their own shenanigans, then sure, that's totally fair, but that's a totally different scenario. Making up a group out of nothing, just to express your distaste for the players actually planning something properly for once, just to frustrate them, is ghastly.

It flies against every notion of fair play, good DMing, and so on.

What's particularly awful about this suggestion, is that, on this very board, I've seen people suggest that it's awful when the group doesn't make plans, and that they should be punished for it and so on. You can't have it both ways - damned if they do, damned if they don't.