How to get players re-interested?

[freedoms_edge]

Hi guys, (and gals). As you may notice, I don't post often, but i'm hoping that some of you may be able to help me out here.

Recently in our 'coterie' of role-players, we've started to see a lot of dissatisfaction amongst ourselves (myself included) with some of the current campaigns we have running. At the moment, we have a fairly long-standing FR-Ravenloft campaign, a 6 month old Star Wars NJO campaign and a 2-3 year old straight FR campign.

Recently we have hardly done any roleplaying at all, and I started to dwell on the reasons for this. I was just wondering if it was because of the length of time we've been playing the campaigns which is causing this, or whether its something different? Has anyone else come across this in their groups? And if so, any ideas how to clear out the rut?

 

[Henry]

First of all, Hi!

Second of all, my comments may seem like "gamer blasphemy."

Find out from the group if you WANT to be roleplaying right now. Sometimes, groups prefer a change of pace - not just from different systems, but from RPG'ing in general. Sometimes, everyone wants to take up a good stretegy game with clearly defined rules and victory conditions, and there's nothing wrong with that.

So, if it's because you all want to try different games, I suggest doing so. Anything from Magic the Gathering to a complex boardgame, heck, even to active sports if your group is inclined. The most important thing despite what anyone tells you, is not "the story", or "the in-depth character development": the most important thing is having FUN.

If it's because the way the game itself is being run is boring, (and most DM's and players need to be honest with themselves if they are getting in a rut) then there are ways to fix that. Turning up the action somewhat can help; so can banishing all table talk for one or two games as an experiment. Also, using simple props for in-game items, such as faux parchment maps, costume jewelry and jewelry chests for key items, etc.

DO some serious examining of your group, together, to find out the root of your problem.

 

[freedoms_edge]

Interesting, I think that we are going to have to do that.

What you were saying about taking other hobbies has hit the nail on the head though. Currently, we as a group are really getting into the LOTR card game, and we are all having a lot more fun playing that rather than roleplaying, so that may be the cause of it all.

I was wondering if it might be worth shelving the curent campigns for a while, and perhaps trying something new, to try and spice up the interest a bit more. Because as we all know, theirs nothing like a new set of characters to spark your interest in roleplay....

 

[Henry]

Now you're cooking!

The most important thing about gaming is the social interaction of having a good time with good friends. If that is through role-playing or not, it doesn't matter. There's one thing about D&D - every gamer seems to roll back around to playing it eventually (pun intended)

Good luck, and good gaming!

P.S. - If you do shelve those campaigns, do two things which you will thank me for later!

step 1 - have all players give copies of their character sheets to the DM's.

step 2 - ensure the DMs make COPIOUS notes about your partys' last positions, goals, plot threads, etc. There is nothing worse than trying to pick back up on a "glory days" campaign and not remembering a darned thing about it!

 

[SirZapf]

This has happened to my group. We had played DND for about a year straight. I don't think that the players where getting bored with the characters but with the setting. Or campaign world was just boring aways going back to the same places all the time. Then there was the confusing plane shifting that would be thrown at us all the time.

We had gotten our character to 13th level by the time we gave that game a break. We then started to MTG for a while but the got more boring than DND had ever gotten but much much quicker.

We went back to DND right after that but the character began to be played different, after we started playing MTG our views became different how we want our characters played. The game was never the same.

If your players or you do become bored silly props won't work but a new game might fixs part of the problem but you will find thaqt the game just might not be the same if you go back to it.

SirZapf

 

[Mallus]

First, getting together not as "our group" but as "our group of friends and pursuing some non-RPG leisure type activities is a great suggestion.

Second, build a world. In my mind, nothing beats a homebrewed setting --run well, of course-- for pulling players into the game. While I'm sure every playable homebrew is full elements stolen, I mean borrowed, from outside sources, there's just a special attachment to discovering a world that exists only for you and your fellow PC's, even if much of it is kinda familiar.

In fact, its rare for me to set 2 campaigns in the same world {I play pretty infrequently, though}.

 

[Knightcrawler]

Bored Gaming Group

I you go too long in the exact same campaign without anything exciting happening it can get boring. My cuurent group has been playing for about two and a half years. There are a couple of things we do.

1) Each year we took a month or two off from my D&D campaign to play something else. Year One it was Illuminati:NWO a CCG, Year Two it was Star Wars and this winter its goiing to be Call of Cthulhu.

2) Every 5 or 6 sessions we have one where we don't game. Watch movies, go out to eat, play Risk, etc. Just something to break up the established order of things.

The fact that my group is small, there's a total of five people including me, the DM, I think helps. We all get along and are around the same age and level of education.

Just got to shake things up some times

Knightcrawler

 

[Piratecat]

I don't think it's inherently due to the length; my ccampaign just hit 10 years, and we're all still having lots of fun. I recommend sending around a confidential "What can we improve?" questionnaire.

Things to include:

- Percentage-wise, how would you rate the current campaign in terms of roleplaying/combat/puzzles? (as in 40%/40%/20%)

- In an ideal game, what would you like those percentages to be?

- How much fun are you having? (1=very little, 10=lots)

- Is there too much combat? Not enough?
- Does combat take too long?
- Is there too much table-talk?
- Is there a particular kind of adventure you'd like to see?
- Do you think all the characters (and players) are treated equally?
- How could the DM improve?
- How could the other players improve?

And so forth. Solicit feedback, and you'll find out what's wrong! I once had a fellow player who used to bitch about our DM after every session, but who never had the guts to tell the DM because he didn't want to offend him. If you ask for opinions, it helps solve that problem.

 

[Black Omega]

A break or change of pace is not a bad idea. A couple of weeks doing something else is sometimes just the thing a game needs.

But really, there is no substitute for player feedback, P-Kitty is right here. For whatever reason, players are often very reluctant to provide feedback unless asked so don't be shy about talking to the players. Sometimes it's also the GM getting a little burned out. Talk it out and see how everyone feels about the situation.

 

[DDK]

I write a per session "magazine" for players which I send as an email to every player on the Friday before the game (we play on Sunday) just to let everyone know if anyone has cancelled, to provide answers to questions, to tell everyone what rules changes there will be, etc. etc.

Although one particular aspect of it I've discontinued because I can't be stuffed doing it anymore, I'd recommend as a way to keep interest going. Essentially it's a story hour that I used to include in the "mag". Since I couldn't remember every detail, I'd write it out in an amusing manner and simply skip over bits that I wasn't sure about. But in essence, it allowed everyone a reminder of what happened in the last session and it gives a sense of story to the whole game. I know that I walk away from most sessions thinking that nothing much happened and it's not until you put it into a story format that you realize just how much players do in a session. It also makes the players feel as if they're the protagonists in a heroic saga... although, if they stuff up it's also a way for the DM to vent by making them look like the bumbling fools that they are

And just as a side note, I just sent out the most recent edition with a minor addition: Pirate's popquiz! Hopefully they'll answer honestly.