I can't imagine a table where someone doesn't contribute. That seems to be a failure of the DM to engage EACH player, right? A good way that I read recently here on the forums: after describing a scene, the DM might say "What do you do?" but instead of saying that to the whole group, pose the question to a each character: "What does Hrothgar do?" That ensures everyone is contributing on some level.
DM: "What does Hrothgar do?"
Player: <n
o response, didn't hear DM, is busy on Wastebook>
DM: "Hey, [Player]! What does Hrothgar do next?"
Player: <
looks up from phone> "Oh, I don't know - what's the situation?"
DM: >facepalm< "I just described it..."
I see this all the time...but, while annoying, it bothers me far less than this:
S
ituation: the PCs for whatever reason need to get into a cave. They know there's a monster in there that's bigbad enough to be a serious threat and quite possibly cause death or other serious problems e.g. level drain.
Player A: "We know it's in there, we've got to take it out because there's no way in hell we're gonna sneak past it
. There's not much room for open-field tactics, all we can do is buff up, sneak in as far as we can, then charge and hope for the best. Best if we can bottle it up and not give it too much room to move."
Players C, D, and E: <general agreement, along with some good suggestions and ideas etc. as their PCs prepare to stand in>
Player B: <
in full knowledge the party's main tactic is to try to pin the foe in its cave by force of numbers> "I'll stay out here in case it tries to escape."
Player A: "How does that help us - if it escapes that means we're all dead, and if you're out here you're one less body to help pin it in the cave."
Player B: "You can all go in there to die if you want, I'm staying out here where I'll be safe."
<
some argument follows, after which the PCs of Players A, C, D and E enter the cave, pull off their plan, and kill the foe (at cost of C's PC's life and some expensive gear owned by D's PC) with no help at all from Player B's PC>
Please tell me how or why Player B's PC deserves ANY xp for that battle. And while you're at it, tell me why Player C shouldn't be rather gassed off with Player B (be it in or out of character, either way works), whose participation in the battle would likely have made enough difference to keep C's PC alive.
And the above example is a rough paraphrase of a conversation I've actually had at the table, more than once (though in different in-game situations that don't always involve a monster in a cave), in one of the Player A, C, D or E positions.
No risk, no reward. It's only fair.