Two sessions have occurred since last I typed about the game, but mostly a lot of RP'ing (that's role playing) happened between the two sessions, and only one big fight. The party spent the past two sessions finishing up the last campaign arc - I've got them lined up to go to level 20 for the overall campaign, so the first arc was levels 1 through 6 and involved the 3.5 adventure from WotC, The Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde - and starting the next arc of the campaign (another 3.5 adventure from WotC, The Red Hand of Doom), so mostly talking to me as various NPCs and each other as they figured out what to do as reports of a coming horde of hobgoblins were invading the not-a-kingdom, loose alliance of independent townships immediately to the north of where the PCs were located.
With all of the RP'ing we've done the last two weekends, I'm reminded that my players are more "roll" players than they are "role" players. But, they muscled through it, talked to NPCs as their characters would (I want to, but won't, point out to my players that while it may be funny to make many "asshole" PCs, this practice is keeping the party from earning extra XP for getting good results from said conversations), they got the necessary information, and moved towards the next point in the story. Yes, I am not running a true sandbox, open world campaign, as I am trying to fight murder-hoboism by giving the party clear, government-desired goals (and running prepared adventures), and mostly succeeding.
The biggest issue we had was trying to introduce a new player into the party that didn't really want to play the game as much as they first professed. I'm all for new players, and understand when they're shy, unsure of themselves, as all but the most talented of us started out this way (if I told you I was the best player ever, right from the beginning, would you believe me? I have this large chunk of ocean-front property in Missouri I'd like to sell you...), but complete disinterest in the game, poor attitude towards the other players and me, the DM, and just generally not allowing themself to have any fun? There comes a point where you jut have to sit down with said new player and say "okay, this wasn't fun for you, it's not much fun for the rest of the party for you to be such a downer, maybe the game or the party just aren't for you" and seek out a replacement for them. It's never fun, and more than a bit disappointing because of the expectant joy you feel as a DM when you welcome someone new to the table and then that all just goes away, but it's unfortunately a part of the game. How do you fix that? Act the adult - talk to the player, in a calm and non-threatening manner, as this is not worthy of aggression. If someone just isn't interested in D&D, they haven't necessarily wasted your or the party's time, it just didn't work out with them. For lots of playing groups, sometimes even one play session is one session too many.
It was not all bad, the one combat we held between the two sessions was rather big (two waves of 7 hobgoblins apiece, 2 hell hounds, a hobgoblin captain and a hobgoblin devastator) due to it being the only planned encounter between two long rest periods. The encounter was hard, the players were sweating a little, but overcame the bad guys in the end without any of them dropping to zero HP.
There was an accusation of "murder hoboism" in the after game review - yes, I am a former Army Sergeant, after every game I ask my players if they had fun, and what needs to be improved and what needs to continue happening in the games, it's an unbreakable habit - but from a game several months past, where the party's paladin started to let a wererat (who had just witnessed his buddy get toasted and had NO interest whatsoever in fighting) get away and then proceeded to guide the druid as a dire wolf to hunt down said wererat and kill it. The player who accused the paladin of murder-hoboism may think that's exactly what he saw, but I need to sit down with him and explain that it's not - it's completely different to start to allow an enemy escape and then kill him/it/her, and what murder-hoboism is. Did it violate the paladin's alignment? Well, because the paladin's alignment is Chaotic Good (paladins in 5e don't have to be Lawful Good, they just can't violate their Sacred Oath) and he took the Oath of Vengeance, no, not even a little bit. The problem isn't murder-hoboism or even the paladin breaking their alignment/oath, but the player (the accusatory one) didn't like it, and instead of playing it out through his PC at the paladin PC, he held it in and brought it out of the game, player to player.
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