*Sigh* I was hoping for something more...

[reveal]

We are in downtime in my Eberron campaign. We start back up in 3 weeks. In the meantime, I have invited my players to roleplay things they wish to do via posts on a message board, via IM or via e-mail. One player, a ranger who wishes to summon an animal familiar (an owl), took me up on the offer.

He asked me where the highest point in Sharn was... Good so far. I told him Skyway but that it was a high-class part of town. He asked if he could access the highest point in Skyway... Interesting.... I told him probably not since it was a high-class area and places like that would actually be parts of upscale homes. He asked if he could sneak up there one night to start the summoning... Looking good! I told him he wouldn't really have to "sneak up" as it was an open location, it's just that he really couldn't afford to buy much up there.

So I'm waiting for an interesting tale of a shifter ranger who decides that he wishes to find a new friend to help him. He will, almost invisibly, make his way up to Skyway, keeping a low profile and searching for a comfortable place to look for his new friend. He will stay there as long as it takes, concentrating on movement, sound, anything that could belong to an animal companion.

What I got was this...

OK, some night I stay up late and make my way up to the skyway. I find some
ledge or view of the city below, and start making little mousey chittering
noises, and imagine my ideal owl companion.

*sigh* Maybe I just had my hopes set too high. Probably because I would have done something more dramatic. I know this player isn't a particularly great roleplayer but I was hoping for more since they had time to get it together. Oh well...

Anyone else run into things like this? Where you have hopes your players will do something grand and get something mundane instead?

 

[Grunk]

I often set up things for players with the hopes of getting much more expansive answers than I usually get...such is the curse of an overactive imagination.
I would try to coax the players into being more descriptive, or flesh the event out for them. For example, start at the begining of his night. Have him have to do some checks to actually sneak up to Skyway, or at least come up with a strategy. When he says imagining what my ideal animal companion is, ask him what it is. Ask him for description, in detail. It's a lot more work to "tease" roleplaying out of players, but it sounds like this is your only option. Hopefully, it'll beget more imaginative thinking from your PCs.

 

[shilsen]

Sorry, reveal, but I can't think of any comparable story right now. But thanks a lot for yours

 

[reveal]

Sorry, reveal, but I can't think of any comparable story right now. But thanks a lot for yours

Boo! Get off the stage!

 

[Piratecat]

Consider telling him that the more exciting a story he comes up with, the cooler the companion. If he knows that he gets an immediate payoff for entertaining you, he may go to great lengths.

 

[ThoughtBubble]

Not quite the same, but...
In my last D&D campaign, the players finally managed to escape from an a trap ridden, undead-filled, wizard made dungeon. Part of this involved the capturing, and occasional near-death of a somewhat shy and bumbling npc captive named Thompson. Well, they make it out, barely avoiding the local ghoul king, and thompson is saved (thoug more by happenstance than anything else) by the female cleric, whom he immedieately follows around like a puppy and tries to get her attention.

She ignores him completely.

Post the session, I do a wrap up, and display the situation at base camp. Their CO asks for reports, and I explain that I want them e-mailed to me, along with activities that they want to do before getting their next mission.

No response on the activites, but I do get most of the reports, so we move on.

Several sessions later, a stronger, more confident Thompson re-appears. The cleric generally stands around, as he re-introduces himself to the party, and starts up small-talk. The cleric's player asks me if he was a heavy drinker.

I tell him to ask Thompson.

He says "But it's something we would have talked about."

Ahem. ARGH!

 

[reveal]

Consider telling him that the more exciting a story he comes up with, the cooler the companion. If he knows that he gets an immediate payoff for entertaining you, he may go to great lengths.

That's a good idea. He's been telling me he wants an owl for the last month. So I'm wondering how I could make this owl cooler? I know he wanted to train it to wake him and possibly his companions when danger approached (basically a lookout). Being animal intelligence and all, I said it would be hard to do but with training he could do it. Perhaps I can just make it smart enough to already recognize danger (i.e. it sees an orc walking through the woods and wakes up its master whereas if it saw a boar in the woods it wouldn't).

 

[Grunk]

On second thought, it seems like this may be a symptom of a bigger meta-game issue. Namely, DM expectations vs. player expectations. If you really want your players to roleplay, have them understand that. Explicitly state something to the effect of "I don't like it when your characters just go through the motions, I'd like you to be more descriptive." Piratecat's idea is a good reward for good roleplaying in these situations. I often have shop keepers give characters discounts if they interact (in a positive way.) E.G. Asking about local town knowledge, about their family, how they're doing, any general repetoire. Calling the propietor a punk sucka would not only erase any chance of a discount, but probably cause some anamosity maybe even a "lifetime banning"(had one imc (sticky fingered wizard). But I still might give the player a small XP bonus if it was "in character"

If you're players understand this from the begining, this problem would be much more rare. If you're players are more the hack and slash type, number crunching type, than they're probably not a good fit with your campaign anyways.

 

[reveal]

On second thought, it seems like this may be a symptom of a bigger meta-game issue. Namely, DM expectations vs. player expectations. If you really want your players to roleplay, have them understand that. Explicitly state something to the effect of "I don't like it when your characters just go through the motions, I'd like you to be more descriptive." Piratecat's idea is a good reward for good roleplaying in these situations. I often have shop keepers give characters discounts if they interact (in a positive way.) E.G. Asking about local town knowledge, about their family, how they're doing, any general repetoire. Calling the propietor a punk sucka would not only erase any chance of a discount, but probably cause some anamosity maybe even a "lifetime banning"(had one imc (sticky fingered wizard). But I still might give the player a small XP bonus if it was "in character"

If you're players understand this from the begining, this problem would be much more rare. If you're players are more the hack and slash type, number crunching type, than they're probably not a good fit with your campaign anyways.

I'm not sure it's a meta-game issue (I know the "I want an owl" can be construed as such but I've never been a DM to just throw an animal companion or familiar at a spellcaster and says "Here ya go!" I want them to tell me what they would like and I'll work with them. I did that with the wizard and his lizard familiar.) I really don't think it's much of an issue at all. Like I stated, this player has never been one to role-play that much but I was hoping, given the opportunity of time to come up with something, he would come up with more than "I go to point A and do B."

I just was hoping for something more and welcome suggestions on how to get this player to come up with something more. Piratecat's suggestions is very useful and I have conveyed that idea to my player. Hopefully it will encourage them to put some more thought into it.

 

[diaglo]

go the Clash of the Titans route.


in Eberron... make his owl a mechanical Warforged construct thingie.