You got Role-Play in my Hack and Slash!

My players consist exclusively of theatre majors. It's strange, though, that it is incredibly difficult to get them to role play. Any time I try to get them in a situation where they don't need to use their powers or skills they scratch their heads and wonder why they aren't killing anything. There are three techniques that can be used to engage those players that can't quite get into the role play portion of a role-playing game.

1. "Is this what your character would do?"
I ask this question when the player is using too much metagame thinking. Sure, Patrick knows that there's an enemy around the corner, but does Rune, his warforged warden? This also comes in handy when players are doing morally dubious things.

"The shopkeeper isn't being receptive to your haggling; you'll pay full price"
"Then I kill the shopkeeper"
"Really? Is your character so morally corrupt and socially inept to kill someone for such a trivial reason?"
"I pay full price..."

Situations like this happen when players think too much along the lines of "this is a game" and less about the role their character plays in a larger world.

2. "What does that look like?"
Another easy way to get your players thinking as their characters is by asking them to describe their actions. This is a great way to get players started in roleplaying. Model the behavior by describing enemy actions, then tell the player to elaborate their action. "I use Magic Missile" doesn't sound as good as "Green jets of energy shoot from Thuul's wand. They arc through the air as they seek Thuul's target. When they strike, a light green plume leaves the Wraith's body." Small steps like this, and during skill checks and skill challenges, creates an environment where you can continue to push their role-playing.

3. Mouseguard up the place a little bit.
I just started a SWSE game with a couple of people from my DnD4e group. As we did our cooperative character creation (ala DM Samuel), I asked my role-play light players what their character's instinct and belief were. Then, right before their mission, I had them create a goal. I rewarded the players with role-play xp. These Mouseguard-esque elements really show players that their characters are not super-versions of themselves; they are different people with different thoughts, beliefs, and skills than their players.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but these three ways have really upped the amount of role play in my sessions. If you have any other suggestions, or plain 'ol questions or comments, feel free to drop them off in the comments section!

The Master's Lackeys

There are several amazing Dungeons & Dragons blogs out there, but one of my favorites has recently run two articles written by one of my favorite authors, Chris Sims (an editor and game designer known for work on Wizards of the Coast’s Duel Masters, Dungeons & Dragons, and Magic: The Gathering) about one of my favorite components in 4E: MINIONS!

 

Minions Are Everywhere!

No matter the story, whether set in a fantasy, science fiction, comedy, or drama, the main bad guy always has lackeys. Darth Vader had the Storm Troopers, Dr. Evil had several nameless thugs and Mini Me, Sauron had the first 1/3 of the Orc army that was attacking Helm's Deep (seriously, they dropped like flies when the arrows started flying).

 

Minions: By The Book

A few game sessions ago, I decided I did not like using the minions in the same old fashion I had been. They were great as zombies in my campaign's Whispering Willow Cemetery session, wonderful as cheaply hired mercenaries to guard a slave camp in The Slave Pit session, and really interesting as village fishermen the party had to protect as the slavers retaliated in the final encounter of the Gates of Dyadasti session, but I decided to mix things up a bit. I used 2-hit minions in the Longtooth's Labyrinth session but when one of the players landed a high damage roll, he felt cheated that the enemy wasn't killed. I quickly converted my 2-hit minions back to regular minions to keep the level of fun at a maximum for the evening, but decided I wouldn't give up hope on the 2-hit minion.


 

My Minions Have HP?

For the next session, I had created 2 new flavors of minions. The 2/20 and the 3/30 minions. The 2/20 minion is dead after 2 hits or 20 damage, whichever comes first. Likewise, the 3/30 minion is dead after 3 hits or 30 damage. This may sound fruitless and you may be asking "why not just have the monster with 30 HP??" Well, for our group, this worked very well. Our Ranger misses quite a bit (he obviously hasn't read my article on how dice are made and refuses to switch d20s mid-session), so when he does land a shot, it really counts against these 2/20 and 3/30 minions. On top of this, when the "cheated" player landed a heavy blow on a 3/30 minion with 2 hits left, it was destroyed. Everyone had lots of fun and I was still able to swarm the party with a nice mix of regular minions, 2/20s and 3/30s!


 

For discussion...

Chris' articles really got me thinking again about other things I can change to keep the players on their toes. I'm going to look for specific creatures with interesting auras and burst that make sense for the setting when creating my minions. The 2/20 and 3/30 minions worked in the one session I used them, but I'm not convinced they're here to stay, time will tell.

• Have you modified how you use minions?


• Are there certain powers or considerations you give to them in your games?


• Do you think my modification was effective or just a waste of time?

Let me know in the comments!

3 Player Monty

Dungeons and Dragons is not a popular game in my area. I should clarify that statement. Dungeons and Dragons 4e is not popular in Leavenworth or Lansing, Kansas. The two batches of students that I’ve had who played DnD were 3.5 fanboys who went into nerd rage when I mentioned 4e. I did have two 3.5 players come into my college group’s 4e game, but after a few sessions they dropped out (a mixture of scheduling conflict and edition frustration). My point for bringing this up? I’ve always had to run games with 3 or 4 PCs. In the beginning of our game it was 2 PCs and 1 DM controlled NPC. My group has been holding steady for the last 4 or 5 months with 3 PCs. This has posed some problems for me as a DM, because my XP budget is pretty low for encounter building. I have come up with some ways to deal with my small party dynamic, and I hope that these things could both benefit games that have an adequate number of players, and encourage people who have small player-bases to still get a game going.

1. Understand your enemy (the PCs)

This is a general tip for any DM, but especially for a small party, knowing who your PCs are and what they can do tactically. A three-player party (3PP hereafter) is going to be missing at least one role (my home game is missing two). This means that to make the game enjoyable for the players you as a DM have to look at what you can throw at them without demolishing them. My home game doesn’t have a defender, but it has two leaders. I rarely pit them against Soldiers because the high HP value and damage output can drop one or two PCs in the first couple of rounds without someone to soak up damage. With two leaders, though, I can pit them against an elite with a couple of soldiers right before an extended rest because they have the opportunity to use their healing powers and recharge before the next day’s difficulties. This could be a “Sissy DM” way of looking at encounter building, but one character dropped in a 3PP suddenly sinks player actions by 33%, creating an un-fun encounter quickly.

Understanding your PCs goes beyond combat. With fewer characters, there is more pressure on each PC to interact in a roleplaying situation. A smaller group means that the group has to be tighter-knit, and they have to work together for common safety; failure to do so ends tragically much quicker than in a larger party.

A short example: Manneo, the Barbarian, demands healing from the party Cleric. The Cleric states that she only heals when he is at least at his bloodied value, as per the party agreement, but Manneo demands healing. When the spider swarm flanks Manneo, he quickly drops to below his healing surge value. Manneo’s player begins to act aggressively towards the Cleric’s player in the real world, prompting the Cleric to not heal him at all. Tired of their bickering, the Druid drops a burst attack killing both the swarms and Manneo, ending the argument.

This situation is not exclusive to just a 3PP, but a larger party would still be able to function during a two-character breakdown; a 3PP falls apart completely, creating real world friction and a stall in playtime (funtime). A preventative measure for this situation for the DM is explained well in the next tip.

2. Gift the Masses



Treasure is an important part of any PCs life. The DMG explains that for 3 PCs they lose one magic item and some gold. That really doesn’t change the loot dynamic that much, but I find many of my parcels changed more by the nature of my treasures and the number of healing potions I give to players. Almost all of my characters have some form of the Onyx Dog (AV) that they can control with minor actions. I take advantage of the extra damage output to increase the difficulty of the encounters (see section 3).To survive the encounters that I set up for the party I also give my PCs 4-5 Healing Potions per level. This allows them to use their healing surges in combat and takes some of the friction off of the Cleric (as above). Another thing that I allow for my players are more frequent short rests. I gauge how many encounters they’ll have through a day depending on remaining party healing surges. Although healing surges run out pretty quickly around my group, as is evidenced from my final tip.

3. Lay on the Hurt, but Spread the Love



With an XP budget significantly lower than a 5 player party, the 3PP can survive surprisingly difficult encounters. Many of the encounters I’ve run have been on-par for 5 PCs and the 3PP can still thrive. There are a couple of things I do here that allow for that. As stated above, the PCs have Onyx Dogs that basically add up to another whole PC in the party, and with their extra healing potions, it allows me to up the XP budget to 4 PCs. Most of my encounters fall into the “hard” category (level +2 or above). How do I do this without TPK everyday? I put in a lot of minions. A low XP budget means few monsters, and few monsters make stale encounters. Waves of minions don’t let the PCs think they’re in a smaller encounter, and lets them get that mighty feeling of threshing through enemies. The other key thing I do combat-wise to help the PCs is I rarely focus fire. Although it is the intelligent thing to wail on one PC until they fall, it makes that PC feel bullied and hurt (that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen: if the barbarian rushes into the fray before the artillery have time to set up, he’s going through the meat grinder). I try to make sure the monsters I pit the PCs against have the opportunity to battle everyone. With one melee and two ranged, all of the creatures have ranged attacks to keep the artillery from feeling safe. I usually use the buddy system for PC attack. One or two monsters will pick a PC and attack them until goaded into attacking a different PC. This sets up grudge matches and gets the PCs invested in the combat.











































These are a few of the things that I use to keep my 3PP happy. My players have never complained that they wished that they had another player to make the game more fun, and the only time I’ve seen them yawn in a game is during Finals week. Have any of you readers encountered a small party situation? How have you handled the lack of personnel in the game? Let me know in the comments!