So I'm still relatively new to being a dm. I dm'd my first campaign about 2 years ago that I ended up dropping cuz I was having such a hard time and didn't know what to do. A few months ago I had started a new campaign with some of the same friends from the one I did before. I thought I'd give it a try and ended up dropping that one as well after 6 sessions since I hated dm-ing it so much. I gave the players op items early on without realizing how strong they were and one of my players was a mystic (yes I realize how stupid it was to allow mystic). I told them I would try to dm another campaign but I needed time to go over a lot of rules and do research on dm stuff. Right now they're making characters while I try to think of ideas for a new campaign and it seems like they want to murderhobo again. I had this problem with the last campaign and tried to think of ways to punish them for murderhobo-ing but I had a hard time trying to come up with ideas. They say that because they're chaotic evil characters it makes sense that they'd murderhobo since it's in character. Even characters who were neutral or "good" would allow them to murderhobo or even help them out. At this point I'm wondering if I should just make an evil campaign to make them happy or if I should try to find in game ways to punish them ie. sending people after them to bring them to justice. Like I said I'm not super experienced with dm-ing and the only other campaign I've been a part of recently is one where I was a player and the other people with me weren't really into the whole murderhobo thing. I don't want to force them to play good characters cuz I think playing evil characters can be fun and interesting but I'm wondering if I should try to punish them for being a murderhobo or if I should just embrace it and make an evil campaign.
Send a wizard after them to catch them, then throw them in jail. It'll work both as a Evil campaign and a punishment, because their only options would be to attempt to break out, or just sit in there.
At this point I'm wondering if I should just make an evil campaign to make them happy or if I should try to find in game ways to punish them ie. sending people after them to bring them to justice.
First of all, as a DM, you should never, ever, set out to punish your players. Their characters, yes, may have to face consequences sometimes, but the players should not be punished in-game by the DM. If the player is behaving badly as a player (ruining other people's fun, etc.), then you talk to the player outside of the game. But in-character, you should not be writing scenarios to punish the players.
As a DM, your #1 job is the fun other people at the table are having, but you have to have fun as well. So the question is, can you be happy DMing for a group of players who want to be murder-hobos. If you and they can both be happy doing that, then just do it. However, if they want to murder-hobo and you want them to play more of a story-heavy game with mysteries and puzzles and not as much killing, then there is a mismatch between the way the players are having fun and the way the DM is having fun. This can only be resolved by talking with the players as a group, out of game, and discussing what can be done about it. One possibility, is that you can compromise, if they are willing to do some non-murder-hobo things, and you are willing to let them murder-hobo some of the time without repercussions. That could be a win/win scenario, as long as neither side is too miserable while making the other side happy.
However, if they simply want to dungeon crawl and kill things and get loot, and you are not going to be happy with that... and if you want to do intrigue and puzzles and the like but they aren't going to be happy with that... then they might need a different DM, and you might need a different group of players.
But no matter what, please, do not write scenarios for the purpose of punishing your players for "not playing D&D right." There is no right or wrong way to play D&D; there is just the way the people at your table have the most fun.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
If you honestly want the best advice I can give any new DM, it’s right here. I gave BioWiz his shot, but he didn’t take it. If you watch this series and reread chapters 9 & 10 of the PHB you will be more informed and better prepared than I was when I started DMing.
After watching the above video, you should really consider using a published adventure to start. Lost mines of phandelver is usually regarded as a good starting adventure for new players and for new DMs.
As you play through, you can pay attention to how the designers balance encounters and structure the story. There’s lots of people who have a lot of fun playing D&D and never try to homebrew a campaign; they just use published materials and it really works. It may not support evil murderhobos, but maybe explain you need some guide rails for a bit until you can work out better how to be a DM.
While it is good for new DMs to run modules, it isn't going to prevent murder hobo players from taking the joy of the experience away from the OP.
In addition to playing a module, which you will need to read over and over to get the feel for it and stay ahead of the party when they take it in another direction, I recommend having a discussion with the players and tell them that if they go all murder hobo then you're going to stop DM-ing, because that takes the fun out of the game for you. You're the DM and you have just as much right to enjoy the sessions as the players. If they can't meet you half-way on this point, then one of them should DM while you study to be the DM a little longer.
I wish you the best of luck and much enjoyment in this great hobby to enjoy with your friends.
I have my own ways of dealing with M-H but I don't want to go there in this thread.
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Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
If you honestly want the best advice I can give any new DM, it’s right here. I gave BioWiz his shot, but he didn’t take it. If you watch this series and reread chapters 9 & 10 of the PHB you will be more informed and better prepared than I was when I started DMing.
Technically every post IamSposta makes is an avocation for Matt Colvilles channel, since it's in the forum signature. That is where I first got put onto it a couple months ago :)
Technically every post IamSposta makes is an avocation for Matt Colvilles channel, since it's in the forum signature. That is where I first got put onto it a couple months ago :)
Players usually murderhobo for at least one of three reasons (though there are certainly others):
1. They're playing D&D like a video game and they think that murdering everything is a fun way to play. This is somewhat fine if you're okay with it as a DM, but it can be quite disruptive. Consequences in game are the best way to address this- killing civilians results in city guards showing up. Killing city guards results in the army showing up. Killing soldiers results in royal guards showing up. Royal guards are hopefully powerful enough to challenge your players- after all, unless they're level 20 adventurers, they can quite easily just be more powerful than average adventurers. If they do manage to defeat royal guards, heroes show up to stop the reign of tyranny. The advantage of this is that it works with their characters for the story, instead of just arbitrarily punishing them. And, if they want do murderhobo a lot, this is basically the story that comes from being chaotic evil. The downside is that obviously this means you're only responding to your players, which can be a frustrating experience as a DM.
2. They're not happy with the actual story and they're murdering everything because they don't want to take the hook. I've seen this happen in a campaign I play in- the DM is always bad about "stealing" loot from the party, and one of our players attacked and killed a plot significant NPC because of his theft. Although this killed the plot of the campaign, it wasn't the player's fault- the NPC was a jerk, and violence was a fairly reasonable solution given the personalities involved. Since the party was frustrated with the lack of loot, the general slowness of the story and progression, and the hook for the next adventure being "lol everything you earned is either broken or someone else takes it, git gud", it makes sense that the campaign might get derailed by the players. The good news is that this hopefully isn't the case, but if it is, then your solution is to make things more encouraging for the party to cooperate. After all, you're DM'ing D&D to tell a story, not beat your players.
3. They're playing as a group that enjoys that type of gameplay. Some players like being "disruptive", and in some groups this expresses as always playing chaotic/evil characters and just doing whatever. This isn't a problem with shared expectations, obviously, but it can be deeply frustrating if that's not what you want. This doesn't always have to be murderhobo'ing. Lots of games end up being disrupted this way, not just murderhobo'ing, and the solutions can be quite difficult. A session zero that lays out expectations can work, preferably before players have their characters already written, but sometimes one player (or a group of players) just wants to derail things, either intentionally or because they want a different experience. For example, I was in a game where one player was very much into just beating a running gag to death and doing weird stuff with magic as part of a comedic campaign, while I was more interested in a more grounded RAW campaign- we just eventually had to break up the group because our expectations of what the game would be like was too different. We were still friends, but just didn't play D&D together because we wanted different things.
Regardless of the reason, if your party is fully insistent on murderhobo'ing, you have some options.
You could always just let someone else run, if you really don't want to run a campaign just to see your players murder the whole world. It's a legitimate option to recognize that there is an irreconcilable difference between your expectations as a DM and your players expectations as a group- I've had players that I didn't really enjoy and DMs I didn't like running with, and forcing it to work out is not the answer. Sometimes, this is just immaturity as a player- more veteran players, in my experience, tend to prefer story to the "lol I kill the merchant" approach to D&D, and it sometimes takes care of itself. Sometimes, it's a group of players that have expectations that mutually reinforce "bad behavior"- remember that chaotic evil campaigns are a legitimate way to play, but it becomes a problem if it makes players/DMs discontent with the experience and needs to be addressed.
You could also meet with your players and let them know your concerns- you understand that they have their characters, but you don't want to run a campaign that just devolves into murderhobo'ing and at some point as a DM they need to recognize that it is disruptive. It is well within your authority as a DM to ban evil characters- though your players can leave the campaign if they don't like this, if it's not going to work anyway you can always just part ways. There are ways to encourage good behavior vs evil behavior by mechanics, but it can feel like punishment which can just make players more bitter. Working outside the table to reach an agreement is probably ideal- either you could run a campaign that panders to what the players want, or you could work with them to develop characters that have more motivation than just murderhobo'ing (which, and I understand that I have a certain perspective, is less than perfect D&D anyway).
There are many other options, which are legitimate, but I do think that these two options are ones that are often overlooked. DM'ing is more than just the table, it is also all the interactions that go on behind the scenes- preparation, relationships between players and DMs, and setting a consistent theme and mood for the campaign is equally important, and it could help solve your problems before you have to try to manage things as they catch fire in real time.
If you honestly want the best advice I can give any new DM, it’s right here. I gave BioWiz his shot, but he didn’t take it. If you watch this series and reread chapters 9 & 10 of the PHB you will be more informed and better prepared than I was when I started DMing.
If you honestly want the best advice I can give any new DM, it’s right here. I gave BioWiz his shot, but he didn’t take it. If you watch this series and reread chapters 9 & 10 of the PHB you will be more informed and better prepared than I was when I started DMing.
If you have a group of chaotic evil characters then a published adventure will not work. Those assume the norm of mostly good to neutral characters wanting to help people or save a land or something. Chaotic evil will not follow any of the plot lines and just go off piste, so don't look there for a good time. Sandbox may be a bit over your head right now as a new DM especially with chaotic evil group. You may want to ask them to make a more regular group and do a published adventure so both you and they can get a better feel for the game with the understanding that the next campaign you will run will be the evil one they are wanting. If there aren't cool with that then it's going to take a lot of prep and a lot of understanding on their part to get it running well. Maybe a setting in which there are very strict laws and severe repercussions for doing bad things to people could curb their bloodlust enough to get some semblance of a logical campaign. Chaotic evil (as chaotic neutral) doesn't mean chaotic stupid. Just because they want to kill a shopkeep and take his gold doesn't mean that they will if there are a couple of guards watching the newcomers in town intently ready to intervene if anything bad happens.
If you players want to just want to kill stuff and take treasure, give them that. If you do not want to run that type of campaign, have a group conversation and see if you can come to an agreement going forward. If you do want to do the low plot high combat route, I would recommend looking into tails of the yawning portal. It has a bunch of disconnected large dungeons with not much of a hook to get into them.
If you honestly want the best advice I can give any new DM, it’s right here. I gave BioWiz his shot, but he didn’t take it. If you watch this series and reread chapters 9 & 10 of the PHB you will be more informed and better prepared than I was when I started DMing.
At this point I'm wondering if I should just make an evil campaign to make them happy or if I should try to find in game ways to punish them ie. sending people after them to bring them to justice.
First of all, as a DM, you should never, ever, set out to punish your players. Their characters, yes, may have to face consequences sometimes, but the players should not be punished in-game by the DM. If the player is behaving badly as a player (ruining other people's fun, etc.), then you talk to the player outside of the game. But in-character, you should not be writing scenarios to punish the players.
As a DM, your #1 job is the fun other people at the table are having, but you have to have fun as well. So the question is, can you be happy DMing for a group of players who want to be murder-hobos. If you and they can both be happy doing that, then just do it. However, if they want to murder-hobo and you want them to play more of a story-heavy game with mysteries and puzzles and not as much killing, then there is a mismatch between the way the players are having fun and the way the DM is having fun. This can only be resolved by talking with the players as a group, out of game, and discussing what can be done about it. One possibility, is that you can compromise, if they are willing to do some non-murder-hobo things, and you are willing to let them murder-hobo some of the time without repercussions. That could be a win/win scenario, as long as neither side is too miserable while making the other side happy.
However, if they simply want to dungeon crawl and kill things and get loot, and you are not going to be happy with that... and if you want to do intrigue and puzzles and the like but they aren't going to be happy with that... then they might need a different DM, and you might need a different group of players.
But no matter what, please, do not write scenarios for the purpose of punishing your players for "not playing D&D right." There is no right or wrong way to play D&D; there is just the way the people at your table have the most fun.
This is pretty much spot on.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Adapt the game to the players based on the decisions that they make. As an above poster mentioned, do not punish them. You can make it interesting for them though. If you need to switch gears and turn it into an evil campaign the go for it. Just remember that evil will always have those who want to stop them. There are even other nasty evil things that could care less if the players are evil or not. In fact this may cause some distrust among other evil NPCs provoking them to keep tabs on the characters, Or even look to take them out because of a conflict of interest. No doubt bring in some shady NPCs for the players to interact with. Also, it the characters are just running around killing everyone they come across then they will bring attention to themselves rather quickly. Get an investigation going within the game that is basically looking for the players. Use this to get the player to avoid drawing attention to themselves. If they simply dont care then have them apprehended wveen it it requires a royal beat down. Of coarse give them a chance to escape. Also not all of them may get away. This could open things up for a nice quest to break out the captured characters. Keep in mind that any characters that have been captured could have all their gear taken from them with no way of recovering it. It seems dirty but this is a good way to remove items you regret handing out without just taking them for no reason. There are all sorts of ways to handle the situation. With that said, just remember that just because these are you friends, they may not be ideal players and you might want to consider running a game with more like minded people.
They say that because they're chaotic evil characters it makes sense that they'd murderhobo since it's in character. Even characters who were neutral or "good" would allow them to murderhobo or even help them out.
Characters who were neutral or good would definitely NOT associate with murder-hobos! The N and G characters would have no reason that they'd want to remain associated with such entities.
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So I'm still relatively new to being a dm. I dm'd my first campaign about 2 years ago that I ended up dropping cuz I was having such a hard time and didn't know what to do. A few months ago I had started a new campaign with some of the same friends from the one I did before. I thought I'd give it a try and ended up dropping that one as well after 6 sessions since I hated dm-ing it so much. I gave the players op items early on without realizing how strong they were and one of my players was a mystic (yes I realize how stupid it was to allow mystic). I told them I would try to dm another campaign but I needed time to go over a lot of rules and do research on dm stuff. Right now they're making characters while I try to think of ideas for a new campaign and it seems like they want to murderhobo again. I had this problem with the last campaign and tried to think of ways to punish them for murderhobo-ing but I had a hard time trying to come up with ideas. They say that because they're chaotic evil characters it makes sense that they'd murderhobo since it's in character. Even characters who were neutral or "good" would allow them to murderhobo or even help them out. At this point I'm wondering if I should just make an evil campaign to make them happy or if I should try to find in game ways to punish them ie. sending people after them to bring them to justice. Like I said I'm not super experienced with dm-ing and the only other campaign I've been a part of recently is one where I was a player and the other people with me weren't really into the whole murderhobo thing. I don't want to force them to play good characters cuz I think playing evil characters can be fun and interesting but I'm wondering if I should try to punish them for being a murderhobo or if I should just embrace it and make an evil campaign.
Send a wizard after them to catch them, then throw them in jail. It'll work both as a Evil campaign and a punishment, because their only options would be to attempt to break out, or just sit in there.
First of all, as a DM, you should never, ever, set out to punish your players. Their characters, yes, may have to face consequences sometimes, but the players should not be punished in-game by the DM. If the player is behaving badly as a player (ruining other people's fun, etc.), then you talk to the player outside of the game. But in-character, you should not be writing scenarios to punish the players.
As a DM, your #1 job is the fun other people at the table are having, but you have to have fun as well. So the question is, can you be happy DMing for a group of players who want to be murder-hobos. If you and they can both be happy doing that, then just do it. However, if they want to murder-hobo and you want them to play more of a story-heavy game with mysteries and puzzles and not as much killing, then there is a mismatch between the way the players are having fun and the way the DM is having fun. This can only be resolved by talking with the players as a group, out of game, and discussing what can be done about it. One possibility, is that you can compromise, if they are willing to do some non-murder-hobo things, and you are willing to let them murder-hobo some of the time without repercussions. That could be a win/win scenario, as long as neither side is too miserable while making the other side happy.
However, if they simply want to dungeon crawl and kill things and get loot, and you are not going to be happy with that... and if you want to do intrigue and puzzles and the like but they aren't going to be happy with that... then they might need a different DM, and you might need a different group of players.
But no matter what, please, do not write scenarios for the purpose of punishing your players for "not playing D&D right." There is no right or wrong way to play D&D; there is just the way the people at your table have the most fun.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
If you honestly want the best advice I can give any new DM, it’s right here. I gave BioWiz his shot, but he didn’t take it. If you watch this series and reread chapters 9 & 10 of the PHB you will be more informed and better prepared than I was when I started DMing.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=e-YZvLUXcR8&list=PLlUk42GiU2guNzWBzxn7hs8MaV7ELLCP_
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
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After watching the above video, you should really consider using a published adventure to start. Lost mines of phandelver is usually regarded as a good starting adventure for new players and for new DMs.
As you play through, you can pay attention to how the designers balance encounters and structure the story. There’s lots of people who have a lot of fun playing D&D and never try to homebrew a campaign; they just use published materials and it really works. It may not support evil murderhobos, but maybe explain you need some guide rails for a bit until you can work out better how to be a DM.
While it is good for new DMs to run modules, it isn't going to prevent murder hobo players from taking the joy of the experience away from the OP.
In addition to playing a module, which you will need to read over and over to get the feel for it and stay ahead of the party when they take it in another direction, I recommend having a discussion with the players and tell them that if they go all murder hobo then you're going to stop DM-ing, because that takes the fun out of the game for you. You're the DM and you have just as much right to enjoy the sessions as the players. If they can't meet you half-way on this point, then one of them should DM while you study to be the DM a little longer.
I wish you the best of luck and much enjoyment in this great hobby to enjoy with your friends.
I have my own ways of dealing with M-H but I don't want to go there in this thread.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
LOL, you are right. 1-0 IamSposta. (For those who don't know, we're keeping score now)
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Uh uh, 2-0. We started counting with the last one. I gave you a chance to even it up....
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
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OK, 2-0 then. Rub it in.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Technically every post IamSposta makes is an avocation for Matt Colvilles channel, since it's in the forum signature. That is where I first got put onto it a couple months ago :)
“I am a river to my people.” 😜
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
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Players usually murderhobo for at least one of three reasons (though there are certainly others):
1. They're playing D&D like a video game and they think that murdering everything is a fun way to play. This is somewhat fine if you're okay with it as a DM, but it can be quite disruptive. Consequences in game are the best way to address this- killing civilians results in city guards showing up. Killing city guards results in the army showing up. Killing soldiers results in royal guards showing up. Royal guards are hopefully powerful enough to challenge your players- after all, unless they're level 20 adventurers, they can quite easily just be more powerful than average adventurers. If they do manage to defeat royal guards, heroes show up to stop the reign of tyranny. The advantage of this is that it works with their characters for the story, instead of just arbitrarily punishing them. And, if they want do murderhobo a lot, this is basically the story that comes from being chaotic evil. The downside is that obviously this means you're only responding to your players, which can be a frustrating experience as a DM.
2. They're not happy with the actual story and they're murdering everything because they don't want to take the hook. I've seen this happen in a campaign I play in- the DM is always bad about "stealing" loot from the party, and one of our players attacked and killed a plot significant NPC because of his theft. Although this killed the plot of the campaign, it wasn't the player's fault- the NPC was a jerk, and violence was a fairly reasonable solution given the personalities involved. Since the party was frustrated with the lack of loot, the general slowness of the story and progression, and the hook for the next adventure being "lol everything you earned is either broken or someone else takes it, git gud", it makes sense that the campaign might get derailed by the players. The good news is that this hopefully isn't the case, but if it is, then your solution is to make things more encouraging for the party to cooperate. After all, you're DM'ing D&D to tell a story, not beat your players.
3. They're playing as a group that enjoys that type of gameplay. Some players like being "disruptive", and in some groups this expresses as always playing chaotic/evil characters and just doing whatever. This isn't a problem with shared expectations, obviously, but it can be deeply frustrating if that's not what you want. This doesn't always have to be murderhobo'ing. Lots of games end up being disrupted this way, not just murderhobo'ing, and the solutions can be quite difficult. A session zero that lays out expectations can work, preferably before players have their characters already written, but sometimes one player (or a group of players) just wants to derail things, either intentionally or because they want a different experience. For example, I was in a game where one player was very much into just beating a running gag to death and doing weird stuff with magic as part of a comedic campaign, while I was more interested in a more grounded RAW campaign- we just eventually had to break up the group because our expectations of what the game would be like was too different. We were still friends, but just didn't play D&D together because we wanted different things.
Regardless of the reason, if your party is fully insistent on murderhobo'ing, you have some options.
You could always just let someone else run, if you really don't want to run a campaign just to see your players murder the whole world. It's a legitimate option to recognize that there is an irreconcilable difference between your expectations as a DM and your players expectations as a group- I've had players that I didn't really enjoy and DMs I didn't like running with, and forcing it to work out is not the answer. Sometimes, this is just immaturity as a player- more veteran players, in my experience, tend to prefer story to the "lol I kill the merchant" approach to D&D, and it sometimes takes care of itself. Sometimes, it's a group of players that have expectations that mutually reinforce "bad behavior"- remember that chaotic evil campaigns are a legitimate way to play, but it becomes a problem if it makes players/DMs discontent with the experience and needs to be addressed.
You could also meet with your players and let them know your concerns- you understand that they have their characters, but you don't want to run a campaign that just devolves into murderhobo'ing and at some point as a DM they need to recognize that it is disruptive. It is well within your authority as a DM to ban evil characters- though your players can leave the campaign if they don't like this, if it's not going to work anyway you can always just part ways. There are ways to encourage good behavior vs evil behavior by mechanics, but it can feel like punishment which can just make players more bitter. Working outside the table to reach an agreement is probably ideal- either you could run a campaign that panders to what the players want, or you could work with them to develop characters that have more motivation than just murderhobo'ing (which, and I understand that I have a certain perspective, is less than perfect D&D anyway).
There are many other options, which are legitimate, but I do think that these two options are ones that are often overlooked. DM'ing is more than just the table, it is also all the interactions that go on behind the scenes- preparation, relationships between players and DMs, and setting a consistent theme and mood for the campaign is equally important, and it could help solve your problems before you have to try to manage things as they catch fire in real time.
I remember one of these was about murder hobos and how to manage them. Maybe the Player Types video?
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Subclasses | Races | Spells | Magic Items | Monsters | Feats | Backgrounds
#11, Different Kinds of Players
#57, Problem Players
#64, On Being a Good Player
#76, The Wangrod Defense
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If you have a group of chaotic evil characters then a published adventure will not work. Those assume the norm of mostly good to neutral characters wanting to help people or save a land or something. Chaotic evil will not follow any of the plot lines and just go off piste, so don't look there for a good time. Sandbox may be a bit over your head right now as a new DM especially with chaotic evil group. You may want to ask them to make a more regular group and do a published adventure so both you and they can get a better feel for the game with the understanding that the next campaign you will run will be the evil one they are wanting. If there aren't cool with that then it's going to take a lot of prep and a lot of understanding on their part to get it running well. Maybe a setting in which there are very strict laws and severe repercussions for doing bad things to people could curb their bloodlust enough to get some semblance of a logical campaign. Chaotic evil (as chaotic neutral) doesn't mean chaotic stupid. Just because they want to kill a shopkeep and take his gold doesn't mean that they will if there are a couple of guards watching the newcomers in town intently ready to intervene if anything bad happens.
If you players want to just want to kill stuff and take treasure, give them that. If you do not want to run that type of campaign, have a group conversation and see if you can come to an agreement going forward. If you do want to do the low plot high combat route, I would recommend looking into tails of the yawning portal. It has a bunch of disconnected large dungeons with not much of a hook to get into them.
You do not get extra points for linking multiple Colville videos... just sayin'. ;)
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
This is pretty much spot on.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
Adapt the game to the players based on the decisions that they make. As an above poster mentioned, do not punish them. You can make it interesting for them though. If you need to switch gears and turn it into an evil campaign the go for it. Just remember that evil will always have those who want to stop them. There are even other nasty evil things that could care less if the players are evil or not. In fact this may cause some distrust among other evil NPCs provoking them to keep tabs on the characters, Or even look to take them out because of a conflict of interest. No doubt bring in some shady NPCs for the players to interact with. Also, it the characters are just running around killing everyone they come across then they will bring attention to themselves rather quickly. Get an investigation going within the game that is basically looking for the players. Use this to get the player to avoid drawing attention to themselves. If they simply dont care then have them apprehended wveen it it requires a royal beat down. Of coarse give them a chance to escape. Also not all of them may get away. This could open things up for a nice quest to break out the captured characters. Keep in mind that any characters that have been captured could have all their gear taken from them with no way of recovering it. It seems dirty but this is a good way to remove items you regret handing out without just taking them for no reason. There are all sorts of ways to handle the situation. With that said, just remember that just because these are you friends, they may not be ideal players and you might want to consider running a game with more like minded people.
Characters who were neutral or good would definitely NOT associate with murder-hobos! The N and G characters would have no reason that they'd want to remain associated with such entities.