Bad DM Habits #2: Puttin' all on the Party

Hello and welcome to the 2nd of these articles! Today we're going to look at what can happen when you heap the burdens on your players too quickly.

Many players relish the idea of the Dungeon Crawl, where players have to manage their spells, HP and other aspects in order to trek through a massive gauntlet full of steel/teeth/fire/eldritch flame where they emerge bloodied, but triumphant. 

However, if you do this session after session...things can get old. And triumphs can seem less important.

How does this happen?

This sort of thing usually happens when the DM wants every session to be an epic one, full of amazing fights and daredevilry. And for some players, that'll be fine. But in the context of a full campaign, with every monster supposed to mean something, it can leave players burned out. 

Why is this a bad thing?

Put simply, a good long term story doesn't have to have the adventurers saving the world every week because that'd get dull and would ruin the stakes you want to make for your players. And what's worse, it can lead to the players not feeling like they're changing anything. Now, in some circumstances the players won't matter because they'll think they are killing bad guys, but if you have a group of players that is more focused on the world, then this can seem a bit...naff?

How can it get worse?

Again, this depends on the player group but there is every possibility that players will lose their immersion in the world if you keep throwing beasts at them, particularly if you begin to run out of ideas. If you follow up a fight with a dragon one week with...three dragons, then your players will soon begin to be turned off the idea of feeling as invested in your world. 

How can it be identified?

Put simply, this can be identified if you are sending the players into battle/dungeon after battle/dungeon and despite your best efforts, they are just beginning to look a bit bored. Another way to identify this is to watch what people do on the first turn of combat. If people continuously utilise the same attacks no matter what (particularly spell casters) then you probably have players who aren't fully focused.

How can it be stopped?

On the face of it, this is simple, give the characters a session for some role play. However this can be difficult depending on how long you've done this. This is because if you suddenly say to the players they can spend some time wandering in the local town, they might be a bit gun-shy after 20+hours of dungeon crawling. So let's look at some ways we can alleviate this:

1. Give the players something to research- Maybe there's a letter or emblem that the players need to know more about at the library or the arcane academy? This gives them some direction whilst perhaps giving you the chance to build the world more.
2. Let's go shopping!- This can often seem intimidating to those who haven't really done it before, so again, give the players some nudges by having a travelling merchant come. You can also make him contain some exotic goods that people can haggle for.
3. Mystery!- Not all mysteries can be solved by fists and blades. Maybe get the players embroiled in a town watch case that they help out on.

So these are just some ideas. I hope this helps!