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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 8302881" data-attributes="member: 2629">Anytime you group a hugely diverse number of people together and speak about them as if they're all the same, you're doing a disservice.* Some * players care about the story a lot.  They're there to see how the story resolves, and combat, for them, is the randomization that adds to the drame.* Other* players will never care about the story.  They're there to kick butt and invest nothing in the story.  As a DM, when I sense these players at my table, I help shift their roles to secondary character storylines.  I don't force them to be overly involved, or attentive, even, to the storyline.  However, I drop hooks for them all the time.  If they decide to bite, I do my best to draw them into the story.* The majority of the players in my experience* are going to respond to what you give them as a DM at the table, regardless of what you've done away from the table.  What do I mean?  If you tell a good story, you can draw them in and hook them.  If you don't tell a good story at the table, regardless of how well you craft the world, they're not going to bite. If your PCs are not showing interest in your world, it may not be the world or players that need to change - it might be your delivery at the table.  Maybe you're tired.  Maybe you're insecure in your delivery.  Maybe you've never spent any time learning how to build tension, deliver lines, or do all the other things that give players the rush at the table.  After all, DMing is role playing - acting - and all the things that can ruin a good play can disrupt your game as well.  Whether you're struggling or not, self reflection is a good idea.  Try recording yourself as a DM and listen to what you're doing.  Ask another DM to listen and provide feedback.  Watch 'professional' DMs and focus on what they do to draw the players into the game.  Ask your players what their favorite stories have been in your games.  Try watching Matt Colville, Matt Mercer, or any of those other major DM names talk about what they do and figure out what makes sense for you.  On the other hand, sometimes our world crafting is too convoluted for our own good, and we're driving players away because they feel like they're lost in a sea of lore.  If that is what is going on, you need to give them a break,.Try inserting a (published?) standalone module into your game as a change-of-pace.  My method of doing this since the early 1990s has been to use Ravenloft adventures (or something similar). Where the PCs are pulled out of their storyline to do something else with no relationship to their storylines, to the world around them, or anything else they know ... and then after they complete that 4 to 8 session adventure, we drop them back where they were and take the time to recap where they left off (dropping a few hints here and there for things that they've overlooked).  When I use Ravenloft for this, I make it seem like a standalone adventure, but I am actually using it as a Lore Dump where the history of the Dreadlord, the Domain, or other elements of the story actually foreshadow things to come in the main campaign - but NONE of if capitalizes upon what they already know.  It is introducing information, not using established information. Down the road, they'll realize the powers that be dragged them to Ravenloft to learn, not to try to save XXXXX (which rarely actually works in Ravenloft).</blockquote>

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