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From: Rick

I think the most effective way to deal with the problem is to let the PCs deal with the after effects of their actions for the next few sessions. If they immediately attack that neutral orc who was going to tell them where to secret entrance was, fine. Let them try to find it on their own. Make it obvious that 'someone' they've met was going to help. Being a good DM can involve some out of character hints, too. I've found dropping clues during before the game can really spark some interest in what's happening. Do this a few times, and they will probably learn to talk more often.

Ironically, the best I've ever seen this used was while I was sitting on the PC side of the screen, and a friend (we'll call him Goose) was DMing. (BYW, he learned most of his DMing tricks from me, but that's neither here nor there. ;)

Our characters were talking to the mayor of a small town where we had just eradicated the Thieves Guild. I can't remember what he said, but it was something that was open to multiple interpretations and we took it the wrong way. We politely excused ourselves, but as we were leaving, the Cleric took a swing at the mayor with her bow, rolling a 20, followed by a 00 on our homebrewed critical table: Instant Death. After the chorus of cheers and sombrero dances, me and the guy playing the cleric looked at each other, simultaneously coming to the realization that we had just killed an innocent man. So, instead of asking him what he meant by that, or trying to find out more through some other means, our good-aligned characters spent the next 3 or 4 games trying to find a way to resurrect this joker. We eventually succeeded and, due to some quick thinking on our part, he was none the wiser. Even so, we ended up guilted into performing missions for free for a time after that. What makes Goose's reaction to our bloodthirst so brilliant, is that, even though we messed up (badly), we still had a chance to save the campaign, but we did pay dearly for our mistake. This was almost a year ago, and I still remember it. I'm pretty sure everyone else in that group does too.

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Another option would be to furnish them with a mission where combat must be done in the right way to gain success. Infiltrating a band of rebels to gain knowledge of their plan would be an excellent roleplaying opportunity as well as potentially providing ample opportunity to brawl.

The whole idea behind running a game for characters/players who like the rough stuff is to make scrapping interesting, complicated and character-oriented. Don't just try to eliminate it by running politician missions or what have you.

Hope this helps.


From: Logan H.

In answer to your question, there are a couple things that come to mind:
1. Combat itself can be more than dice rolling. If the GM sets up an interesting area with its own consequences for actions then this will give roleplaying opportunities. If one character, for example, starts to fall down the snow slide (toward something nasty) does another character spend their round reaching out a hand to attempt to save that character or let them continue to fall?
2. In real life, people who kill people (and perhaps monsters, etc in a fantasy game) get a different "aura". They start to look like more of a 'hardened' killer. This is something that an 'empathy' type skill can pick up on. How friendly are you to the big scarred guy with the 'thousand yard stare'? Many times, people will become nervous (subtly or obviously) in the presence of hard core killers.
3. Give the players interesting assignments that involve killing. Rather than "Go kill that guy" how about "Go kill that guy and make it look like an accident" or "Go kill that guy and make it look like this other guy did it". Roleplaying will come into effect when the players sit down and begin to plan out the execution. If they need 'specialists' (NPCs who possess special skills to allow them to do the execution that the group doesn't have) then they are roleplaying with NPCs. By the same merit, where do they get all of those guns and body armor from? More opportunities for roleplay as they deal with merchants. What if one of their vendors gets a swat team breaking in on them while they are sitting and haggling with the PCs over some firearms? If the PCs don't save this guy, they will have to look for a new source - if they do save him then he will be grateful and perhaps give them a discount, etc.

Last note: In a combat loving party, it is important to slip in some roleplay subtly. Do you think the love interest is going to come up, boom!? Not for a long time.

First work on the people that the PCs normally deal with. Flesh them out. Give them some personalities and the PCs will have to deal with those personalities, perhaps even developing some of their own.

If you don't use subtly when doing this it will NOT work.