How to Better Cultivate My Crop of Inexperienced Players.

[Meech17]

Good morning EN World.

I'm a newer DM, and I'm running a game for five players of mixed experience. My two most experienced players both started in the last year or two, I've got two where they've played one or two sessions prior to my game, and my last player is new-new and this is his first experience.

These are all my friends who I know from outside D&D. (One is actually my spouse) Our game is played largely as an excuse to hang out and spend time together. My players seem to enjoy the game, and they tell me as much, but part of me feels like they'd have just as much fun playing a board game or party games.

I'm trying to take my players from this point where they're kind of just experiencing my game, and elevate them to a point where they're helping to drive our game. Does anyone have any experience in doing this?

Part of me fears that the answer is going to be that I need to find another group who is as equally invested in the game as I am, and just accept this group as my chill hang out with friends group. Start running simple modules and enjoy it for what it is. I'm trying to do that and struggling. I've been searching local LFG groups and the like and attending Adventurer's League hoping to meet some people interested in possible getting into a game. While I try this, I'd still like to try and encourage my current players to be more active in the mean time.

I'd love to be able to work my PC's back stories into the plot of the game, but there are no back stories. I offered everyone a deal a couple of sessions ago, where if they showed up with a back story I'd give them inspiration for it. Nothing serious, just maybe one or two paragraphs about who their character is, and how and why they ended up being adventurers. No one took me up on this offer.

Early on, like session two, I gave them a bunch of plot threads, and the hope was that they'd pick the one that interested them the most and I'd start prepping for that. Instead they asked me straight up "What are we supposed to be doing? Which one of these things is most important?" They're perfectly content to just follow the "Main Plot".

Has anyone else experienced anything like this? Have you had a very passive group that you were able to get better invested into your game to make them more active? I'd love any tips or advice.

Thank you

 

[payn]

First of all, you need to understand you can lead a gamer to Mt dew, but you cant make them drink. I havent had much luck changing folks drive and playstyle. Temper your expectations instead and continue your search for a group that shares your passions. Fun time with your friends and spouse is still good time, dont force it.

 

[Theory of Games]

Good morning EN World.

I'm a newer DM, and I'm running a game for five players of mixed experience. My two most experienced players both started in the last year or two, I've got two where they've played one or two sessions prior to my game, and my last player is new-new and this is his first experience.

These are all my friends who I know from outside D&D. (One is actually my spouse) Our game is played largely as an excuse to hang out and spend time together. My players seem to enjoy the game, and they tell me as much, but part of me feels like they'd have just as much fun playing a board game or party games.

I'm trying to take my players from this point where they're kind of just experiencing my game, and elevate them to a point where they're helping to drive our game. Does anyone have any experience in doing this?

Part of me fears that the answer is going to be that I need to find another group who is as equally invested in the game as I am, and just accept this group as my chill hang out with friends group. Start running simple modules and enjoy it for what it is. I'm trying to do that and struggling. I've been searching local LFG groups and the like and attending Adventurer's League hoping to meet some people interested in possible getting into a game. While I try this, I'd still like to try and encourage my current players to be more active in the mean time.

I'd love to be able to work my PC's back stories into the plot of the game, but there are no back stories. I offered everyone a deal a couple of sessions ago, where if they showed up with a back story I'd give them inspiration for it. Nothing serious, just maybe one or two paragraphs about who their character is, and how and why they ended up being adventurers. No one took me up on this offer.

Early on, like session two, I gave them a bunch of plot threads, and the hope was that they'd pick the one that interested them the most and I'd start prepping for that. Instead they asked me straight up "What are we supposed to be doing? Which one of these things is most important?" They're perfectly content to just follow the "Main Plot".

Has anyone else experienced anything like this? Have you had a very passive group that you were able to get better invested into your game to make them more active? I'd love any tips or advice.

Thank you

Looks like they just enjoy a linear adventure that leads from one railroad junction to another.

There's a thread on the Alexandrian about getting players to care about your adventure.

Check it out. Also with 5e you can use their Background characteristics to give their PCs something to care about.

 

[Wolfpack48]

This is your perfect opportunity to totally railroad the party!! Jk, but only halfway. Look for some good published adventures that are a bit "on rails." It sounds like your group is on board for more of the rollercoaster ride and perhaps just one shots. There's a number out there folks can probably suggest, but ones where the group is dropped into the adventure in media res might be in their wheelhouse. I might also suggest Call of Cthulhu if they are more inclined to settings in the modern day. Sometimes it's hard for folks to imagine otherworldly settings if they are not into the genres. Horror on the Orient Express might be a good campaign, and is quite literally a train.

For D&D 5e, Curse of Strahd, Lost Mines of Phandelver and Dragon Heist are some of the more linear adventures.

They might be fine with pregen characters too if they don't want to create their own. Maybe after some time, they'll get on board with backstories, but they need to get some experience first.

 

[Meech17]

First of all, you need to understand you can lead a gamer to Mt dew, but you cant make them drink. I havent had much luck changing folks drive and playstyle. Temper your expectations instead and continue your search for a group that shares your passions. Fun time with your friends and spouse is still good time, dont force it.

I feared this would be the general thought. Maybe I'll try Code Red one more time before fully accepting they don't want to drink it.

Good morning EN World.

Looks like they just enjoy a linear adventure that leads from one railroad junction to another.

There's a thread on the Alexandrian about getting players to care about your adventure.

Check it out. Also with 5e you can use their Background characteristics to give their PCs something to care about.

I'll give the article a read, thank you for sharing.

This is your perfect opportunity to totally railroad the party!! Jk, but only halfway. Look for some good published adventures that are a bit "on rails." It sounds like your group is on board for more of the rollercoaster ride and perhaps just one shots. There's a number out there folks can probably suggest, but ones where the group is dropped into the adventure in media res might be in their wheelhouse. I might also suggest Call of Cthulhu if they are more inclined to settings in the modern day. Sometimes it's hard for folks to imagine otherworldly settings if they are not into the genres. Horror on the Orient Express might be a good campaign, and is quite literally a train.

For D&D 5e, Curse of Strahd, Lost Mines of Phandelver and Dragon Heist are some of the more linear adventures.

They might be fine with pregen characters too if they don't want to create their own. Maybe after some time, they'll get on board with backstories, but they need to get some experience first.

Yeah, I know there's a lot of discourse on Railroads vs. Linear games. My party seems perfectly happy to keep riding the train as long as I'm laying down the track for them. I ran them an adventure from Dungeon magazine, and I'm prepping The Sunless Citadel for our next adventure.

The weird thing is even though they're not super into backstories or anything, I think they're all at least moderately invested in their characters. I don't know if they'd be thrilled to throw them away and play new ones for a one-shot, for instance. Not yet at least.

 

[payn]

I feared this would be the general thought. Maybe I'll try Code Red one more time before fully accepting they don't want to drink it.

I'll give the article a read, thank you for sharing.

Yeah, I know there's a lot of discourse on Railroads vs. Linear games. My party seems perfectly happy to keep riding the train as long as I'm laying down the track for them. I ran them an adventure from Dungeon magazine, and I'm prepping The Sunless Citadel for our next adventure.

The weird thing is even though they're not super into backstories or anything, I think they're all at least moderately invested in their characters. I don't know if they'd be thrilled to throw them away and play new ones for a one-shot, for instance. Not yet at least.

I was running a game a little over a decade ago for some folks I met at PFS. I was pretty excited to finally run a home game and was poouring a lot of effort into the game to bring it to life. A couple of the players were real beer and pretzel types, which is fine, but it started to drag on me that my efforts where not appreciated. I was about to toss in the towel on the campaign when they all pretty much showered me with praise about how the game was much better than typical PFS and how much fun they were having. I ended up switching up my routine a little so I wasnt quite spending so much time on prep, but still enough effort to provide what I thought was a good game. Eventually, settled into a fine groove.

Long story short, you might have to meet them half way.

 

[Wolfpack48]

Sometimes it just takes awhile for it to "click" with new players that they can do anything they want and that they have total freedom, especially if they've played a lot of video games. Other times, the players will just never make that leap to being more invested. Try to see what really gets them revved from a story point of view, and try to look for adventures that are in their wheelhouse. Are they huge Star Wars fans? Maybe try that genre. It sort of means playing a bit of amateur psychologist, or straight up asking them what their favorites genres/movies/tv series are...

 

[billd91]

I'd love to be able to work my PC's back stories into the plot of the game, but there are no back stories. I offered everyone a deal a couple of sessions ago, where if they showed up with a back story I'd give them inspiration for it. Nothing serious, just maybe one or two paragraphs about who their character is, and how and why they ended up being adventurers. No one took me up on this offer.

I think one option is to take a stronger hand in leading this. Next time you want to start them with new PCs, tell them all to work together to craft a backstory for their group as a whole. Maybe even give them the parameter that they're all from the same extended family or town and responding to some issue or crisis. Stipulate that they all most have some connection to each other and they can't just say "ditto".

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Has anyone else experienced anything like this? Have you had a very passive group that you were able to get better invested into your game to make them more active? I'd love any tips or advice.

I think you can significantly increase investment by picking the right rules-set.

Some games just don't promote people being invested in driving the story. They don't prevent it - if people are, they can - but they don't promote it. On the flip side, some games are so into the players driving the story that the scare the hell out of players who aren't already into that, and just leave them confused and upset.

So you want a middle ground. You want a rules set which lets the players influence the story more, but which doesn't demand that they drive the story. A good example of this for me would be Spire. But any game where the characters have some rules-based ability to change the story, to influence the story - not just to roll to persuade a guy or whatever - but specifically to assert fiction.

Does that make any sense?

D&D, including 5E, is not good for this. The only fiction that D&D really lets players assert is via certain spells. That's never going to encourage people to get more involved.

So I think if you really want to increase involvement levels, you need to find a game where asserting fiction is more part of it, but also not a game where you're demanding direction from the players (which rules out a lot of PtbA and FitD games).

 

[GMMichael]

. . . I offered everyone a deal a couple of sessions ago, where if they showed up with a back story I'd give them inspiration for it . . .

Inspiration is what you award to a player for cleaning up after his sneeze. Or bringing Cheetos. A backstory is going to take a larger bribe.

I'd start prompting the PCs and record the results, if I were you. "You take that spear with you everywhere? Where did you find it? Who taught you how to use it? Did you craft it yourself?"