I want my actions to matter

[Krachek]

The typical problem player does not listen. I can describe endlessly, and they won't care.

The players just "imagine" in their own minds everything is weak and easy....but they still get huge rewards and loot.


I was hoping for more basic in game examples, not all the vague high and fluff stuff.

L

There is a section in the DM guide Know your players. it describe the common interest of players.

Acting
Exploring
Instigating
Fighting
Optimizing
Problem solving
Story telling

Try to know what appeal them, and what you like to offer.
I read in your comments a total disconnect between your preferences and yours players preferences.

some readings can help fill the gap, but you may have to find new players.

 

[Umbran]

Though this won't fit well with their idea of "loony tune politics", but that's on them.

You know about their ideas of what they mean by politics, and you give them something else, and that's on them?

That's not how responsibility works.

 

[Committed Hero]

When the PCs have an ultimate goal, and are competent to use a variety of methods to achieve it, they tend to drive what happens in the game. I wouldn't pitch a game without letting the players know that this was the case. Even a sandbox game has "explore uncharted regions" as a presumed goal.

At a micro level, a game about combat has lots of places where actions matter.

 

[Senior_WotC_Janitor]

"I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me."

 

[Lanefan]

It seems to me that you're referring to the arguments from specific people, so the best answer is whatever those people would give.

That being said, if you tell a player, "this is a role-playing game. You can do whatever you want," that's going to set an expectation.

Indeed.

A far better way to say this otherwise-fine sentence is "...you can try to do whatever you want."

 

[bloodtide]

@bloodtide Do you ever play at all? Or do you only GM?

I'm a Forever DM.

Except you don't understand how a game can possibly work where what the players do matters.

What I don't understand is the fixation players have on wanting a super easy pointless game

If the only person at the table whose actions matter is you then everything that happens at the table is on you.

Except the whole "actions matter" is a smoke screen.

A far better way to say this otherwise-fine sentence is "...you can try to do whatever you want."

This is the basic problem.

So there is an adventure over here to go on.....and "suddenly" the cool players just randomly want to rob the Gambling House on the edge of town. I'm fine with it.

So then the players have the characters wait until the place closes....and they don't sneak it. And find the vault is locked, has guards and alarms.

Then, like five year olds, they toss up their hands and whine and cry their actions don't matter. So the idea of "actions matter" to them is only: They randomly pick something to do and the game reality alters so they do that.

So it would seem that they think it would automatically be like this "The vault has an unlocked door and a single sleeping goblin guard. So the characters wander in and get tons of money." I guess they watch too many cartoons and bad TV shows....

 

[pointofyou]

I'm a Forever DM.


What I don't understand is the fixation players have on wanting a super easy pointless game

Except the whole "actions matter" is a smoke screen.


This is the basic problem.

So there is an adventure over here to go on.....and "suddenly" the cool players just randomly want to rob the Gambling House on the edge of town. I'm fine with it.

So then the players have the characters wait until the place closes....and they don't sneak it. And find the vault is locked, has guards and alarms.

Then, like five year olds, they toss up their hands and whine and cry their actions don't matter. So the idea of "actions matter" to them is only: They randomly pick something to do and the game reality alters so they do that.

So it would seem that they think it would automatically be like this "The vault has an unlocked door and a single sleeping goblin guard. So the characters wander in and get tons of money." I guess they watch too many cartoons and bad TV shows....

Nah.

"Actions matter" isn't a smoke screen unless the GM doesn't want them to matter. Players wanting their actions to matter as far as the fiction and the game play isn't at all the same thing as wanting a super easy pointless game and it doesn't at all mean the game reality alters to match what the players do as has been repeatedly pointed out to you and as you have repeatedly ignored.

Your descriptions read like parodies of bad gameplay. Maybe if you stop thinking of your players as spoiled children you can start treating them like adults. My experience is that if you treat them like adults they're much more likely to act like adults than if you treat them like children.

I'd also seriously recommend getting some experience as a player. You seem to have lost whatever ability you might have had to see things from that POV and that lack of empathy stains everything you write about players.

 

[hawkeyefan]

I'm a Forever DM.

You should try playing a bit. You have a lot of assumptions about players that I struggle to believe are entirely accurate. They certainly don’t match my experiences with my players, or my experiences when I am a player. They don’t match many other experiences shared on this site.

It’s hard not to think that a lot of the issue is likely how you GM a game. Take a break and play… that might help you get some perspective.

 

[MichaelSomething]

You should try playing a bit. You have a lot of assumptions about players that I struggle to believe are entirely accurate. They certainly don’t match my experiences with my players, or my experiences when I am a player. They don’t match many other experiences shared on this site.

It’s hard not to think that a lot of the issue is likely how you GM a game. Take a break and play… that might help you get some perspective.

Alternatively, he could stream his game. I want to see these players the OP has to deal with.

 

[Carnun]

So there is an adventure over here to go on.....and "suddenly" the cool players just randomly want to rob the Gambling House on the edge of town. I'm fine with it.

So then the players have the characters wait until the place closes....and they don't sneak it. And find the vault is locked, has guards and alarms.

Then, like five year olds, they toss up their hands and whine and cry their actions don't matter. So the idea of "actions matter" to them is only: They randomly pick something to do and the game reality alters so they do that.

So it would seem that they think it would automatically be like this "The vault has an unlocked door and a single sleeping goblin guard. So the characters wander in and get tons of money." I guess they watch too many cartoons and bad TV shows....

Sounds like they don't want to play your game and you don't want to player theirs. If what you're reporting is true, time to find a different game or group.