Linked Questions
10 questions linked to/from Dealing with "fearless" players
552
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answers
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How do I get my PCs to not be a bunch of murderous cretins?
Most RPGs teach you that casual violence is the best solution to all your in-game problems. This is so well established a part of the vast majority of RPGs that there are entire satire RPGs like Greg ...
- 176k
165
votes
13
answers
22k
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How can DMs effectively telegraph specific dangers in D&D?
There are some play-styles of D&D in which the spectre of player-character death is considered a feature of the game rather than a bug. For my own reasons (which aren't the point of the question), ...
- 244k
109
votes
18
answers
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How can I make my PCs flee?
My players never run away or avoid conflict. Ever. I throw them ridiculous encounters, they will stay and fight. If I tell them, "You know you're not gonna make it, just run," they stay and fight and ...
user4000
69
votes
13
answers
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How to communicate to the players that an encounter can be solved also through diplomacy?
When you play D&D, you are not supposed to chat with the enemy during encounters. The system is made for fighting. However, in some circumstances, it would be nice to make the players conscious ...
- 11k
37
votes
12
answers
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Tried all the existing advice, but players still never roleplay fear
I've read some other posts on here about how to telegraph danger to my PCs and how to make them flee. The problem is, I believe I am actively using all the strategies in both of the posts and my PCs ...
- 573
23
votes
5
answers
4k
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Sometimes, losing a big conflict is the better plotline. For D&D, how do you encourage this result?
It is practically an old adage that D&D parties will never let a fight end in a loss (short of a TPK.) And that the game mechanics (especially later editions) encourage this thinking.
But ...
- 14.8k
13
votes
3
answers
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D&D character levels and population - Is the Fifty Percent Rule valid?
In this answer I suggested that "the majority" of NPCs would be 0-level characters, and was told by our friendly moderator @BrianBallson-Stanton in a comment (since deleted) that D&D 4 didn't have ...
- 3,302
8
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3
answers
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As a GM, how can I adjudicate de-escalating combat?
As a sister question to How can combat be de-escalated once started by a player?
In a D&D 5e game, a player rushed into combat with an NPC that wasn't particularly hostile. As a player, I wouldn'...
- 10.2k
8
votes
3
answers
3k
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How do I introduce my BBEG's power without my pcs rushing in to fight them?
I made a homebrew creature that's supposed to be impossible for them to fight at the moment as that creature is the BBEG. I wanted to show the strength gap between the pcs start and how strong they ...
- 83
18
votes
2
answers
641
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Differing expectations on fight or flight
Last night, I joined a D&D 3.5e campaign. The two other characters in the party were on their way to a grove, inhabited by friendly druids, when they discovered it had been converted to a quarry. ...
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