Whatever happened to all the adventurous heroes?

[Tinker Gnome]

D&D is about (at its core) heroic adventuring. When I run a game, I want the party to be heroes. My group however tend towards the mercenary, don't care - won't care, just give us the gold, its not our problem, type of play which I can't stand! The one time I raised that point, they got offended for some reason.

Players should want to emulate the heroes of fantasy literature and movies, not be the anti-heroes who don't care.

My players are like that too, and it does annoy me to no end. I am letting them have a lot of magical items and stuff in hopes that one day they will get bored killing everything they fight in one hit and will want to turn it down a notch.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

I like to think that I would've gone and investigated, but, really...wouldn't the crew of the ship gotten a bit nervous when a guy comes out of his room armed and armored? (Leather travelling armor, of course!)

Brad

 

[Ogre Mage]

Q: What happened to the adventurous heroes?
A: They were frightened to death by killer DMs.

 

[ForceUser]

Q: What happened to the adventurous heroes?
A: They were frightened to death by killer DMs.

You know, that's a valid point. My buddy Hjorimir terrifies players. He's clever, imaginative, and never holds back in combat with his monsters. It's been proven that in his campaign, adventuring is dangerous. Which is great, and exciting, and scary-good, but it does cause even typical heroic archetypes such as paladins to make decisions with extreme caution. I suppose, in a sense, players in Hjorimir's campaign have learned that being too heroic leads too easily to dead characters.

 

[dedstuff]

From the other side

I am one of the Quasqueton's players so I thought I would add my two cents. When this action first started we were all asleep and I believed that only one character had actually heard the commotion. That character, the halfing mage, hid under the covers. I did nothing because my character hadn't heard the noise and took a little time to figure out what the other passengers were agitated about. Then I went to see what had happened, not because I was heroic, but because I had been hired to keep an eye on some of the cargo.

As to why the other players acted as they did, the halfing's player stated after the session that he had not acted in the session as he had envisioned his character and didn't know why. I don't know about the others but I suspect that they were also slow to act because they hadn't heard the noise.

In our general defense, we have discovered that rushing into encounters is usually bad. Admittedly, this is metagaming but it is hard to resist. But Quasqueton is a good DM and runs a good campaign. In fact, he is a better DM than we are players.

 

[Miqaxd]

I'm another player in Q's campaign, and play the Monk. My character heard neither of two the "noises", and didn't find out until most of the people on the boat had waken, and their noise woke him up. He figured that with over 250 people on board, someone may have tripped over something. Boy was he wrong ....

 

[Vocenoctum]

These PCs were not created according to the GM's guidelines. He's got a fair beef, in my books. If nothing at the start had been said about PC generation (in addition to methods of stat generation, and which rule supplements to use, the GM has a fair amount of input into what personality types he wants in his game) then anything goes. But if the GM has stated PC personality types he wants, then that should be followed. If you don't like it, you're playing in the wrong game.

I'm running Key of Destiny, and before start I had explained to the PCs that I wanted a generally altruistic, light hearted type of game. The PC's needed to have the basic curiosity to follow up on a thread without the goal of immediate reward, and be willing to wander the countryside in pursuit of a goal that might not be obvious, other than "life's an adventure". Also mentioned that diplomacy can settle quite a few encounters in the game...

I didn't really get it from any of the players. I've had 2-3 asking "why are we looking for information about X?" IC, wanting to know when they get paid. If they didn't want to be part of the campaign, or wanted something different, a month or two ago was the proper time.

 

[Mark]

Whatever happened to all the adventurous heroes?

If the players don't create characters that have buttons to push (essentially allowing themselves to be prone to hooks by portraying themselves as heroic), then find out what buttons the actual players have and subtly lace them into your game.

For instance, find out what the favorite food is for one player and create an in-game equivalent to tempt his character. If one of the other players is particularly close to a relative, such as an uncle, create an uncle, in-game, for his character. Find out what motivates them in real life and utilize these tendancies within the game, analogously.

Alternately, for the one that will only work for money, use it. Find a way to draw him into a gambling contest of some kind and rig it so he loses. He will then, not only want to work for gold, but HAVE to work for gold...and soon...lest his creditors come looking for him (and they can always be just a step behind when he needs motivating).

I'm not suggesting that you pile this on all at once and exploit it continually (unless that works ). Pick your moments. Even as you are exploiting one or another of these, you should be sowing the seeds of another so it is available to you down the road.

IMO, it is important, as a DM, to be able to manipulate the players, if that is what it takes, so the stakes of the game feel high.

 

[Mark]

I'm another player in Q's campaign, and play the Monk. My character heard neither of two the "noises", and didn't find out until most of the people on the boat had waken, and their noise woke him up. He figured that with over 250 people on board, someone may have tripped over something. Boy was he wrong ....

Does "Q" spend a lot of your game time describing mundane events, like people tripping over stuff? Does your Monk value the pillow more than his punch?

 

[swrushing]

[/QUOTE]

I just started a new campaign.

Are the players new to you as Gm and vice-versa or are you generally experienced with each other?

We started with the PCs not knowing each other, but are fellow passengers on a very large immigrant ship.

Ok so basically no tie ins with each other. Was that your design decision?

One night, the ship is awakened to thumps, bumps, and faint screams from the cargo hold. One PC is annoyed at having his sleep disturbed. One PC shows complete apathy to the event. One PC is frightened and hides under his blankets. The other PC at least shows interest enough to go investigate the problem---but this is mostly due to him being a guard for some of the freight stored in the hold (he only acts when paid to act).

if i get this right, the one PC you had already established with play in game had a in character reason to act the way you wanted/expected/hoped, did so, and all the other characters who had no such setup did not?

if that is correct, perhaps that is a clue.

I mentioned to the Players, if this is how their PCs react, then it is going to be a very short campaign.

Just as an aside, if i got such a comment from a Gm after what you described, then it might very well be for me a short campaign.

IS it incredulous, unbelievable and to be totally unexpected that, when passengers on a ship hear a noise, even screams, they let those crewman who have the responsibility take care of it?

Is it out of the realm of sanity to expect the Gm to be prepared for this possibility?

IMX, the answer to both of these is "no".

best i can do is give some tips...

if you have characters in advance, design plots, encounters and stories around them with personal hooks to draw them in. The one guy you gave a link to the cargo hold did just what you expected. Thats a clue!

if you dont have time for this, like say PCs are submitted right before the session, then you need a plot for that first session or two that will not depend on your guess as to what they might do. it needs to be a reactive event, one that sweeps into them. This gives you time (assuming it takes two sessions, thats what, two weeks to prep?) to work over the pc backgrounds and get setup for the more personal plots.

After a while, with experience with the players and the characters, you should be able to get a better handle on the whole "what motivates them" thing.