The pace of 4e D&D combat tends to squeeze role playing out of the equation. I find this happening to the extent that 4e could almost be classified as a tactical combat game rather than a role playing game. The opinion might be extreme, but it does have merit. If you are looking to ensure that more role playing occur at your table and not sacrifice the fun that 4e tactical combat brings consider the points below.
- Engaging Story – This might seem like a no brainer, but too many DMs put too little emphasis on the story. If your story is just an excuse to cobble some interesting combat encounters together your players are going to realize this and react accordingly. The result will be a minimum amount of time spent between combat. Don’t get me wrong there is nothing wrong with non-stop combat, but if you want role playing it won’t work. You need to focus on story first and provide your players with a compelling reason to meet you half way.
- Controversial NPC – Introducing a NPC that the players aren’t sure about is always a great way to get them engaged in role playing. In a recent campaign I had a NPC who filled the role of the quest giver. He kept the party busy for a while investigating some strange occurrences. However, the players always had the sense that this particular NPC was holding something back, that they were never being told the complete picture. This hunch that the player developed is something I fostered and encouraged. It caused the players to ask questions they might not have otherwise and forced them to explore the motivations of their own characters. As things turned out the players had a reason to be suspicious as this NPC also turned out to be the primary villain of that campaign arc.
- Quick Challenging Combat – Combat in 4e is not generally a quick affair. As you climb in levels the amount of time each encounter requires seems to increase. While this is great for creating wonderful, tactical combat that requires a great deal of teamwork from your player it is not good at allowing for deep role playing to flourish. When a combat can take two hours to complete and players really hoping for two combat encounters in a session there is no room from role playing. The trick is to create combat encounters that are challenging, but don’t stretch the clock in duration. This can be a two way street, if your players are slow on their turn there isn’t much you can do to change things other than punish them.
What has your experience been with 4e and role playing? Does 4e tend to squeeze out role playing opportunities in favour of length combat? What techniques have you used to combat this trend?
Related reading:
- Speeding up your Game
- Speed up your Game: Know When to Call the Fight
- The Evolution of the Dungeon Encounter
View Comments (22)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
1 2 3 Next »My experience of role-playing while playing D&D 4e varies depending on the venue in which I'm playing the game.
If I'm playing it with my home-based group of friends, where the only time limit is what we place on it, plus the fact we'll see each other in a week or two to continue the adventure, the role-playing is typically fantastic, fun, off-the-wall and serious. We tell stories together and the dice rolling may be very minimal some nights.
If I'm playing at a Con or doing LFR at the local game store, I find that the role-play takes a back seat, if it's even in the car. We don't know each other, most of the time, and we're also under a time crunch (4 hours, as in a typical Con slot). We want to get this module/adventure done so we can get our XP and level up. I find I enjoy these less. If I wanted to play a minis game, there are others I'll play in lieu of this. If I wanted all combat, no role-play, same thing.
Anyway, these are my experiences. Thanks for the article!
I've not had a bad experience with role-playing in 4E. I switched back to 3rd and Pathfinder, but that was for other reasons. On the other hand, when our group gets together its usually for games in excess of three hours, so even if a combat encounter does last an hour there's still plenty of time for role-playing.
My own technique for handling overly long or boring combat encounters is to stop them or change them drastically. In the former case, if the combat really isn't important - it's a couple guards or a random encounter for instance - then I just kill the baddies off, ignoring any remaining health they have. If there is still a legitimate danger to the PCs or the encounter is important to the story or characters, then I spice it up. I add in some dialogue, throw some new ability at the party, change the scenery, or something to keep the players on edge and add opportunities for interaction. Some examples that encourage role-playing in combat might include:
-Start monologuing in combat. This is one of the quintessential villain tropes, and should at least keep the players mindful of the story if not shouting back, interrupting, or trying to deliver their own discourse.
-Retreat. If it's possible to get out of combat with the players, then you've effectively ended the combat. Sadly, often the players will simply chase the enemy. This could be a tactical retreat removing the big bad from the encounter, or it could be actual fleeing after the big bad has fallen and his minions are attempting to get away alive.
-Start a ritual. Who cares what it does, make it up on the spot. The intent isn't to complete the ritual, but to change the dynamics of the encounter. This is likely the least role-play of the examples, but it might just change the dynamics enough.
-Add a controversial NPC. You can do this in combat as well. Add a hostage, a "neutral" third party, or a sympathetic enemy. Two of my recurring NPCs along this line are the enemy who surrenders in combat and the enemy who turns on his fellows when he realizes they've lost. The latter isn't always a backstabbing cut throat, but simply someone who couldn't (or wouldn't) stand alone against the evil he saw perpetuated around him. How the PCs handle this both in combat and out can make for some interesting role-play and character development/revealing.
There was a great writeup over at the Standard Action blog (http://standardaction.wordpress.com/2011/06/04/roleplaying-combat/) about the false dichotomy of RP vs combat, and how to bring roleplaying back into combat encounters.
Inspired by the discussion, I decided to create a resource to combat the Power Verb phenomenon ("I will Tide of Iron the gnoll!") by providing flavor text for all Dnd 4e monster powers. The site is only a few weeks old, but is already getting lots of contributions from the community. I encourage everyone to check it out at http://www.beyondthestatblock.com/ and to sign up and start contributing!
Hi WIMWICK,
I have to completely agree with you about 4e. In my opinion it truly lacks the same flavor as the 3.5/Pathfinder products. It seems like D&D is trying to emulate World of Warcraft Online by focusing so much on the combat and so little on the back story/Roleplaying. When 4e was announced I was very excited but after trying two campaigns that just lacked the depth of the older 3.5 editions my group and I gave up. And yes combat did seem to drag on...
I truly hope that this is not the direction that D&D is going to continue to move towards in the years to come.
Thanks for the article!
Nathan
I hold a little bit of a different view I suppose. At our table we don't rely on the RPG to dictate the amount of RP in our game. That onus is on the players. Outside of combat or in the middle of combat, it's the players descriptions of their actions, their verbal assaults at enemies, and their commanding shouts to allies which make for good role play. In fact several players we have write their own descriptor text for their powers and they describe the action they are taking as such. The DM's usually describe kill shots, bloodied shots, and large hits with some sort of flavor text to give a mental image of the battle. We use "tokens" to reward players for "style and bravado" either in combat or outside of it. Ergo players try to earn the tokens which they can use at a later time to add a +1 to any roll. (houserule)
In my opinion though, it's up to the group to ramp it up, but the DM can certainly provide incentives.
@Maestro I do agree that it is the player's responsibility to put forth the effort to role-play and it is great that the DM provides incentive to do so. I do a similar thing with the nWoD Mage game that I run currently. At the end of each of session when XP is awarded, I open the floor for "Excellent Roleplaying Nominations" this is where any player can nominate another player for good RP during the session and the player who receives the most nominations wins a small bonus XP award from the GM/DM/Storyteller.
I like the idea of players writing their own descriptor text for powers. I just wish that the D&D writers had provided a bit more depth on these to begin with. I appreciate the fact that it leaves it open for player creativity but often times style and creativity can suffer if there is not a good jumping off point especially for new players.
Thanks for sharing!
I'm all for increasing roleplaying. I'd add to your list "Interesting Choices". Presenting the group with a crossroads where each road is an equal option creates a lot of party chatter. Add to this personal goals for each character down the differing paths to really stir the pot.
I also give blatant bonuses for good roleplaying. A roll that would miss may hit instead, or grant some other bonus, if roleplayed well. When I do this I make it obvious their roleplaying brought them the win.
@ The Bearded Goose
You make a good distinction between home games and public play. In the latter, there is definitely less role playing going on, though I have seen some exceptions.
@ Svafa
I should be clear and state I haven't had a bad experience role playing with 4e, simply that I find more often than not it is taking the back seat to allow for one more combat to be completed. I like your idea about monologuing during combat. I'll have to try that sometime soon.
@ Corey Ehmke
Thanks for providing the link. I'll be sure to get over to Standard Action and give the article a read.
@ Nathan
I didn't want to make this artcile an edition war, but in the back of my mind while writing it was the thought that I do remember role playing more when we played 3.5. It's not a knock on 4e, I like the game a lot. What I need to do is figure out what changed aside from the rules/edition and get that back.
@ Dungeon Maestro
Agreed. It should be the players not the game that determines the amount of role playing or combat that occurs at the game table. Perhaps my group just enjoys combat a lot more than role playing. For all I know they don't see the lack of role playing as a problem. I'll have to ask.
@ j0nny_5
Thanks for adding to the list. I always enjoy it when readers share their ideas on the game and on how to make the game better. Thanks!
I think 4E is a victim of it's own creativness in one regard. 4E gives you an attack that does "something". Ergo the saying "I Tide of Iron" the mob. Previous editions, just had "I attack the mob 3 times". Unless of course you were a spell caster. Ergo in previous editions players HAD TO add flavor. 4E it seems makes players lazy about being creative. I suppose we could apply that to technology in general too. After all our society is growing lazier and lazier by the decade.
With 4E giving a cooler name for powers, which some use as a descriptor, and even throwing in some descriptor text, I think some folks just take the easy way out. The rest of us "Charge the Orcs, outnumbered, uphill, in the snow, with death cries rattling in the wind (which is blowing against us of course) and blood dripping from our raised axe as we leap into the air in order to bring doom to Orcish foe"....... So what I mean is, "Basic Melee attack"...
I was brought into D&D about 2 years ago, I've only ever played 4th ed, and I havent ever played another RPG. I dont understand how some people think 4th ed isnt condusive to roleplaying. I play twice a week, encounters and homebrew, the encounters game is just an excuse for me to try out different classes and races and i told the DM thats why i was coming, he's fine with it says everyone else at the table does the same, since they all play their own homebrew games where the RP is more prevalent. In my homebrew game sometimes we'll go several sessions with little to no combat, spending hours roleplaying dinner parties, and heists and whatnot... from the perspective of a relatively new player 4thed is awesome and entirely what you make it just find some like minded people who want the game to be what you want it to be too... a good DM who's flexible really helps. And equating d&d to WoWC is far fetched, unless thats what the group wants it to be, and whats wrong with that!