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

[R_J_K75]

Honestly, Prak, the situation as a whole, sounds quite cool!
I love those moments, when I don’t know what will happen.

As long as real world friendships are not in danger....having Civil War, Marvel style, in your game can be quite invigorating....though a pain to plan for as a DM.

I was thinking the same. Sometimes I have the most fun as a DM when I stop planning, thinking ahead and just throw the planned adventure to the side and roll with the punches. Those often are the most memorable games.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Some players want to go the Intrigue route, while some players want to go the Kill Stuff route. So it's a group dynamic thing. The Intrigue players favor Plan A, while the Kill Stuff players favor Plan B. But even when the players start to agree on an approach, they can't seem to agree on who to kill or who to ally with.

And no, this isn't that sort of adventure. It's a straightforward dungeon-crawl. At least, it's supposed to be. But when the players tried to defuse a combat situation with some clever roleplay and diplomacy, I went along with it. Now some of the players want to side with the Bad Guys, and the intrigue elements are starting to take over the game.

One thing to watch out for here, which can cause problems down the line, is that the "kill stuff" group can probably force the hand of the "intrigue" group by starting a fight with the enemies, but likely not vice-versa, which can cause intra-group conflict and bad feelings. Back in the '90s this was a regular issue in our CP2020 games, because we had one player whose preferred solution to all things was "shoot the hell out of it", and if bored, he would happily ignore the plan and start lighting people up (he was basically that guy in gangster movies who is called "Psycho" or whatever who just shoots a guy half-way through a conversation).

Also how bad are the Bad Guys? Like, gangster bad or illithid/demon bad? If they're more towards the latter, and particularly if the PCs haven't realized this, you might want to force the hand of the PCs a bit, because that way you an unify the group, purpose-wise and prevent the campaign potentially going off the rails.

@atanakar PKB son.

 

[iserith]

The party was being trailed by a spy, but they caught him and disposed of him. Then the bard used disguise self to report to the spy's superior and convince him that the party wasn't a threat (which the bard did through good preparation, good roleplay, and good Deception checks).

The party has played the intrigue game very well, eliminating all possible threats and covering their trail, which is why I'm hesitant to toss all that aside and just drop an ambush on them. They've done everything they could to prevent a battle, and I haven't exactly been treating them with kid gloves.

Anyway, the party is returning to the adventure site next session, so there should be more action next week. I'm just not sure how it will all play out, with the group divided as it is. Two of the players want to talk their way into another meeting with Bad Guy Leader so they can capture him (presumably without a fight). But one player, who has already said he doesn't want to kill any Bad Guys, is clearly put out by this plan and wants to side with the Bad Guys. So group tensions could come to a head next week. I hope not, but that seems to be the way things are headed.

How is XP awarded in this game?

 

[jasper]

...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.]
...

.

I once was in a group who two of players over planned. One of over planners said, 'Me and my spouse can go 4 hours planning and it no problem.' Hey after 20 minutes of planning, I am breaking out the cross stitch or phone. Now if the whole group is enjoying the no combat, I have no problems.

 

[jasper]

Saying "X time is too long" is pretty silly stuff and means you aren't understanding your role in this, as a DM. If you set up a really complicated situation, and make it seem really high stakes, and the players react by planning elaborately, you are to blame, not the players, and putting a timer on them, rather than apologising and asking if they could do it within a certain timeframe is dubious DMing, I would suggest.

Oh BEEP BEEP NO. If they are planning and sticking with A plan, again ONE hour. MAX. If they are trying come up with the perfect plan to reduce the hit point take down to zero, the monsters have eaten two other adventuring groups and have left the building.
I was dming ONCE for Friends of a friend. It took the two experience D&Ders 2 hours to go left or right, in a Alice in wonder land dungeon. The poor newby who became my best man never played D&D again.

 

[R_J_K75]

I once was in a group who two of players over planned. One of over planners said, 'Me and my spouse can go 4 hours planning and it no problem.' Hey after 20 minutes of planning, I am breaking out the cross stitch or phone. Now if the whole group is enjoying the no combat, I have no problems.

I started a 2E game because me and 2 friends were sitting around drinking beer and realized we all had played ( with different groups) and havent in a long time. The next day I dug out my books and they rolled up characters and I DMed. I dont remember much of the first session other than we played a really long time, something like 18-22 hrs, and we did nothing but roleplay and I think a single d20 was rolled all game. It was lots of fun and the 3 of us played together for quite awhile. But thats not for everyone or even for every gaming group every session. Balance is the key.

 

[Li Shenron]

The party was being trailed by a spy, but they caught him and disposed of him. Then the bard used disguise self to report to the spy's superior and convince him that the party wasn't a threat (which the bard did through good preparation, good roleplay, and good Deception checks).

The party has played the intrigue game very well, eliminating all possible threats and covering their trail, which is why I'm hesitant to toss all that aside and just drop an ambush on them. They've done everything they could to prevent a battle, and I haven't exactly been treating them with kid gloves.

Anyway, the party is returning to the adventure site next session, so there should be more action next week. I'm just not sure how it will all play out, with the group divided as it is. Two of the players want to talk their way into another meeting with Bad Guy Leader so they can capture him (presumably without a fight). But one player, who has already said he doesn't want to kill any Bad Guys, is clearly put out by this plan and wants to side with the Bad Guys. So group tensions could come to a head next week. I hope not, but that seems to be the way things are headed.

What is exactly the problem then? I think all the players are having fun playing the way they want, except you and one player who you said is getting frustrated. Maybe it's him who is "wrong" for the rest of the group.

 

[Reynard]

What is exactly the problem then? I think all the players are having fun playing the way they want, except you and one player who you said is getting frustrated. Maybe it's him who is "wrong" for the rest of the group.

Assuming a typical group size, you are dismissing 2 out of 5 of the participants' concerns. The GM matters, too, unless he is a hired screen monkey, and the bored player should not be dismissed out of hand. It is a group activity where everyone has equal stake in the fun generated through play.

Again, the GM is responsible for pacing. If a player is bored, the pacing is off. It's up to the GM to come to a solution to solve that problem. The risk of not doing so is the bored player a) deciding to do so and that almost never turns out well, or b) leaving the group (or the game entirely, as noted by examples above).

 

[Fenris-77]

There's a very cool 5e hack that uses mechanics from Blades in the Dark, it's called Here's To Crime by Jimmy Merrit. Obviously very useful for urban intrigue, but the important thing is that is has a nice system for using inspiration to trigger Blades-style flashbacks. Adding a flashback mechanic can work wonders for cutting down on planning time because the players know they'll be able to shore up the wonky bits as they go so there's no need to plan everything in excruciating detail.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Three things I've learned over the years:

• Okay D&D is still D&D. It's still getting together and telling a story together, laughing, making jokes, getting into character, solving puzzles, fighting monsters, all these things.
• The DMs perception of whether a session is good or not is sometimes completely off from the players. Also, see the point above.
• Not every session can be great. But every session is a chance to learn how to be a better DM, and that goes doubly for the less-than-good sessions. If something could've gone better in a session, I always try to do a post-mortem root cause analysis, so that I can do better the next time.

If it's been a while since there's been combat and you sense there are some players losing interest, yeah, I'd absolutely open the next session with a solid fight, like right then and there at the beginning. Umber Hulks busting into the chamber the PCs are in like they're the Kool-Aid Man or something, immediate and surprising.

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.