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Running The Game #95: Engaging Your Players (Patreon)

Published:
2021-02-13 16:00:03
Imported:
2021-06

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Content

Hey everybody! One of the things we use this Patreon for is giving folks a preview of the upcoming Running the Game video. Each video starts with a script I read off a teleprompter set up and recorded by Jerry!

If you are here for Arcadia, you may get use out of these scripts. This new one is about one way to engage your players, and what that even MEANS.

Hope you like it! The video should be up on YouTube this Monday!

Peace! Out!

Comments

Anonymous

Great timing! I'm starting a new campaign next Sunday and this will be a huge help! Thank you for putting your time and energy into this stuff for us

Anonymous

This piece of advice must be oft repeated to feldgling dms. I made a lot of the kind of mistakes underlined here when I began running games in my setting. A lot of these anecdotes can be found strewn across the width and breadth of RTG, but now they are brought together and one place. It produces an odd feeling of learning something new, yet strangely familiar at the same time.

Doan Roessler

This is great! Thanks for sharing it. It would be great to see lots more of these. It's so helpful to have this advice in both video and printed formats!

Anonymous

You've mentioned these ideas in a few other places, but I really like how it's all compiled here! Several chases up trees are going into my next sessions!

Anonymous

PCs around the world suddenly contract disease in the same week. It's a pandemic!

Anonymous

I totally dig the script. At the same time, I think a lack of "engagement" comes from a variety of sources, not just related to worldbuilding. It can reveal itself in a number of ways and have lots of reasons. Some players don't like a certain type of campaign. Some may like combat while others prefer puzzles, etc. And it may be that many of us these days consume things we like while doing something else. We may be training ourselves to water down our enjoyment, or abstract ourselves, from things we like. I've run games that were really good games for most of the table... but one player was on their phone the whole time. At the end, I ask them if they had a great time, and they say they did. So... But I think the answer to all of these is to make it personal. At the large level, like you discussed, and at the specific level (the hobgoblin makes a cutting remark as they stab you). Speak to both player and PC to bring them into the action in a way that encourages a reaction.

Alex Hitchen

Echoing others, I've just started a new campaign, so lots to think about here

mcdm
>>53563344

Yeah originally this script talked about how you could tailor content specifically to each player and their motivation and psychology. But that's a shitload of work. Or you could tailor content to each player's archetype. Less work, but still a shitload. But that kind of "It's complex" answer doesn't satisfy, and doesn't help new DMs. So I just say "there are a lot of reasons why your players might not be engaging, this is just one solution, and we'll do more videos talking about other solutions later...." -MC

Anonymous

After reading this script and watching the video it became, I have to say that this might be among the most useful videos you've put out. It builds on a lot of ideas you've introduced over the years to produce something that just clicked, at least for me. The action movie analogy landed fantastically. I've had a lot of moments in my games where I couldn't figure out why the players weren't taking action. This video pointed out a significant answer: they needed an explicit problem to react to. It really does mesh with some things I already knew to build a very clear new insight. Overall, this is an absolute hit with me. Keep doing what you're doing!

Anonymous

Good advice. I do think it should come with the addition of 'force them to act to get out of the tree, but make sure you don't railroad them into a single course of action.'

Anonymous

I love how a huge iterated concern is about players not caring about the lore of the world or wanting to interact with it and my DM literally devised a whole dream library for them to be able to straight up read lore to me from the campaign book and to allow me to use my diplomatic skills and the information to shape the very obstacles we face by converting obstacles into allies. (Don't worry, I am *very* useless in battle to compensate. My utility occurs in determining the conditions under which we do battle.)

Anonymous

Hi MCDM, this the first Patreon that I am a patron of and I feel a peculiar and irrational pride towards Arcadia and the progress of MCDM; I ran a Delian Tomb one-shot way back as my first ever sesh as a DM ( killing my Partners first ever character in the secret tomb ), I chipped in towards S&F, bought last month's Arcadia ( the art alone is reason enough) and decided that I'd keep the fanboyness going by signing up to Patreon. So, thanks for the art, ideas and advice. In terms of engaging players, I use zoom now to run online and in zoom I have used "breakout rooms" for individual encounters/rp conversations so it feels that each player has their own strand of the story in their hands. This works in small parties more than larger. These one-on-one encounters CAN be related to the overarching plot, and probably should be for greater impact. And, as always, communciation with the other PCs is key : "Yo, Kev and I will be chatting for 10minutes about something ultra secretive and dangerous , can you mute us, or something blah blah". Thanks again, Ciarán