Discouraging Spotlight Hogging

[fusangite]

It sounds like your players might be receptive to reminders that are a little more targeted. Why don't you slip them a note during the game when you can see the other players getting impatient?

 

[Thotas]

Several specific advisements made here fall under a general category of "have the NPCs seek out the slighted PCs" -- which is a great idea. For example, the NPC who asks "does this one speak for all of you?" might also, or instead, send a private message to the PC who seemed least comfortable with what the mouthpiece was saying, which opens up a whole new avenue. Create some NPCs who have a specific reason not to talk to the mouthpiece ... say, an enemy of someone the MP has already befriended who won't trust the friend of an enemy -- but maybe someone a degree of separation further from the enemy might be able to deal with.

 

[arscott]

You could try splitting the party up every so often -- have misisons where the two spotlighters go do one thing and the others do something else. This might help establish some equal time-sharing that'll last after the mission splits.

This is the best advice here. If people are doing sneaky or face-y things, then not everyone should be there. But that shouldn't prevent them from doing other things (face-y, sneaky, or otherwise) at the same time.

Encourage your party to split up to tackle different aspects of the challenge they currently face. Then use a round-the-table approach to make sure everyone's doing something(as though you're in combat, and going through each player's action, though with slightly longer segments for each person).

The round-the-table approach by it self will work out all right, but given that talky scenarios and sneaky scenarios actually are one-or-two person affairs, you might either get something that's forced and unnatural, or you might get "I sit behind him and nod" every time you ask "And what are you doing?"

 

[Frostmarrow]

I'm toying with the idea to have a social initiative, call it first impression, if you will. When you encounter an NPC roll diplomacy. The result is not used to improve reaction but to see which player gets to talk to the NPC first. This means that sooner or later everybody will have to interact with NPCs and that whomever invests a lot in diplomacy will interact with NPCs a lot more frequently.

 

[ThoughtBubble]

Well, first, I'd love to know a little more about your game so I can provide some better feedback.

But, assuming that the other players would participate if give a chance, here's what I'd do.

While the sneaker is off sneaking (or the talker talking) I'd run a short interval with them. As soon as something is resolved "you find the map" or we hit a dramaitc point "the floor panel ahead of you sinks into the ground with a heavy click", I'd pause, and jump over to one of the overshadowed players, and run a little bit of a scene with them. Same rules. As soon as it starts getting slow, resolved, or dramatic, jump again. Small combats are especially nice, because then you can run one or two rounds, and then jump back.

I do think that fusangite has a really good point though. A little socially apropriate nudging during the game often helps out a ton.

 

[taliesin15]

Several specific advisements made here fall under a general category of "have the NPCs seek out the slighted PCs" -- which is a great idea. For example, the NPC who asks "does this one speak for all of you?" might also, or instead, send a private message to the PC who seemed least comfortable with what the mouthpiece was saying, which opens up a whole new avenue. Create some NPCs who have a specific reason not to talk to the mouthpiece ... say, an enemy of someone the MP has already befriended who won't trust the friend of an enemy -- but maybe someone a degree of separation further from the enemy might be able to deal with.

for my money, this seems like sound advice...another one is that sneaky characters tend to attract the attention of those looking for sneaky characters, like the local constabulary, merchants keeping an eye on their wares, powers that be in urban areas that want to keep their grip on power...

 

[Goblyns Hoard]

even if Beth is party face, the grumpy fighter is going to be the one who has to deal with his crazy noble father and the beautiful but ruthless girl that he's supposed to marry

Seconded...

If your group is into the whole story-weaving emphasis then focus the story on some of the other guys. Beth and Alice don't need to be central to the plot - they're good at getting into it already. So build any plot line around one of the other PCs. It doesn't matter how much your two spotlight hoggers want to be involved if they aren't the ones that your NPC will listen to, care about, etc.

 

[Wik]

Put little buzzers on a collar. Make the players wear these collars. Tell them that if they keep talking for more than two minutes at a time, they get a zap.

 

[Lanefan]

"8 players" sounds like "time to split the game and run 2 parties/sessions per week" to me. Otherwise, there's not enough airtime to go around even if nobody hogs it.

Lanefan

 

[Lackhand]

We're having the same problem at my table -- and looking for a solution ourselves.
If you figure anything out, pm our DM!

Part of the problem with us, at least, is that it's very hard to focus the adventure on the other players -- any problem presented would tend to get shared out amongst the group, at which point the natural solutions (get more information, talk to the problem presenter) rear their ugly head.

The problem isn't just that the 'face' and 'sneak' are hogging the spotlight; to a degree it's also that they're very protective of that spotlight and unwilling to share in the results of it.
An analogy might be the second edition rogue who keeps filching treasure while scouting, but without all the in-character gripes that go along with it.

Now that I think about it, that might be a great way to settle the problem: Give the "share and share alike" players most of a clue, and toss the non-sharey ones the remainder; make it after-the-fact obvious that sharing that clue originally would have been more helpful than whatever the outcome of not-having-gotten-it would have been.

Of course, that might work better in novels than games.

(I'm being tongue in cheek: the OP is my DM and I'm a grumpy fighter. We really are friends with the spotlight hogs and just wanna play the game with them!)