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Message: <blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 7225734" data-attributes="member: 97077">Sure, sometimes it's just the player's bad habits and rudeness or perhaps some manner of disorder. But I tend to think that's fairly rare in the grand scheme. When I see something like this, my first thought is, huh, I wonder why this player thinks it's okay to fiddle with his or her phone instead of paying attention to and engaging with the game. What is he or she trying to tell me by acting this way? I mean, this person is literally choosing to play some other game on the phone (or whatever) instead of play the one for which he or she signed up. What am I doing to cause this? Is the game not engaging enough? Is my pacing off? Have I not shared the spotlight well? Did I not ensure there's enough action or high enough stakes to keep people's attention?These are all things the DM over which the DM has control. When I started to ask players why they felt it was okay to check out mentally, I found that they were usually due to issues I could fix on my side of the table. After I focused on fixing these things (years ago now), I found that I just didn't have players reaching for their phones or going off on tangents. It's just full engagement for 4 straight hours with a couple of 5 to 10 minute breaks. It's not about being the "center of attention" either in my view, but rather seeing particular outcomes as indicative of some other issue and taking steps to mitigate it.</blockquote>

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