Punishing the party for not role-playing

First off, this isn’t just about making the players come up with back stories or using different voices!  These games we’re playing are role-playing games.  At points in the characters’ lives, the players need to think, “What would my character really do in this circumstance?” and then act on that!

What are we saying?  Well, mainly that murder hoboing is not the only way to play a FRPG, and probably isn’t the best way to do it.  But as GM, what can you do?  What happens when you have an elaborately planned history to tell the party, but they just jump on their horses and ride out as soon as one of them gets a map?  Here is an example of what you do:

The party is sent to rescue a princess who was captured by a cult, who plans to sacrifice her to the god of blood during the Blood Moon.  The party gets to the castle and in typical FRPG party strategy, they kill everybody!  When asked what the loot is, you as the GM tell them there are books and minor jewelry, and you tell them what these things will fetch when they are sold in town.  They gather up the princess and head home.

But a role-playing party should ask what the books are about.  They should ask what kind of jewelry, possibly asking if it is magical.  Because you see the books are about how mortals can become vampires, without getting bitten.  The jewelry is mainly unholy symbols to that same god of blood, but also to some specifically vampiric “demons”.  The slightest bit of curiosity on the party’s part would let them know the cult was trying to become vampires, and you remember that the princess was a “sacrifice”, right?  Well, guess what?  Reading one of those books would clue the party in that the princess has been turned.  What they are assuming is some manner of weakness or fatigue is actually her body becoming familiar with her vampiric powers.  Yeah - they’re all going to get bitten on the ride home

To a lot of us, this is a blatant plot device that the players should pick up on in no time, but for a lot of groups, they have already written the number of coins they got for selling the books on their character sheets and have forgotten that there were books.

Use a touch of introspection here too.  If your bad guys never have motives or agendas, then you may have trained your players to not bother paying any attention.  Some of their murder hobo antics might have been encouraged by you, in which case, you need to take it a bit easier on them.  Here’s another way to force them to pay a bit more attention without risking their lives:

The party goes out after a band of bandits that stole magical items from an enchanter.  They slash their way through the thieves and their traps.  They gather up the magic items and everything else they find in the lair and head back home.  There, they find someone to buy the maps, the books, and the rubies they found.  Two weeks later, news hits the streets that the guy they sold the rubies too has just discovered the long lost crown jewels of the kingdom, missing these past 200 years.  Sure, they got a decent price for the gemstones, but this guy has been knighted and will now be the king’s personal jeweler.

Had they read the maps, and looked at the books, they would have seen that the bandits were searching for the jewels, which had been stolen by one of their ancestors 200 years ago.  In fact, they needed the magic items to kill whatever was guarding them.  The map was a treasure map, and they had followed it.  Rubies are valuable, but long lost crown jewels are priceless.

In all honesty, I did do this to my players and they blew a gasket.  I was accused of tricking them and not giving them enough information about what was in the books, etc.  This is honestly why I suggest looking inward first and soft pedaling the initial “punishments”.  You’re the GM.  You know your players, and only you know how you want your game to run.  Do what’s best for your game, but when you give them a little mystery to solve, you will notice their brains coming alive!