Stupid Ranger has an insightful post today about the way that players should work together in a D&D game. I won’t rehash her points, you can read them over there for yourself. I will add something to the conversation, though.
When I was getting my Master’s degree in History, I had a professor who turned us into the idea of “primary group cohesion.” This is the idea that soldiers on the battlefield have a connection to one another because they share the same ideas and ideals. While I don’t entirely agree with the thesis (I think people on the battlefield connect because they’re all in a world of sh!t more than anything) I do think that players in a D&D game need to have something of a camaraderie.
For the most part, I think I see this cohesion when we’re talking about roleplaying issues. What amazes me, though, is that the players tend to want to shine on their own during combat; no one ever thinks to move into a flanking position for the rogue, or to block a line of charge to the wizard. You would think that the opposite would be true: that these characters who have been adventuring together for years would know one another’s’ tactics, and complement each other.
Food for thought, anyways.
Campaign diary returns tomorrow, for those who have been waiting with baited breath!
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I agree with you completely. Everyone wants to be the hero during battle, but no one wants to back a person up. I actually had to lecture my players on this (mostly because I was pissed) because in our other campaign, my player got killed because no one was ready to back me up as the tank (meaning the healer felt it was more important to buff himself up than to heal me).
I think maybe “shared ideals” on the battlefield get simplified to “I would like to continue to live and two guns shooting at the other guys will help me do that more than one”.
As far as teamwork goes, you do see some with the support classes (like the bard’s inspire courage or the clerics buffing spells), but you’re right — most people don’t use tactics very well.
We have only tried to do it once in our group. Our DM was running a split campaign with a “good” group and a “bad” group that met on a different night. At the end of the campaign, we were going to meet and fight en masse. Unfortunately, he had to stop DMing so we never got the chance, but the idea was exciting anyway. I was on the “good” team and my cohort Dante and I were planning all sorts of horrible team attacks we could do against them. Our DM said the other guys were very self-centered in their combat and we probably would have torn them apart had we done so. Which I thought was really funny because the “bad” team played D&D minis all the time and loved to do nothing but battle and we were the method-acting roleplaying types.
What amazes me, though, is that the players tend to want to shine on their own during combat; no one ever thinks to move into a flanking position for the rogue, or to block a line of charge to the wizard.
How funny that I read this right after coming home from a session where both things happened. We are a bunch of level 3’s and two minotaurs (CR 5) charged us. The monk stops one square in front of me (the wizard) and is charged over and gored. I didn’t even realize till afterwards but he could have moved all the way behind me but sacrificed himself. He did it on purpose to save me.
I used the time to read a rope trick scroll and climbed up to drink a mage armor potion. Our warrior and paladin fell back and I slid back down the rope, behind the minotaur now. Instead of running to heal the monk I CHARGED the minotaur with my dagger. I missed, but I gave the warrior flanking bonus, changed his roll from a 13 to a 15 and it caused the hit that let us kill the minotaur before it killed us. Teamwork. It was awesome.