Due to unforeseen circumstances I've having to introduce the game to many new players. I have to say that their reactions to events are not what I usually expect from other groups. Generally speaking, they don't loot bodies and don't spend an overlong time searching rooms for treasure or secret doors. I don't want to turn them into loot whores or search fiends but sometimes they need to loot bodies to find keys or clues.
One group stood outside the bad guy main lair and called them out. It was their second session so having the entire dungeon come out and kill them would just have been mean.
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"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
Well there never is an easy answer here. Nor is there a correct one. Even some of my long term players who are 'genre-aware' will sometimes not search things when I can reliably count on them to do so. My answer, just leave it out in the open. If they need a key the bad guy has, have it on a necklace all sparkly and noticeable. In general I've gotten away from hiding anything important to the plot, at least in terms of moving things forward. Just hide the extra or bonus information/treasure and maybe prod them into looking for it and be sure to make them feel rewarded for discovering something about the story. I try to think of the game as if someone was watching it in move form and we're not wasting screen time endlessly upturning every table and tearing rooms down to their studs.
Something like calling out the bad guy is a little more tough but just have fun with it. Maybe the bad guy dismissively sends out a handful of minions to deal with these fools. Or a larger fight ensues but give the characters a chance to get the heck out of there. Encouraging them come up with an alternate plan. Stuff like that.
I'm new-ish to the game and my very first campaign taught me to investigate heavily in two ways: traps EVERYWHERE and a few NPCs that would nudge helpfully when we were about to miss something critical. The DM let us blunder in to traps, but the NPCs allowed her to give us in-world hints when we were becoming visibly stuck. We very nearly died, still, but we became very cautious after the third trap, as we should, which also allowed us to find treasure accidentally.
That's great advice. I just started a new game with only one veteran player. Having npcs makes exposition feel organic. Of course once the new players are comfortable then it's time for the training wheels to come off.
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Due to unforeseen circumstances I've having to introduce the game to many new players. I have to say that their reactions to events are not what I usually expect from other groups. Generally speaking, they don't loot bodies and don't spend an overlong time searching rooms for treasure or secret doors. I don't want to turn them into loot whores or search fiends but sometimes they need to loot bodies to find keys or clues.
One group stood outside the bad guy main lair and called them out. It was their second session so having the entire dungeon come out and kill them would just have been mean.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Well there never is an easy answer here. Nor is there a correct one. Even some of my long term players who are 'genre-aware' will sometimes not search things when I can reliably count on them to do so. My answer, just leave it out in the open. If they need a key the bad guy has, have it on a necklace all sparkly and noticeable. In general I've gotten away from hiding anything important to the plot, at least in terms of moving things forward. Just hide the extra or bonus information/treasure and maybe prod them into looking for it and be sure to make them feel rewarded for discovering something about the story. I try to think of the game as if someone was watching it in move form and we're not wasting screen time endlessly upturning every table and tearing rooms down to their studs.
Something like calling out the bad guy is a little more tough but just have fun with it. Maybe the bad guy dismissively sends out a handful of minions to deal with these fools. Or a larger fight ensues but give the characters a chance to get the heck out of there. Encouraging them come up with an alternate plan. Stuff like that.
I'm new-ish to the game and my very first campaign taught me to investigate heavily in two ways: traps EVERYWHERE and a few NPCs that would nudge helpfully when we were about to miss something critical. The DM let us blunder in to traps, but the NPCs allowed her to give us in-world hints when we were becoming visibly stuck. We very nearly died, still, but we became very cautious after the third trap, as we should, which also allowed us to find treasure accidentally.
That's great advice. I just started a new game with only one veteran player. Having npcs makes exposition feel organic. Of course once the new players are comfortable then it's time for the training wheels to come off.