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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Scurvy_Platypus" data-source="post: 5333541" data-attributes="member: 43283">Your first sentence in the quote above? That's kind of the answer. Everybody just wants to get on with things.As a GM, I don't think it's my "job", nor my responsibility, to "keep the sense of wonder alive". My job is to help the players craft an interesting story featuring their characters.If you think about it, a lot of the "sense of wonder" sorts of stuff stem from the fact that the player has never encountered [whatever] before. So for example, a new setting. If the setting itself has a number of premises that the player hasn't come across, or integrates certain mechanical aspects of the rules into the setting in a clever fashion, then the player may (it's not guaranteed) have a sense of wonder. It'll last as long as it takes for the player to feel they've "mastered" the setting and then it's business as usual.And of course, once a person has been exposed to the idea, it's in the back of their mind and they'll fall back on it once they see that idea pop up again, even if it's in a different context/setting/rule system/whatever.This is one reason why some games can struggle for a GM/player/group. "Oh man, we totally had this awesome campaign that lasted for a couple of years. But when I [played/ran] it [the setting/the game] a couple of years later, it completely fell flat. What's wrong?" is something I've seen a number of times over the years. One of the answers that usually doesn't occur to people is, "The second time around it wasn't new to you." Never played Earthdawn before? You're mastering a new system and being introduced to a whole new setting (and maybe grooving on some links between it and Shadowrun). After a couple of years, you've moved beyond the "show the players the world and have cool things happen as they see new parts" and you're back to the usual, "What sort of adventure do I ran for them now?" that happens in many settings.Horror rpgs have this problem. It's why so many GMs do the whole "try to scare the player" thing, which I personally consider completely unacceptable. But GMs want to try and have "fear" and "dread" and "horror" in a so-called horror rpg, so they resort to tricks to try and invoke those emotions in the player.I don't consider it the GM's job, responsibility, or right to try and manipulate their players emotionally. If you present a story and the players _engage_ with that story and emotions connect? Groovy. That's fine. It's fine because the _player_ has made the choice to engage and their reaction is a product of their engagement and choice.Sense of wonder is just like a drug or a lot of other stuff. First hit, awesome. Next several hits are probably going to be pretty good too. As time goes on though, the law of diminishing returns sets in.Or hey, it's like falling in love and being in a relationship. When it first hits, it's awesome. As time goes on though, that "falling in love" thing goes away (not _being_ in love, but that initial "falling in" stage) and you're confronted with the reality of the work to maintain a relationship.Personally, I'd say take a breath and step back a bit. Figure out _why_ you're running a game in the first place. If you're a frustrated novelist, make sure that the players you've got are actually interested in being the ... guided?... characters of your story. If you want to explore a cool new setting, then make sure the players you've got want to actually play the "explore the world" game and aren't just looking for something to beat the stuffing out of.If you're dealing with non-gamers that are starting to dip their feet in playing rpgs for the first time, figure out _why_ they're there in the first place. Chances are that they've shown up with some sort of idea of rpgs being an "interactive story" or "collaborative story" of some sort. The critical information to find out is "what kind of story are they looking for/expecting". Know what kinds of movies/books they enjoy is pretty critical, because they're going to have that in the back of their mind for what they expect out of rpgs.The thing is, a lot of folks expect to be the _active_ focus of the game. They might be shy in terms of how they speak up in the game or whatever, but that doesn't mean they're expecting to be lead around by the nose. New players are frequently just trying to figure out how to _do_ what they want to do.I really can't stress this enough: make sure that _your_ idea as a GM (of what the game is about and what the point of playing/running it is) matches up with the player's ideas of what's going on and why. I've known a fair number of people turned off to rpgs because they wanted to do some of the cool actiony stuff they've seen in the movies (like Indiana Jones) only to be introduced to rpgs by a long-time GM that wanted to train them in the way that rpgs are "supposed" to be played. And it killed the newbie's interest right there.Note: Obviously, all this is my opinion. Feel free to disagree with it if you wish, that's part of being a GM. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> I'll also admit that my ideas aren't necessarily "commonly accepted" or anything like that either.</blockquote>

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