D&D General Players Bored

[ad_hoc]

Setting the scene, pacing, and narration are all skills to learn.

As a DM I introduce each scene. Then I ask each player in turn what they are doing. Then I resolve their actions. If something happens they get a new chance to react to it.

If nothing interesting is happening then that is the end of that scene. Then I narrate a change of scenes to the next one.

Knowing when to start a scene and when to finish one is a skill to learn over time.

Anything not interesting enough to be played should just be narrated 'off screen'. If players are being asked what they're doing then something interesting should be happening.

Think of it in terms of an action movie. A movie with scenes that serve no purpose quickly becomes a bad movie.

 

[Charlaquin]

Motivation is the missing word. What is motivating the players to interact with the town? @Charlaquin sums it up nicely in her post above. The PCs (players) need to want something and you need to get in their way their desire.

I’ll also add, there’s a lot of value in letting the players choose their own goals! But if you go that route, you need to give the players lots of leads for potential goals to choose from. The job board is a good way to do this in an urban adventure; half-finished maps are the traditional option for classic hex crawl; rumors are always a great way to throw out plot hooks; or you could go more heavy-handed and have a patron contact the adventurers directly. But one way or another, you need to let the players know where there’s adventure to be had, especially in a more sandbox-y campaign.

 

[FrogReaver]

I've been running my first campaign as a DM and I've recently had players state, "there's nothing to do in this town", several times. I've created unique shops, a carnival with games and prizes, libraries with lore they never ran across and unique encounters at each area...

What can I do to make my players feel like there's more to engage in, other then speaking to new npcs and buying new gear at every town??

My take is that your players are looking for an adventure - not to interact with a carnival, not to visit the library. Those elements need to relate to an adventure.

Towns are safe havens
Shop keepers provide adventuring tools
There's some townsfolk that will approach the party for help (adventure hooks)

That's all your players want and need in a town. Throw an adventure at them before they are bored out of their minds.

 

[was]

you can always use an urchin child who 'guides' them around town

 

[Dausuul]

I've been running my first campaign as a DM and I've recently had players state, "there's nothing to do in this town", several times. I've created unique shops, a carnival with games and prizes, libraries with lore they never ran across and unique encounters at each area...

What can I do to make my players feel like there's more to engage in, other then speaking to new npcs and buying new gear at every town??

Have you asked them what kind of things they want to do?

 

[MNblockhead]

Lots of good advice here. Here are some things that I find helpful when DMing urban settings:

1. Have a session zero, or a campaign check-in, discussion

Make sure you and your players are on the same page regarding the kind of campaign you all want to play. Do they want a sandbox or more story-driven game? Do they want a more role-play/thespian or roll-play/tactical game? Do they want a more urban intrigue game or are towns just places for long rests, selling loot, and buying gear? If you don't have a good sense of this, it will be hard to take advantage of any of the other advice provided in this thread.

2. Use the Xanathar's Guide to Everything downtime activities

XGE provides some rules-light and abstracted ways for the party to engage with a city/town/village that don't requires them wandering about and exploring the town like its a dungeon. Many settlements are not that interesting to explore in that way. Nor should they be. But I would add some flavor by having some shops and NPCs fleshed out to give some flavor to the downtime activities.

3. City Supplements

For cities that you expect the PCs to return to often and to figure prominently in your campaign, consider getting supplement books for cities that have stood the test of time and are well fleshed out, some to consider are: Waterdeep, Balder's Gate, Ptolus, Bard's Gate, and Lankmar. You can run entire campaigns in these places.

4. Fudge the One-shot Town

Not every town, village, and even city needs to be fully formed. I used to use tools like Cityographer to randomly generate towns, but even that became overkill for prep and didn't really help to make it fun to run. Probably the best little book of tips for improving a city is Vornheim, which gives some great tips for turning a city into an adventure, with rules for creating floorplans and buildings on the fly.