Encouraging Player Curiousity

[Edgewood]

That can be the difference with an established setting like Eberron as opposed to a homebrew (although it doesn't always have to be.) To get my players involved in the game world and to invest their interest I get them to create a part of their world.

If they say they are from village X on island Y have them develop said village. Have them describe their home from their point of view. I had a player pick out a region in my homebrew that has not been developed yet. He said that he wanted his character to be from that area. I then put the questions to him what the place was like.

He mulled it over for sometime and about two weeks later he came to me with a new culture, nation, and religion. I was amazed. Now he knew everything about is home, his country, who the major NPC were, etc. I now have my other players developing areas of their own. As a result, they become much more vested and interested in the campaign world.

You can certainly do this with a published campaign world too. Start small though. Perhaps a town, a small island or maybe even a new religion, or the economy of a small nation. Players actually like doing that sort of stuff.

Good luck!

 

[Hadrian the Builder]

Well, there are some great ideas here.

First, let me make it clear that I don't have reams of background details already made up for my players, which is kind of a newbie DM mistake that I just don't have time to do anymore. Except for having a solid idea in my own head about the major bad guys and story arcs, I create details on the fly. Most of my prep work is related to skill challenges and encounters.

I really like Pcat's idea about keeping the party in a small town, but I'll have to find ways to expand it geographically, since this is a continent spanning, on-the-run campaign.

I don't have time to write up a newspaper, but I bet I could give them some snippets of headlines or stories anytime they ask around (like when they are doing streetwise-type footwork) or at the start of the game.

@Exploder Wizard
This is really the crux of my problem. My players just don't seem to pursue plot hooks. They almost always wait until something obvious comes up and they just do that. I'm not looking for them to immerse themselves in a detailed world...I just want to see a little more interest in plot hooks.

For example, two of the players were framed, at 1st level, the start of the campaign, for crimes they did not commit. Figuring out who framed them and why is a keystone of the campaign. And none of the players have tried to figure out who did it or why..and they're almost out of heroic tier.

 

[ggroy]

I'm stumped. My group of players just does not show any curiousity about the setting (Eberron) or the background of the campaign or really trying to interact with the world. And they really seem to be in a straight-jacket with doing only what's on their charachter sheets, despite the fact that I'm pretty open to bending and loosley interpreting the rules.

I've found this was almost always the case whenever I DM'ed games where the players are not hardcore fans (or "canon lawyers") of a particular setting.

Regardless of the edition used, the players largely didn't know or care about the world, other than where to kill the NPCs/monsters and take all their stuff.

Having asked some of my players, they have stated that they don't have time to read the campaign setting (that's not a problem to me and I don't expect them to) and the world feels so "big" that they don't know where to start. And they want to ask "good" questions.

I was using the Pathfinder Golarion setting for my previous 4E game. The players largely didn't know what Golarion was, and didn't really care either. I could have used another setting like Forgotten Realms, Eberron, Greyhawk, Mystara, etc ... and they still wouldn't care for the most part.

 

[ggroy]

That can be the difference with an established setting like Eberron as opposed to a homebrew (although it doesn't always have to be.) To get my players involved in the game world and to invest their interest I get them to create a part of their world.

If they say they are from village X on island Y have them develop said village. Have them describe their home from their point of view. I had a player pick out a region in my homebrew that has not been developed yet. He said that he wanted his character to be from that area. I then put the questions to him what the place was like.

He mulled it over for sometime and about two weeks later he came to me with a new culture, nation, and religion. I was amazed. Now he knew everything about is home, his country, who the major NPC were, etc. I now have my other players developing areas of their own. As a result, they become much more vested and interested in the campaign world.

You can certainly do this with a published campaign world too. Start small though. Perhaps a town, a small island or maybe even a new religion, or the economy of a small nation. Players actually like doing that sort of stuff.

Good luck!

I played in one 1E AD&D game back in the day, where the DM did exactly something like this. The world was revealed gradually on a "need to know" basis, largely based one what the players decided they wanted.

This was one of the better games I played in, even though the DM wasn't particular that great of a DM.

 

[MortalPlague]

The most effective way to do this, I've found, is bribery.

If one of the players pays attention to an NPC or something in the world, have that come back to help them later. For instance, if they visit a local temple, have a priest give them a blessing... something minor, like +1 on their next attack roll. After curiosity starts earning rewards, they'll jump on the bandwagon pretty quickly, I'd wager.

 

[Starfox]

This is what Points of Light is all about - introduce the setting to the player in bite-size chunks.

 

[amerigoV]

I really like Pcat's idea about keeping the party in a small town, but I'll have to find ways to expand it geographically, since this is a continent spanning, on-the-run campaign.

Just a thought for ya - do you have the Stormreach book? Stormreach is set up as a microcosm of Khorvaire. Although not a town of village, it is not the Sharn/Waterdeep/Greyhawk/Ptolus megacity either. Just big enough to have everything, but small enough that by L6 or so (3.5e) the PCs would be pretty well known names in the city. Since it has a bit of everything, you just emphasize the parts you want (say simmering rivalries between Cyre and Karnnath). So you can have your Xen'drik and Khorvaire too!

@Exploder Wizard
This is really the crux of my problem. My players just don't seem to pursue plot hooks. They almost always wait until something obvious comes up and they just do that. I'm not looking for them to immerse themselves in a detailed world...I just want to see a little more interest in plot hooks.

For example, two of the players were framed, at 1st level, the start of the campaign, for crimes they did not commit. Figuring out who framed them and why is a keystone of the campaign. And none of the players have tried to figure out who did it or why..and they're almost out of heroic tier.

If you can sniff out the player in the group that is task/list oriented, this approach might help prod them forward. Make up some quest cards. Something simple like a picture, a catchphrase, and a goal. As soon as the event occurs that would trigger the quest, hand it out. I also did this as a player not too long ago in a rather unfocused group - just treated it like WOW quests. If it remotely sounded like a quest, I wrote it down. I know some will automatic cringe at this approach (too video-gamey), but this group had no other WOW/heavy vid players and worked like a charm to get the group moving forward, which is what really matters.

I am doing the quest cards now as my group (different from the one mention above) is currently alternating campaigns each week - I figured it would help the players keep the games straight and focus on the goals. The liked the idea. This will help a lot when they eventually get to EtoCastle Ravenloft part of the campaign.

 

[Baz King]

Try checking this book out.

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Adventurers-Guide-Eberron-Retrospective/dp/0786948558]Amazon.com: An Adventurer's Guide to Eberron (D&D Retrospective) (9780786948550): Logan Bonner, Chris Sims: Books[/ame]

It was way overpriced on release but you can pick up good copies for a dollar nowadays. It's very visual and a superb primer to the world. If your players are leery of 300 page books, this is for them.

 

[ExploderWizard]

@Exploder Wizard
This is really the crux of my problem. My players just don't seem to pursue plot hooks. They almost always wait until something obvious comes up and they just do that. I'm not looking for them to immerse themselves in a detailed world...I just want to see a little more interest in plot hooks.

For example, two of the players were framed, at 1st level, the start of the campaign, for crimes they did not commit. Figuring out who framed them and why is a keystone of the campaign. And none of the players have tried to figure out who did it or why..and they're almost out of heroic tier.

Sometimes a particular group of players just wants to kill things and loot and getting them to take an interest in anything else is like pulling teeth. On the positive side, such a group is easy to please as long as there is action. As a DM you don't have to think much about motivations, NPC plots or much of anything as far as world detail is concerned. These players would be happy with a map showing "the town", "the forest" "the mountains", "the dungeon", etc. Doing anything more is wasted effort. More likely than not the players are very casual and don't think about the game at all or very little away from the table. Getting these guys to remember any significant in-game details from session to session is a lost cause.

I have played with groups like this. Some of them will never get more involved in the game and others might become more invested players eventually. If world details and game world events mean a lot to you as the DM (they do to me) then you have a simple clash of game styles.
The more effort you expend trying to draw them in the more frustrating it will be when it doesn't work.

 

[Kimyou]

No plans survives contact with the players. And you have to roll with it. To be perfectly honest, if you're players are not interested in the depth of a setting, then don't force them to.

I've been running a homebrew setting, Heroic Orchestra, for a few campaigns and my way to get the players interested is by using everything they give me in their backgrounds as tools for creating places. The biggest city in the world was named by one of my players who off-handedly named it once in his background story, I liked the name, and he felt involved.

Now, I know this isn't possible with Eberron, so my suggestion is to hold a blog and use it as a news feed (basically, making a newspaper out of it). Reward the players for following the hooks you provide by giving them spotlight for it (idea of an article praising their success? Lovely), or hell, give out action points or similar ressources for references to the setting.

Also, use the slang yourself and set your campaign into distinctively Eberrony locations (Having a crime in Sharn is nice, but if they're more into the fighting monsters and taking their stuff, get them in the forges under it, or have a battle across rooftops and elevators. Using the slang will get your players used to it and they'll eventually follow. I've started calling everything in my campaign as ''Dissonant'' and it caught on pretty quickly.

And use the train. Always use the train.