Need some help with being DM. I started a campaign with a group

>>54888993

If you are playing D&D that might be your problem.

D&D combat is naturally fun and easy to understand, tactical and allowing people to find ways to creatively use their powers. That is a strength of the system but it can also be weakness since it can overly draw your players to that particular aspect of the campaign, especially if your non-combat stuff fails to capture their interest.

If the problem is just that they enjoy combat more than puzzle solving, then focus on making your combat into a puzzle. Have enemies that are unique and can't be stopped just by slashing them to death. It will satisfy your need for creative situations, and their need to kill.

If they will literally murder everyone in their path without stopping and don't care about story in the slightest, then you gotta talk to them.

Puzzles are bad game design. They waste time that could be used for something actually fun, and never make sense in-universe.

>>54890599
>Puzzles are bad game design.
This

>>54888993
>the players are just getting bored trying to solve basically any puzzle or obstacle they encounter which is forcing me to essentially turn the entire campaign into a series of melees rather than weave any kind of story.
>puzzle = story
I'm gonna take it that "puzzle" here means any encounter with a non-combat resolution, which is different than "Guess My Solution" type puzzles.
That's good.

There are a number of possibilities and numerous solutions.
What it boils down to is this:
>Why are they bored?
Do they truly just want all combat?
Are they just bored by your attempts to engage them?
Are you infodumping, assuming their PCs will be interested in whatever you're presenting, insisting on delivering dialogue when nobody wants to hear it, or are they just "trying to win" or constantly distracted and ignoring anything not mechanically involving dice?
Figure out, or ask, why they get bored by what they get bored by, and we can help.
Till then, it's just throwing spaghetti against the wall until it sticks.

>>54890860
>"Are they just trying to win"
That basically hits it on the head. Every session just turns into 'What is the fastest way to acquire X loot or Y loot'. Honestly they'd be happy walking down a hallway fighting the same NPC 20 times so long as they get some loot and that is kind of the problem.
I can't really expand on anything because everything I try to set into play essentially just turns into cave exploring since that is all they'll bother to do.
It sort of feels like I'm just giving them a Skyrim Draug tomb, just the same thing endlessly. If I throw in something that they find hard to kill or something that can't be killed in conventional ways then they basically ignore it.

Probably doesn't help that 4 out of 5 of them are CE aligned and play on it like an edgy teen.

>>54891242
1. Try talking to them.

2. Try giving them the easiest, most effortless campaign ever. They win, win, win, and win again before even start.
The BBEG lich king knocks on their door and gives them his crown.
They are gods and everyone else is sheep.

When they get bored of winning, try starting over with challenges.

3. Give them challenges with no simple, violent solutions.
My brain is getting tired, but there's a way to present challenges so that they must think, before acting.
Like an escort mission interrupted by the discovery of a treasure dungeon, now they must protect another as they face challenges.
Reward ANY attempt to think before acting with success, at least until they get used to it.