I am just curious - what percentage of your encounters are battles? What other types of encounters are fun to mix into a game?
We occasionally run into NPCs and have discussions. We occasionally use candles to speak to the dead. But I would say 90% of what we do is battle. Is this the same for your campaigns?
I play a rogue, and I find very few occasions to use any of my skills. I have bluff, acrobatics, Oratory and many others, but 90% of the time I either shooting a cross bow or trying to flank an enemy to get a sneak attack.
This is all very repetitive.
What is also interesting is that we ahve a ranger in our party that has a higher perception than I do (+12 vs +9). So it makes more sense for him to look for traps and hide in shadows to find enemies.
So how does the game flow in your adventures?
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I'd say battles consume about 50% of our game. The other half of the time is a mix of roleplaying including making plans and talking to NPCs and shopping. It's fairly common for us to try to find some way to avoid a fight using stealth or diplomacy. As the DM I don't always require skill checks as we love role-playing and I tend to allow great ideas to work even if a player's diplomacy is lacking.
It sounds to me as though your DM needs to put in more situations where your unique skills would get some use.
I probably run 50-75% as social encounters and the remainder as battles. Depends a lot on what the adventure is about and where the players are.
I probably run 50-75% as social encounters and the remainder as battles. Depends a lot on what the adventure is about and where the players are.
How do your social encounters play out? Do you get into character? Are all of the interactions related to the plot and provide some info to the characters? Can you give me a brief example of how they generally go?
Why I ask this is because we have few social encounters. I am not sure our group knows how to really deal with social encounters.
For my group, all of our social interactions have been in character. Maybe half advance the plot or provide info.Skill rolls in this case when you are actively trying to influence someone in a major way.
A lot of it has been us initiating conversation with random NPCs. One example was when my ranger and the cleric decided we wanted to take the last goblin prisoner. No plot relevance whatsoever, quite entertaining.
Also feel free to have in character banter. It definitely livens up the table, and could give the DM an opportunity to flesh out the setting.
It largely depends on the group. In the Kingmaker campaign I'm currently in, my character is designed to be good in social situations, in part because I actually like to roleplay, and in part because the others in the group don't like it/aren't good at it/won't even try. So social encounters are limited because I'm the only one who takes part and no-one else enjoys them. I wish I could roleplay it more, but that's just not how this group works.
At the other end of the scale, I've been in groups that were almost exclusively roleplay, with little rolling of dice during a given night and every spoken word being assumed to be uttered by your character unless you clearly specified otherwise, in advance. These games are almost always using a system other than D&D/Pathfinder. Not because you can't do it with Pathfinder, but because of the perception of D&D-based games as being mostly "hit the evil pinata until the treasure falls out". It's circular and self-fulfilling, but so it goes.
I am just curious - what percentage of your encounters are battles? What other types of encounters are fun to mix into a game?
We occasionally run into NPCs and have discussions. We occasionally use candles to speak to the dead. But I would say 90% of what we do is battle. Is this the same for your campaigns?
I play a rogue, and I find very few occasions to use any of my skills. I have bluff, acrobatics, Oratory and many others, but 90% of the time I either shooting a cross bow or trying to flank an enemy to get a sneak attack.
This is all very repetitive.
What is also interesting is that we ahve a ranger in our party that has a higher perception than I do (+12 vs +9). So it makes more sense for him to look for traps and hide in shadows to find enemies.
So how does the game flow in your adventures?
It depends on who I am DM'ing for. For the current group we seem to do a decent amount of info gathering which takes up about half the session, then they go kill things, which normally extends into the next session.
I would say 60 fight/40 RP at the moment, but that varies depending on the campaign/adventure.
I probably run 50-75% as social encounters and the remainder as battles. Depends a lot on what the adventure is about and where the players are.How do your social encounters play out? Do you get into character? Are all of the interactions related to the plot and provide some info to the characters? Can you give me a brief example of how they generally go?
Why I ask this is because we have few social encounters. I am not sure our group knows how to really deal with social encounters.
Ok. I'll see what I can do. This is a quick summary of something that happened two sessions ago. Dialogue is likely stupid, but this is just from my memory, and we play in Swedish so... :D
The characters are
Galgamax, gnome illusionist
Dravadji, halfling druid
Moloto, half orc barbarian
Karr, tiefling rogue
Me: You're standing in the dining hall beneath your guest rooms. You're alone.
Galgamax: "So about the plan..."
Galgamax: "We ask the chef to give us some alcohol, then we invite as many from the staff as possible and try to get them drunk enough to spill the beans?"
Moloto: "Yeah"
Moloto (OOC): I pull the bell rope to call someone from staff
Me: After a short while the door opens and Ebiscus, the chef, comes in.
Ebiscus: "You called for me?"
Moloto: "We want some alcohol"
Ebiscus: "I'll see what I can do... One of you needs to come with me."
Moloto: "I'll go"
Etc. etc.
In the end they managed to get one of the guys from staff drunk, but alas something interrupted their carefully crafted (lol) plan.
time spent "in game" vs. "on game" vs. "chatting about some side tangent"
would be 20% , 50% and 30%. We should should cut the outside chatter but i hear we aren't nearly as bad as other groups.
that being said "in game" is defined as out characters doing something and "on game" defined as looking up some obscure rule (yknow like how to determine of I hit someone, yknow obscure), leveling a character, discussing our next course of action, spell selection, planning a tactic, deciding if it is a straw mat or a fleece lined bed our characters will sleep in that night...
Of the in game time 15% of that time is spent in a town or other social situation either learning where we are going to go, or unloading the wares we got by returning from where we just went.
10% of time is spent on inane character development (get a drink at the bar...)
30% in combat, or combat support activity (healing, collecting loot/rolling bodies for loose change)
the rest of that time is spent 'exploring' or 'maneuvering'
exploring is defined as "what is that? whats on that wall? Do I see myself in the reflection of the pool that goblin just peed in?" and the use of various noncombat skills to do something or go somewhere we really hadnt ought to.
Maneuvering is defined as fleeing down the corridor hands waving in the air screaming wildly to get out of the situation our noncombat skills put us in, or to avoid the awakened tiki god our noncombat skills failed roll woke up...
Ok. I'll see what I can do. This is a quick summary of something that happened two sessions ago. Dialogue is likely stupid, but this is just from my memory, and we play in Swedish so... :D
The characters are
Galgamax, gnome illusionist
Dravadji, halfling druid
Moloto, half orc barbarian
Karr, tiefling rogueMe: You're standing in the dining hall beneath your guest rooms. You're alone.
Galgamax: "So about the plan..."
Galgamax: "We ask the chef to give us some alcohol, then we invite as many from the staff as possible and try to get them drunk enough to spill the beans?"
Moloto: "Yeah"
Moloto (OOC): I pull the bell rope to call someone from staff
Me: After a short while the door opens and Ebiscus, the chef, comes in.
Ebiscus: "You called for me?"
Moloto: "We want some alcohol"
Ebiscus: "I'll see what I can do... One of you needs to come with me."
Moloto: "I'll go"Etc. etc.
In the end they managed to get one of the guys from staff drunk, but alas something interrupted their carefully crafted (lol) plan.
Thanks for sharing - It sounds like you guys really role play the details. You guys really dig in and play out the detailed dialog and story.
Right now we are nowhere near that level. We might have a high level interaction and get a few details but that is it.
Do you guys just enjoying being in character and interacting? Or are all of our encounters goal oriented?
Do you guys just enjoying being in character and interacting? Or are all of our encounters goal oriented?
Who says they are exclusive. Another Example from my game.
Half-Elf Rogue: having Plot related conversation with barkeep
Human Ranger: Discovers the sell whiskey by the bottle.
Dwarven Cleric: Discovers they will also sell it by the bucket. He orders one to go.
Later on that bucket of whiskey was used to pacify some baby ogres, much to our DM's amusement.
Combat probably takes up about 30-40% of the games I GM. Mind you, right now I'm only involved in PbPs which naturally lend themselves to roleplay side of things (although our combats are generally rather intense). Also keep in mind that the game I GM is high-powered from both a social and mechanical standpoint — an elvish princess and her retinue. Therefore diplomacy and politicking plays a huge part in nearly everything that happens.
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Some of the extra-curricular activities we've been known to engage in:
- Shopping trips
- Meetings with royalty
- Cat & mouse games between two agile party members in the city at night
- Sailing
- Discussions on philosophy and religion (the characters', not the players')
- Sharing drinks with local celebrities
- Musical performances
- Tarot readings
- Romance
- Break-ups
- Getting dressed for and attending fancy balls
- Having the characters disguise themselves to infiltrate guilds, evade assassins, and slip out of countries while remaining in the character of their alternate personae for months at a time
- Developing meaningful relationships (platonic or otherwise) with NPCs
- Visiting the temples of deities with dramatically different philosophies
- An atonement ceremony for a succubus
- 21 course dinners
- Fan service
- Heart-to-hearts about childhood traumas, and the hopes, and fears of the characters (between those who have come to trust one another)
- Dancing with gypsies
- Attending the opera
- Tutoring sessions with fatherly old wizards
- More clothes shopping
- Uncovering feudal rivalries
- Drinking contests
- Snowball fights
- Faking pregnancies (long-term disguise)
- Karaoke
- And probably a lot more that I'm forgetting
NobleJohn: If you are curious about how these situations played out, I keep a running of table of contents for Alis/Wardove and company in some lists under her profile. The link at the top of her character sheet for "Personal" take you to the earlier portion of their adventures. The link for "Party" (and the bottom-most list item from the former list) both take you to the current campaign's list.
Hope this helps.
Hmm.. I might be a little confused as to the terms being tossed around. For me, "roleplaying" means to be playing a role in the game, not playing social encounters.
A barbarian is roleplaying if he makes tactical decisions in combat, and decides who he attacks and why based on the things happening to his character. It doesn't have to be a social encounter.
The only person failing at roleplaying is the guy who goes "Well, I guess I'll grab my +1 greatsword and power attack. Oh, and I start raging. I rolled a 23, and deal 16 damage. Is it dead?" This guy is "playing the game", but not "roleplaying".
A roleplayer would probably do all that, but then also say "I make a blood curdling scream and swing at the Ogre that just took down my friend!" or something to that effect.
As for non-combat encounters, usually this really depends on that DM. If the game has little to no plot required (like, the World's Largest Dungeon), then it might just be all kick-in-the-door gaming.
If it's like most of the APs I've run, it's a lot of talking and decision making, and clue finding, to advance to the next scene, after which there's some kind of combat encounter, although that's not always necessary, depending on the decisions of the players.
Kingmaker is especially good for this, as you can resolve a lot of things by killing the offending people, or alternatively try to talk them down or capture them for information, etc.
If you find you are not really doing much other than a long string of combat encounters, it might be a good idea to play in a game running an Adventure Path instead.
Hmm.. I might be a little confused as to the terms being tossed around. For me, "roleplaying" means to be playing a role in the game, not playing social encounters.
A barbarian is roleplaying if he makes tactical decisions in combat, and decides who he attacks and why based on the things happening to his character. It doesn't have to be a social encounter.
The only person failing at roleplaying is the guy who goes "Well, I guess I'll grab my +1 greatsword and power attack. Oh, and I start raging. I rolled a 23, and deal 16 damage. Is it dead?" This guy is "playing the game", but not "roleplaying".
A roleplayer would probably do all that, but then also say "I make a blood curdling scream and swing at the Ogre that just took down my friend!" or something to that effect.As for non-combat encounters, usually this really depends on that DM. If the game has little to no plot required (like, the World's Largest Dungeon), then it might just be all kick-in-the-door gaming.
If it's like most of the APs I've run, it's a lot of talking and decision making, and clue finding, to advance to the next scene, after which there's some kind of combat encounter, although that's not always necessary, depending on the decisions of the players.Kingmaker is especially good for this, as you can resolve a lot of things by killing the offending people, or alternatively try to talk them down or capture them for information, etc.
If you find you are not really doing much other than a long string of combat encounters, it might be a good idea to play in a game running an Adventure Path instead.
one doesn't need to describe his rage as a blood curdling scream in order to roleplay. that kind of stuff is neither here or there.
AS out of game verbal description of an in game action is merely semantics and not role playing." I hit it with my axe" could be code for "Im raging", if the player only uses his axe while raging.
Maybe the DM describes an npcs rage as a blood curdling scream, or while describing what you saw to another character in game you may use the term "blood curdling scream" instead of rage...but in game and out of game terminology as both used at the table, sometimes simultaneously.
Edit Again: Nevermind, I misunderstood your point, lol. Yes, you don't have to say anything as long as what you are doing is based on character motivation, instead of play-by-numbers.