My Players Just Don’t Care…
"Whateva..."
…as much as me.
It’s true. I’m sure many DMs feel this same way, but it really shows sometime. None of them pour over the books, learning more about the world of Eberron (they’re content to let me tell them all about it in game), they don’t really care about their character sheets much, as long as they have them, or their character cards. They don’t prepare elaborate backstories, except on occasion, as in the case of Bryan, who has a simple story about a simple farm boy who doesn’t really fully understand what’s going on. None of them even read my blog (okay, Bridget does, but she’s my editor), hell, read any blogs, or listen to my podcast. Or any podcast.
I, on the other hand, find the perfect character sheets for my character, carefully handwrite out my character cards (no DDI yet), and pick the perfect dice (which Bridget does as well). When I’m a player, I draw out maps of the locations we go to, sometimes keep a campaign journal, and try to know as much as possible about what’s going on.
I’m not sure how to get them to care. I don’t think handing out extra experience will do it, and I think by now, they’ve just gotten used to not caring.
Hell, I’m not even sure it really bothers me. I know that you’re going to have different levels of involvement, but it sometimes seems like I do all the work.
Mark,
I sometimes feel the same way. I post recaps that nobody seems to read. Describe cool items that players forget to record on their sheets, so they effectively vanish. Reward players with coin and have them announce they won’t pay the innkeeper’s “high rates”.
One thing I’ve noticed lately though, is that each of them does have something that sparks their interest. For example, I was playing alongside one of my players. I’d failed a skill check (with a +12!) five times in a row. He was fascinated by the probabilities, and began calculating them on the fly. He was engrossed. He cared a lot.
So, I think it’s more a matter of finding out what they care about, than them not caring.
.-= Anarkeith´s last blog ..Encounter: The Flight of Ajatar =-.
Yeah I have the same problem; I put in TONS of extra time detailing the world and allowing such a broad range of exploration/choices that they never take advantage of.
I’m the opposite of a “railroading” GM, but it seems like my player go out of the way to “stay on the rails”. Due to this, and also simply “forgetting to actually take it and write it down” they miss most treasure.
One thing you can try is collaborative setting design/description. There are many examples of this around the place; I’m reading Diaspora, the FATE rpg, at the moment, so that comes to mind. In that game, the first step of a campaign is a cluster design mini-game in which the whole group participates in the design of the area of space in which the game will take place. I’ve had some success with this sort of thing, but not in such a structured way as that.
Thinking about how that could work in an Eberron game: If you’re about to start a story arc involving the Church of the Silver Flame in Breland, and you have a Cleric of the Silver Flame in the group, you could ask that player to write up a description of the religious heirarchy of Breland and its NPCs. Players are usually pretty creative people, and I’m sure the player would create an interesting set of NPCs with internal tensions that you could exploit for adventure plots. Player investment and DM worksaving device!
Of course, it might just be that your players want to kill monsters and take their stuff and don’t particularly care about the context.
I know exactly what you mean.
I have a huge campaign wiki, I write up each session, I have an elaborate plot, every NPC has a handout with an appropriate portrait.
Only 1 player came up with a background, they laugh at images and pictures, make fun of PC names and complain about having to think during the sessions.
However they keep coming back for more – we are 13 10 hour sessions into the campaign and have reached 8th level after 10 months of play – the longest continuous campaign this group has ever played so I think that together we must be doing something right.
.-= Argent´s last blog ..Handling a Major Battle in 4e Part 4 =-.
[...] Now, do I intend to change that? Yeah. If you’re one of my players, don’t read this… Oh, wait, they don’t… [...]
Well, I’m glad (and saddened) to hear that I’m 1) not the only one who has ‘uncaring’ players and 2) takes a great deal of care in the game; detailed character sheets, intricate back-stories, logging every clue and fact encountered and such. I think it’s just the times we live in. The younger players just don’t seem to have the patience and the older players have lives (family, jobs, etc.).
About the only thing I can suggest is what I try to do as often as I can and that is to involve each character on a personal level. I have had NPCs show up from a character’s past, for good or ill, so that the player has no choice but to react and get involved. And if the player doesn’t have any sort of back-story for the character, I make something up. The point is to pick a player and effectually challenge them in the story. If this doesn’t spark some reaction and involvement, than I don’t know what will.
{BTW, Mark, love the pic.}
.-= Rook´s last blog ..4e Magic Item Use: A Compromise =-.
[...] most recent posts seem to indicate an awareness of player/GM relationships, such as in My Players Just Don’t Care, which discusses how a DM can get more invested in the salient aspects – as manifest in recaps, [...]