Keeping my PC's (and me) engaged


Advice


When I started Game Mastering Pathfinder for my friends, our first sessions were great. We all had fun, and were totally immersed in the game world we had created. But my last sessions have gone terrible, for about 2 months every session that we have held is boring, no one is having much fun, and it turns into more of a socializing event instead of role playing. I have no idea what happened, so I was wondering if you have any advise on how to design an adventure that will keep my PCs engaged. Thanks


Honestly, the first thing you need to do is find out what the issues are. Talk to your players and ask them what they want out of the sessions--what are their expectations for playing Pathfinder? What do they think will make it better?

Until you get that information, you're just fighting blind.

Scarab Sages

As the GM, it is your repsonsibility to maintain the focus of the group on the game. Perhaps your group can gather earlier so you can socialize before the "official" start time of the game.
Also, take a quick survey of the group to see how they feel about the game. Would they prefer more combat encounters? Roleplaying encounters? Problem-solving? Knowing what the players want is a great help for a GM and could help you design a more interesting adventure.
Designing an interesting adventure is always difficult, but you should always put a little something special into every encounter. It should never be a plain dungeon room: pillars, different floor levels, or an unusual feature always help. Try to avoid adventure tropes though, like wizards' tombs, necromancers raising undead armies, having to close gates to the Abyss, etc.
Looking through the Bestiaries can also help. Find an interesting monster and build an adventure around them. Sometimes their information can lead you to an adventure idea. The Gamemastery Guide has some tables for adventure ideas and settings. Try some random rolls on these tables and see if that doesn't spark your imagination. Who would have thought to make a dungeon inside a gigantic candle?
Lastly, mercilessly rip off your favorite books or movies. For example, I wrote an adventure that had the characters journeying to a settlement that hadn't been heard from for a long time. The journey was mostly uneventful (a few encounters with the local wildlife) before they reached the settlement to find it abandoned. While exploring, they are attacked by waves of xills and eventually find a hidden entrance to a system of caves that the xills are using to store their food/incubators (ie the villagers). With the help of a small girl that's been able to avoid the xills, the players freed the survivors and destroyed the xills. The players loved that adventure, not realizing it was just a fantasy version of the movie "Aliens."

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