So I did some looking around because half of our group has adhd which becomes a disruption... so I wanted to know from others what kind of jobs are good for the players to have to help tone it down a bit?
Ideas I have
1) journal writer to jot down notes 2) possibly inventory keeper for the access camping stuff that isn’t personal inventory which can branch to the person restocking supplies as well 3) rules keeper as someone who can look up rules for the DM or wordings on things at the DM’s request or players request 4) turn keeper as someone who can keep track of turn order and can assist in making sure others don’t talk over people roleplaying and can make sure questions for the DM get answered without interrupting rp.
what are some ideas you all have? Looking for ways to keep adhd players engaged and involved without distracting them with the jobs meant to help their distraction issues.
Personally a fan of turn counters and hp dials. Having a Party Leader who is sort of the Party to DM intermediary is a tradition that goes back to the earliest editions of the game. In respect to breaks due to rules checks, I am not sure what to tell you other than those occasionally happen, but as you and the players get more experienced with the game it will likely occur less and less. (I say that while admitting that I am a 52 year old player/DM who’s played each edition since 1978 and I still have to look things up sometimes.)
the group I play with do indeed keep a ‘party funds & supplies,’ log. It is maintained by two different players who work together double checking one another. The reason two players do the job is if one of them is absent for a session for some reason, the information remains accessible. In games I’ve run since 1990 I have encouraged each player to keep some form of personal journal which they share with me as DM. If the player shows up to the next session with a one page journal entry about what their character is doing/has done & what they are planning for the future then I give them a +10 percent EXP bonus on their next encounter. It is not a huge or overpowering thing, but has served to be a significant motivator. The journals help keep the player focused in addition to being neat insights into how they se their characters and the world I am running in. As a DM the entries help me design future encounters and events in ways that keep all my players interested.
As someone who runs games and has ADHD and who has party members with ADHD, the best thing I found for me is allow me to tab out, or allow players to tab out, and make ques to help tab back in (especially since games are mostly digital if you're in an area where COVID is still causing problems).
One example is when running combat (we use Foundry so everyone can see the turn order) the dm of the session will say whose turn it is, who is on deck (next) and whose turn it is after that right before each turn starts. Because I already have to flip between tabs (foundry, dnd beyond (to check the text of my spells) and combats are long this allows us to plan, find something to keep our attention so we're quiet and not disturbing the other party members, and be ready to jump in.
Also tabbing out and just listening to role play when you're not directly involved can help keep ADHD players from zoning out. Making sure you have grouped the party up based on what they want to do may help with this if you can deal with groups at a time.
The biggest thing is talk to your players. For me I do help manage the party funds (loot that doesn't go on a specific character sheet) but we update that at the end of the night typically. Also some people can't write/type while they have to pay attention to something (I can type, but I can't write). Ask your players what would help them. If a job would offer them a few and see what feed back they give.
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So I did some looking around because half of our group has adhd which becomes a disruption... so I wanted to know from others what kind of jobs are good for the players to have to help tone it down a bit?
Ideas I have
1) journal writer to jot down notes 2) possibly inventory keeper for the access camping stuff that isn’t personal inventory which can branch to the person restocking supplies as well 3) rules keeper as someone who can look up rules for the DM or wordings on things at the DM’s request or players request 4) turn keeper as someone who can keep track of turn order and can assist in making sure others don’t talk over people roleplaying and can make sure questions for the DM get answered without interrupting rp.
what are some ideas you all have? Looking for ways to keep adhd players engaged and involved without distracting them with the jobs meant to help their distraction issues.
Personally a fan of turn counters and hp dials. Having a Party Leader who is sort of the Party to DM intermediary is a tradition that goes back to the earliest editions of the game. In respect to breaks due to rules checks, I am not sure what to tell you other than those occasionally happen, but as you and the players get more experienced with the game it will likely occur less and less. (I say that while admitting that I am a 52 year old player/DM who’s played each edition since 1978 and I still have to look things up sometimes.)
the group I play with do indeed keep a ‘party funds & supplies,’ log. It is maintained by two different players who work together double checking one another. The reason two players do the job is if one of them is absent for a session for some reason, the information remains accessible. In games I’ve run since 1990 I have encouraged each player to keep some form of personal journal which they share with me as DM. If the player shows up to the next session with a one page journal entry about what their character is doing/has done & what they are planning for the future then I give them a +10 percent EXP bonus on their next encounter. It is not a huge or overpowering thing, but has served to be a significant motivator. The journals help keep the player focused in addition to being neat insights into how they se their characters and the world I am running in. As a DM the entries help me design future encounters and events in ways that keep all my players interested.
Hope that helps.
As someone who runs games and has ADHD and who has party members with ADHD, the best thing I found for me is allow me to tab out, or allow players to tab out, and make ques to help tab back in (especially since games are mostly digital if you're in an area where COVID is still causing problems).
One example is when running combat (we use Foundry so everyone can see the turn order) the dm of the session will say whose turn it is, who is on deck (next) and whose turn it is after that right before each turn starts. Because I already have to flip between tabs (foundry, dnd beyond (to check the text of my spells) and combats are long this allows us to plan, find something to keep our attention so we're quiet and not disturbing the other party members, and be ready to jump in.
Also tabbing out and just listening to role play when you're not directly involved can help keep ADHD players from zoning out. Making sure you have grouped the party up based on what they want to do may help with this if you can deal with groups at a time.
The biggest thing is talk to your players. For me I do help manage the party funds (loot that doesn't go on a specific character sheet) but we update that at the end of the night typically. Also some people can't write/type while they have to pay attention to something (I can type, but I can't write). Ask your players what would help them. If a job would offer them a few and see what feed back they give.