Hot answers tagged groups
34
Ask more generally about their comfort boundaries
Tell the party that you have some ideas you think might be crossing the line, and ask them where they'd like the line to be drawn. In that context you might even give examples and include something similar to your idea as just one of several.
Throw in a scaled-down version as a test
Use the general concept ...
31
As with any motivational approaches, there's the carrot and the stick. You have to be careful to not simply be permissive of the late behavior, or else you won't incentivize the people who are showing up on time to do so.
Start at a known time and allow a buffer. On our group we have a "doors open" time and a "game" time, to allow for people to show up ...
22
Roles Really Aren’t That Important in 3.5
To begin, spells are the most powerful class feature in the game. Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 doesn’t really care much about roles: you will be more powerful the more magic you have. You will never be more powerful going for a non-magic class, even if the rest of your group is already magical. So I call ...
18
Much like with kids and animals, routine helps.
Accept that a certain amount of socializing will always happen at the beginning of the game, and allow it to happen.
before you start the session
A half hour before you (as the GM) would like to start playing, put the food away and take out the books, dice, miniatures and other paraphernalia that you ...
15
This always seems to be the answer, but...
Talk to the player first.
I'm assuming you have some means of contacting your players outside your normal game time, if only to set up game or let each other know of cancellations or emergencies. Send your player a message, something along the lines of "Hey, I've noticed that you seem dissatisfied at game lately. ...
13
Since I didn't see another answer I could comment with this on, pre-game (de)briefing could be an advantage to the players that doesn't rock the boat too much.
I have had this problem a lot because I was/am part of a gaming community at a college, which is subject to rampant schedule changes running the gamut from early for to completely missing a game. ...
13
I think the answer to this question depends on what you mean by "requires a thorough understanding of a language to fill the world with life as well as adequately explain the surroundings". I don't believe a particularly broad or elaborate vocabulary is required to do either, unless there is for some reason a major mechanical difference between, for example, ...
12
It sounds like that other player is doing exactly what they're happy doing, and so long as it's not actively causing conflict with the others, let them.
Not every player feels the need to be proactive, or even as involved as you might feel is the minimum necessary for them to be enjoying themself. I don't understand those players either, but if nobody's ...
12
Unfortunately I have no experience with Dresden Files, so my answer will only concern story implications of varying player attendance. This puts serious constraints on your game's structure. I'd suggest emulating TV shows, as they deal with some of the similar problems, namely typical viewers only watching a random sub-set of episodes. Of course, in the case ...
11
A word of warning, more like an addition to BESW's excellent answer. A long time ago, in a horror game, I did run a a rape scene which involved one the player character. Unbeknownst to me, the player was a rape survivor. Boy, did I feel bad about that one! Thankfully, the player was fine, knew that I did not mean offence, and that it was a ...
9
As mentioned in other answers so far, four casters makes a powerful party. I would say that the drawbacks that the players have to think about are:
Resource management. A martial character can swing his/her sword all day. Once a spellcaster is out of spells, few options remain to be effective. Devious DMs can bring the party to its knees by sending ...
9
Do not look at systems but at settings. If the setting is interesting enough, if the lure of the story to be told is captivating enough, and if each player can see a protagonist they would like to play then you have won them over. Then, if you must, find a system that match. There are several ways you can do this:
A commonly known setting: say Conan or ...
8
The best thing about my gaming group is that we are friends and have played together for almost 15 years. The worst thing about my gaming group is that we are friends and have played together for almost 15 years. It appears you may have a very social group. There is nothing wrong with that.
Some recurring causes I've noticed when a group would rather ...
7
Enemy FATE Points
DFRPG comes with one specific scaling mechanic - NPCs and Fate Points on page 351 of Your Story suggest that you can be lazy and pool all NPC Fate Points. At the start of each session, you take one point per player, spend from that pool for any NPC and add to it when PCs compel and invoke to disadvantage NPCs.
This Fate pool cannot be ...
7
Check out Belkar, from the Order of the Stick. A chaotic evil character in a mostly-good-aligned party. See this quote:
Despite his kill-first who-cares-about-asking-questions attitude and lack of party loyalty causing the occasional problem, Belkar has proven to be generally effective as a party member [...] but, with carefully applied threats, the rest ...
6
Why are they spending so much time planning? That's the key. If you don't know why, you can't really fix the problem. Sure, you can use techniques to punish players to taking a long time planning, but that will just make them more frustrated.
The most likely cause is that your players are afraid that they'll be penalized for an imperfect plan. The ...
6
As you cannot control the other person's fun just facilitate it, I suggest focusing your energies there and put the onus of participation on the player.
In the question and associated replies in comments, you have noted that the player gravitates toward combat characters and is actively disinterested in other types. He seems content to fill a secondary or ...
6
So, as requested, I'll try to expand the concept, I never tried anything like that though...
The idea came from some situation in films and other media, where the characters are puzzled to discover/deduce riddle in ancient/mythic languages or hieroglyphs. (Say Friend and Enter). They tend to be challenging from the characters in the movies, but 4-5 players ...
6
I am half-remembering that there is another question on this site has brought up the concept of lines and veils to handle such situations. Simply put, lines are topics that will make a player leave the game permanently if you do it (cross the line). Veils are something that a player is comfortable enough that it would happen in character, but really does ...
5
I think that the best option here is to openly sit down together and discuss what type of game it is everyone wants to play. This is really true for any group exercise: everyone should be in trying to create a fairly uniform product, or else the group will have the propensity to diverge and create friction.
That said, sometimes there is an unavoidable ...
5
If you're following the Tao of Bitterleaf route, there are two obvious options:
As a player, assume your inevitable demise when you go too far, and don't get annoyed when it happens. As a character, do what you like, but don't actively sabotage your own group for no good reason (only when it benefits you).
As a player, limit yourself in order to play a ...
4
While I love the idea of building routine, in practice I find it difficult, given that my group has an irregular schedule. So I take a more direct approach.
When I'm GMing I figure one of my roles is that of Chief Cat Herder. So when the game materials are out but nobody seems to be moving into gaming mode, and it appears that the socializing is starting to ...
4
Personally, I have an opening and closing score for each game I run. After a few sessions, the players recognise it and drop into character. It works really well as it gets players into a routine.
I generally think that the first hour of each session is lost to social interactions, coffee, and various recaps so I let it happen. It is harder to deal with ...
4
How We Did It
When D&D 3e came out, our gaming group decided to go to a rotation model. I was one of our regular GMs and had bought the first fistful of 3e adventures that had come out, mostly from third parties - Death in Freeport, Sunless Citadel, NeMoren's Vault, Reign of Ninshalbur (sp?) etc. We all resolved that everyone should run one as part of ...
4
I think this is a subtle but very important issue in a gaming group, particular one using a game that is rules-heavy. In my opinion, the rules of the game shape the players' concepts of what they can and cannot do with a given resource (money, time, etc.). I mainly play D&D 3.5, a rules-heavy game, and I've been frustrated at times when I have built my ...
4
A couple of ideas nobody's mentioned yet...
Let them know beforehand that you have some wicked plans in mind
Basically, just issue a "fair warning" and get on with it.
Of course, we don't know what your idea is, so it's for you to decide if this in itself would be a spoiler (or just how adult/mature your idea is, for that matter).
If not, encourage them ...
4
Something you should think of doing at the start of any dark campaign. Create a list of all the dark things you are willing to do and the level you are willing to do it at. In your case, include all the dark topic matter from your plot, then randomly add many other dark subjects you would be willing to do, but that aren't involved (good for future ...
4
Less crunch can be Savage Worlds. It is still a classic RPG, but carefully optimized to require the absolute minimum of rules-calls and rolls. It is my go-to system for any style or genre of RPG. SW does pretty much everything well and fast.
Still less crunch means you are in the realm of "story games" where the resolution of actions is not "you lose six ...
4
Sounds like it’s less what you do, and more how you do it
When given the chance to kill or hurt someone, go over the top. Describe the character as making his opponents hurt as much as possible within the constraints of practicality, and have him exult in the pain and destruction he does succeed in causing. In fact, I’d probably have the guy ...
3
In my experience there are three tactful ways I've employed to work around party size disparity:
"Mark's Over There": The missing party members are effectively tagging along, but in a very unobtrusive and passive fashion. They don't really talk, they don't really act, and threats seem to work around them or selectively remove them first in a harmless way ...
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