Keeping player excitement high between sessions

[xnosipjpqmhd]

Some I've heard / seen / done:
- campaign web site with session summaries, etc.
- campaign "newspapers" with rumors, etc.
- play-by-post with individual players, or even live/chat RP sessions 1-on-1
- long-running puzzles they can ponder that will take a while to solve
- long props/handouts that they can read, re-read, think about
- DM hype (this can get old fast)
- sending out short stories from NPCs point of view

Anyone have any other ideas on how to keep players engaged/involved? Ideally something they can do, so that the DM still has time to work on the rest of the game.... ;-)

 

[Otterscrubber]

A few years ago my DM set up a wiki, ever since we've kept our characters and campaigns listed there. It's nice to go back and look over some of my favorite older characters and read why they rocked and also to have our current players update with journals on our current adventures. A lot of our guys write up a synopsis of our last adventure in character and it also helps to keep players up to date who might have missed a night due to other obligations.

 

[Richards]

Whoa! At first glance, I thought that read "Keeping player excrement...."

Never mind.

Johnathan

 

[justanobody]

What is the duration between seesions?

 

[SlyFlourish]

private emails

I like to send emails to players in the voice of NPCs or characters to fill in little bits of detail. This gives them all an individual stake in the story.

I like the idea of a website where stuff can be shared.

 

[justanobody]

-record your play sessions and give everyone a copy at the end of the night on CD to review later.

-send threatening text messages from the BBEG to them.

-send voice mails from the wench at the local tavern reminding them to meet her during the next session.

If a player isn't excited between sessions, then they may not be having fun enough to return for the next. I would ask the players themselves....

 

[jdrakeh]

I would recommend starting a Story Hour here at ENWorld. Campaign web sites, while nice, seem to entail an amount of work disproportionate to the amount of interest that they generate (there are exceptions, of course, but I think that they're pretty rare). If you go with a Story Hour, Enworld provides the site, you and your players simply provide the story.

 

[Ycore Rixle]

Group emails, some in character and some not, are about all I have time for. Of course, if any of the guys in our Monday night game are reading this and want to start a wiki, be my guest.

But yeah, realistically, we save experience, leveling up, group loot, etc. for email. That keeps us busy enough.

 

[xnosipjpqmhd]

A few years ago my DM set up a wiki...

I'm using a Yahoo! group now. Maybe I'll switch or add a wiki too.

What is the duration between seesions?

2 weeks.

I like to send emails to players in the voice of NPCs or characters to fill in little bits of detail. This gives them all an individual stake in the story.

That'd be good, especially if I can get 1 or 2 NPCs lined up for each character and get some subplots going... (One player has no access to web/email, so that's a slight complication, but I might be able to work around that.)

record your play sessions and give everyone a copy at the end of the night on CD to review later.

Believe it or not, I do record the sessions for podcasting, but have only distributed on CD once, when a player was absent.

send threatening text messages from the BBEG to them.

This would be funny, but not sure how to rationalise it in-game. ;-)

If a player isn't excited between sessions, then they may not be having fun enough to return for the next.

We have a pretty tight-knit group, so I'm not worried about that. But I know when I am a player, those 2 weeks seem to drag on forever and I have to "get back into the story" when game day rolls around again.

I would recommend starting a Story Hour here at ENWorld.

That's actually a good suggestion. I've posted story hours in the past, and if they had garnered more attention, I think it would've been a great thing. As it was, the players themselves didn't really participate and no lurkers did either. Since I write up summaries anyway, I might go ahead and start posting them again. I dunno.

 

[Nebulous]

That's actually a good suggestion. I've posted story hours in the past, and if they had garnered more attention, I think it would've been a great thing. As it was, the players themselves didn't really participate and no lurkers did either. Since I write up summaries anyway, I might go ahead and start posting them again. I dunno.

That's not uncommon i don't think, for players and readers to not participate in a story hour. If nothing else, it's a place for the DMs to keep stuff straight in his own head so that he can better relate details to the group next time they get together. I've brainstormed a lot of good ideas in story hours that i might not have otherwise come up with if i hadn't written it.