Distracted Players

[Pbartender]

You've got to realize that for quite a few gamers, playing role playing games is an excuse to socialize with adults that share a common interest. For these people, quashing the distractions and socialization puts the game on a footing that may be just a little too serious for them. You eliminate their reason for being there, and drive them off.

Here's something that helped reduce (nothing will ever completely get rid of them) the in-game tangents:

My wife and I have a standing invitation to any of our gamers... If they show up early, we treat them to a home cooked meal. That gives us a half an hour or more to just around and chat before the game even starts. We get most of it out of our system, and by the time everyone is arrived and settled we're ready to focus on the game.

Plus, since cooking is one of my other hobbies, it gives me an excuse to cook something fancy once a week for guests.

 

[Scribble]

My wife and I have a standing invitation to any of our gamers... If they show up early, we treat them to a home cooked meal. That gives us a half an hour or more to just around and chat before the game even starts. We get most of it out of our system, and by the time everyone is arrived and settled we're ready to focus on the game.

Plus, since cooking is one of my other hobbies, it gives me an excuse to cook something fancy once a week for guests.

In my last game the guys I gamed with were about 45 minutes to an hour and a half away (depending on traffic...) but since I was the "odd man out" I would mostly go over there rather then them drive all the way to me...

Sometimes though, my wife would use the lure of a fully cooked meal to lure then over to my side.


As for distractions at the table... I find it pretty much like any other social activity.. Sometimes we're focused and sometimes the whole night doesn't really amount to much more then like 5 minutes of gaming. (Especially if it's been a tough work week for one of us or something.)

I just feel it's part of gaming as a whole.

 

[Prestidigitalis]

Oops, wrong thread.

 

[Shazman]

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

It's not like I brought up the subject. Another poster brought it up twice. I was just pointing out that his comments really didn't have anything to do with distracted players but more serious issues. I do agree, it does just sidetrack the discussion, so I'll leave it be.

 

[BrokeAndDrive]

Spoiler

<OT> *puts on Spock/Data voice* It's probably because, while the others were just off-handedly/non-seriously commenting and not really focusing on it, you came in with guns blazing and sirens blaring in the form of strong, incendiary opinions apt to spark a massive flame war between those of libertarian and conservative (or whatever) mindsets, had a mod not popped in to nip it in the bud. 'Sall about tact. Same reason why little boys get in a lot more trouble, because girls are much more subtle and cunning with their misbehavior. </OT>

But enough about that, on with the happy p- uh, keeping players engaged! Which, come to think of it, they WOULD help. *twitch* *slapself*

Most of the time I don't have issues with it (mostly because ADHD friends and family are the norm -- talking over movies, never reading more than a few sentences of several-page-long things I've written, etc. -- and I'd have a heart attack if I were too bothered by it).

Sometimes, though, attention need be nabbed.

I'm not too witty when it comes to face-to-face verbal "jousting" as could be said, and I just so happen to be the kind of person that is more-or-less ignored unless I'm deliberately rude or obnoxious, so my attempts at getting attention, and my inability to not create an abomination in the form of a ten-comma-filled run-on sentence, involve shouting "OH GOD A DRAGON!" while rolling initiative for a sudden drake attack, even if they're in town (a mage's pet got loose, or a beast being sent to the gladiator pits... um, got loose).

Can't really add anything else, though I will be trying some of the ideas laid out here! Keep them coming, please!

 

[Cormacolinde]

Oh, and engage your players more! Your players were bored fighting rats. Well, I would be bored fighting rats, too!

That was my first thought reading that post. Rats? And nothing else? In some random corridor probably? You need to engage your players, give them a reason to want to kill their adversaries. I also like to have logical and sensible explanations for why those creatures are attacking them. Are they pets? Then you should probably have a handler along with them. In this case, for example, you could have a Kobold Rat Master and a Vermin Handler along for the ride.

I did pit my players against rats before. Along with a few wererats who had just kidnapped the son of a local noble whom they were trying to locate. Trust me, they wanted to kill those bastards and save the child.

It's all about giving them a good reason to want the enemy dead. Sometimes it's more convoluted, of course, but I rarely put an encounter in the way of my players unless there's a reason for that encounter to exist in the first place.

Of course, random encounters are nice sometimes and can provide a distraction or a pause in more heavy roleplay. But that's just one more reason right?

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.

Word.

 

[Marauder_POV]

"That was my first thought reading that post. Rats? And nothing else? In some random corridor probably?"

Please read some of the previous posts if your going to try and be inflamatory.

A few posts higher i explained that this was the first time we had run KOTS or any other module from any other series. THIS IS THE FIRST TIME ANY OF US HAS EVEN PLAYED D&D. Plus i'm not the DM.

"DM better" is not a solution its a cop out. Be constructive or take your hating somewhere else.

 

[ourchair]

I have on player who is kind of an attention whore and always makes cracks, or parrots exactly what I tell him as a DM.

"You know that this is the place where all the halflings go when they sorely miss the taste of authentic Talenta cuisine--"

"So guys, this is the place where all the halflings go when they sorely miss the taste of authentic Talenta cuisine!"

"--and you also recognize that this would be one of the more affordable places to stay the night without sacrificing comfort."

"So guys, this would be a more affordable place for us to stay the night, but without sacrificing comfort."

It's kind of annoying because I know that DEEP DOWN he's trying to be in character, as this is his first time at D&D, but he creates distractions for everyone else by making tangential remarks and hypotheses that impede my lackluster attempts at trying to tell a story.

So lately, I've taken to giving him The Look.

You'd be surprised how often The Look can work, especially on insecure people.

Either The Look is really effective, or it just looks worse on me because I have evil Asian eyes that could do battle with Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa.

 

[Fridayknight]

It's kind of annoying because I know that DEEP DOWN he's trying to be in character, as this is his first time at D&D, but he creates distractions for everyone else by making tangential remarks and hypotheses that impede my lackluster attempts at trying to tell a story.

So lately, I've taken to giving him The Look.

You'd be surprised how often The Look can work, especially on insecure people.

Either The Look is really effective, or it just looks worse on me because I have evil Asian eyes that could do battle with Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa.

EVIL ASIAN EYES!!!! TOTALLY OP!

He does sound annoying but maybe you should punish him ingame. If you say, that guy looks ugly and he repeats then get the guy to wallop him.

 

[Goonalan]

I played through KOTS with a bunch of guys that had never played 4e or any D&D before or any RPG before, check out the sig for the stats based version of how it went.

First off my players are massively up for playing D&D, they all know each other (I'm the odd one out), some of them work together, at the start of every session there's usually thirty minute or so when everyone just chats.

However, and it makes me cringe a little typing this, they're usually dying to get in game, to get on with it. Dave the Fighter just wants to smush things- bad week etc.

I got them all to decide upon characters from films etc. to base their PCs on and over the weeks they've just grown into them, and spend time out side of the game, talking about the things they're going to do 'in game' etc. The point being they're into their PCs first and foremost.

Secondly I'm DMing up a storm (sometimes) so in the encounter you're talking about the rats were merely cover for the Ochre Jelly (I hope I'm not spoiling this for you). My Minion rats charged the PCs more or less en masse, and were stomped, slammed and spelled in short order, but for a moment the PCs were surrounded, and while the danger was slight they we're up for it- and in the process getting conned (see below)

Then out of nowhere this huge gelatinous monsters rises up like a quivering terrible tide and SLAM! (DM smashes fist into table- dice and minis jump- and drinks get spilled) gets...

DM stands up looks around room, eye contact with each player...

YOU!

Congrats players engaged, and it's loads easier when the bad guys are sentient and/or humanoids- they swear and threaten (and give a little of the plot away).

The point is, and this isn't easy, if the DM wants to engage the players sometimes they need to stop sitting on their backside and get rilled/involved/in action. Storytelling, for me/us, involves doing voices and having a bit of banter with the PCs in game (NPCs and bad guys alike).

Remember if the DM is playing up- voices/acting out etc. then you're giving the players permission to get involved, and you'll be surprised how easy it is to engage them.

Admittedly this kind of thing only lasts for minutes to moments but the memory lasts, and the players keep coming back.