[RPG] How to run a campaign for intelligent players with idiot PCs

campaigncampaign-developmentpathfinder-1e

I've just started a pathfinder campaign, and all of the players have taken intelligence as their dump stat. This is causing problems, because usually I depend on knowledge checks to determine what they know about pretty much everything plot relevant – organizations, enemies, magic items, legendary monsters, etc.

Example from our first session:

"The door opens with a slam , and a tall figure in full plate strides into the tavern. Roll knowledge local to identify him."

"I got a 6" – "4" – "minus 1" – "3"

The players are all intelligent, and they want a game that has a good story to it, and an over-arching plot with reasonable complexity. Unfortunately, none of their characters could think their way out of a wet paper bag, and so giving them any sort of in-character puzzles is a lost cause.

Apart from having them comically bumble through it (a la "the man who knew too little"), how can I run an intelligent campaign, with unintelligent characters?

Best Answer

Erik's answer is a great general solution to your problem, but there are a couple of specific tactics you can use here as well.

Put Your Eggs in More Baskets

Right now, you're relying on a single skill or small group of skills in order to give your players information about the game world. This is naturally going to lead to situations where nobody has the skill you need, plus it makes story progression hinge on the outcome of a roll, which is very risky.

Instead of making everything a capital-K Knowledge roll, allow your PCs to use the skills they do have as knowledge skills. A fighter should be able to roll Athletics in order to assess someone's physical fitness. A rogue with Sleight of Hand might be familiar with a number of local pickpockets. This emphasizes each character's specialties, and encourages them to gather information creatively using a variety of methods. Skill descriptions are often left open-ended for precisely this reason.

Give Away Information

Like I said before, having the progression of your story hinge on a die roll is risky business. What happens if the die roll fails? Does the plot just stall? If the answer is yes, there probably shouldn't be a die roll. Instead, find a way to justify giving the information to the players based on their competencies and backstories. So, in your example:

The door opens with a slam , and a tall figure in full plate strides into the tavern. Joe, because you spent time on the city watch, I can tell you that this is a watch commander. Greg, you're trained in survival, so you can tell when someone is looking for you, and this guy definitely is.

Giving players "automatic successes" like this not only helps move the story quickly past less dramatic moments, it also rewards characters for having a backstory, and makes them feel more competent and embedded in the world.

Overall

Look at non-knowledge skills as representing non-book-learning types of knowledge, and use those skills as hooks for dishing out free adventure hooks.

Related Topic