Topic: Looking for general "old school gaming" advice

My players and I haven't played any kind  of D&D in about two decades, although we played lots of other roleplaying games since then. We started a semi-regular LotFP campaign a while ago, and while the players enjoy the campaign itself (that is, the story that unfolds as we play), they're getting frustrated by a few aspects of the game. I'd like to address their complaints, but I'm so rusty with this kind of RPG that I thought I'd ask for some advice here. Let's see where things are going badly.

1) "The fights are too tough!"
-To be fair, I made one adventure way too hard and only found out through actual play, but this is skewing their whole perception of the game. Part of the problem is that, while they know about the retainer rules, they never think about hiring retainers. At the end of the last game, I had a band of mercenaries show up and offer their help. I'm hoping that by the end of the next session, the players will see the difference it can make, but I want them to understand that this is a standard part of the game, not a special favor or a one-of-a-kind event. How would you encourage players to hire retainers when they need it?

2) "There's no treasure!" or "There are no hints anywhere!"
-Or rather, they don't always search carefully enough and they end up missing a lot of hidden stuff. Obviously, this can happen all the time in every game, so it's nobody's fault. To be fair, in hindsight, I might have been a bit too subtle about some hidden stuff. However, they seem to expect me to tell them to roll a die, or "make a spot check", whenever they come near secret doors or concealed treasure, instead of asking more questions or taking the time to explore. How would you encourage players to explore more carefully, apart from "penalizing" them for not doing it?

3) "Level progression is too slow!"
-This is tied to the "fights are too tough" complaint. Since we started playing, two players have reached level 2, three are pretty close, and the last is playing an Elf, so she's a little less than halfway there. However, they've had it up to here with the whole level 1 thing, they don't think their characters are tough enough, and they're getting very frustrated about this. I'd like to "dedramatize" the situation, but I'm wary of simply showering them with XP. I offered the Elf player to choose a different class, because she didn't realize just how high the level threshold is for Elves. For the rest, I'm worried that if I give out too much at level 1, they'll expect unrealisitic amounts at higher levels. How would you handle complaints  about level progression?

Thanks in advance for your insights! smile

Last edited by barondutremblay (2015-04-17 05:27:58)

Re: Looking for general "old school gaming" advice

1) I might have the party approached by a higher level character than them that wants to hire them on as henchmen to take down a foe slightly beyond his capabilities, and make a show of this guy hiring a whole expedition worth of people. Teamsters, animal handlers, a guide, a few mercenaries, maybe even a scholar for deciphering old ruins etc. When hiring the players, the higher level guy would negotiate terms of the contract and everything, including shares of any treasure found, wages for the expedition, expected duties, chain of command, all of it. Then I would make sure to include in the expedition enough treasure that everyone walks away with more than they expected. Not over the top, just a little extra.

2) Even though it makes no real sense, if you think about it from the point of view of the person hiding the treasure, there needs to be hints. Especially if your players are used to more modern games. You can wean them off the hints as you go, but definitely start out with plenty of hints whenever hidden things abound. You can also start using more un-hidden but perhaps less obvious treasure. An ornate tapestry used to hide a secret passage might just have some value on it's own. Three barrels of salted pork might not sound like treasure, but it will have some definite value in town. A dusty old cask of wine, if un-opened, could go to a collector or connoisseur for a hefty sum.

3) Personally, I do almost anything to get at least most of the players at my tables out of level 1 by the end of the first session, unless they're REALLY new to the hobby and need a little bit extra time with the training wheels on. Second session tops.  Make them feel like they earned it (tough guardians, difficult puzzles, etc), but definitely reward them enough to get them out of level 1.

generally, if there's a specific kind of behavior you want to encourage, the best way is to reward it immediately whenever it happens. If they've missed 3 hidden treasures in the last few rooms, and then in the room that has nothing they remember "oh yeah, I wanna search for hidden treasure!" just go ahead and let them find one of the ones they already missed. They'll never know the difference, and now they'll remember that sometimes there's hidden treasure! Hell, even if you didn't have any hidden treasure planned in a particular scenario, give them SOMETHING. A small bag of coins buried in the back corner of a cave; or they find a hidden compartment in a piece of furniture that only has one coin in it, but clearly USED to contain a goodly hoard. Hidden documents can be fun, especially if they are of a sensitive nature.

Last edited by Yuritau (2015-04-24 08:08:29)

Re: Looking for general "old school gaming" advice

Thanks for your good advice!

I especially like your first suggestion. I'll try to fit something like this in my next game.

Re: Looking for general "old school gaming" advice

My favorite way to put in small treasure that I didn't have specific plans for is to just grab a handful of dice out of my dice bag, and drop em on the table. One d20 is gold pieces, 2-3 other dice are silver, the rest are coppers. If you wanna get fancy, one or more of the dice is a gem worth ten times the number shown.

Last edited by Yuritau (2015-04-24 08:13:02)