I am making this thread for other DM"s to tell their stories on how they made their players more involved.
I have these players that are absolutely horrible. They have the PC complexe (They can't die or be lose a fight because they are the main characters & PC's of the story) and strangely enough also paired up with the idea that if they die they can make a character in 5 min and just be thrown back into the game the same night. So their characters are very boring, bland, rushed, and uncreative. I have tried to put rules up such as:
1. have to play a different class then the previous character you played.
2. have to run the character and the backstory through me first.
3. you can only talk at the table in your character voice.
4. whatever you say at the table will be your official move in the game.
Even with these rules it is still not working. One player out of the 4 I have does an amazing job with his character and really puts an effort in the game that I run. Even though it is bad he really becomes the "main" character out of the 4 of them because he is actually invested and not on their phones which they all get upset about and the cycle loops all over again. on one occasion though one of my trouble players actually put effort in his character. he was a Cleric and used a homebrew race him and I made from his favorite book Requiem called the Vir Requis (you can look it up and find it if you are interested) and he was so invested in the one off I was running. He actually had real tears in his eyes when his crush was killed by a flesh eating disease in front of his eyes and this is when he discovered she was actually one of his own race. I was so proud of him and his growth but I am scared because I do not want this to be a one of a kind thing. I want him to continue this growth as a player and I am not sure as a DM to make sure this happens. Any advice?
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“Games give you a chance to excel, and if you're playing in good company you don't even mind if you lose because you had the enjoyment of the company during the course of the game.” ― Gary Gygax
If a group of players cannot dedicate a little time, say 3-4 hours at the most, for such an immersive game, they do not need to be playing D&D. Phones at a table during a game say "I want to play this game, but only in between my chats and grams and tweets".
Everyone has their own playing styles, some prefer a lot of combat, some like to tell an in-depth story, some like a mix between the two. A few very important tasks for the DM are discovering what each player wants, why they chose the character they are running, and what it takes to personally involve each character at least once per session.
To me it sounds like most of your players do not care all that much about the game. The only way to fix that is probably talking with then outside the game.
Ask them what they want from the game and why they decided to play D&D in the first place. If there characters are just uncreative and boring it is not surprising they don't care about them.
Since one of your players reacted so positive on the homebrew race he wanted to play, offer the others the same option. They could even pick their favorite characters from fiction and play them within the limits of D&D. That will provably make it a lot easier for them to act "in character" and hopefully care about their idols. :-)
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I am making this thread for other DM"s to tell their stories on how they made their players more involved.
I have these players that are absolutely horrible. They have the PC complexe (They can't die or be lose a fight because they are the main characters & PC's of the story) and strangely enough also paired up with the idea that if they die they can make a character in 5 min and just be thrown back into the game the same night. So their characters are very boring, bland, rushed, and uncreative. I have tried to put rules up such as:
1. have to play a different class then the previous character you played.
2. have to run the character and the backstory through me first.
3. you can only talk at the table in your character voice.
4. whatever you say at the table will be your official move in the game.
Even with these rules it is still not working. One player out of the 4 I have does an amazing job with his character and really puts an effort in the game that I run. Even though it is bad he really becomes the "main" character out of the 4 of them because he is actually invested and not on their phones which they all get upset about and the cycle loops all over again. on one occasion though one of my trouble players actually put effort in his character. he was a Cleric and used a homebrew race him and I made from his favorite book Requiem called the Vir Requis (you can look it up and find it if you are interested) and he was so invested in the one off I was running. He actually had real tears in his eyes when his crush was killed by a flesh eating disease in front of his eyes and this is when he discovered she was actually one of his own race. I was so proud of him and his growth but I am scared because I do not want this to be a one of a kind thing. I want him to continue this growth as a player and I am not sure as a DM to make sure this happens. Any advice?
“Games give you a chance to excel, and if you're playing in good company you don't even mind if you lose because you had the enjoyment of the company during the course of the game.” ― Gary Gygax
My number one rule: No phones at the table.
If a group of players cannot dedicate a little time, say 3-4 hours at the most, for such an immersive game, they do not need to be playing D&D. Phones at a table during a game say "I want to play this game, but only in between my chats and grams and tweets".
Everyone has their own playing styles, some prefer a lot of combat, some like to tell an in-depth story, some like a mix between the two. A few very important tasks for the DM are discovering what each player wants, why they chose the character they are running, and what it takes to personally involve each character at least once per session.
To me it sounds like most of your players do not care all that much about the game. The only way to fix that is probably talking with then outside the game.
Ask them what they want from the game and why they decided to play D&D in the first place. If there characters are just uncreative and boring it is not surprising they don't care about them.
Since one of your players reacted so positive on the homebrew race he wanted to play, offer the others the same option. They could even pick their favorite characters from fiction and play them within the limits of D&D. That will provably make it a lot easier for them to act "in character" and hopefully care about their idols. :-)