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5 months ago ::
Jan 07, 2013 - 7:31AM
#1
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Date Joined:
Dec 16, 2011
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Ok, I get it, part of it is my fault :/
I don't have any real means or time for making dungeons (unless I find a helluva good tool that lets me do them online... maptool isn't working as I would have expected and I can't get tiles in my country -.-), so I followed the DM Links sticky and found donjon, which randomly produces maps for me, and they've been working since I edit the rooms... until..... HE CAME.
Let me explain you how our campaigns go... we're a total of 8, but we're between 6-5, or even 4 per session, since I'm the group's "big daddy" and they're still middle high/highschoolers which have been more bussy than I, a college dude (-.- ironic isn't it?); they love modern-day settings, and two of us act as DMs of different games with similar campaigns. My campaign is a modern day setting horror-mystery based on the Shin Megami Tensei games (particullary Persona, they all have custom familiars regardless of the power source to simbolize said inner demons) and the Corpse Party visual novel/survival horror.
So, they're all humans, very ingenious, and have amazed me with actions behind my comprehension, such as, trying to... tame a Gelatinous Cube...
They like the game, I like the game... but lately we've been running into encounter design problems, which I'll try to point out later. HOWEVER, there's this Barbarian guy that comes to play with us from time to time, and we really like his charisma and politeness in the game table. However, he does what a Barbarian loves the most: BREAKING EVERYTHING ON SIGHT, and it's become a hinderance for some puzzles... and I don't know if it's MY problem as a DM, or I should do something.
My players have told me they love the puzzles I scatter trough the dungeons; however when the Barb's on play, they'd rather stop thinking and have him break down a wall, smash a door, and all of them just run trough the whole dungeon breaking wall after wall... Part of the problem is that the danged Donjon usually makes room too close one to each other and some walls are 1 square deep. Another one is that I don' like to say no to my player's actions, and guys, most doors on the game are breakable... Yeah, I've done Arcane locks and have put traps behind doors, but my rogue and wizard are the luckiest persons on earth or something...
I'm wondering wahat should I do, since a dungeon run with this guy can go from a creepy old house exploration, to "smash everything till' we get to the main room" kind of adventure that consists of just encounters... My players seem to enjoy both puzzle using and combat, but when this guy is arrund they LOVE it when he makes big holes on walls... which I'm not enjoying at all. I tried talking to thhem about it, saying that they should try to explore a little more, but they don't really care, they just want to go there, fight a Solo monster, and get some glory.
Next session will be the end of Heroic Tier, and I've prepared the deadliest dungeon so far: Heavenly Host Elementary from the Corpse Party game; whoever's read the manga or played the games should know that's kind of Lolth's vacation place, filled with the eternal screams of tortured children, eviscerated, cannibalized teens, and souls which repeat the pain of their deaths forever. When they get inside, they group will be split into 3 parts (2 for each plane), and they won't be able to interact until they make the planes a whole to kick the big baddie of Heroic Tier. I'vew already sorted how encounter will be; they'll be fighting the same enemy group from different planes, but they won't be able to interact with one each other; so whoever gets the cleric for his group is lucky... still, they're all easy encounters to compensate the planar split. HOWEVER THE BARBARIAN IS COMING, and I don't know how to manage stuff with him...
In the manga/game, a person is unable to break doors and walls of that school, since the school and its master are almost gods themselves... He's the only one who hasn't played/read it, so he doesn't knows that; it's supposed that the school is a deathtrap that knows EVERYTHING about those who enter... so, shoukld I make the plane he's trapped in well... UNBREAKABLE? I'm sure he would rant about it... ¬.¬
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5 months ago ::
Jan 07, 2013 - 8:29AM
#2
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Make the walls and doors he break apear in the way of the others
Make the walls and doors bleed and screams when he breaks them
Going throught a broken door or wall just brings him to a undamaged room thats just like the room he left
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5 months ago ::
Jan 07, 2013 - 9:19AM
#3
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Date Joined:
Dec 22, 2010
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If you hit a stone wall with a hand, you break your hand. If you hit a stone wall with an axe, you break your axe.
The wall are made of pure plot from the finest plot mines that the king of plotania could buy with his plot dollars. They are as strong as you need them to be.
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5 months ago ::
Jan 07, 2013 - 9:30AM
#4
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There are all sorts of in-game ways to deal with this, such as having tunneling through the walls take time, make noise, attract attention, not to mention the old standbys of having wards activated (like traps) or accidentally going through a load-bearing wall and making a room collapse on the barbarian's head.
My suggestion, however, talk to the players, all of them, barbarian included. Point out that they are bypassing a lot of the fun, and you are going to stop presenting puzzles and such if they aren't going to bother to try. If they want to go room to room killing things and taking their stuff, play that kind of game, but dont go through the effort of creating stuff they arent going to notice or appreciate. You also can point out to them you do have the option of throwing roadblocks in the barbarian's way, but would rather everyone is on board and having fun.
An honest conversation is going to save you work, regardless of how the conversation goes.
Good luck.
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5 months ago ::
Jan 07, 2013 - 9:48AM
#5
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Let him break a few doors and walls, but when possible penalize the group for doing so.
In the godlike school dungeon of yours, for example, all the walls are enhanced with powerful magic empowerd by aciant runes. Not only it makes the walls unbreakable but it damages whoever hits it.
In other dungeon, for example, it could be located on volcano, so breaking walls wouldn't be so wise. There are in-game ways to make'em stop doint it.
I don't know much about your particular game and lore but you shouldn't follow donjon to the letter. You can easily expand area without having to re-do the whole map, making your walls four to five squares wide.
But, whatever you do, don't make it impossible to break all the walls and doors in your game. If your group find it rewarding keep that feature as a possibility, but don't let them puch holes throughout all your dungeons.
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5 months ago ::
Jan 07, 2013 - 9:50AM
#6
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Let him break a few doors and walls, but when possible penalize the group for doing so. In the godlike school dungeon of yours, for example, all the walls are enhanced with powerful magic empowerd by aciant runes. Not only it makes the walls unbreakable but it damages whoever hits it. In other dungeon, for example, it could be located on volcano, so breaking walls wouldn't be so wise. There are in-game ways to make'em stop doint it. I don't know much about your particular game and lore but you shouldn't follow donjon to the letter. You can easily expand area without having to re-do the whole map, making your walls four to five squares wide. But, whatever you do, don't make it impossible to break all the walls and doors in your game. If your group find it rewarding keep that feature as a possibility, but don't let them puch holes throughout all your dungeons.
This is exactly the opposite of what I was suggesting. 
Which is good, because you now have a wide range of options and advice
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5 months ago ::
Jan 07, 2013 - 9:57AM
#7
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Date Joined:
Jul 21, 2004
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If that's the game they want, that's the game you should give them. Surely there are other aspects of the game that you enjoy. Focus on those instead of focusing on a tone and on challenges that don't appear to appeal to the players.
Also, collaborate with them. Ask leading questions like "There's something about this next room that makes simply destroying it unwise. What is it?" Ask that of the barbarian player. If that player is receptive to the idea and suggests an unbreakable challenge for himself, then he'll have nothing to rant about. If they're unreceptive and suggests something that's easily avoidable in some other way, let them do that, and take the hint that they don't want the kind of game you want.
[N]o difference is less easily overcome than the difference of opinion about semi-abstract questions. - L. Tolstoy
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5 months ago ::
Jan 07, 2013 - 12:54PM
#8
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If that's the game they want, that's the game you should give them.
I disagree. The OP has said flat out "...which I'm not enjoying at all" (emphasis mine). The game needs to be fun for the DM too. They need to figure out a style of play that everyone enjoys.
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5 months ago ::
Jan 07, 2013 - 12:56PM
#9
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If that's the game they want, that's the game you should give them.
I disagree. The OP has said flat out "...which I'm not enjoying at all" (emphasis mine). The game needs to be fun for the DM too. They need to figure out a style of play that everyone enjoys.
But part of why the OP is not enjoying this is because the OP is prepping for stuff the PCs are bypassing. That would frustrate anyone.
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5 months ago ::
Jan 07, 2013 - 12:56PM
#10
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Date Joined:
Jul 21, 2004
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If that's the game they want, that's the game you should give them.
I disagree. The OP has said flat out "...which I'm not enjoying at all" (emphasis mine). The game needs to be fun for the DM too. They need to figure out a style of play that everyone enjoys.
Hm, good point, and I agree that the poster should collaborate with the players. Good idea. I wish it had occurred to me.
[N]o difference is less easily overcome than the difference of opinion about semi-abstract questions. - L. Tolstoy
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