Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
ShortQuests -- Pocket Sized Adventures! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed for 1-2 game sessions.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="DeadlyUematsu" data-source="post: 9873942" data-attributes="member: 2677">It does drive away a lot of people, and I still think it’s worth it. Filtering hard gave me a stable group that is now nearing its ninth year, wrapping up its third campaign, and preparing for a fourth. Everyone at that table wants an immersion-heavy, roleplay-heavy experience, and when problems come up, we can actually talk them through. People who were not a good fit were let go, and the long-term players supported that with action.The issue with a big tent approach is that it often creates a group with very low barriers to entry but no real shared expectations beyond the basics. That can work for a while, especially when everyone happens to want the same thing. But once priorities diverge, the table can become an arena for incompatible playstyles.My 2020 campaign, with a different group, was like that. The standards were fairly minimal: make a character with a background, history, image, and some relationships, and follow the house rules. That was enough to get people in the door. For most of the campaign, things were fine. The group even aligned around heavy optimization without much issue. But near the end of the five-year run, conflicts emerged over in-character decisions, roleplay expectations, and how to proceed operationally.Once that happened, the group splintered. The player who thought he was the problem ended up leaving, and he was not the problem at all. That is one of the costs of letting these situations persist too long: the person most willing to self-reflect is often the one who walks out first. I was lucky it only happened two or three sessions before the campaign ended.To give a contrasting example, in my 2023 campaign (also minimal standards), a player spontaneously told me he didn't like a new player. I asked him why. He couldn't come up with a reason, any reason, at all. I told him I would only consider something concrete.  He ended up leaving the game in a huff. Go figure.</blockquote>

Verification