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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zombie-a-GoGo" data-source="post: 1270054" data-attributes="member: 15749">Good advice so far, from everyone, and I thank you for it... I think that what I need to do is craft some sort of "Mission Statement" or something like that. Let the players know what assumptions are inherent in my style of DMing. and what have you.The group is not "brand-new," by the way; we've been gaming together since summer, but this is my first time DMing them; I came in as a player and after the group gave up on RttToEE I slid into the DM seat. I do realize, now, that my style and ideas of "what a game should be" are likely quite diffferent from what my players have come to expect. I can only hope that this will come to be a good thing and not a bad one. Previously everything was focused, and well defined - we were going to defeat the evil in the Temple. No questions, no options (I hate to say that because it implies a discontent among the players for being unable to do anything but follow the module, but everyone enjoyed it, so that doesn't really matter, now does it?), and a clear beginning/end in sight.On the other hand, my game thus far has set up an orcish army invading the next nation over, rumors of why the rest of the nations aren't helping fight off the orcs, and a fairly-complex web of alliances/hatreds between different power groups. My intention over the first few sessions was to let the players get a feel for the setting, let them know who the power groups were, give them choices as to what problem they wanted to tackle, who they wanted to throw their cards in with, and let them have at it.Only now do I realize that with no clear goal set before them, they are kinda flailing about, unsure of what they want to do - unsure of what they can do, really.My problems compound. I've already given them a seven-page booklet on the setting and some prevalent rumors in the nation they reside in, and I have a feeling that few of them have actually read it. I don't want to say "look, you have to read this to know what's going on" because we all have job, kids, etc., yet at the same time all I can hink of right now is to give them yet more handouts and information to plow through, in the fervent hope that maybe something will gel for them.</blockquote>

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