PCs who don’t talk to each other.

[frankthedm]

PCs who don’t talk to each other.

Has any else here ever noticed a phenomena when the players after meeting on another, don’t bother to talk about what they learn in character later on. Forget about making plans, mine don’t even share plot hooks they hear about. Some are understandable, like how any plot hooks that would involve traveling to the Kingdom of Wizards {Glantri} get forgotten by the Dwarfs, while wizards neglect to mention hooks pertaining to the dwarven kingdoms. But, it seems my players just don’t talk at all at times. And yes, they have been killed due to this alreadywhen vital info was not shared, so even lethal consequences are not enough to encourage PC on PC discourse.

Any suggestions on the best way to counteract this?

 

[fusangite]

You know, I think this is one of these things you solve with personnel changes. What you need is one or two new players who are into this kind of thing. Once you have that, your other players will be able to see how much the attentive individuals benefit from playing in this way.

I've confronted this problem myself and I have never found any non-social solutions for it.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Maybe they've read to many "Wheel of Time books by Jordan? It irritated me that none of the characters shared any of their knowledge!

Cheers

 

[BSF]

Been there, done that, have no advice for you.

In the game I play in, there is a lot of information that various PCs have that has not made it's way into the game. As a player in said game, my biggest problem is finding an in-character way to hook tht information back into the common knowledge container. Whenver possible I try to bring those things out in-character. The odd thing is that when I do, I am chastised for having held onto it at all. Want to know what's even stranger? I know that three of the other PCs have (had) information that they never chose to share. By now, I think the players have even forgotten it. Several times, in character, I have asked about that information as best as I can. No sharing from them on it. Yet I am the one that is accused of withholding information.

Huh?

No, I'm not slightly bitter about it. But I'm not complaining too much because it is still a great game with strong RP.

In the game I run, I won't even go into the number of times PCs have held onto information to the detriment of the party. So many little things that if all the PCs/Players got together and discussed they might figure stuff out so much sooner. *shrug* I have learned not to rely on them sharing information. Now I put information into the game through PCs that is interesting and potentially useful, but not vital.

 

[Commonblade]

Let me just say...I feel your pain...

 

[Acid_crash]

I find this a lot, a lot more than I wish but I think playing D&D for years and playing it like a hack-n-slash game (enter dungeon, kill creatures, gain levels, steal loot, repeat, repeat, repeat) will tend to produce a generation of players who are not that talkative, and do not really know how to talk in character between each other.

In the last game I ran, which was three+ years ago, in the first session, the first thing I did was sit at the table, run the brief intro to get them together, and then, as they were sitting in the tavern (yes, cliche, but it worked), I grabbed a watch, and said, "You guys have 15 real life minutes to talk in character with each other, and I won't interrupt. Go!"

Their initial looks were priceless, they did not know what to do, and for the first three minutes, no one spoke. But...after one started chatting, and another, by the end of 15 minutes all were speaking, in character, and it was pretty cool. So, each session a couple times, I pulled out a watch and told them to talk to each other, or any npcs they see, for 10 to 15 minutes.

I think this really put the spotlight on them, centered on what their conversations were. I did this when they camped, when they travelled for a hundred miles between destinations, sitting in taverns, making plans, etc. It worked.

So, get a watch, tell them they have 'so many minutes' to talk to each other, and behind your screen, you write down bonus xp for those who do get chatty, and those who don't. And if you tell them they will get bonus xp, I'm sure they'll talk more also.

 

[frankthedm]

Thanks, good ideas

I can't deny my players have heard a LOT of bad things about the kingdom of magic and now consider it a non option to go there. Even being magic poor is a better alternative to the thinkers of the group than what they hear about coming out of that place. Mr greedy thankfully is a wizard hating dwarf currently and the other non thinker i the party druid, so there no contention to avoid the outrages from the mages.

 

[IronWolf]

In the last game I ran, which was three+ years ago, in the first session, the first thing I did was sit at the table, run the brief intro to get them together, and then, as they were sitting in the tavern (yes, cliche, but it worked), I grabbed a watch, and said, "You guys have 15 real life minutes to talk in character with each other, and I won't interrupt. Go!"

I like this idea! Makes it awful tempting to try in my own game to encourage some talk and conversations amongst the players and other NPCs. Did you find that after a few of these 15 minute interludes that the characters had increased conversations outside of the times with the watch?

 

[Dancer]

Another thing to try is to have your NPCs talk. I mean really have them blather about common stuff. How their crops, kids, and farm animals are doing. What happened to old McFagan's shop last week. Lots of rumor and old folk tales. Also have your NPCs ask about the pcs travels. Remember, for the most part, the pcs are going to be much more widely travelled than your npcs and there is no CNN to find out what is happening outside your own little village.

Once the pcs start engaging the npcs in conversation (asking and answering questions), this often sparks further conversation between the pcs (even if they want to have those conversations in private, away from the npcs). The secret is to not make it all exposition, engage the pcs, involve them in the conversation, force them to respond.

This is expecially easy if your pcs come from different cultures and lands. I've got this in my game and I make a fact sheet for each race. Only a person playing that race gets to see the cultural fact sheet, so if styles of dress and address and mannerisms are different, the only way for people of different cultures to find out about them is to ask. If the pcs have the answer to these questions already then conversations will ensue.

 

[the Jester]

I don't think I've ever been in a group where this was a real problem.

Interestingly, I've had several players recently tell me that there's much more intra-pc roleplaying in my campaign than in most others they've been in. There are times when almost the entire game session is all rp (though it has been a while since we had one of those).