I've heard of many players quitting D&D because even though it's really interesting, it's essentially the same kind of thing happening in each game, making it repetetive so it can end up losing a player's interest.
I'd like to hear how people on these messageboards have encountered this phenomenon. Have you encountered this problem, and how have you handled or prevented it?
It wasn't boringness or repetitiveness that made me temporarily quit D&D. DMing had become a chore, the logistics of gaming had become a chore and I was immensely frustrated with 2nd edition when I gave up D&D in early 2002. We picked it up again 2 years later with 3.5, leaving the Forgotten Realms behind and starting over brand new with GH. We made a total break with the old campaign, which had lasted 15 years, from 1987 to 2002.
If you're really getting bored or frustrated with the game, stop playing for at least a year. Do something else-put all your old stuff away. Buy a new campaign setting or work up a new homebrew (or a new continent on your old world)...but give it at least a year off. Play a different RPG or get into a board game, or something.
During my hiatus, I kept up my subscription to Dungeon for the most part, so when I came back to the game, I had almost 30 issues of the magazine still in polywrap. That really helped because I had so much material on hand to kick-start the new campaign.
I've been actively aiming to make sure my campaign includes a wide range of activities. Not only dungeon crawls, but also wilderness adventures, social/intrigue adventures, event flowchart adventures, and so on. I generally make a point of not running the same type of adventure two adventures in a row, and even within a given adventure try to mix it up.
Another way I keep things interesting is by playing with the rules. I use action points in my game, but instead of a large pool of finite points per level, my players get about half that many points, per session. Points from one session do not carry over to the next. Whenever a player attempts something particularly daring or heroic, I award their character an action point - not afterwards for a success, but as they do it for making the attempt, which encourages the players to attempt said daring actions and sometimes helps them come to pass. I do the same for especially good roleplaying. If I spend an action point "against" the PCs (for example, on behalf of an opponent), I award an extra action point to the PCs. Since my adventures are harder than usual and I only have three players, this doesn't result in the game being too easy, but rather gives it a cinematic quality I like.
I also don't give out a lot of treasure. Instead, items that are important to the PCs and that they focus on evolve over time, becoming part of their legacy. So far this is staving off the "yet another +1 sword" problem.
Another point is that I don't railroad things too much or try to strictly define everything about an adventure or the environment it takes place in. I prefer to sketch out most of the basics (and certainly important stat blocks, etc) as an adventure framework, but not everything - I use the framework and just improv within it. ("Recite this prepackaged text block" is anathema to me.) I also try to have two or three such frameworks ready for different adventure types, so I can respond to the cues of the players and provide an adventure closer to what they're looking for. Since I don't fully detail everything beforehand, I don't feel so invested that I have to railroad my players into a particular quest just so I don't feel all my work went to waste. If they don't take the bait on something, I can usually just make some small changes and reuse it later.
Something's working right because this campaign is the most fun I've had in a long time. One of my players just told me after the last session that this is the first time in years he's had that same sense of wonder he had when he was first introduced to D&D - and with his favorite class (paladin) no less, which he's had beaten in the ground by a succession of cynical DMs.
When a player shows dissatisfaction, either by being bored by the game or his character, I take time between sessions to work with the player so I can find a way to develop some subplots around his character.
In the best situation, tt helps the player become interested in the game by becoming interested in how his character is tied to the game. It also can help the other players see how character development effects the game, and encourages them to find more character-driven ties and subplots for me to use as a DM.
This even works in AP campaigns, such as the Shackled City or Age of Worms. Even though the major plot elements are set reguardless of character development, you can have many subplots interwoven.
My examples from play:
SCAP: The party rogue created a smuggling operation that she ran under the precepts of a normal water-front boating shop. She took her money from adventuring and invested in several businesses, making friends in the community. She then set up a political agenda, eventually becoming Lady Mayor of Cauldron.
Her ideas slowed her advancement as a rogue, but my mid-levels, the other players saw the fruits of her planning. They each came up with a way to contribute to the town, which really is the center of the campaign.
AoWAP: The party half-orc druid made an elaborate backstory. His mother was a half-elf, the illegitimate daughter of the youngest daughter of a noble house in the Shield Lands. His mother was attacked and raped by orc raiders. He is working to have his lineage recognized and wishes to return to the Shield Lands and free more of the land from Iuz's influence. He has no idea how the AP will turn out, but so far (12 levels into it) I've promised him that his backstory will be fruitful... it will show up in a little bit.
The others have also made efforts to have their characters tie in with the scenario and the campaign world (Greyhawk), which they've never been in before.
But still, if the player just gets tired of playing, there might not be much to do but take some time off, like F2K said above.
I agree with Farwell 2 Kings, take a break from the game. To me D&D is a past time, I am very forgiving for players ,issimg a game for real life. I quuite the game two to four months on a row.
As for keeping your game exciting watch a lot of movies and TV and keep changing descriptions of the enviroment action spells combat. I guess my advice is change the cover, the format and deliver the same wonderful content that brings the gaming group together in the first place.
I guess the big secret to my style of gaming is to stick very close to the characters. One of the first things I noticed about "adventures" is that they're death to player interest. The adventure is never about anything the character cares about, never involves him. In an adventure you can make any character at all, deep or shallow, tame or wierd, and you just get plugged in. The destiny of the world or the map to some great treasure gets plopped in your lap and its your job to go do it.
My initial impression when this used to happen to me was "why'd I just spent all this time making this character if it totally doesn't matter" and "gee I wish this adventure would get over soon so I can get back to my character's storyline".
I think people get bored with any story they're not involved closely enough with. That's why it's crucial to weave your stories from threads the characters give you. Tie in family, friends, homeland, ideals, hopes, dreams and the players will eat it up.
Likewise I try to keep my games OUT of the dungeon as much as possible. Seeing creatures as stuff to kill for XP robs them of their mystery and their fun. How interested are you in the standard zombie you have to kill in Doom? See what I mean. I always award session XP, and usually more based on how much the group accomplished and how satisfying the setting was rather than the usual yardstick of bucketloads of butt that has been kicked.
Oh another thing to help avoid stale games--stray away from the ubiquitous badguys that everyone uses. You know which races they are: drow, orcs, gnolls, mind-flayers. You see them everywhere. They're overdone. Try digging around for interesting new things from the other Monster Manuals, stuff that doesn't get beaten to death (often literally). There's a lot of cool stuff out there if you just take them seriously and don't just use them as meatbags to guard treasure chests.
Vary the types of adventures you play, and throw in a good twist to the adventure randomly. Play with cliches: Players love having their interests and intelligence respected. A series of adventures based on faerie tales, a cohort who becomes the PCs worst villain ever. Involve the characters in the heart of the adventures they play, threaten the things they love and players will jump at the chance to defend them.
Most importantly to keep things fresh try looking to sources outside D&D to keep the players interest. V for Vendetta is an awesome film, and a village ruled by a tyrranical baron and under attack from a brilliant (if unbalanced) swashbuckler makes for an interesting twist. Give a player an action point if they find the common theme in the villains you have worked on, when your players realise you based the characters on Heavy Metal Bands the looks on everyones face will be priceless.
The game can work on a lot more levels then Character alone.
My group emails the DM in between sessions with actions that are specific to character development. Then the DM has some prep time to work the character goals into the story. In our current campaign, my bard specializes in performing with puppetts. I had been spending most of my city time performinf for the children of rich people and making some serious cash. I also performed every tuesday at the orphanage. Something was killing farmers and the city has a huge influx of orphans. The DM caused me to notice that some of the orphans were on the streets. I confronted the cleric in charge of the orphanage and he said that they are so full that the older kids are being put out on the streets. I adopted 4 of the ruggers and now they help with the puppett shows. As a personal side treck, before every extended adventure I have to find a baby sitter for these 4 kids and I am responsible for the trouble they cause. It is much more fun that just saying, "I restock supplies and perform shows for the two weeks we are in the city."
What I am saying is try to make each character feel special. Give them motivation beyond killing everything in the next dungeon. And, let the DM know what your character wants to do, even if he warps it and sticks you with 4 little brats.
I've heard of many players quitting D&D because even though it's really interesting, it's essentially the same kind of thing happening in each game, making it repetetive so it can end up losing a player's interest.
The solution to changing this type of player's attitude is finding out why individual feels this way. One can't accurately assess this type of problematic without better understanding the specific situation. It's like saying "hey, all, has anyone ever had a relationship problem? Any ideas about how to prevent or solve them?" Not enough info...
As ever,
ACE
I guess the only thing I can come up is PREPERATION (for the DM). If you guys play four or five times a week, then it's a sign that your DM hasn't enough time to prepare. I would suggest playing less, like once a week (or once every other week like my group). This gives the DM enough time to prepare and it makes the players eager to play.
If you already play like once a week, then I can only suggest to change the DM (for a while). It happens that someone is just out of juice... It's sort of happening to me now, I guess.
Ultradan
I'm just saying in general. I don't think my current group is bored of my game - yet, anyway. :) I try to find out what they like and put in elements of those to keep all the players happy. Some might be happy as long as they get to fireball something at least twice every session, another as long as they get to do something meaningful that only their class can do, and a third might want a lot of character development.
I guess the big secret to my style of gaming is to stick very close to the characters. One of the first things I noticed about "adventures" is that they're death to player interest. The adventure is never about anything the character cares about, never involves him. In an adventure you can make any character at all, deep or shallow, tame or wierd, and you just get plugged in. The destiny of the world or the map to some great treasure gets plopped in your lap and its your job to go do it.
I have to disagree wholeheartedly. I'm a big fan of prefab adventures. The trick is to find a reason to get your characters involved in oppositon to the plans of the evil in the area. Prefabs allow DMs to spend time on the little fiddlybit details that'll keep the adventurers coming back IMO.
I guess the big secret to my style of gaming is to stick very close to the characters. One of the first things I noticed about "adventures" is that they're death to player interest. The adventure is never about anything the character cares about, never involves him. In an adventure you can make any character at all, deep or shallow, tame or wierd, and you just get plugged in. The destiny of the world or the map to some great treasure gets plopped in your lap and its your job to go do it.
My initial impression when this used to happen to me was "why'd I just spent all this time making this character if it totally doesn't matter" and "gee I wish this adventure would get over soon so I can get back to my character's storyline".
Very true. I've just had some players switch out characters, and am reorganizing the campaign a bit for the switches they made. However, they haven't made their characters yet,a nd I am coming up with no ideas for adventures. I feel stuck until they come up with some plot hooks of their own for me to run with.