I'm not the DM in this game, just a player. Here's our party for context: Me (C/N Rouge Wizard), C(L/N Rouge Barbarian), S(C/N Monk), B(C/N Rouge), M(C/N Rouge) and N(**** if I know, Cleric).
Our game is a few months in at this point and a major problem I realized after our last session is none of our characters have any reason to be adventuring together, none of our goals are aligned. For example: B is a smuggler who is hoping the war starts again so he can sell weapons to every side while C is a law man who wants to end the smuggling operation B is a part of and I'm a soldier who wants to prevent the war from beginning again. M has no character motivation to speak of, neither does N from what I can tell. S has a goal but really can't follow it because no one else's character would care.
Another issue is that this campaign is very heavy RP. This wouldn't be a problem normally but C's character was literally made to be a party face and N is an attention whore. Those two take up all of the RP time giving me and B very little. S gets none to speak of. The three of us then go off looking for something to do because we just spent the last hour doing nothing and we're bored, only to get into combat not at all balanced twords us that we ultimately have to run from. M never pays attention anyway.
Now, this isn't a new group. Back in May we finished a 2 year campaign we all really enjoyed. I think the problem were having is none of our characters have any goals in mind. In our last campaign we were all at least good aligned and wanted to help people, leading us to adventure together. Now, once we're we're out of the Feywild (because we're running from something again) there really is no reason for our characters to stick together. My character is going back home to try and prevent and assassination he knows no one else in the party will care about, S is going to go find someone from his past who will actually help him B and is going to try and restart his smuggling operation. The three of us are thinking about making very strong combat oriented characters because if we can't do any meaningful RP we may as well Excell at combat.
What should I do? I don't know if our DM is aware of these issues or if changing characters is a good idea. I fell a little lost and could use some advice. I think all of our characters are really good, it's just that they don't align at all and in a few cases (C and B, me and N) we actively oppose each other.
I haven't run into this problem myself, but I would say the first step is talk to the DM about it outside of a session. Let him/her know how you're feeling and why. It will be hard to foster any sort of cohesiveness in the party you've described without some changes. Hopefully the DM can coax some kind of common ground out of the characters in order to unite them behind a common goal, or at least add additional structure to the campaign that coerces them into cooperating. I hope things work out for you!
I think it would have been useful to have a session zero, or at least for the DM to have "vetted" your backstories before you got together so that they could come up with something that would, more or less, force your group to work together - in a way. Force isn't the best word, but it gets the point across.
As for an actual fix, it really is up to the DM. To me, it sounds like the easiest course of action would be to start a new campaign with more collaboration on character creation and the campaign. Unless a couple of the group are willing to have their characters have "epiphanies" and totally change their goals and stuff, then it seems a bit of a lost cause.
The not getting time to rp bit is definitely something that needs to be addressed, though - that's just not fair. Definitely let the DM know that you're bored and that the other two are hogging the spotlight. That's something I discuss in my session zeros - let other people the chance to do stuff. Sure, a session here and there where one particular character might be the central focus is fine and expected, but if every session is how you described then something needs to change.
Another important part of a session zero is to make sure that players make characters that not only want to be adventurers, but want to work as part of a group with other adventurers. It sounds like that might not have been the case here.
I mean, it's great that you all enjoy your characters, but if you're not having fun and you're having to force your characters in working together, maybe it's time to try something else.
I'm curious, though - how heavily does your table implement alignment? I just noticed that most of you are CN - maybe that might be part of the difficulty?
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This might be a longer one sorry.
I'm not the DM in this game, just a player. Here's our party for context: Me (C/N Rouge Wizard), C(L/N Rouge Barbarian), S(C/N Monk), B(C/N Rouge), M(C/N Rouge) and N(**** if I know, Cleric).
Our game is a few months in at this point and a major problem I realized after our last session is none of our characters have any reason to be adventuring together, none of our goals are aligned. For example: B is a smuggler who is hoping the war starts again so he can sell weapons to every side while C is a law man who wants to end the smuggling operation B is a part of and I'm a soldier who wants to prevent the war from beginning again. M has no character motivation to speak of, neither does N from what I can tell. S has a goal but really can't follow it because no one else's character would care.
Another issue is that this campaign is very heavy RP. This wouldn't be a problem normally but C's character was literally made to be a party face and N is an attention whore. Those two take up all of the RP time giving me and B very little. S gets none to speak of. The three of us then go off looking for something to do because we just spent the last hour doing nothing and we're bored, only to get into combat not at all balanced twords us that we ultimately have to run from. M never pays attention anyway.
Now, this isn't a new group. Back in May we finished a 2 year campaign we all really enjoyed. I think the problem were having is none of our characters have any goals in mind. In our last campaign we were all at least good aligned and wanted to help people, leading us to adventure together. Now, once we're we're out of the Feywild (because we're running from something again) there really is no reason for our characters to stick together. My character is going back home to try and prevent and assassination he knows no one else in the party will care about, S is going to go find someone from his past who will actually help him B and is going to try and restart his smuggling operation. The three of us are thinking about making very strong combat oriented characters because if we can't do any meaningful RP we may as well Excell at combat.
What should I do? I don't know if our DM is aware of these issues or if changing characters is a good idea. I fell a little lost and could use some advice. I think all of our characters are really good, it's just that they don't align at all and in a few cases (C and B, me and N) we actively oppose each other.
Anyway thanks for listening to my rant
I haven't run into this problem myself, but I would say the first step is talk to the DM about it outside of a session. Let him/her know how you're feeling and why. It will be hard to foster any sort of cohesiveness in the party you've described without some changes. Hopefully the DM can coax some kind of common ground out of the characters in order to unite them behind a common goal, or at least add additional structure to the campaign that coerces them into cooperating. I hope things work out for you!
I think it would have been useful to have a session zero, or at least for the DM to have "vetted" your backstories before you got together so that they could come up with something that would, more or less, force your group to work together - in a way. Force isn't the best word, but it gets the point across.
As for an actual fix, it really is up to the DM. To me, it sounds like the easiest course of action would be to start a new campaign with more collaboration on character creation and the campaign. Unless a couple of the group are willing to have their characters have "epiphanies" and totally change their goals and stuff, then it seems a bit of a lost cause.
The not getting time to rp bit is definitely something that needs to be addressed, though - that's just not fair. Definitely let the DM know that you're bored and that the other two are hogging the spotlight. That's something I discuss in my session zeros - let other people the chance to do stuff. Sure, a session here and there where one particular character might be the central focus is fine and expected, but if every session is how you described then something needs to change.
Another important part of a session zero is to make sure that players make characters that not only want to be adventurers, but want to work as part of a group with other adventurers. It sounds like that might not have been the case here.
I mean, it's great that you all enjoy your characters, but if you're not having fun and you're having to force your characters in working together, maybe it's time to try something else.
I'm curious, though - how heavily does your table implement alignment? I just noticed that most of you are CN - maybe that might be part of the difficulty?