doctorbadwolf
Heretic of The Seventh Circle
My personal strategies are as follows:
First, I try to avoid the situation, but I don't resort to going full sandbox to do so. No one in my group prefers that, we all want to tell a story.
So, that said, how do you avoid refused plots? Always design the plot to appeal to the players, specifically in the context of their current characters. Use NPCs from their background/past, current contacts, etc.
I expect my players to give me:
*3 contacts/people they care about. 1 can be from their origins/growing up/etc. 1 has to be related to the campaign world and how they fit into it. ie, in Eberron, I want a contact that is related to The Last War and/or The Mourning, for 99 percent of characters. 3rd contact should be something recent, but can be from before the campaign begins. For Eberron, someone that informs me on what you've been doing since the war ended.
*1 or more goal for the future of the character. Something the character wants to accomplish, in the near future (ie, not something that can wait till they're old)
*An actual backstory, not just rolling on some tables for a background. WHere are you from, who is your family, please don't kill your family in your background that trope is so tired I'm suspicious that it's secretly a vampire masquerading as it's own grandson (another Eberron reference, there), what friends and enemies do you have, what do you do for a living/what did you do for a living before adventuring, etc.
This makes it much easier to plot a course that will lead to player engagement, because I'm building the plot around what ties their character to the world.
But what about when it doesn't work, and the plot is being refused? Most of the time, my answer to myself when this happens is to suck it up and correct course. I review the plot, if it's already in progress, see if i can identify what is not engaging my players, if so I fix that if possible, and if not I cut out as much of the plot as possible and work in a tie-in to something different.
If somehow that doesn't work, I have, once, just found a good stopping point, ended the session early, had a talk about how the story arc should wrap up, and then asked questions about what was and wasn't working. Then, next session, we begin after that arc wrapped up off screen, maybe days or months later, with a completely different plot thread to follow.
The concept of "forcing" them to run through a plot they don't care about is unfathomable, to me. How would that even work? I don't have any actual power over them. They can literally just say no.
First, I try to avoid the situation, but I don't resort to going full sandbox to do so. No one in my group prefers that, we all want to tell a story.
So, that said, how do you avoid refused plots? Always design the plot to appeal to the players, specifically in the context of their current characters. Use NPCs from their background/past, current contacts, etc.
I expect my players to give me:
*3 contacts/people they care about. 1 can be from their origins/growing up/etc. 1 has to be related to the campaign world and how they fit into it. ie, in Eberron, I want a contact that is related to The Last War and/or The Mourning, for 99 percent of characters. 3rd contact should be something recent, but can be from before the campaign begins. For Eberron, someone that informs me on what you've been doing since the war ended.
*1 or more goal for the future of the character. Something the character wants to accomplish, in the near future (ie, not something that can wait till they're old)
*An actual backstory, not just rolling on some tables for a background. WHere are you from, who is your family, please don't kill your family in your background that trope is so tired I'm suspicious that it's secretly a vampire masquerading as it's own grandson (another Eberron reference, there), what friends and enemies do you have, what do you do for a living/what did you do for a living before adventuring, etc.
This makes it much easier to plot a course that will lead to player engagement, because I'm building the plot around what ties their character to the world.
But what about when it doesn't work, and the plot is being refused? Most of the time, my answer to myself when this happens is to suck it up and correct course. I review the plot, if it's already in progress, see if i can identify what is not engaging my players, if so I fix that if possible, and if not I cut out as much of the plot as possible and work in a tie-in to something different.
If somehow that doesn't work, I have, once, just found a good stopping point, ended the session early, had a talk about how the story arc should wrap up, and then asked questions about what was and wasn't working. Then, next session, we begin after that arc wrapped up off screen, maybe days or months later, with a completely different plot thread to follow.
The concept of "forcing" them to run through a plot they don't care about is unfathomable, to me. How would that even work? I don't have any actual power over them. They can literally just say no.