WHITEBOYWASTED wrote:How did you handle the combat with one character and the (presuming) exploration of the others? Focus on one scene at a time? I can't imagine my players sitting still while one of them was in combat and the others weren't, but I guess that's my group's problem. I can see a simultaneous chase/combat thing happening turn by turn as you describe. That's pretty cool!
I'm knee deep in 5e lore right now trying to spice up a premade dungeon crawl with more interesting factions and npcs, but I'm not sure how much that will matter. I'm pretty sure these guys will try to kill anything that remotely stands in the way or just die standing against anything more powerful than them. I wish I could encourage bargaining, running away, scouting, or planning to them as something that might help them achieve their goals better, but maybe that's just my idea of fun.
it ended up just alternating between the two encounters - while the 3 players were fighting, at the top of each round i'd take a minute or two to talk to the paladin about what he was doing or what was happening to him, have him make a roll or two, then cut back into combat. the 1st combat ended up wrapping up just as the 2nd combat started, so then the roles swapped. I'd do 2 rounds of fighting, then check in with each of the other 3 players to see what they were up to. 2 of the players went on to the next area, so they were out of the loop for a while. I'll probably pick up with a couple minutes of just those two at the beginning of the next session. for the barbarian who was returning, i just gave him some options inbetween every 2nd round of combat (which was short, as it was just 1 on 1) and I saw that the combat was starting to go south so i made sure to get him far enough along that he could dramatically burst into the room at the critical moment to try to save the paladin. just didn't quite work out, lol. I was planning originally to just have everyone on the same initiative track and have 2 maps overlaid (this campaign is on roll20 but i've done similar stuff irl with 2 actual maps) but ended up not needing it.
there are a couple good ways to make players not just kill everything immediately. i think the best way to encourage players to not just kill their way through everything is to make there be serious consequences for killing in situations where it makes sense. if the dungeon is an environment with npcs and factions, they probably wont take too kindly to adventurers coming in and killing everything that moves. maybe one of the factions intentionally reaches out to the players in some way to try to bargain with them after a couple of their opponents are killed by the players, and at the same time the faction that was killed by the players launches a bigger force that begins hunting the players down. any time they try to take a rest, they're assaulted, until they dont have options but to seek allies. another way is present them with some puzzles that are nigh unsolvable without some help from a local. they still have the opportunity to cajole & intimidate but at least they cant outright kill.
i dont think there is a good way to get them to run away unless you as the dm specifically tell them "you are all trained fighters, and as you engage these people, their sheer numbers and skill at sword strikes worry into your hearts. you dont think you can win this fight". players go into every encounter assuming they've been balanced for their strengths, so if you give them one that's not you have to tell them outright. for scouting, you might need to do the same at first - just ask for an insight check of the player most likely to scout and tell them on a success "you don't know what your walking into, and your ranger's sense is telling you that it might be worth scoping out quietly before rushing in." seems cheesy but these are things that the players dont know but their characters certainly do know, so its worth giving them the information