I have a somewhat frustrating problem with a player, and I'd like to solicit your advice. This player is very distant in the game, and it's very challenging to get her to engage and participate her character in the campaign at hand. I would really like to get her talking and more active in what's going on around her in the game. I like this player and I know she can be better.
I am currently running a Dawnforge (3.5 d20 setting) campaign. Characters in that setting are fairly powerful, and everyone's just hit 11th level. Generally the campaign is going well, the players seem to have fun and enjoy both their characters and the plot, but with one player that's somewhat disengaged, it is starting to make things difficult as we get closer to our main campaign goal.
This player is the wife of one of my other players (the rest of the group consists of a mutual female friend, my husband, and my father). I'll call my problem player "Jane." She's playing a dark elf ranger with a night hunter prestige class.
Let me do a quick list of problems I have with Jane:
1. Her character is a solitary hunter, and she fades him into the background so much that if it weren't for his damage, I'd never know he was there in the session write-ups.
2. Jane has a tendency to like hack-and-slash characters with as many attacks per round as possible, but has a very imperfect understanding of the rules. As a consequence, she frequently does more damage than she's supposed to, and gets miffed when we managed to untangle her math and point out she's really only allowed to do half that.
3. She's had flashes of brilliant role-playing in the past, but I'm having a hell of a time getting her to contribute to this campaign, even with putting specific things in there for her character.
Let me break down the specifics:
Jane does have a background for her character (I had everyone write theirs down before the campaign started), and it's not a bad one. However, it's somewhat at odds with the rest of the party. Our fighter is a bit crude and intense, our wizard is spastic, our psion is long-suffering yet wise, and our druid is clever and entrepreneurial. Jane's character is quiet and fades into the background. Part of this is that she created a solitary hunter.
However, even a solitary hunter can contribute to a group. Even when I ask her point-blank on how her character is contributing to the task at hand, I couldn't even get an attempt at an answer until I suggested something to her (and I did give her time to think, I asked her first, saw she was stalled, talked to the other players, then came back to her). Even when I ask for something like this during our off-week, I have never gotten a response. I've occasionally had to extrapolate from her background what her character would have done so I could move the rest of the plot forward.
Jane has only been playing D&D for a few years, and has clearly never even read the Player's Handbook cover to cover. Heck, I honestly don't think she's taken an in-depth look at how several of her regular class features and feats work. Her husband virtually makes her characters for her (this is partially due to time constraints, as she works more hours than he does, and he's more experienced), but then she doesn't learn how to use all her abilities correctly. This leads to a lot of time waiting for her to do math on all the possible variations on her attacks, and then realizing that they're wrong, and having to do them again. It doesn't help that her husband occasionally makes math errors in doing his own character.
I know Jane has it in her to be more than just a quiver of death-dealing arrows with this character. She's done some astounding role-playing in one of my games before, and I really want to see more of what she can do. For example, in a previous campaign, the group had to get this rare artifact out of a well-guarded museum. I honestly expected, due to the group's previous MO, that they would do some kind of caper. I expected a break-in and fights with the guards and a daring escape from the tower window.
Instead, her bard character, who had until now mostly spent her time in research, light schmoozing, and the use of deadly music against their enemies, talked to the curator. She role-played the most amazing Intimidate/Bluff con I'd ever seen, basically convincing the man that the artifact was cursed and he should give it to the party before the dragon that once owned it came back for it and destroyed the museum.
Jaws dropped. The dice rolled in her favor with an unspoken bonus from me as the DM for such a wonderful performance. The rest of the players gleefully wrote off the whole caper encounter without a thought for the XP because they knew they couldn't top that scene, and that was just dandy with them.
That wasn't the only time I've ever seen Jane engaged, but it's the most memorable. But such times are very rare and far between.
Contributing factors:
There are a couple things I can think of that could be contributing to Jane's disengagement. We game alternate Friday nights from about 6-10pm, and obviously Jane's been up early to go to work (as has everyone else). She frequently gets very fatigued in the latter half of the game. Unfortunately, changing the day or time is impossible right now. Jane and most of the other group members can't get to our house any earlier, so the time can't change. I'm only available every other weekend, and on that available Saturday, her husband DMs a different game that I participate in. Due to religious reasons, they don't game on Sunday (and since I'm on night shift, I'm never up before 3:30pm anyway). Gaming on any other weekday is out as most of the group gets up very early for work.
Jane does have an energy drink when she arrives, but it never seems to last long. Her husband has had to take over her character during the last half-hour of the game a time or two.
Jane does knit while we play. Though I know people who do things with their hands say they can knit, etc. while listening to something else, I do consider it slightly rude, and I do get the occasional, "Huh? We're doing what now?" when I ask Jane what her character is doing. (Though this is slightly irksome, it isn't a deal-breaker for me, however.)
In Conclusion:
What can I do to help Jane participate more? How can I draw out more of that great role-player I know is in there? Side quests? More individual attention? Asking her if she needs more help with her character? Asking her if she wants to play a different character? Help a DM out!
I am currently running a Dawnforge (3.5 d20 setting) campaign. Characters in that setting are fairly powerful, and everyone's just hit 11th level. Generally the campaign is going well, the players seem to have fun and enjoy both their characters and the plot, but with one player that's somewhat disengaged, it is starting to make things difficult as we get closer to our main campaign goal.
This player is the wife of one of my other players (the rest of the group consists of a mutual female friend, my husband, and my father). I'll call my problem player "Jane." She's playing a dark elf ranger with a night hunter prestige class.
Let me do a quick list of problems I have with Jane:
1. Her character is a solitary hunter, and she fades him into the background so much that if it weren't for his damage, I'd never know he was there in the session write-ups.
2. Jane has a tendency to like hack-and-slash characters with as many attacks per round as possible, but has a very imperfect understanding of the rules. As a consequence, she frequently does more damage than she's supposed to, and gets miffed when we managed to untangle her math and point out she's really only allowed to do half that.
3. She's had flashes of brilliant role-playing in the past, but I'm having a hell of a time getting her to contribute to this campaign, even with putting specific things in there for her character.
Let me break down the specifics:
Jane does have a background for her character (I had everyone write theirs down before the campaign started), and it's not a bad one. However, it's somewhat at odds with the rest of the party. Our fighter is a bit crude and intense, our wizard is spastic, our psion is long-suffering yet wise, and our druid is clever and entrepreneurial. Jane's character is quiet and fades into the background. Part of this is that she created a solitary hunter.
However, even a solitary hunter can contribute to a group. Even when I ask her point-blank on how her character is contributing to the task at hand, I couldn't even get an attempt at an answer until I suggested something to her (and I did give her time to think, I asked her first, saw she was stalled, talked to the other players, then came back to her). Even when I ask for something like this during our off-week, I have never gotten a response. I've occasionally had to extrapolate from her background what her character would have done so I could move the rest of the plot forward.
Jane has only been playing D&D for a few years, and has clearly never even read the Player's Handbook cover to cover. Heck, I honestly don't think she's taken an in-depth look at how several of her regular class features and feats work. Her husband virtually makes her characters for her (this is partially due to time constraints, as she works more hours than he does, and he's more experienced), but then she doesn't learn how to use all her abilities correctly. This leads to a lot of time waiting for her to do math on all the possible variations on her attacks, and then realizing that they're wrong, and having to do them again. It doesn't help that her husband occasionally makes math errors in doing his own character.
I know Jane has it in her to be more than just a quiver of death-dealing arrows with this character. She's done some astounding role-playing in one of my games before, and I really want to see more of what she can do. For example, in a previous campaign, the group had to get this rare artifact out of a well-guarded museum. I honestly expected, due to the group's previous MO, that they would do some kind of caper. I expected a break-in and fights with the guards and a daring escape from the tower window.
Instead, her bard character, who had until now mostly spent her time in research, light schmoozing, and the use of deadly music against their enemies, talked to the curator. She role-played the most amazing Intimidate/Bluff con I'd ever seen, basically convincing the man that the artifact was cursed and he should give it to the party before the dragon that once owned it came back for it and destroyed the museum.
Jaws dropped. The dice rolled in her favor with an unspoken bonus from me as the DM for such a wonderful performance. The rest of the players gleefully wrote off the whole caper encounter without a thought for the XP because they knew they couldn't top that scene, and that was just dandy with them.
That wasn't the only time I've ever seen Jane engaged, but it's the most memorable. But such times are very rare and far between.
Contributing factors:
There are a couple things I can think of that could be contributing to Jane's disengagement. We game alternate Friday nights from about 6-10pm, and obviously Jane's been up early to go to work (as has everyone else). She frequently gets very fatigued in the latter half of the game. Unfortunately, changing the day or time is impossible right now. Jane and most of the other group members can't get to our house any earlier, so the time can't change. I'm only available every other weekend, and on that available Saturday, her husband DMs a different game that I participate in. Due to religious reasons, they don't game on Sunday (and since I'm on night shift, I'm never up before 3:30pm anyway). Gaming on any other weekday is out as most of the group gets up very early for work.
Jane does have an energy drink when she arrives, but it never seems to last long. Her husband has had to take over her character during the last half-hour of the game a time or two.
Jane does knit while we play. Though I know people who do things with their hands say they can knit, etc. while listening to something else, I do consider it slightly rude, and I do get the occasional, "Huh? We're doing what now?" when I ask Jane what her character is doing. (Though this is slightly irksome, it isn't a deal-breaker for me, however.)
In Conclusion:
What can I do to help Jane participate more? How can I draw out more of that great role-player I know is in there? Side quests? More individual attention? Asking her if she needs more help with her character? Asking her if she wants to play a different character? Help a DM out!
