Hi Guys

I have kind a problem with my group i am Gm'ing.

Infos about my group:

- My Group ( 6 players) shall establish their own little pirate / smuggling / criminal imperium.

- We have a Hutt, Dug, Ewok, Jawa, Human (former Stormtrooper) and a Gamorean

This group lives this phrase deeply... Every encounter ends the same: They get a task, there are problems, they solve it by guns.

They don't think about any consequences, they don't discuss, they even fear no death.

So i can't even threat them with cops / authorities / or more guards.

My group does not think

So my question is: Do you have any tips to help me, to make my group think about things and don't punch first ?

It depends on whether you want to solve it in-game or out of game.

The best way could be to sit down with your players and explain to them that their behaviour is disrupting your game. Ask them to try and come up with other solutions than violence.

If this doesn't work or isn't an option for some other reason, you could adress their behaviour in-game. First of all there's law enforcement. There will always be more cops than PCs, and they'll have more and better weapons and equipment. About 20 Rival NPCs with body armour and blaster rifles should communicate this point very eloquently. All you really have to do is think, "what sort of consequences would there be if someone did this in real life?" and then adjust things accordingly.

You could also hit them with loads of Obligation (criminal) or similar every time they cause a ruckuss. Once their collective Obligation goes above 100 points they can no longer spend their XP on anything, and I pretty much guarantee that their attitudes will adjust immediately.

Hi Guys

I have kind a problem with my group i am Gm'ing.

Infos about my group:

- My Group ( 6 players) shall establish their own little pirate / smuggling / criminal imperium.

- We have a Hutt, Dug, Ewok, Jawa, Human (former Stormtrooper) and a Gamorean

To be brutally honest this is your problem right there. Pirates, smugglers, criminal imperium... Just look at what characters you have chosen to allow your guys to play. You set up this bad arse plot, you can't really fault the players for following suite.

If you wanted your game to be more about investigation and diplomacy then you should have had them roll up characters to suite that type of game. You allowed them to roll up the smugglers and criminals is it any wonder your game has turned into a wretched hive of scum and villainy?

My thirst though is if they are suffering the consequences they are threatened with. If they're killing law enforcement and Imperials, then they should be wanted. If they are wanted, that means they will be pursued. If they kill the pursuers, that means their danger level is rising, and their pursuers are going to take them more and more serious. And the Empire doesn't care about collateral damage -- if they can solve a problem by blasting it from orbit, if it's bad enough, they will.

Well, my first question is: are they having fun? If they are having fun punching their way through every problem they run into, then who cares?

However, if you are dead set on changing their behavior, actually talk to your players. "Hey guys, you might want to dial down the violence and try other means to solving problems". Mind you, if everyone has built their characters to be a one trick violent pony, getting them to be The Face might be difficult.

Or you could design your games where if violence happens, the mission has failed. They have to sneak into somewhere undetected. They have to capture someone intact. They have to retrieve something without setting off alarms or killing guards and replace it with a trojan horse.

But really, I'd go with "Who cares if they're having fun".

Quickest way is have them run into a mysterious figure presumed to be a smuggler or low level technician who they learn has the codes to get into a Hutt supply cache.

They capture him, threaten him he leads them to the cache revealing he has to enter inside to disable the security which he does by standing on a pressure plate whilst placing his hand on a sensor plate requiring he be alive to keep it open.

They go in set off a secondary system that seals him inside a side chamber cue "death scream" as the entrance slams shut any attempt to open fire or set off explosives sets off the cache which is heavily comprised of explosives beneath some chests of regular loot.

The whole thing is a set up the only way out is to pry open that side chamber revealing whoever was sealed in there left via an underground stairway leading into another house across from the cache house location.

Once they emerge the explosives in the cache detonate and as they run out carrying whatever loot they could carry which won't be much they're confronted by an imperial patrol revealing they're carrying stolen imperial loot and guess whose now in for the fight of their lives?

It emerges more than a few of their many enemies earned through their shoot first don't check at all have teamed up to get some payback...

Unless they start thinking rinse and repeat should be interesting how many times they fall for this provided you change a detail or two like a map they stole off someone they killed or the hangar where their ship is located is heavily mined making it necessary to find help if they want to keep their ride?

What if an imperial hires them to rescue his/her niece/nephew but they're followed by an assassin hired to kill that relative since their standing in the way of quite an inheritance and they don't want to share!

Quickest way is have them run into a mysterious figure presumed to be a smuggler or low level technician who they learn has the codes to get into a Hutt supply cache.

Did you miss the part where he said

- We have a Hutt, Dug, Ewok, Jawa, Human (former Stormtrooper) and a Gamorean

Honestly the problem here isn't the players the problem is the GM. I don't mean to sound nasty but I gotta be honest, if the OP genuinely wants help understanding whats gone wrong and how to fix it he needs to look at himself and reconsider what kind of game he wants to run.

So my question is: Do you have any tips to help me, to make my group think about things and don't punch first ?

Assuming you have talked to them about the kind of game you want to run and the kind of world they're getting into (one where their behaviour will not go unnoticed), then you just have to actually mean it. The onus is on the GM to steer the tone of the game. If there are no consequences, then they have no incentive to change or take an interest in other possibilities.

Presumably there is a social aspect to them "getting a task", maybe their employer simply won't pay if there's "collateral damage". They will very quickly develop a reputation, and that's not going to serve them well at all. People will know who they are, refuse to talk because they'll just get killed anyway, greet them with weapons drawn, etc. Charm difficulties should be higher and upgraded automatically, Negotiation and Leadership should get the same and/or a lot of setback, though Coercion might actually see a bonus. Any reasonable society would call them terrorists, and would respond appropriately.

But even if you do all that you have to be careful, because clearly they don't believe you mean anything now. So the first "penalty" has be something they can recover from. If you just blow them out of the sky, you'll just generate resentment. So you need to wean them, like puppies.

You gave races, not career/specs. If they made 6 combat focused characters then you probably should expect combat.

If your not enjoying the game then tell them. You could build to an epic showdown conclusion, accelerate the XP rate to let them fully develop, then kill them all! Then they get a chance to build new characters.

Next time your starting a campaign build basics of the concept you like (it will probably change but your at least close). Then run a Session 0 for everyone to develop their characters in unison. It's your best chance.

Thanks for all the quick replies

You gave me some ideas how to solve my problem

Thanks

Punish stupid players swiftly and without mercy until they learn their lesson. No matter how good a group is at combat, you can always outdo them with superior, or even essentially indefinite numbers.

"Wipe them out. All of them."

"Do not hesitate, show no mercy."

"Do what must be done."

One of the best options has been mentioned a few times, and that is talk with the players. If they are having fun then you can adjust your original plan to allow them to take the story in a direction that may just surprise you. One thing to remember at the same time is that YOU also need to have fun as well. If you are not having fun then the game will suffer and the players will either stop having fun or feel like you are out to get them. With that being said one thing that you can do is look at who they have gone after so far. Perhaps a rival Hutt has a beef with your PC Hutt, or maybe the group has crossed some other crime syndicate or pirate group, if anything there is all ways Hutt cartels as well as the Black Sun. Large groups like that will make short work of any group they consider a threat.

Punish stupid players swiftly and without mercy until they learn their lesson. No matter how good a group is at combat, you can always outdo them with superior, or even essentially indefinite numbers.

Sorry man, but being a killer GM is a terrible response to the situation. The best outcome you can hope for when doing that is that your players think you are an ass and stop playing.

Hi Guys

I have kind a problem with my group i am Gm'ing.

Infos about my group:

- My Group ( 6 players) shall establish their own little pirate / smuggling / criminal imperium.

- We have a Hutt, Dug, Ewok, Jawa, Human (former Stormtrooper) and a Gamorean

This group lives this phrase deeply... Every encounter ends the same: They get a task, there are problems, they solve it by guns.

They don't think about any consequences, they don't discuss, they even fear no death.

So i can't even threat them with cops / authorities / or more guards.

My group does not think

So my question is: Do you have any tips to help me, to make my group think about things and don't punch first ?

No I didn't read up on the races of the characters being used, now that I have I can't help wondering how are they cooperating with each other if their first response is shoot on sight?

I mean a Hutt that isn't being cunning, a former storm trooper without survival instincts even though just surviving long enough to leave the service should suggest otherwise!

A Jawa... I mean I assume the Gamorrean at least has the excuse of being the only one not bothering to play against type but without knowing their obligation let alone their careers as mentioned above to get a better handle on how to guide them away from what should be a TPK?

Talk to the players.

IMO, no attempt at an in-game solution has any hope of working, if the players don’t at least understand why you’re doing what you’re doing.

If they do understand and they don’t care, then it’s up to you to decide whether or not you want to:

1. Continue to try to fight them and try to run the kind of game you want to run, with all sorts of in-game consequences for all the stupid stuff they do

2. Change to running a murderhobo campaign where their approach could potentially actually work for them.

3. Decide not to play with them any more.

If they do understand and they do care, but maybe they don’t understand how to get from where they are today with where you want them to be in the future, then *THAT* is where in-game solutions can come into play and you can try to help lead and guide them.

But given what you’ve described so far, I believe that the out-of-game “Talk to the Players” step has to be the next thing you do.

Hi Guys

I have kind a problem with my group i am Gm'ing.

Infos about my group:

- My Group ( 6 players) shall establish their own little pirate / smuggling / criminal imperium.

- We have a Hutt, Dug, Ewok, Jawa, Human (former Stormtrooper) and a Gamorean

This group lives this phrase deeply... Every encounter ends the same: They get a task, there are problems, they solve it by guns.

They don't think about any consequences, they don't discuss, they even fear no death.

So i can't even threat them with cops / authorities / or more guards.

My group does not think

So my question is: Do you have any tips to help me, to make my group think about things and don't punch first ?

No I didn't read up on the races of the characters being used, now that I have I can't help wondering how are they cooperating with each other if their first response is shoot on sight?

I mean a Hutt that isn't being cunning, a former storm trooper without survival instincts even though just surviving long enough to leave the service should suggest otherwise!

A Jawa... I mean I assume the Gamorrean at least has the excuse of being the only one not bothering to play against type but without knowing their obligation let alone their careers as mentioned above to get a better handle on how to guide them away from what should be a TPK?

The other way you could look at it is this:

Hutt - Big slimey, nasty, mean worm type creatures. The only species to have remained entirely neutral throughout the entire history of the starwars universe. Commonly affiliated with organised crime, animal cruelty (think rancor), human sacrifice (sarlacc) and human trafficking.. (Do I really need to explain this one? )

Gamorrean - Big Pig, can't speak basic, big **** off axe, always one in every bad situation.

Storm Trooper - loyal: Bred for war and controlled by the people that are trying to kill your character.

disloyal: Bred for war by the people that are trying to kill your character, says he is no longer a Storm Trooper and therefore can't be trusted anyway.

Jawa - Will sell you a duff droid and make tracks. Affiliated with cruelty to droids.

Yeah basically what you have... without even getting into individual classes etc... is a group of misfits and putting a group like this together without first laying down some ground rules is just asking for trouble.

So...

I'm not sure this advice is particularly helpful, or, in fact, true. Smugglers and criminals do not inherently lead to entirely combat-focused games. In fact, smugglers should surely be trying to AVOID combat, no? So, I don't think the plot of the campaign or the PC careers (unless they're all Hired Guns) prevents non-shooty options.

Now, having said that, are your players AWARE that they have non-shooty options? Which is to say, is there a viable and obvious alternative to combat? If not, they may fighting for lack of any better ideas.

Moving on...

They don't think about any consequences, they don't discuss, they even fear no death.

So i can't even threat them with cops / authorities / or more guards.

My group does not think

This, here, seems to me to be the biggest issue, and it has a fairly obvious fix. If they don't think about consequences, make those consequences significant. It'll only take a couple of sessions of being refused service in a cantina because of their behaviour, or setting off an alarm because they weren't sneaky enough, or being arrested (and having gear confiscated) for killing the wrong person, before they learn to think about the consequences of their actions.

However, having said that...

Punish stupid players swiftly and without mercy until they learn their lesson. No matter how good a group is at combat, you can always outdo them with superior, or even essentially indefinite numbers.

This is a bit extreme. Although I would say that demonstrating there are situations they can't win might be a good idea.

I will say this — in my bi-weekly Monday night online campaign via Roll20, we play a group of Privateers. In other words, Pirates but with support from the Rebellion (in our case), and we get assigned Imperial targets to go after.

This week, we took down a Vigil-class Corvette, and captured two of the three cargo ships. The first cargo ship was our official target, but the second one was a nice bonus. And we got bonus pay for it, too.

For the next game, we don’t have an existing Imperial target to go after, so I don’t know that our group has decided what they’re going to do.

But this is a pretty “shooty” campaign, at least so far.

How about one of the cargo pods holds some ancient and very valuable artefacts... have a prospective customer reveal one of them is actually a sarcophagus and chest holding some jars containing mummified organs and a locked carbonate plated book.

If sold separately they learn someone broke in and stole the sarcophagus killing the buyer, this repeats with every item and the authorities trace the sale back to them...

They're attacked and hopefully drive off the attacker which looks like a Sith Mummy looking to restore itself by killing everyone present when the chest was broken open.

Your PCs need to find out how to permanently stop these attacks and that requires them to think and find someone who knows enough and is willing to help them... do you think they're up to that task?

Sorry having Mummy 2 flashbacks!

Punish stupid players swiftly and without mercy until they learn their lesson. No matter how good a group is at combat, you can always outdo them with superior, or even essentially indefinite numbers.

"Wipe them out. All of them."

"Do not hesitate, show no mercy."

"Do what must be done."