Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Thornir Alekeg" data-source="post: 3861307" data-attributes="member: 15651">I ran a group of eight players.  Those eight ran the spectrum of player types.  I was in a similar situation of being frustrated until I realized that I was part of the problem.  Silly me, I wanted everyone to be as invested in my campaign as I was.  It didn't happen no matter how hard I tried, what incentives I gave.  Eventually I figured out the makeup of my group:I had a couple of players who wanted great Roleplaying - they argued with shopkeepers, struck up conversations with NPCs who weren't even NPCs, they were people in a bar with no game relevance whatsover.  For those players, I worked out situations where they could roleplay and shine.  I had one Powergamer.  The toughest of the tough creatures somehow always ended up attacking him first.  He had hard fought battles, almost always won (with varying degrees of help needed) and had his chance to shine. I had three players who really were there just to roll some dice and have some fun.  They were the easiest to deal with, as long as I didn't have a night where we didn't have a single combat encounter. I had three players with intense backstory (one of the great roleplayers from above, the other two less so).  They wanted to have relevance in the campaign.  I sometimes incorporated elements of their backstory into both combat and non-combat encounters.  Things they did in one session would become relevant in another.  They loved it.  This last group was the one that meshed best with my own enjoyment.  When I stopped trying to draw the powergamer or the casual gamers into the deeper story, or roleplay encounters with them, my frustration level went down a lot.  It was a lot of work making sure everyone had something to enjoy in the game, but as long as I made sure I didn't try to beat the square pegs into the round holes, I got to really enjoy myself.  Sure, I had less fun when running the big combat for the powergamer, but he had less fun when I was working on story elements with the players who liked that, and he didn't try to ruin their fun by forcing everything into a fight, so why should I try to force him into caring about the story?    Long explaination, but you mentioned in the OP that you had one of 4 players who liked roleplaying.  So, do some roleplaying with that one player, let the others fade into the background for a little while, and let youself enjoy the roleplaying for that time.  Later, roll out the big fights again.  So the others don't feel like they are being ignored all the time.If you need to, explain what you are doing to everyone.  If the powergamer can't handle letting someone else have some fun, and so tries to ruin it, then that is a different problem than gaming style and he should probably find a different game.  Likewise, if you cannot handle players who don't want to meet your expectations for roleplaying, find a new group and don't complain if you cannot find one suitable for you.</blockquote>

Verification