How do you get the players involved in the story?

No matter what I do my players seem rather detached from the game. They never hate an enemy (or fear one for except for metagame reasons...), they never go on adventure because their character would want to do something or another, and I'm outta ideas. If I have a repetitive enemy they go "Him again?". If I try to have other people forshadow an enemy's power they go "Who?" and not bother to try and find more on him before just barreling forward. Overall my players seem too detached from my game... so how do I get them involved?
I need ways to make my players go "Oh crap, I don't think we should piss this guy off!" even if they have no concrete reason to (a concrete reason is he's cone of colded them for 15d6 already...) ya'know?

Well I had the same problem with my group. Myself and another friend that DM came up with the following solution.

1. We made characters for what we call a hack-n-slash. Basically letting the party run around and beat the living crap out of what ever or who ever they want. Basically made for when they feel like just slaughtering things.

2. Then we made characters for a campaign setting. We sat the groups down and told them how we wanted to run the setting. We also let them know that if the don't want to role play their characters that they should just come on nights we do hack-n-slash. This seemed to work out great.

I have the same problem. Its getting better now that I told them all my games are kind of linked together and these people will show up again. Repetitvly having the players meet an NPC also gets them to remeber a person. I was proud of them once, they crossed half a continent to hunt down an NPC that stole ALL there stuff. To bad they stopped 200 miles away because they had made more poweful magic items than they had stolen. Oh well.

Anybody not have this problem? Piratecat? Help?

you can dictate the pace of the game as the DM. it may be cheap, but be very detailed about all the non-combat stuff, and try to limit the combat.

-during one of the fights which could have been a good role-playing oppurtunity have some constables come in, and keep the peace, stop the fight with magic. (weapons are stuck in sheath magically)

-have the pc's deal with the consequinces of their actions. if they aren't paying attention, and aren't making it fun for you (and it should be fun for the DM as well), then they will pay the price. i'm not saying be mean to them, but find flaws in their game style to hinder them during the game

eg. if they know the 'villian' is in the tap room of some bar, and they are just going to storm in there and bust him up, maybe the taproom of the bar is in a dead magic zone, and no spells / magic weapons work. (say goodbye to using those quickened spells, or any spells)

-try to go a bit mroe than halfway with the players, tell them what you are expecting from them, and tell them what kind of game you are trying to run. discuss this with them all, and brainstorm. i know i go out of my way to prepair booklets to give to my players that they should read, to get on the same page with me. in them i put in alot of campaign info, and some meta game issues i have.

it gives some background to the setting, and discusses some powerful npc's, how they are regarded, and their levels of personal and social power. nothing too explicit, and at the same time, full of common sense stuff they'd (the PC's) would just know, had to grown up in that world / realm.

I go into painstaiking detail, and after all of it, it's easier for THEM to get with the program, and i see a return to my great investments of preparing so much for THEIR game.

hope it helps.

This is going to sound really snotty.

Tell good stories.

If the story is gripping and tension-filled, the players will react.

See? It's easy! Heh.

Of course, telling good stories is the hard bit. Good stories need, first and foremost, good characters. I'm not talking about the PCs, here -- I'm talking about your characters. Do they live? Are they real, with personalities and fears and hopes? If they are, is that communicated to the players?

Your responsibility is to make the players care. That's what makes a great DM. You have to make the world come alive -- they won't do it for you. You have play the people in the world as REAL people. You have to act, you have to be smart and creative and inspirational and ruthless and funny and serious and you have to SHOW them how much it matters. It's hard. But you can LEARN how to do it.

The very fact that you WANT to do this tells me you've got what it takes. All you have to do is care enough to do the work that's required. Here's a few tips:

PLAY your NPCs, don't DESCRIBE them. That is, when the PCs walk into the bar, don't say, "The tavern doesn't allow swords, so you have to leave them at the door." Say, "You walk in, and there's a big bald guy at the door. He glares at you. 'Leave your swords here, kids.'" Now the big bald guy is a character. He's tough and used to being obeyed and isn't impressed by our heroes. Whatever the players do at this point, they've already got an idea how big baldie will react. They already have a relationship with him.

Have things happen while the PCs aren't around. They go away and come back -- things should be different. The political situation tranforms due to a peasant rebellion, or a priest is assassinated, or the Duke's daughter runs off with an elven ranger. None of these things require the party's attention, but the fact that they're going on gives your world more depth. And if they know that the Duke's daughter ran off with an elven ranger, they'll feel like the war that erupts between the Duchy and the elven kingdom next door is something that is happening not just because you want them to get into a war, but because it's a natural progression of what's been going on. It's real, not contrived.

Make sure there are consequences to everything they do. Everybody's got families, people who care about them. You kill someone, you're going to create enemies. You save someone, you're going to get friends. The issue here is creating a world where the players realize it matters what they do. They make a difference, for good or evil.

There are much worse things that can happen to a person than a 15d6 cone of cold. Driving someone insane, possessing them, turning them into a lycanthrope or a host of other possibilities. Making an enemy of King Whosis can make your life a short living hell. Players can find out pretty fast that they actually do care what happens when something like that hits them.

Beyond all this, create a detailed world with lots of cool stuff in it, create brilliant, believable characters that your players love to love or hate, come up with fiendishly twisted plots that turn their brains inside out, scare them, make them laugh, make them furious and give them memories they'll treasure.

Do that and you're halfway there already.

I agree with what most people are saying, but...
These seem like very me-oriented players. They'll get involved when it suits them, usually when their egos are directly involved. For that reason, do just that.

Have either a really friendly NPC who they get to ...like, or at least come to trust and depend on, only to have someone hurt him, or else have someone you really want them to hate humiliate them and take their stuff. Either way, they'll hopefully start getting invested.

A lot of good suggestions here, but I especially support the "violent treatment of close NPCs." Heh. I think it's perhaps a cheap way to get them interested, but hey, if it works, you can make the players interested, which will lead to a deeper story, which will lead to more interest.

Also, yeah. As I DM I have a mandatory 3-page background rule. I want ideas from characters. The game works both ways--the characters create and the DM creates. If they give me nothing to work with, they get only as much as I can give them in return. Set up some questions to ask each of the players, have them describe their backgrounds. And if that fails, give an xp award for roleplaying.

I dunno. I've never really had a big problem with this before, simply because I follow those rules and try to keep the PCs guessing. Maybe I've just been lucky; my players tend to get fairly involved in their characters.

Laters,
-John-

Echoes said:

A lot of good suggestions here, but I especially support the "violent treatment of close NPCs." Heh. I think it's perhaps a cheap way to get them interested, but hey, if it works, you can make the players interested, which will lead to a deeper story, which will lead to more interest...

Click to expand...

Just one warning (even though I am the one who brought that up):

If you chose to threaten a friendly NPC, make sure the players can see the danger from far off, and that they have a good reason to like the NPC, from a practical POV. Attacking an NPC who's cool will encourage the players to not make more attachments. Attacking an NPC who gives them discounts on goodies or feeds them information will be more likely to get them itchy. Remember, these players seem like they like their egos and their stuff first and foremost.

I aim to involve my playes by tailoring the adventures to their PCs. If I have a knight or paladin, then the main villain will probably be an opponent of his order, or the conflict originated in a family feud. If a PC wants to earn a title and land I build the adventures around that goal, presenting them as missions from his liege, or liege-to-be. If a wizard PC wants a new spell I let him stumble over rumors of an old archamge't tomb etc. If the players and PCs want something they get much more involved than if it is the old "save the village/princess/world since you are good and get loot".