Saturday, September 14, 2013

"Noobs" Trying to Talk to Obvious Monsters

You turn the corner into the alley and you come face to face with:


It is growling and breathing heavily.  Some of its errant saliva lands on what little bare skin is exposed by your armor. You feel a slight burning sensation and almost a corrosive feeling on your skin.  The beast rears back and bellows, baring it's rows of teeth and you can smell it's foul, rank breath.  It crouches into an aggressive stance and stares in your direction.  Roll initiative.

Player 1:  I say: "Good evening."

DM:  Huh? 

Player 1:   Does it say anything back?

DM:  It roars loudly again... it sounds hungry.  It strides menacingly toward you.

Player 1:  I say:  "Hello!!! Can you understand me?"

DM:  It does not seem to react to your words.  What was your initiative roll?

Player 2:  I think we have to fight it...

This occurred in one of the first sessions of the campaign in which I was introducing some of my friends' wives and my girlfriend at the time to D&D.  There are some interesting things to take out of this:
  • New players do not have the same preconceived notions of experienced players.  They are not familiar with the cues and hints that might suggest how to handle a given situation.  This can be good and challenging at the same time.  I had planned for it to be a fight, but I always applaud outside the box thinking.  The rigid mindset of the experience player (player 2) is not necessarily any better.  Perhaps the party can run, subdue the monster using ropes and acrobatics,  get the town guard for assistance, or trick it into wreaking havoc on the party's enemies.   Those would all be equally (if not more) satisfying outcomes than fighting it.
  • Similarly, from the new player's point of view: why shouldn't monsters be able to talk?  Orcs can speak common sometimes, I saw it in Lord of the Rings.  There are elves, dwarves, and humans all communicating in the same tongue, so why should others not be able to as well?  It is not really crazy to suggest that in a land of all of these fantastical elements that a monster would parley with the group.  In fact, there are plenty of seemingly ugly and vicious monsters that can and will.


One of my greatest challenges as a Dungeon Master is to prevent myself from falling into that rigid thinking. Just because it's been a while since there's been action, and the pacing of the adventure would benefit from a fight, doesn't mean that the party should be forced into a combat.  They should be able to think their way through, out of, or around the encounter in other ways too.  Sometimes new players will pleasantly surprise you and come up with solutions that more experienced players (and DMs) would not think of.



What do you do in that situation as DM...as a player?  Love to hear it!  Comment below.



Til Next Time,

-DM Josh

8 comments:

  1. I've always used phrasing.

    "The beast roars in bestial fury, an inhuman animal rage burning in its eyes." Or some variation thereof means "This smacky, you smack smacky, no talky."


    "The beast roars, the sound guttural like some primitive speech." means "Might not be smacky. Trial and error, ahoy!"

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  2. I think it's great to use this ignorance (in the sense of inexperienced) as a springboard for creativity.

    However, I'd like to highlight the possibility of using it as simple inexperience. How many adventurers have stories about their early career, and the smack they took before they realized the owlbear wasn't open to dialogue. Trying to talk to a thing that's going to try to kill you ... if fantasy worlds had forums, there would be millions of these stories.

    So I might give the beast a surprise round, and give the newbie player a pules pounding "learning curve" experience. Handled properly (so as not to discourage), it could really invest a player in their character. At least give them a story to tell...

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    1. I think this is a very cool take on how that situation could've played out!

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  3. I'd say let them try talking to the beast, if nothing else it might give THEM the surprise round if they decide to fight. Most likely if the beastie is big and scary very few things don't run. Things that don't run doesn't fit prey behaviour and might be something IT should be scared of...

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    1. Personally I'd go this way as well. Not every time, or with every type of beast, but at least with the ones that have a big enough brain to be wary when the creature doesn't act as expected. Real life wolves, for example, will readily chase down their prey since it's their normal tactic, but when their prey first makes a stand, they become more cautious and are probably confused as well, increasing the chance that the prey actually comes out alive.

      (Sometimes fighting is better, sometimes fleeing is better, and sometimes doing something completely unexpected is best.)

      It also helps to change the storyline to fit the scene -- too many a good roleplaying moment / chance to make a diplomacy check has been ruined by the "no you must fight" approach to adventure design if you ask me; in this case, I'd have the creature start sniffing them, probably give the players a chance to make a new friend if they're nice enough. After all, the creature might simply be guarding their offspring, and is probably just trying to scare the adventurers away. Or maybe, like the fable of the lion with the splinter, it's actually just injured, and aiding the beast would be in the favor of the party.

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  4. GM: The creature leaps at you, only your panicked leap back prevents it from eviscerating you.

    Player: So maybe he doesn't know the way to Kathman Park?

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    1. I don't get the Kathman Park reference, but I love the word eviscerate!

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