How Dragonbane Pointed out the Clashing Desires of My Gaming Group

[Lanefan]

So yeah, there's one player that is very much in sync with me. Likes story, NPC and world interaction, creating her own agency and motivation, while still likes adventure and action.
Another player remembers the nostalgia of old TSR adventures of 32 pages with a site to explore, monsters to fight, and treasure to loot.

I've been DMing for variants on this combination of players since those TSR adventures were new. It's a very workable amalgam.

The third player's favorite adventure was Curse of Strahd to bring the hurt on the vampire and get big items to kick his butt. She mostly remembers her big critical hits, can't name a single NPC or character name from any of the adventures she played. The scenes in between fights are just filler.

This one (who from earlier posts I suspect is your spouse) is the outlier; and over the years I've had one or two players like this. The spouse situation shoots down my first solution here, which would be to replace this player with one or two new recruits more in keeping with players 1 and 2 above.

And so, the other option is - as someone already suggested upthread - to split them up and then recruit enough new players to build two groups: one around players 1 and 2 above, using a more TSR-like or old-school system; and the other around your spouse, using a high-powered system like upper-tier 4e or maybe even a supers game.

Run the groups in alternate weeks if two nights a week is too much.

 

[payn]

@R_J_K75 How is The G.I. Joe RPG? I wonder if that might be something for Retreater and his group?

 

[R_J_K75]

Nah. I'll just call it off. Three is my absolute minimum to run an RPG. I'll just wish everyone well and retire the group.

As unfortunate as it is, I think it's best. At the very least, retire the group until you've had enough time off to be willing to give it a try again but emphasizing your own enjoyment as much as your players'. And I'm not talking a week or two - I'm talking months, at least.

@Retreater
I could be 100% wrong, but perhaps you're stressing out too much about this and over thinking it. Speaking for myself, if I ruminate over something, it never does any good. It's usually when I say I'm not going to worry or think about it anymore and have forgotten about it is when the answer comes to me out of the blue. I've been in your situation a few times over the last few years and have come to a few conclusions, I don't enjoy playing RPGs as much as I once did, but I still want to play them; I just don't take them as serious as I used to anymore. I agree with @billd91 maybe retiring the group is for the best, but before I did that, I would just tell them you need a bit of time off and see what happens after a month or two.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Have you considered the following systems:

Cypher system: This system was designed by Monte Cook with the original setting called Numenara. This was followed by The Strange (a personal favorite that let's you visit any world or setting), and then they launched it as a standalone toolkit. I would highly recommend your trying this as a setting. The combat is fun and fast-paced without the system being overly crunchy and you can use it for just about any setting or style of game.

Vaesen: This was a really fun system to play. The setting is 19th century monster hunters in Sweden and I really loved it. @Crothian ran the game for us. It is a d6 game but the combat was fun and it had great opportunity for roleplaying as well.

Star Wars Saga System: It was what 4e should have been. I ran multiple campaigns in it and I really loved it.

Honestly, I think your group would really like Cypher. It is fun, less work on the DM, but good crunch for the players.

Where would you even find a copy of Star Wars Saga? Didn't it fall into the LGBH (Licensed Games Black Hole) years ago?

 

[Micah Sweet]

Use skills and powers and/or let them go wild with the complete books.

That's a good idea. I'd love to dust those off!

 

[Belen]

Where would you even find a copy of Star Wars Saga? Didn't it fall into the LGBH (Licensed Games Black Hole) years ago

Personally, I loved it so much that I have like 6 copies of the corebook to handout in case it is needed plus all of the character creator tools on hand.

 

[Belen]

Where would you even find a copy of Star Wars Saga? Didn't it fall into the LGBH (Licensed Games Black Hole) years ago?

I have also found a group that built a Star Wars 5e: Star Wars 5e and Mass Effect 5e: Mass Effect 5e

 

[MGibster]

Both of those examples - particularly the guy running away from the car - just look like another day at the office for me.

To me, the guy honking the horn and just running away seem the antics of someone who is bored and just wants to stir the pot. This player had a history of such antics, he was the medic in our Esoterrorist campaign but had no interest in healing us, but for the most part he stopped behaving that way. He doesn't like games with a lot of investigation so he's probably bored with everything.

If your players are running every-man-for-himself characters (which do suit that gangster genre) the garage scenario played out perfectly. As for the girl sneaking into the room, did you have her interact with the PC or just sneak in and do nothing? 'Cause if she just snuck in and did nothing, then left, I-as-player would probably have done exactly what your player did: lock the door, go back to sleep, and maybe or maybe not remember any of it in the morning.

The year is 1929 and coeds make up 20% of the student body, they're not permitted in the male dorms after dark, and they have their own girl's dorm close by. And I don't know about you, but if I wake up to see a stranger in my dorm, female or not, I'm almost definitely going to say something. At the very least a "Who the #$#%# are you and what are you doing in here?

When a player goes out of their way to ignore the blatant "Adventure This Way" sign, I can't help but think they don't really want to play the game.

 

[Retreater]

Where would you even find a copy of Star Wars Saga? Didn't it fall into the LGBH (Licensed Games Black Hole) years ago?

I got mine years ago at a used game store, all marked up with tags and highlights. Still very usable though.

 

[R_J_K75]

@R_J_K75 How is The G.I. Joe RPG? I wonder if that might be something for Retreater and his group?

We're taking a break for a bit but plan to go back to it hopefully sooner than later. It's a niche genre, mostly plays on the nostalgia of people in my age group who grew up watching the cartoon, reading the comics and playing with the toy line in the 80s. I wrote and GM'd the few sessions we played, but my group sounds very similar to @Retreater they didn't want to put the time in to learn the system and expected me to spoon feed them. Although in their defense the rules were poorly written and leaned heavily on the 5E chassis in some instances. Character creation was kind of confusing, it went out of way to try and be different while doing the same thing. The adventures were fun, but the mechanics not so much. I had to hand wave a lot of stuff to make things work and keep the game flowing. Damage is static so gonzo crits and off the wall maneuvers just weren't there, at least for us. Thats not to say they weren't there; we just didn't dig enough into the system to get there if they were. The game was serviceable enough, but you just had to get passed its shortcomings. I'm not throwing in the towel on the game. There is a good bundle available

G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Starter Bundle

Renegade Games Online Store

renegadegamestudios.com