I have been DMing a custom campaign, and the players are starting to complain that I am being to "god like" and throwing "to powerful encounters" at them. The group is level 2's and 3's, and I have refused to (as I see it) scale the world because of what level they are. If they go to a place called "The Dragon's Teeth Mountains" they will encounter dragons. Where I am having problems is they seem to only be interested in attacking anything that moves instead of talking things out or stopping to see if there might be a better way than just "ax to the face."
I want to keep the fact that the majority of my encounters have multiple ways of resolving them, some of them can be violent, but not all of them have to be. The fact that they seem to think that straight forward attacking is the best way to go is going to get them killed. I don't want to direct their playing, or how they think. I don't want to out of game say "hey, why don't you see if the dragon is peaceful?" or "maybe the elf in the middle of the room has something over its head that could fall onto it with a well placed arrow."
I don't mind the mindless slaughter of NPC's, after all the game is meant to help vent and live with every day life. I just don't want them to just attack straight on, some creativity in their efforts would be welcomed. And I have talked to them about it and they simply don't seem to think that the fact that I flat said "The Warlord of the Orcs sits on his thrown, a giant orc stands as guard, a chandelier hung over its head by a badly frayed rope."
How can I get them to start thinking the best plan of attack, even if the best plan of attack is a straight up slash and murder, instead of just charging head first into the room, wands rose?
Note: I am the most experienced player on the table. The next most experience player has only 7 months of D&D under their belt.
Best Answer
Younger players frequently tend either toward following the lead of other players at the table, towards combat, or both. If they have all spent less than 7 months playing, then they still have little experience in playing as a whole.
That said, you should always ensure that the players have a fair idea of what to expect from your games if you aren't going to adapt your games to your players. This doesn't apply to storyline, of course, but where the basic mechanics differ from normal play, and what style of game you like to run, should be stated openly. If you prefer outside-the-box solutions to problems, point out that you do. They may take the lead themselves.
Also, and this is important, don't pigeonhole your players either. Don't give them a single solution to a problem that will out and out destroy them without it... If the only way to actually deal with that Orc Warlord is to use the frayed rope to crash the chandelier down on his head, then you are trying to force them to play the way you want, and that cannot be expected to work. They are playing a table-top role-playing game, not a computer based one.
Any time they try to create a valid and creative solution to a problem, reward the player that came up with it. Ensure they know that is why you rewarded them, even if not verbally.
Another idea I tend to use is giving two XP rewards at the end of a session: one for role-playing and one for creativity. The players pick someone for one, and I pick the other. It is never the same person for both rewards, but it encourages them to adopt the character and the role, and that is the first step towards helping to mold young players.
Lastly, let one of them run a game while you play a character in it. Show them, by example, other ways to role-play aside from slashing at things.