That seems to be my players' style. I'm fine with it, and dispensed with the carefully-crafted long story arcs, and just let them work as adventurers-for-hire. NPCs of different stripes approach them with things they can do for swag, and they take the bait.
No real story, little role-play, just hack-n-slash 'til they're all dead. Again, I'm not complaining, since it makes things pretty easy for me: Just come up with encounters and reasons for them being there. As long as they get to fight, they have no complaints.
I'm looking for suggestions for making this kind of play style as fun as possible. My players are younger guys who love the game, but get bored with descriptions, puzzles, etc. What do you do for your action-crazed Rambos to keep things adrenalized?
Give a time limit on decisions in combat is my biggest one—being really descriptive with combat actions is my other one.
Using the chase mechanics from the GameMastery Guide could be great fun as well.
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If the players are having fun, it doesn't need to be fixed.
One thing I did for my young people was include some moral and t=ethical choices....kick the door in...goblins! kill them all, they cried and rolled for initiative, but what about goblin babies and older and weaker goblins?
maybe have goblins kick their door in once in a while, see how they like it.
again, if the players are having fun...it isn't broke.
This thread reminds me of a glorious moment with my paladin of Irori. He is usually very calm and chooses words over violence whenever he can. Then around lv5 comes an encounter where people are behind barred windows and keeps firing arrows at us. The door has a break DC of 24. My str 16 paladin charges (+2) and beats it down on the first try, dusts himself off and greets the enemy in a polite fashion before he produces his sword.
That was a fun encounter.
Try a survival mode encounter.
An old enemy ambushes them in a tactically interesting battlefield (or a relative of an old enemy or whatever). Have him shout out to his hoard right at the start "I don't care how many of you die, I want them alive!!" So the players know this isn't going to kill their characters, then have wave after wave attack them with a lot of non-leathal damage attacks in the mix so they can't accidentally die, and run the waves at them one right after another, in progressive strength, until they all drop. They get story awards after each wave, with more xp the longer they last, and give them the XP at the table so they know, and let them see how far they can get.
When they come to, have them captured in the dungeon torture chamber, held down in chains which they can break on a 20, with one sleeping guard. Rest is a reverse dungeon crawl where they have to find their gear and escape. Then give them the next dungeon with the Boss so they can get their revenge.
Some good ideas here. :)
Steal ideas from KotDT too. Henchmini-onions, hangers-on, toadies - and jump on bait-n-switch chances when they crop up. If they routinely to go Abdul-Alhazred's Slightly-Used Magic Item and Pawn Shoppe, make him a "colorful" fellow. 2 or 3 recurring NPCs that crop up during down time can liven things up. If you can "seed" some things in early on, the "wait, what, WHO?!" - priceless.
Just as the roleplayers like interesting social situations, so too would the combat monsters enjoy interesting tactical situations. Anything that shakes up the usual encounter paradigm. My example, hold a battle in a room that is slowly filling with water. As the rounds progress the terain goes from damp, to difficult, to swimming, to drowning. The party must think on their feet, and suddenly those lizardmen got alot more threatening.
Good stuff. Thanks!
Oh - I like the battle in the flooding room. How about in a burning building?
Meh! Tried that. BTW Hate Pyrotechnics ;-D Then again, "sadly", I have clever players :-)
It could work though...
Oh - I like the battle in the flooding room. How about in a burning building?
Or put morlocks in a battle belowdecks on a ship. Climbing and swarming could become very effective.
Make things over the top would be my best suggestion. Assault a keep and kill the Orc Warlord (then escape the angry hoard of orcs), defend the dwarven merchant caravan from ogres and hill giants, but give the dwarves a few cannons to help even the battlefield. Make challenges straight over the top, either they are huge in number, or huge in stature. Those are the combats that have worked for me best.
I'm looking for suggestions for making this kind of play style as fun as possible. My players are younger guys who love the game, but get bored with descriptions, puzzles, etc. What do you do for your action-crazed Rambos to keep things adrenalized?
One thing that *kills* adrenaline is a pause between combats.
While combats can technically "end", I'd put the PCs in a situation where combats come to find them. . . and since they're the kick-door-down type, they'll get found.
I'd also put in some mechanic to prevent the PCs from resting. I'd allow somethings to slide -- like barbarian rage in some cases. But basically making "staying put" a bad idea is also good for that type of group.
Another design concept is the idea of the infinite encounter. I put an encounter with relatively easy individual mobs appear in an exponential manner. I did this once with tiny snakes -- 2 pop out, 2 rounds pass, then 4, 2 rounds pass, then 8/2 rounds, then 16/2 rounds, then 32. . . this encounter has three phases.
1. oh this easy. . .
2. dang there's a lot. . .
3. uhoh, we've got to get out of here. . . to live. . .
It's a puzzle that isn't a puzzle. It also gives AoE-using classes a chance to shine. I wouldn't overuse this concept, but every once in a while is fun (:
All I can say is kick down the door expecting goblins to find an ogre who has taken over the goblin den... usually stops (or slows down) door kicking... turns them into dungeon skulkers with 10 foot poles, lol.
Traps on doors would be nasty too.
Personally I like throwing traps into encounters. Monsters are attacking them while traps need to be disabled or destroyed.
I ran an encounter last night where a giant block of ice was blocking the PC's path while hoses spewed freezing water on the party (dealing cold damage and filling the room with water) while they were attacked by Ice Golems. The party had to fight the golems hack their way through the block of ice/ disable the hoses. It makes for an interesting but entirely action oriented encounter.
You can also do things like having pit traps separate the party in the middle of a fight (some in the pit with monsters 1 and 2 and some out with monsters 3 and 4. Again everyone is hacking and slashing but it changes up the status Quo a little bit.
Me: I sunder the door with my adamantine curve blade.
GM: What it is not even locked? You did not even try to open it. Sigh. The door explodes in explosion of splinters, it is sundered by your violence.
Me: Great, how many more?
GM: How many more for what?
Me: How many more vile doors do I need to slay for the door killer achievement?
GM: There is no door killer achievement.
Me: There is a gnoll killer achievement (Legacy of Fire). There is no door killer achievement? What are you a racist?
GM: Doors are not a race.
Me: Not when they are all dead because my crusade against their kind.
GM: Why are you on a murder quest against doors?
Me: They raped my father and killed my mother, I swore on that day I will kill all of their kind to avenge my parents.
Try a survival mode encounter.
An old enemy ambushes them in a tactically interesting battlefield (or a relative of an old enemy or whatever). Have him shout out to his hoard right at the start "I don't care how many of you die, I want them alive!!" So the players know this isn't going to kill their characters, then have wave after wave attack them with a lot of non-leathal damage attacks in the mix so they can't accidentally die, and run the waves at them one right after another, in progressive strength, until they all drop. They get story awards after each wave, with more xp the longer they last, and give them the XP at the table so they know, and let them see how far they can get.
When they come to, have them captured in the dungeon torture chamber, held down in chains which they can break on a 20, with one sleeping guard. Rest is a reverse dungeon crawl where they have to find their gear and escape. Then give them the next dungeon with the Boss so they can get their revenge.
Items like signal horns or whitsles from the apg make good use of this for below ground. MAybe even have some bad guys take over an old abandoned in could make for an interesting adventure. First deal with sentries on the roof. Then have people inside with more bad guys inside the basement with an item they are trying to hide or hostages.
Me: I sunder the door with my adamantine curve blade.
GM: What it is not even locked? You did not even try to open it. Sigh. The door explodes in explosion of splinters, it is sundered by your violence.
Me: Great, how many more?
GM: How many more for what?
Me: How many more vile doors do I need to slay for the door killer achievement?
GM: There is no door killer achievement.
Me: There is a gnoll killer achievement (Legacy of Fire). There is no door killer achievement? What are you a racist?
GM: Doors are not a race.
Me: Not when they are all dead because my crusade against their kind.
GM: Why are you on a murder quest against doors?
Me: They raped my father and killed my mother, I swore on that day I will kill all of their kind to avenge my parents.
+1 I have a player like this. I made my players write brief backstories and make a list of NPCs relevant to their character. Of his four NPCs, two were dead already, one was his severely mentally handicapped sister (who might have also had physical deformities, I forget) and the fourth was the sister's keeper. His sole purpose for adventuring was to earn money for taking care of his sister and having her cured or whatever.
Three sessions in, he asked me to have her killed off because she was a burden to his playstyle. Then his character brooded and swore to spill as much blood as possible despite her death arising from complications with her illnesses, rather than from monster attacks.
Some people just can't be helped.
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That seems to be my players' style. I'm fine with it, and dispensed with the carefully-crafted long story arcs, and just let them work as adventurers-for-hire. NPCs of different stripes approach them with things they can do for swag, and they take the bait.
No real story, little role-play, just hack-n-slash 'til they're all dead. Again, I'm not complaining, since it makes things pretty easy for me: Just come up with encounters and reasons for them being there. As long as they get to fight, they have no complaints.
I'm looking for suggestions for making this kind of play style as fun as possible. My players are younger guys who love the game, but get bored with descriptions, puzzles, etc. What do you do for your action-crazed Rambos to keep things adrenalized?
Door = Advanced Mimic w/ a Heightened Stickyness DC. Then Jumped by kobalds that worship said door. Must fight while 1 leg is stuck to door.
my advice:
make a special challenge every time
have to reach cult-leader in time
Throw the near indestructible ennemy in the lava
if they don't take advantage of terrain, let the foes use it
finally prevent the ever-returning boss from using one of his many escape plans (else they will still have cleared the dungeon, but will be humiliated when they face him again)
etc.
it's still something for straight-on players, but it challenges them a bit. Also, describe everything they like.
RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32
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Buy yourself the "Kobold's guide to Game Design" and read the article about mob combat. Using the ideas in that article, your players will shout for joy at the idea of going at it with a whole horde of bad guys, then freak out as things are not as they first thought.
In fact, just read the whole book. I am sure you will find more then one really good idea in it.
Buy yourself the "Kobold's guide to Game Design" and read the article about mob combat. Using the ideas in that article, your players will shout for joy at the idea of going at it with a whole horde of bad guys, then freak out as things are not as they first thought.
In fact, just read the whole book. I am sure you will find more then one really good idea in it.