Distracted Players

[Talysian]

I turned things around on them making my players roll defense vrs me rolling attacks. It keeps them more involved.

 

[Marauder_POV]

Yeah the social aspect of it is important but last time the players whent home after fighing 13 rats for like 4.5 hours, thats like 3 rats per hour which i think is slow.

The more minions seem like a good idea, and the long range minions would be good to deal some pain.

 

[surfarcher]

If players are doing hard core drugs at the table, it seems to me that there larger issues other than just staying focused on DnD. I would ban that as well. We have one weed smoker that we game with, but has never toked up during a session thankfully.

In my weed phase (thank god that's far behind me) I tried DMing stoned. That was not a good thing. I played stoned a couple times too but same deal.

Light social drinking is allowed at my table but I personally don't drink more than 1 std drink per hour. And the players are pretty sensible about it. Then again they know I will kill them if I htink it's appropriate so that could be a factor.

We game at my place and I don't allow drugs on the property. Or people under the influence of heavy drugs. I'm not stupid and know a few relatives who sneak off and back, but they behave so I don't comment.

 

[mkill]

In my group, we meet on weekday evenings and have dinner before or during the game. This gives about 1 hour of social time where the latest news can be exchanged and general geekery happens.

Allow this 1-hour free space before every game. Gamers are sociable people. Only start the game when the talk lags a bit and people start looking at their character sheets. Once the game is going, enforce gaming and cut short off-topic chatter. During long sessions, allow for a break every 2-3 hours so the smokers get their fix.

Oh, and engage your players more! Your players were bored fighting rats. Well, I would be bored fighting rats, too! How many times did you already play KoTS? Five? Seventeen? Put on your DM hat and write some interesting adventures! Players won't distract you with offtopic chatter if you have them engaged at the table. Create an interesting story to involve them. Use plot hooks that touch on the personal history of PCs. Create breathtaking fights that are pulled straight out of action movies! In short, DM better.

 

[Marauder_POV]

This module is the first module that any of the players have played. Even the DM is a first timer.

We've decided to write some mini modules to be run during KOTS that are backstory based so that each player that wants to can DM for a bit and develop their PC into a more real character.

The rat incident was a good example of what not to do. The DM is going to use some ranged minions next time. We have the kruthik lair and the blue slime pond to go and then we're onto my module when we go back to town.

 

[Shazman]

How do people keep their players from getting distracted? The guys i play with quite often fall into conversations about astrophysics or movies or cures for ringworm. Thats all good and well, but last game it took 3.5 hours to complete that rat cavern in KOTS(we did beef the rats with more than one HP(like 15) so they weren't to easy for us though, there are 6 of us)

I'd like to help speed the game along. Any hints?

Also generally how long does a round take on average?

First off, have all players put away and turn off laptops and cell phones. Next, do something to grab their attention, whether it's making a skill check or having NPC's accost or interrupt them. In other words, do something to force them to pay attention.

 

[Fridayknight]

First off, have all players put away and turn off laptops and cell phones. Next, do something to grab their attention, whether it's making a skill check or having NPC's accost or interrupt them. In other words, do something to force them to pay attention.

What? Like throwing dice at them and jabbing them with pencils?

 

[Ebylon]

I make the leader keep track of every player's health. He's the most ADHD one of my group, and every time he wants to heal someone, he goes around the group asking "What's your health? When are you bloodied? Do you want a heal?"

So I made him a page that has each player's max health, surge numbers, surge values, and have him keep track of all incoming damage. That way, he has something to do that focuses himself on the action, and he can save time with healing by knowing who actually needs heals.

Doing this for initiative and status conditions and stuff can help focus players too.

 

[kaomera]

What? Like throwing dice at them and jabbing them with pencils?

Airhorn.

 

[Shazman]

I've had one too many bad experiences with playing D&D drunk or stoned.

In practice, I've found beer was manageable to some extent. Significantly less manageable was stuff like players drinking large amounts of vodka or everclear, and/or snorting cocaine at the game table.

If someone was stupid enough to use illegal drugs in front of me,whehter I was hosting or not, I wouldn't have to worry about it for very long, because the police would be called and they would be headed to jail. If they were boozing it up, they would never be invited to play again if I was DMing or hosting, and I lilely wouldn't be playing with them anymore if I wasn't DMing or hosting. This isn't an issue of an easily distracted player, it's a more serious issue of lacking common sense, self-control, and morality.

Admin here. While this is certainly a legitimate opinion, please don't distract the thread with a discussion of drugs, alcohol and enforcement. Thank you. ~ PCat