I am the DM for a group of high school aged players. As much as I love the having D&D Beyond for character sheets, I am finding that the temptation to surf the internet during the game is stealing their focus. Three people were watching YouTube during combat for crying out loud! I am seriously considering switching back to paper! Any suggestions?
You may want to incorperate some breaks during session. Especially teenagers, the focus isn't always there. Just a a suggestion but if there is something big or important about to happen take 20 minutes (or whatever you feel is appropriate) for everyone to get up, stretch, go to the restroom, look at FB/Twitter/youtube then get back to bussiness. Also tell them in no uncertian terms that if they won't focus, especially during combat, that you arent responsible for what happens to their character and that if they cant pay atrention youll find someone who will
Communication is the key You need to tell your players how this behaviour makes you feel how it affects your enjoyment of the game. I rather suspect though you'd be facing always online distraction problems even without those D&D Beyond for character sheets, but I guess you could get people to print them out and put all mobile devices in a lead line box by the door... but in the long run you'll be better off with a group of people that you can communicate with and take you into consideration
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“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
Two things will eliminate distractions. First, dont give anyone time to be distracted. If combats take 2 minutes then watching one youtube video means that the player has missed an entire part of the game. Are they here to play D&D or watch youtube? Don't let them do both. Second, make the distractions have consequences. If a player wasn't paying attention then neither was their character.
Set the expectation through your behaviour. If you want combats to be fast and frenetic, then be fast and frenetic yourself.
Force some urgency on the players. When it is their turn, if they can't tell you instantly what they are doing, then they lose their turn (their character doesn't move and takes the Defend action). Keep it moving. Chop. Chop. Next. Next. Next. Urgency. Pace. If a player starts their turn with "huh, what's going on?" then their character is doing the same.
To help the players make decisions, start every round with an overview of what is going on, then start each player's turn with one of two really quick points that matter to that character. Transition with some narration. And don't repeat yourself.
GM: Start of round 2. Three orcs are still up, one badly injured. All have bows and are continuing to shoot the wizard. The ogre is still up and is still trying to paste the barbarian. … GM: <Barbarian's Player>, your turn. Ogre in your face, 2 orcs shooting arrows at the wizard. What do you do?
The first few times you do this, the players are going to miss turns and they are going to complain. Sheesh are they going to complain (apparantly it's the worst thing in the world for a GM to make a player miss a turn but it's OK for those players to waste everyone's time watching youtube, go figure…). Be firm. If they complain just move on. If you don't have time to listen to players go "huh, what's going on" then you certainly don't have time to listen to them complain. But… make the combats easier. If players miss their turns, don't punish them twice by having enemies paste their characters. The first few times, anyway.
Another thing to help players is to ask them out of turn. Before the rogue's turn, ask the wizard's player, "Your turn is next in order, do you know what you are going to do?"
I am the DM for a group of high school aged players. As much as I love the having D&D Beyond for character sheets, I am finding that the temptation to surf the internet during the game is stealing their focus. Three people were watching YouTube during combat for crying out loud! I am seriously considering switching back to paper! Any suggestions?
The group I am in. We put all our cell phones in a bowl before we start.
28-56 year olds.
we also do potlucks bringing food, and go for 8 hours.
Something that I do when I’m DMing is I make sure that if a player hasn’t gotten to say anything for a few minutes I ask them, “What do you do?”. That keeps everyone more engaged and it also makes sure that no one is left out of role playing. It’s a little bit harder during combat since combat is turn based, so I try to keep combat moving quickly.
I am the DM for a group of high school aged players. As much as I love the having D&D Beyond for character sheets, I am finding that the temptation to surf the internet during the game is stealing their focus. Three people were watching YouTube during combat for crying out loud! I am seriously considering switching back to paper! Any suggestions?
You may want to incorperate some breaks during session. Especially teenagers, the focus isn't always there. Just a a suggestion but if there is something big or important about to happen take 20 minutes (or whatever you feel is appropriate) for everyone to get up, stretch, go to the restroom, look at FB/Twitter/youtube then get back to bussiness. Also tell them in no uncertian terms that if they won't focus, especially during combat, that you arent responsible for what happens to their character and that if they cant pay atrention youll find someone who will
Communication is the key
You need to tell your players how this behaviour makes you feel how it affects your enjoyment of the game.
I rather suspect though you'd be facing always online distraction problems even without those D&D Beyond for character sheets, but I guess you could get people to print them out and put all mobile devices in a lead line box by the door... but in the long run you'll be better off with a group of people that you can communicate with and take you into consideration
“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
Two things will eliminate distractions. First, dont give anyone time to be distracted. If combats take 2 minutes then watching one youtube video means that the player has missed an entire part of the game. Are they here to play D&D or watch youtube? Don't let them do both. Second, make the distractions have consequences. If a player wasn't paying attention then neither was their character.
Set the expectation through your behaviour. If you want combats to be fast and frenetic, then be fast and frenetic yourself.
Force some urgency on the players. When it is their turn, if they can't tell you instantly what they are doing, then they lose their turn (their character doesn't move and takes the Defend action). Keep it moving. Chop. Chop. Next. Next. Next. Urgency. Pace. If a player starts their turn with "huh, what's going on?" then their character is doing the same.
To help the players make decisions, start every round with an overview of what is going on, then start each player's turn with one of two really quick points that matter to that character. Transition with some narration. And don't repeat yourself.
GM: Start of round 2. Three orcs are still up, one badly injured. All have bows and are continuing to shoot the wizard. The ogre is still up and is still trying to paste the barbarian.
…
GM: <Barbarian's Player>, your turn. Ogre in your face, 2 orcs shooting arrows at the wizard. What do you do?
The first few times you do this, the players are going to miss turns and they are going to complain. Sheesh are they going to complain (apparantly it's the worst thing in the world for a GM to make a player miss a turn but it's OK for those players to waste everyone's time watching youtube, go figure…). Be firm. If they complain just move on. If you don't have time to listen to players go "huh, what's going on" then you certainly don't have time to listen to them complain. But… make the combats easier. If players miss their turns, don't punish them twice by having enemies paste their characters. The first few times, anyway.
Another thing to help players is to ask them out of turn. Before the rogue's turn, ask the wizard's player, "Your turn is next in order, do you know what you are going to do?"
The group I am in. We put all our cell phones in a bowl before we start.
28-56 year olds.
we also do potlucks bringing food, and go for 8 hours.
Something that I do when I’m DMing is I make sure that if a player hasn’t gotten to say anything for a few minutes I ask them, “What do you do?”. That keeps everyone more engaged and it also makes sure that no one is left out of role playing. It’s a little bit harder during combat since combat is turn based, so I try to keep combat moving quickly.
Professional computer geek
Brilliant!