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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 8678157" data-attributes="member: 6790260">I'll admit, this is a bit of a head-scratcher for me because I think of adventurers as, well, travelling problem-solvers. But perhaps this player is more motivated by discovery and exploration. Those are, after all, also part of adventure.I guess the question for your friend becomes less "what went wrong" as "what would it look like if things were going right?" Your friend seems pretty well able to identify what they don't like, but it seems you are struggling to find a different path forward that would be more welcome to them. What would an ideal "roleplaying" session look like to them? Since they see problem-solving as disconnected from what they consider "roleplaying" to be, I mean. They put emphasis on what kinds of characters were "named" (which, as Prabe said, I suspect is a proxy for "characters you developed ahead of time as opposed to characters you improvised") and what interactions came from those characters. What mix would they prefer, in terms of developed ("named") NPCs and their interests?I think part of my confusion here is, I feel like nearly all people have some kind of problem affecting them at any given moment. It might be a mild one ("oh, my sheep have been sick lately, nothing major, but if it keeps up too long I might have problems" or "my cat hasn't been around for a week, the rats might start being a problem again"), it might be a severe one ("my grandfather's been kidnapped and I can't afford the ransom!"), often it'll be somewhere in-between. And those problems make for excellent initial adventure hooks, to get the story rolling, to get the players naturally invested in the future of this particular location or region. I, myself, got my Dungeon World game started in Lady Safiyya's Coffehouse, where the party picked up a contract from an artifice-specialized Waziri mage, Hafsa el-Alam, kicking off the discovery of long-buried secrets and drawing the party into the web of money, magic, and politics in Al-Rakkah. And I have some players who are way more into the exploration and social interaction than they are combat or plot-coupon-trading.Obviously the best way to approach this is with an open mind, but an earnest statement of confusion or difficulty might also be helpful. That is, "I'm not really clear on what an adventure would look like where few or no people you run into have any problems or difficulties they're trying to deal with. That doesn't mean it can't be done, I'm just struggling with fleshing out the concept and procedure here. Can you tell me more about how that experience would play out? I'm particularly interested in what you would need so that that experience would feel rich and rewarding, because I'm worried I might leave it feeling empty due to not fully grokking what you want to see play out." Obviously, adapt the response to your specific situation and needs. But that seems like the productive response here.</blockquote>

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