Hoping to get some advice from my fellow DM's out here.
I love party conflict, however due to my own fault i now have too much and my party is finding itself in a, "why would we even keep adventuring together?" Situation. I've only got 2 characters with total opposite philosophies, but multiple members are feeling the strain of each others actions. Without fully railroading the players, what would you guys do to promote a storyline that creates friendships among the party so that they like each other enough to work through their differences?
One of my storylines features a group of intelligent beings from another plane that are in charge of overseeing all the lesser planes, sometimes eradicating them as need be, so in the material plane of my players they are working together to fix a problem the planar beings caused to show that their world isn't just a bunch of creatures out for themselves and save the plane from eradication.
I think he's thinking of a more immediate solution.
My advice: Prison break arc. Get an BBEG to capture the adventurers and lock them up in his Belle Reve Prison, designed so it could be only be escaped by having the adventurer's work together.
For example: Your Thief escapes his cell and is almost free when he comes across a giant chasm he can't get across. But wait, doesn't that Wizard know Fly? I'm sure he could get you across if you help him escape.
Obviously I'm simplifying the escape for only two characters but you get the idea.
first question to resolve is, do they want to, either as players or as characters? ultimately, you can't force people to like each other if they want to, even as this trope comes up time and again on film or tv.
really, the first stage is to work on what the players involved want. you'll have to chat with both to work this out. once you've figured out from this if the situation is recoverable, then start working on how to turn that into on the board reality.
The players want resolution. A large part of the conflict is about "righteous" killings. One character is basically a justicar following a goddess of vengeance, then one player is a paladin who has taken the oath of redemption and believes that violence is always the last result. Then one character is fine with the killing but only if the law is behind them. The other 2 players are flexible and can see both sides.
Nothing unites better than a common enemy. That said, create a side of the conflict, that would have something against all of your party members. Be it pirates, gangsters, dragon, whatever really.
Then as the party fights against it, create situations that make them work together, save each other. Maybe at first for the sake of needing one another to get back at the BBE-Thing. But promote R&R talks, where they can talk about how they would be dead if not for the rest.
I would also create a few grey area situations where an NPC can point out where the two oaths can converge and be used in tandem.
The group is set to take care of a warring nation of Elves, Dwarves, Half-Orcs, whatever as long as it's a race that the group could see as redeemable. Have their acts be just malevolent enough to create a possibility of vengeance, theft of food, extortion, kidnapping, etc. however avoid blatant killing, torture, or the likes.
While working to complete this task they will run into an NPC who works as a monk, clergy, or other holy walk of life who will join them for the journey. While they're learning about this holy man have him talk about redemption and how he doesn't like all the killing and bloodshed, advocate for less deadly force. Then you put a few positions in there where the holy man advocates for vengeance, they witness the brigands beating a defenseless person and their responses to any type of redemption are met with blatant disregard and force. Have the BBEG fight use those two mechanics as well, the boss is met with the group to try and parley. There has been nothing done in front of them to cause a need for vengeance, it's a talk, and depending on how the players converse the events could take a turn to where they have to kill him because of his words/actions.
I find many issues of these sorts stem due to the nature of "throwing a party together" without any real comradeship of those characters. In our personal lives, we have built friendships with others who may hold different philosophies, so we overlook our differences. Within D&D, we play these characters unilaterally and question why we would interact with other characters who don't fit within our mold of ideals. The answer is soft skills - the characters need a bond or relationship which causes them to care for one another. Why would Character1 adventure with Character2? Example: Character2 saved his life countless times and has been a longtime family friend of a decade. Character1 always turns to this individual during bad times or periods of distress.
Need to find a reason for the characters to relate - to find a reason to adventure together other than purely motive/demeanor reasons alone.
I currently play a character that is on the killing-as-a-last-resort end of the spectrum and we have a couple party members who see it as an easy solution to many problems. Some things our DM has done:
Face us off against creatures which are indisputably evil and wouldn't raise those concerns
Encourage the characters to actually roleplay a discussion of philosophies - the more we learn about each other the more we respect each other's beliefs
Live as an example of how to be, rather than enforcing your beliefs
Encourage the paladin to focus on tenets other than the Peace one. Wisdom and Patience can be applied inside the party as well as out.
Good luck!
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Hoping to get some advice from my fellow DM's out here.
I love party conflict, however due to my own fault i now have too much and my party is finding itself in a, "why would we even keep adventuring together?" Situation. I've only got 2 characters with total opposite philosophies, but multiple members are feeling the strain of each others actions. Without fully railroading the players, what would you guys do to promote a storyline that creates friendships among the party so that they like each other enough to work through their differences?
One of my storylines features a group of intelligent beings from another plane that are in charge of overseeing all the lesser planes, sometimes eradicating them as need be, so in the material plane of my players they are working together to fix a problem the planar beings caused to show that their world isn't just a bunch of creatures out for themselves and save the plane from eradication.
I think he's thinking of a more immediate solution.
My advice: Prison break arc. Get an BBEG to capture the adventurers and lock them up in his Belle Reve Prison, designed so it could be only be escaped by having the adventurer's work together.
For example: Your Thief escapes his cell and is almost free when he comes across a giant chasm he can't get across. But wait, doesn't that Wizard know Fly? I'm sure he could get you across if you help him escape.
Obviously I'm simplifying the escape for only two characters but you get the idea.
first question to resolve is, do they want to, either as players or as characters? ultimately, you can't force people to like each other if they want to, even as this trope comes up time and again on film or tv.
really, the first stage is to work on what the players involved want. you'll have to chat with both to work this out. once you've figured out from this if the situation is recoverable, then start working on how to turn that into on the board reality.
The players want resolution. A large part of the conflict is about "righteous" killings. One character is basically a justicar following a goddess of vengeance, then one player is a paladin who has taken the oath of redemption and believes that violence is always the last result. Then one character is fine with the killing but only if the law is behind them. The other 2 players are flexible and can see both sides.
Destroying undead can simultaneously accommodate vengeance and redemption.
Nothing unites better than a common enemy. That said, create a side of the conflict, that would have something against all of your party members. Be it pirates, gangsters, dragon, whatever really.
Then as the party fights against it, create situations that make them work together, save each other. Maybe at first for the sake of needing one another to get back at the BBE-Thing. But promote R&R talks, where they can talk about how they would be dead if not for the rest.
I would also create a few grey area situations where an NPC can point out where the two oaths can converge and be used in tandem.
The group is set to take care of a warring nation of Elves, Dwarves, Half-Orcs, whatever as long as it's a race that the group could see as redeemable. Have their acts be just malevolent enough to create a possibility of vengeance, theft of food, extortion, kidnapping, etc. however avoid blatant killing, torture, or the likes.
While working to complete this task they will run into an NPC who works as a monk, clergy, or other holy walk of life who will join them for the journey. While they're learning about this holy man have him talk about redemption and how he doesn't like all the killing and bloodshed, advocate for less deadly force. Then you put a few positions in there where the holy man advocates for vengeance, they witness the brigands beating a defenseless person and their responses to any type of redemption are met with blatant disregard and force. Have the BBEG fight use those two mechanics as well, the boss is met with the group to try and parley. There has been nothing done in front of them to cause a need for vengeance, it's a talk, and depending on how the players converse the events could take a turn to where they have to kill him because of his words/actions.
I find many issues of these sorts stem due to the nature of "throwing a party together" without any real comradeship of those characters. In our personal lives, we have built friendships with others who may hold different philosophies, so we overlook our differences. Within D&D, we play these characters unilaterally and question why we would interact with other characters who don't fit within our mold of ideals. The answer is soft skills - the characters need a bond or relationship which causes them to care for one another. Why would Character1 adventure with Character2? Example: Character2 saved his life countless times and has been a longtime family friend of a decade. Character1 always turns to this individual during bad times or periods of distress.
Need to find a reason for the characters to relate - to find a reason to adventure together other than purely motive/demeanor reasons alone.
I currently play a character that is on the killing-as-a-last-resort end of the spectrum and we have a couple party members who see it as an easy solution to many problems. Some things our DM has done:
Good luck!