So, your players created characters that are so different you know a fight may erupt. Or, they just like challenging one another for the fun of it. Either way, you believe yourDungeons & Dragonsgame may have a fight between players coming up. Is this a bad thing? How do you deal with player vs. player combat?
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On the one hand, this can intensify the campaign’s story by creating a lot of exciting drama. On the other hand, this can ruin the table entirely, creating animosity between players due to the results of the fight. Still, it is manageable, depending on how you and your players handle the situation.
5Discuss It In Session Zero
If you intend to add PvP into the campaign or believe that is a real possibility, talk to your party about it during session zero. It’s better to keep them in the loop instead of catching them by surprise during the game, and if it happens, they shouldn’t take things personally.
Good players know that in-group fighting is bad and will likely avoid it, but if everyone is on the same page in terms of friendly bickering, then they may have things under control, and you may not even need to intervene in the first place.
Another thing you can do in session zero, regardless of if you want to have controlled PvP or not, is to tell the players toavoid making characters who don’t work well with others,as D&D is a group game, and working well with others is a massive part of it.
4Know Your Players And Their Characters
All that said, people can say one thing and do another. If you and your players are long-time friends and have known each other for a while, you may already know who will get overcompetitive in terms of PvP and who might even get extremely annoyed if they lose. If everyone at the table is close friends, there’s a good chance you won’t have any problems, but if there’s a newcomer who’s still getting attached to the rest of the players, it’s best not to get them involved.
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It’s also important to be careful with the characters themselves. At lower levels, if anyone decides to pick a fight with the Barbarian, chances are they’ll lose. A low-level Barbarian could even instantly kill another character who has low maximum hit points in a single strike. Or, the Spellcasters might exaggerate when choosing the spells they’ll use if they’re high-level characters already. It’s important to know what they’re capable of. If an accidental death happens, don’t be afraid to fudge things a bit to avoid a bad time at the table.
3Create Competitive Situations That Don’t Involve Death
If two PCs are building a rivalry, you can have them settle their scores without aduel to the death.Instead, you can create in-game competitions that highlight their characters' skills but without having stakes as high as the end of their lives.
Maybe there’s a festival with all sorts of games, such as hitting a target from afar, impressing a crowd with your magical prowess, or who can lift the most weight. Or maybe you can have a simple game of cards, a game of who can drink more without throwing up, or arm-wrestling in a place like an inn.
You can even create a tournament where the players can fight one another, but killing the opponent is forbidden due to being a legal competition. That way, they can see who made the strongest build without killing one another in the process.
2Intervene (If Necessary)
Suppose things are getting out of hand — at least between characters. In that case, you can create a situation that’ll stop the fight, such as NPCs appearing and interrupting the confrontation, a sudden attack to have them join forces, or just casually waiting for other players to interrupt things, as there’s a good chance they can defuse the whole situation themselves, in character, and make a beautiful and dramatic scene without DM input.
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Returning to the ‘sudden attack,’ a good way to intervene and even lower animosity among the characters is by creating situations where they must team up and solve things. You can even create problems that both characters are specifically good at, so they’ll be helpful to one another. If all else fails, or you see that this animosity is starting to affect the players and not just the characters, talking to them directly in private would be a better solution, ensuring they’re still enjoying the game and not having problems with one another.
1Consider A PvP One-Shot Or A Special Session With Loose Rules
If you and your players just want hell to break loose, nothing is stopping you from organizing aone-shotinstead of having PvP during your campaign. you’re able to even use the same characters in a multiverse, a dream area where anything is possible, or don’t even bother with the plot since the idea is just fighting.
In a one-shot or special session with no repercussions, nothing stops your players from going for the kill on each other, using everything they’ve got. You can even create different rules just for fun, such as creating smaller teams among the players, or an intense Battle Royale, putting hazards on the map and letting them take advantage of the environment, or things such as a goal they all need to accomplish, such as capturing an animal in the arena.
NEXT:Tips For Balancing Combat And Storytelling In Your D&D Campaign
