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Carrots and Whips to Encourage Player/Character Cooperation
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<blockquote data-quote="sev" data-source="post: 5191739" data-attributes="member: 77780"><p>I've got one or two players who struggle with their character's motivations -- how they can stay true to their character and still be a useful participant in the game.</p><p></p><p>Since I've got the time on my hands and they don't, I'm writing their backstories. They can have as much input as they want, but I'm writing motivation for sticking together into their entry into the campaign. They're all members of the same guild and they've got good reason to want to stay in the guild's good graces. They each have a reason to trust at least two other members of the party. And so on.</p><p></p><p>I do not recommend this unless you've got a noticeable amount of time to spend, and several weeks of prep time before the campaign starts. And players who are willing to give at least some feedback -- last time I did this, at least one player tuned out for the whole game due to lack of interest in the backstory I'd written. Not just ignored the backstory -- tuned out for the whole game. (frustrating!)</p><p></p><p>This time, we did one or two sessions just to feel out the characters, and now we're in a long break (while another DM runs another game) before we start back up in my world again. So I have plenty of time to write up the story of how they got to here.</p><p></p><p>Also, it helps that they're starting at level 7, so at least some of those characters have had years to develop actual friendships. It's coming out to about two pages per character (typed, double-spaced) and I'll do one round of "tell me what works and what doesn't work" for each player before I finalize them all.</p><p></p><p>Did I mention I've got some time on my hands?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="sev, post: 5191739, member: 77780"] I've got one or two players who struggle with their character's motivations -- how they can stay true to their character and still be a useful participant in the game. Since I've got the time on my hands and they don't, I'm writing their backstories. They can have as much input as they want, but I'm writing motivation for sticking together into their entry into the campaign. They're all members of the same guild and they've got good reason to want to stay in the guild's good graces. They each have a reason to trust at least two other members of the party. And so on. I do not recommend this unless you've got a noticeable amount of time to spend, and several weeks of prep time before the campaign starts. And players who are willing to give at least some feedback -- last time I did this, at least one player tuned out for the whole game due to lack of interest in the backstory I'd written. Not just ignored the backstory -- tuned out for the whole game. (frustrating!) This time, we did one or two sessions just to feel out the characters, and now we're in a long break (while another DM runs another game) before we start back up in my world again. So I have plenty of time to write up the story of how they got to here. Also, it helps that they're starting at level 7, so at least some of those characters have had years to develop actual friendships. It's coming out to about two pages per character (typed, double-spaced) and I'll do one round of "tell me what works and what doesn't work" for each player before I finalize them all. Did I mention I've got some time on my hands? [/QUOTE]
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