Help, My players don’t know how to play.

[TwoSix]

They're not going to figure it out. Believe me, they never do. You just need to grin and bear it.

 

[robus]

To the OP, as others have asked, are these players having fun? are all the players having fun? If they are and you’re not then you’ve got a problem with mismatched expectations. Either you can change your expectations or change your players.

 

[Sacrosanct]

We had a player (adult male in his 40s) who after a half dozen years still couldn’t get the concept down. Always forgetting how to calculate to hit and damage. It’s frustrsting, I get it. Wish I had an easy answer. Eventually everyone else just told him we were done reminding him every single time how to tally to hit and damage bonuses.

No, he’s not officially developmentally disabled. Just not very bright. And worse, didn’t feel the need to try to brush up on his own time of the game rules.

 

[robus]

We had a player (adult male in his 40s) who after a half dozen years still couldn’t get the concept down. Always forgetting how to calculate to hit and damage. It’s frustrsting, I get it. Wish I had an easy answer. Eventually everyone else just told him we were done reminding him every single time how to tally to hit and damage bonuses.

No, he’s not officially developmentally disabled. Just not very bright. And worse, didn’t feel the need to try to brush up on his own time of the game rules.

I was just listening to an episode from Critical Role season 1 and Travis is constantly forgetting to add his necrotic damage to his roll. He’s reminded every time and happily adds it in, but it is a reminder that GMs (and some/many?) players) can happily switch between the mechanical and imaginary worlds and others have a bit more difficulty. Hopefully it’s the excitement of the moment that’s befuddling their minds

 

[Ilbranteloth]

I have 6 players. Two understand how to play. The others have been playing from between two years and four years. I think that is adequate time to get a grip on the most basic rules. I still find myself reminding them how to calculate attack bonus when it is printed on their character sheet. Even helping the figure out saves and damage. I should be collecting a check from them for the extra work beyond running the game. Any advice will be read and appreciated.

Some people may never get the rules of the game. Of course, as an old AD&D guy where the DM handled the rules and the players just had to roll the dice and tell the DM the result, I have no problem with this.

I love having new players at my table, and many times they are players that otherwise probably wouldn't play the game. Why? Because the basic rule at my table is simple: tell me (the DM) what you want to do, and I'll let you know what happens. I might ask you to roll a die or two as well.

Several of the players are always more experienced than others, and they also help with the mechanics. It's really not that big a deal.

I see it as one of the strengths of the older way of playing, because the player can focus on their character and the adventure, and not the mechanics of the game. It makes getting somebody new up and running much faster too.

One of the downsides of the DM being responsible for all the rules is that it raises the requirements for becoming a DM. Having a mix of both - some players that are also experts (often more so than the DM) as well as the DM in charge of the rules helps quite a bit in this regard. Especially from 2e through 4e when they introduced so many player options, a DM had a hard time keeping up with all of the character rules. I think 5e does a decent job of scaling this back so a DM can be well versed in 80%+ of the rules and only one or two other players really need to be up to snuff as well.

Otherwise, we make sure that the players have a well designed and completed character sheet so we can just ask them to roll a die and tell them what to reference on their character sheet to give me what I need. I generally have the majority of the PC stats handy on my side of the screen anyway, since I make extensive use of passive ability checks. It's not difficult to make a quick chart or table that includes all of the PCs for quick reference. In which point I'm back to just needing them to roll the die and tell me the result, just like I did in AD&D. If you're well organized it really doesn't take much time or detract from the game at all.

My interest as a DM lies in finding players that get into their characters, the setting, and the narrative. The rules are there primarily to help me adjudicate the action. While I love writing (and rewriting) the rules, I like them to be as invisible as possible during the course of play. Whether the players learn them or not is of much less importance to me.

 

[Scary]

I have 6 players. Two understand how to play. The others have been playing from between two years and four years. I think that is adequate time to get a grip on the most basic rules. I still find myself reminding them how to calculate attack bonus when it is printed on their character sheet. Even helping the figure out saves and damage. I should be collecting a check from them for the extra work beyond running the game. Any advice will be read and appreciated.

Hello, my name is Larry, I would like to discuss the issue you are having with your players. If you use discord or google hangouts, let me know and we can hook up.

Larry

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

This wasn’t the AngryGM perchance?

Heh, no. But if you look up ‘Al Quarin: Into the Desert’ on the story hour board, you’ll see he weaves a good adventure. I forget what his handle is on this site.

 

[Wiseblood]

Thanks for all the replies.

We are all having fun. I feel like we could have more fun if we could just move a little more quickly. In their defense they are higher level ranging from 10-16. That being said they bog down remembering how to attack, inflict damage and use skills. (Spells are different) They aren’t impaired by drugs or anything.

Let me describe the specific players. Going clockwise around my table the youngest and least experienced is a teenager. She plays infrequently and has difficulty remembering how to identify dice or how to navigate the character sheet. (This makes sense) Players 2,3 and 4 are in their early twenties. 2 and 3 play almost weekly and have for several years they also struggle with the same. They have never bothered to read the rules. Player 2 has read most spells for the wizard he plays but has almost no idea how spell casting or the class itself functions.(this makes no sense) Player 3 is more interested in role playing. Not like, let me get into the mind or mindset of my character in this situation. More like a tiny Groot looking for a button to push.

 

[Scary]

Thanks for all the replies.

We are all having fun. I feel like we could have more fun if we could just move a little more quickly. In their defense they are higher level ranging from 10-16. That being said they bog down remembering how to attack, inflict damage and use skills. (Spells are different) They aren’t impaired by drugs or anything.

Let me describe the specific players. Going clockwise around my table the youngest and least experienced is a teenager. She plays infrequently and has difficulty remembering how to identify dice or how to navigate the character sheet. (This makes sense) Players 2,3 and 4 are in their early twenties. 2 and 3 play almost weekly and have for several years they also struggle with the same. They have never bothered to read the rules. Player 2 has read most spells for the wizard he plays but has almost no idea how spell casting or the class itself functions.(this makes no sense) Player 3 is more interested in role playing. Not like, let me get into the mind or mindset of my character in this situation. More like a tiny Groot looking for a button to push.

Ok, I would still like to chat and go over your issues as I have developed a few tools that may help your players and you. But I need to go over your problems

 

[Draegn]

Do not share tea and biscuits with them until they learn the rules.