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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sialia" data-source="post: 233219" data-attributes="member: 1025">Everybody has weaknesses, regardless of their stats.Let them be allmighty in the things that there are stats for. Let them kick ass and enjoy it.There are a million things in the souls of the players that there simply are no stats for in the PCs. Find them. Exploit them.In my case, I'm paranoid. Always terrified that the traps and puzzles are more devious than they ever turn out to be. I second guess myself all the time thinking "it can't possibly be this easy. I'm missing something . . ." Any clever GM who's gamed with me a while knows how to use this to his own advantage. They get me going and then let me nuke myself with overworking the problem. Then they sit there and chortle as if I hadn't done all their work for them. And the sick part is, I enjoy this, because it makes me feel like I've contributed immensely to the plot. Things happened in the world because of the decisions I made, and even if they were BAD things, they were MY bad things. I did this. But that's me. Not your players.Your players are unique. They will have special weakness of their own you can exploit. What do they really love about adventuring? Do they secretly love feeling terrified? Do they crave approval? Do they gloat before striking? Are they overconfident about sizing things up quickly, or agonizingly meticulous and slow about working out all the details before making a move? What do they pride themselves on? If you asked each of your players what is their strongest asset and their greatest weakness, what would they say? Are they clever puzzle solvers, or tactics specialists?And then give them the chance to excel at what they are good at when the dice are not rolling. Or let them confront their darkest fears about who they are, and what they can or can't do.When the module becomes personal like this--not necessarily in a hostile or antagonistic way, just personal, the players will invest in thier characters. They will see facets of themselves in them, and want to work with them. When they love coming to your game because they have a chance to feel more handsome than they really are, or more clever, or braver, or less inhibited, or whatever it is they crave, they will start wanting to be that alternate self instead of their workaday Real Selves.My favorite characters were all created for GMs who made me feel special, as though they were running the campaign just for my personal benefit. This doesn't mean they played favorites with me, just that they were aware of how I was responding to what was going on, and what I thought would be fun to have happen next, same as they did for all the other players.Paper thin background is ok. Going up levels is all about growth. We all start out tabla rasa. It's what happens next that's interesting.All actions have consequences. When the consequences of your actions start to affect the plot, you start to feel as though you are co-authoring the module, as if it isn't all defined by the box text already. As if possibilities were endless. And buy in follows.</blockquote>

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