Help me save my game

[Mitchbones]

I recently found out that 2 of my players are quiting my weekly Savage Tide Campaign. It didn't come as a shock. For the past three sessions everyone seems detached and constantly gets off track. I take blame for this happening, and I want to badly fix it.

Our main problem is just staying focus and on track and the pace of the game. Everything goes pretty smoothly till they are exploring then I start to slow down or can't information about a certain room which leaves an opening for a long offtopic convo to start. This is partially because of poor notetaking. Players come unprepared constantly. I don't feel that the players are very enthusiastic anymore, and quite frankly Im starting not to be. Which quite frankly is because I look forward to it every weekend and things just don't go very well.

Any suggestions on how to save my game?

 

[Dragon Vindaloo]

Maybe take a break from D&D for a while or play less often, maybe your all burnt out, especially if youve just finished one big lengthy campiagn and jump onto another? As the DM you are more than likely the biggest geek of the group and love the game the most (thats how it is with me) for the players its often just another thing to do for fun now and then and they often dont take the game quite as seriously as the DM.
Just the way it is.

One thing you could do is try to start another group or get some much more geeky (dedicated) players to join you, this might ramp up the enthusiasm a bit and giv eyou what you need?

One more thing I can think of is, the Savage Tide is a hard campaign right? Maybe if the players are dying often and having to put new characters together all the time, they feel a little ripped off and like theres not much point in getting into the game as they are likely to die?
I ran an undead themed mini campaign once, taking about eight four-six game sessions to wrap up. The game was very difficult and the players were warned it was going to be like this. It was basically a suvival horror game and had hardly any treasure or goodies for the players, they had to run from fights a lot and do all they could just to find food etc, it was very tense and scary. Although they loved the game at first a couple of my four players characters died early on in about the third or forth session, this caused them to become a little dissapointed because they had done so well to get to about fith level, then one of the same players died again and he was so fed up with trying to survive and restarting new characters that he just said he was going to sit out the rest of the campaign. I felt bad for him and even said he could start a new character at the ame level as the one who was killed but the damage was already done, his enthusiasm was gone and he just felt like he was playing 'extras' or redshirts compared to the other characters, two of which were there from the start and had actually found a magic item and built up a history etc.

 

[JVisgaitis]

Any suggestions on how to save my game?

Well, not to be harsh or anything, but if your players are bored, its probably something with your DMing style. You should never slow anything down. I used to have this problem a lot. What I started doing was making stuff up.

If I didn't remember something or wanted to look it up, I just make it up on the spot. Sometimes you need to look something up or prepare for a big encounter. If you do, have everyone go for a smoke and take a break while you work it out.

Also, make pre-planned encounters that draw your players back in when things start a downward spiral. Many times I've thrown in a random encounter just to get people back into the game.

 

[Dragon Vindaloo]

Well, not to be harsh or anything, but if your players are bored, its probably something with your DMing style. You should never slow anything down. I used to have this problem a lot. What I started doing was making stuff up.

If I didn't remember something or wanted to look it up, I just make it up on the spot. Sometimes you need to look something up or prepare for a big encounter. If you do, have everyone go for a smoke and take a break while you work it out.

Also, make pre-planned encounters that draw your players back in when things start a downward spiral. Many times I've thrown in a random encounter just to get people back into the game.

Yes, the words Roll for initiative! or Make a listen check! are often enough to snap their attention back into the game and get them asking questions. Threaten them.

 

[Desdichado]

So are the words "you've just been captured by aliens, and we're going to LARP the anal probe scene."

However, it may not save your game. But it certainly will snap back their attention!

 

[Rothe]

So are the words "you've just been captured by aliens, and we're going to LARP the anal probe scene."

However, it may not save your game. But it certainly will snap back their attention!

How many xp do we get for that?

 

[Rothe]

Seriously,
The session before last that I ran didn't go so hot, good but not stellar high adventure. I thought about it and one thing that was lacking was good description of rooms and encounters, I actually had to pause to read because my brain froze. It was probably the beer, but I implimented a simply descriptive technique that helps make for adventure (after all what spurs teh player's imaginations are your words). Heres the techniques, describe what they see, what they hear, what they smell then wrap it up with a characterization.

Here's a paraphrase from the last session:

"The door pivots about it's midpoint and you see a tunnel-like shaft. The walls are covered with coral, star-fish and bottom dwelling sea life as if a tide pool had just receeded. About 20 feet down there is dark murky water that every so often ripples and slaps against the walls.
You hear the drip of water from the cieling and walls, the slosh of waves, and the musty smell of the sea is heady and strong.
This room has an almost otherworldly appearance as the water makes your lamp light dance along the walls."

This systematic approach see-hear-smell-feel is one way to just launch into things. I try to keep it general and get it out quick. First this gives me time to think if there is something specific they see or might see while theplayers asks questions or think. New information can be introduced with, "on further inspection you notice..." corrections can sometimes be inserted "while you first thought x, looking more closely...."

The important part is not so much 100% accuracy to text or detailed description, but a flowing description without pause spiced up by some adjectives.

 

[Drawmack]

In your first post you mentioned that you usually slow down play as you stop to look stuff up. I would bet that this is the largest problem. If you're stopping to look things up then it looks as if you are not prepared for the session. If the players percieve the DM as unprepared you cannot expect them to prepare. I sit down about three hours before the game and freshen up on the things the PCs are likely to encounter in that session and the shops and stuff the PCs constantly interact with. If the players do something outside of this I wing it.

"The door pivots about it's midpoint and you see a tunnel-like shaft. The walls are covered with coral, star-fish and bottom dwelling sea life as if a tide pool had just receeded. About 20 feet down there is dark murky water that every so often ripples and slaps against the walls.
You hear the drip of water from the cieling and walls, the slosh of waves, and the musty smell of the sea is heady and strong.
This room has an almost otherworldly appearance as the water makes your lamp light dance along the walls."

All five senses should be used in description, but you also need to use them in the order they would become important in the scene. Also involve the players in the description.
(smell/Sound) "You push open the center hinged, pivot style door and your nostrils are assaulted by the stench of deadfish and salt water, you hear water dripping." Stop talking and call for a fortitude save (DC 10 or so). Anyone who fails steps 10 feet away or throws up
"As you place a torch into the whole the sound of water dripping subsides and is replaced by the sizzling of water dripping onto the torch. Looking into the whole reveals all sorts of small sea-creatures stuck to the walls and floor." Stop talking and call for a wisdom check (DC 10 or so)
(If the wisdom check is passed) "You surmise that this crevace must be filled with water when the tide, which just receeded, comes in."
(Not dependent on the wisdom check) "As you gaze down the whole you see a pool of water sloshing about approximately 20 feet below."

I find that dispersing a couple of rolls into long winded descriptions really keeps the players attention. When you first start using this you'll often have to repeat the last section of text as the PCs were not all listenting, so keep the sections short to facilitate this.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

I want to badly fix it.

I would suggest to properly fix it.

Our main problem is just staying focus and on track and the pace of the game. Everything goes pretty smoothly till they are exploring then I start to slow down or can't information about a certain room which leaves an opening for a long offtopic convo to start. This is partially because of poor notetaking. Players come unprepared constantly. I don't feel that the players are very enthusiastic anymore, and quite frankly Im starting not to be. Which quite frankly is because I look forward to it every weekend and things just don't go very well.

Any suggestions on how to save my game?

A change of pace seems to be in order. Maybe you might want to put the current campaign on ice and engage in some good old fast pace action!

If you can't, or don't want to take more time reading about the rooms beforehand - or if they seem to be uninterested in details (it sounds that way, since they're not keen on taking notes), just scale down the detail. They probably don't want to hear about every book on the shelf.

Speed up the descriptions - a few short notes about the general make up will probably suffice. Instead of a lengthy explanation about the current room, complete with the number of candlesticks, just give them a general once-over "It looks like a living room, recently used, furnished in the same style as the rest of the dungeon/building. You still smell food."

As the others have said: Try to engage more senses then just the eyes, but don't take too long laboriously going through all senses if you don't have to.

If they don't seem to find looking for clues overly interesting, just give them a spot/listen/search check at the right moment, or keep the clues with the enemies they fight.



Not every style of play is for everyone. I remember some of my DMs trying the old-fashioned dungeon delve, where you (the players) draw a map of every room as you go through all of them in order, occasionally fight monsters, and look through them. Many of these rooms wouldn't contain anything of interest, and would only be because, well, it's logical to have rooms without anything of interest for players.

The hardest fights in those campaigns was against my eyelids, who entered a vile alliance with gravity and attempted to steel my eye-sight by closing.

Leave out the extra rooms, or at least handwave them so finding out that nothing of interest is there won't take time away from the excitement.


One more advice for you: We all could talk all day about how to improve the game. You'll hear a lot of good advice, some bad advice. You'll hear good advice that contradicts other advice given, which is also good advice.

But you probably won't hear the best advice here! Only your players can give you that. Sit down with them and talk to them about their preferred game styles, about their likes and dislikes. Let them give you constructive criticism. If you're good buddies, I'm sure you'll be able to give each other good criticism without becoming accusing or getting hold of the wrong end of the stick.

 

[Merkuri]

But you probably won't hear the best advice here! Only your players can give you that. Sit down with them and talk to them about their preferred game styles, about their likes and dislikes. Let them give you constructive criticism. If you're good buddies, I'm sure you'll be able to give each other good criticism without becoming accusing or getting hold of the wrong end of the stick.

QFT. You should have started your post with this.

If they're uncomfortable talking with you about it, make up a "feedback form" with questions like, "What do you like most about the game? Least?" and have them fill it out anonymously, or point them out to a number of anonymous email sites and have them anonymously email you their thoughts. Your players are the best people to help you save your game.