Ok so I've returned to DnD after a nearly 20year break, thanks COVID, running a game with friends online.
I'm looking for some advice and tips.
I want to run some individual scenes with characters during sessions, to help share the spotlight and encourage character development RP etc.
Do people have advice on how often, I was thinking no more than one such event per session?
How long, in your experience when will the other players loose interested in waiting for their bit?
How to make it engaging for the others?
To give contxt the first 'scene' I want to do is that to gain favour with a local small time criminal our fighter can do a one on one in the underground fight club, as he usually gets the role of tank and is often overlooked when the magic is flying or in social interaction scenes, i want him to be pivitol in advancing the game.
I frequently try to make individual story lines the focus of sessions. Typically it is with NPC's that have connection to a particular character, so they naturally react more to that character, but the others can still be involved. In your instance you could do a few of these...
There is a large amount of betting going on and one character is the designated "bookie". Taking bets and laying odds as each round of combat goes on, or every other. If they are good at it, they could make some coin, and if they are bad well that could lead to new story lines.
Maybe there are some magic "influencers" in the crowd and policing that, or contributing could be fun for casters.
Generally I find that when the players realize they all get their turn eventually they are good about taking second seat in a sessions.
Depends on the players. Talk to all of them together, and discuss something like that. My players are totally fine, if I have a 15 minuten one-on-one with a single player. Maybe even more, because the others enjoy the background lore dump of the others.
If any of your pc's are a Cleric, warlock, or something similar with a deity/patron in the background, I've had good luck in the past with small, short (2-5 min tops) interjections from the deity/patron to the character (overnight Dream sessions are fun, too); could be praise, info, scolding, a test of wills, etc. Nothing too dramatic or life/death typically, just something to consider doing on occassion to further bring those particular backgrounds to the forefront.
Visions, prophecies (more cryptic = more fun), can involve anyone as well and up to the pc's on how to react, interpret, or ignore at their own peril (and can be followed up by you as the DM as appropriate after gauging the apparent interest of the player or character).
As FiveOfClubs skillfully mentioned earlier, even a scene specific for one PC doesn't mean the others are pushed to the back burner or ignored; the wizard can be trying to hastily find a specific ancient scroll in an abandoned ancient library while the others are fighting off the undead; the Cleric may be attempting an 8 hr long ceremony without interruption but the others are busy building defenses; the Fight Club scene you mentioned can still have the others influencing the background through sleight of hand or sneaky social magic; even a one player specific moment can involve others doing other equally important things;
when I've done those sorts of things in the past, I oftentimes would still have initiative rolled up (even outside of combat) so that there was still a sense of order and to which helps everyone still feel a sense of "doing something" even if altogether there's only one major thing being done by one particular character
I’d just add that doing it online will be a bit double edged. If people get bored, they can easily just open up their web browser or email and check out. But then it can be harder to get them to tune back in.
I do stuff like this around levelling up in the early stages, whenever you level up anyway people are most invested in what is happening with others as well as themselves, everyone is eager to see what other leaders are doing.
talk to you players ahead of a level, find out what choice they are making and craft a bit of narrative around why, alternatively have the play be able to make the choice in a scene.
When I had a party reach level 3 I had
the ranger had a phropetic dream surrounded by mirrors with alternate versions of themselves based on subclasses, I described in detail each one emphasising traits (surrounded by creatures they are in tune with, wearing armour made of various beasts trophies, meditating and zen waiting for the perfect shot etc) they closed their eyes and when they opened them there was a single mirror, I asked the player which it was.
the bard decided to write a new song and I let them choose if it was “A song of trickery, of charm and seduction. Of the fey and the folly they make of the hearts of men. A song of manipulation”, “A song of secrets, rumours and riddles, hearsay and heresy, of a king brought to his knees by intrigue and deceit. A song of whispers” etc
the fighter carved heraldry of animal into his maul after waking from a nightmare with each animal a different subclass (Wolf - Champion, Lion - Battlemaster, Phoenix - Samurai etc) and the choice altering what the nightmare was.
the rogue had a locket with room for a small trinket and decided which trophy of theft or combat they placed inside (arrow fletch - assassin, bookmark Tassles - arcane trickster, copper coin - mastermind etc)
First... Welcome Back. I too have had a break of several years. It is nice to play again isn't it.
It is ok too have PC's go off doing their own thing regardless on how lengthy it might be. The trick is more about switching the "camera" so the speak. Let the PC's in one scene do their thing for 15-20mins or so and then try to find a good dramatic moment/cliffhanger to switch the camera to the other group and their scene. This way you keep switching back and forth. Everyone gets their time without having too wait too long. While also being engaged and excited about what will happen next in their scene.
Depending on what happens in each scene you can find ways to incorporate the other players. Is group 1 ending up in a fight or something else that requires multiple rules. Why not let group 2 do those roles. That way group 2 can have some fun when they get the baddies to get in the way of group 1. people just enjoy messing with each other hehe.
I do stuff like this around levelling up in the early stages, whenever you level up anyway people are most invested in what is happening with others as well as themselves, everyone is eager to see what other leaders are doing.
talk to you players ahead of a level, find out what choice they are making and craft a bit of narrative around why, alternatively have the play be able to make the choice in a scene.
When I had a party reach level 3 I had
the ranger had a phropetic dream surrounded by mirrors with alternate versions of themselves based on subclasses, I described in detail each one emphasising traits (surrounded by creatures they are in tune with, wearing armour made of various beasts trophies, meditating and zen waiting for the perfect shot etc) they closed their eyes and when they opened them there was a single mirror, I asked the player which it was.
the bard decided to write a new song and I let them choose if it was “A song of trickery, of charm and seduction. Of the fey and the folly they make of the hearts of men. A song of manipulation”, “A song of secrets, rumours and riddles, hearsay and heresy, of a king brought to his knees by intrigue and deceit. A song of whispers” etc
the fighter carved heraldry of animal into his maul after waking from a nightmare with each animal a different subclass (Wolf - Champion, Lion - Battlemaster, Phoenix - Samurai etc) and the choice altering what the nightmare was.
the rogue had a locket with room for a small trinket and decided which trophy of theft or combat they placed inside (arrow fletch - assassin, bookmark Tassles - arcane trickster, copper coin - mastermind etc)
Ah damn.. my players just hit level 3, and I wish I saw this last week.. haha..
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Ok so I've returned to DnD after a nearly 20year break, thanks COVID, running a game with friends online.
I'm looking for some advice and tips.
I want to run some individual scenes with characters during sessions, to help share the spotlight and encourage character development RP etc.
Do people have advice on how often, I was thinking no more than one such event per session?
How long, in your experience when will the other players loose interested in waiting for their bit?
How to make it engaging for the others?
To give contxt the first 'scene' I want to do is that to gain favour with a local small time criminal our fighter can do a one on one in the underground fight club, as he usually gets the role of tank and is often overlooked when the magic is flying or in social interaction scenes, i want him to be pivitol in advancing the game.
Cheers.
I frequently try to make individual story lines the focus of sessions. Typically it is with NPC's that have connection to a particular character, so they naturally react more to that character, but the others can still be involved. In your instance you could do a few of these...
There is a large amount of betting going on and one character is the designated "bookie". Taking bets and laying odds as each round of combat goes on, or every other. If they are good at it, they could make some coin, and if they are bad well that could lead to new story lines.
Maybe there are some magic "influencers" in the crowd and policing that, or contributing could be fun for casters.
Generally I find that when the players realize they all get their turn eventually they are good about taking second seat in a sessions.
Everyone is the main character of their story
Depends on the players. Talk to all of them together, and discuss something like that. My players are totally fine, if I have a 15 minuten one-on-one with a single player. Maybe even more, because the others enjoy the background lore dump of the others.
Good thoughts, from you both.
I had been thinking about the betting angle, could be fun if he learns the others have bet against him!
Also I agree about talking to the players about what they want, 15 minutes does seen like a healthy balance to start.
If any of your pc's are a Cleric, warlock, or something similar with a deity/patron in the background, I've had good luck in the past with small, short (2-5 min tops) interjections from the deity/patron to the character (overnight Dream sessions are fun, too); could be praise, info, scolding, a test of wills, etc. Nothing too dramatic or life/death typically, just something to consider doing on occassion to further bring those particular backgrounds to the forefront.
Visions, prophecies (more cryptic = more fun), can involve anyone as well and up to the pc's on how to react, interpret, or ignore at their own peril (and can be followed up by you as the DM as appropriate after gauging the apparent interest of the player or character).
As FiveOfClubs skillfully mentioned earlier, even a scene specific for one PC doesn't mean the others are pushed to the back burner or ignored; the wizard can be trying to hastily find a specific ancient scroll in an abandoned ancient library while the others are fighting off the undead; the Cleric may be attempting an 8 hr long ceremony without interruption but the others are busy building defenses; the Fight Club scene you mentioned can still have the others influencing the background through sleight of hand or sneaky social magic; even a one player specific moment can involve others doing other equally important things;
when I've done those sorts of things in the past, I oftentimes would still have initiative rolled up (even outside of combat) so that there was still a sense of order and to which helps everyone still feel a sense of "doing something" even if altogether there's only one major thing being done by one particular character
Boldly go
I’d just add that doing it online will be a bit double edged. If people get bored, they can easily just open up their web browser or email and check out. But then it can be harder to get them to tune back in.
I do stuff like this around levelling up in the early stages, whenever you level up anyway people are most invested in what is happening with others as well as themselves, everyone is eager to see what other leaders are doing.
talk to you players ahead of a level, find out what choice they are making and craft a bit of narrative around why, alternatively have the play be able to make the choice in a scene.
When I had a party reach level 3 I had
the ranger had a phropetic dream surrounded by mirrors with alternate versions of themselves based on subclasses, I described in detail each one emphasising traits (surrounded by creatures they are in tune with, wearing armour made of various beasts trophies, meditating and zen waiting for the perfect shot etc) they closed their eyes and when they opened them there was a single mirror, I asked the player which it was.
the bard decided to write a new song and I let them choose if it was “A song of trickery, of charm and seduction. Of the fey and the folly they make of the hearts of men. A song of manipulation”, “A song of secrets, rumours and riddles, hearsay and heresy, of a king brought to his knees by intrigue and deceit. A song of whispers” etc
the fighter carved heraldry of animal into his maul after waking from a nightmare with each animal a different subclass (Wolf - Champion, Lion - Battlemaster, Phoenix - Samurai etc) and the choice altering what the nightmare was.
the rogue had a locket with room for a small trinket and decided which trophy of theft or combat they placed inside (arrow fletch - assassin, bookmark Tassles - arcane trickster, copper coin - mastermind etc)
First... Welcome Back. I too have had a break of several years. It is nice to play again isn't it.
It is ok too have PC's go off doing their own thing regardless on how lengthy it might be. The trick is more about switching the "camera" so the speak. Let the PC's in one scene do their thing for 15-20mins or so and then try to find a good dramatic moment/cliffhanger to switch the camera to the other group and their scene. This way you keep switching back and forth. Everyone gets their time without having too wait too long. While also being engaged and excited about what will happen next in their scene.
Depending on what happens in each scene you can find ways to incorporate the other players. Is group 1 ending up in a fight or something else that requires multiple rules. Why not let group 2 do those roles. That way group 2 can have some fun when they get the baddies to get in the way of group 1. people just enjoy messing with each other hehe.
Cheers folks, all good stuff to get me thinking.
Ah damn.. my players just hit level 3, and I wish I saw this last week.. haha..