If you throw down a big monster, something that you know for sure would eat your players alive in a few rounds, how do you subtly get the fact across to your players that running truly is your best course of action without just openly saying that you have no chance in beating this thing at the moment, you better run?
I know this is not something you want to do too often in the game, but I think that it sort of goes hand in hand with D&D and provides a different type of gameplay that should be put into use.
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I can think of three things:
ReplyDelete1) When they launch their first attacks, really de-emphasize any effects. Say half of them hit, maybe one's a crit, they do a combined 30-40 points of damage, give them a "The monster snorts derisively at you and fixes you with a baleful glare. You're not entirely sure it felt that as more than a pinch."
2) If they all miss in the first round, make sure that the monster hits in response (cheat, if necessary). Treat as a crit. Do a huge amount of damage. Bloody the defender. Nearly kill the wizard in one shot. That ought to get them thinking about getting the hell out of there.
3) If these both fail, you'll have to actually take one or two of them out. Once the monster has knocked two of them down, and it's still showing no real signs of damage, they should get the message.
Oh, and then there's four. Knock them all out, have the monster either take them captive or leave them alive but unconscious (easy to rationalize, whether it's a dumb ogre who just wanted them to leave him alone or a master schemer who wanted to teach them a lesson) and when they wake up?
They'll run next time.
Year and years of MMORPGs have taught me informed a lot of how I play. One example is that I can assign a general color scale to the monsters. I'll literally say something like: "this encounter is green to you guys". I've also lain out wooden blocks for major fights. I use five of them and remove them as they whittle away the percentage of hit points each block represents. So when the creature is bloodied there should only be half of the blocks left. It lets me show a hit point scale that they can easily see without getting into specifics about hit point totals. I'm a huge fan of analog solutions when they are fast and easy like that. However, recently I've literally just started handing out a print out of the Encounter Card. If I want to maintain suspense I'll require a Dungeoneering or Nature check and give out information based on success. But the bottom line is that the players can make more tactical decisions if they have this information. Keep in mind that I also roll openly and never fudge in 4e. I'm not opposed to fudging, but since I'm testing iPhone applications I tend to want the system to be as transparent as possible.
ReplyDeleteTo me, what's more interesting, is the thoughts behind why I choose encounter difficulties that I choose. For me character sheets and dice are a contract with you, as a DM. The players are assuming that if you put something before them they will have the tool to deal within. If you'll pardon a bit of exaggeration, to do otherwise, would be like suddenly pulling out a tiny tank from Memoir '44 and putting it on the Settlers of Catan board and declaring that you are blowing up sheep and burning wheat. You've changed the rules and while that's your right as a DM it works best when the players believe you are doing it for the story. So I don't put stealth missions into play if none of the players can actually stealth very well unless I want them to talk to the shady looking gnome over in the corner. I don't lock the treasure chest with a horrible exploding sigil unless I somebody has a high arcane skill or remembers that the shady gnome they hired seems to be good with traps.
Year and years ago we had a GURPS campaign going that the players ended up calling "Baby Punk". The characters were 100 point characters (ie, only slightly above normal) and surrounded by 200-800 point NPCs. They needed to not fight *anybody*. There was violence flying all around and bodies dropping like flies while the PCs spent a lot of time running for their lives. But the point was that we knew this was the whole point of the setting. They were scrounging up food and collectively had one .22 pistol that they shoplifted from a convenience store. This is a world of cyborgs, AIs and street samurai. We all loved it.
My point here is that if the players encounter something they cannot possible fight but they are expecting that anything before them has been tailored to their encounter level there is a possible disconnect. I'll tell them I made a Dungeoneering check for them and that they realize this is a ?? level encounter for their characters. Then they realize that they are either about to watch a cut scene or that they be involved in some sort of skill challenge. To be totally honest, I just tell them flat out (no fake roll required) that they should not fight. The deal we've made is that if I'm open with them, they'll still play the scene out but nobody's hit points are at risk. I then agree to not do it that often unless that's the type of game we are playing. In our current 4e session the character are quickly becoming the stuff of legends. So encountering bigger fish is not impossible, but rare.