| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I've been playing pathfinder and Dungeons and Dragons for 15 years now. For the past few years I've been a GM. But, I have one friend for the past 2 solid campaigns that I have made as GM, has been neglected while playing. He does not min max, or anything bad, he just make characters that from the beginning that has already reach their goals and does not have any future plans for them. I will take the full blame. It's my fault to not ask him how he is, what his character wants, or observer his actions and take them seriously. The past three sessions he was painting his models on the side. As a group we played as much as we get off topic and joke around, so I did not think that this was a problem with level 2-3 characters when things where less involved with the group as a whole and each player does there own little mission. Meanwhile, my friend just drinks and sharpens his weapons, until he is needed by the whole group. I threw two minor solo encounters his way and they where optional. Also I did have one none important adventure that requires the party to be involved and his character would be the star of it. But, his character turned down the encounters and the party was against him on doing the adventure. After today's game that was complete down time for the party and the session was over he confronted me. He pointed out that most of the time that he plays a campaign of mine one third of each session is almost involved of his character actually doing something. The rest is given to everyone else, and he just sits there. I asked him for one more chance to prove myself. What can I do for a home brew campaign in a dwarven kingdom campaign, for six level 4 players?
Your friend seems uninterested in actually playing. He may be just there because he is supporting you.
If he is annoyed about other players getting screen time, then he should not have refused the extra encounters that you threw his way (though optional solo encounters have their own problems; the other players are sitting on their hands the whole time).
If he doesn't want to engage with what the other players are doing, then perhaps his time would be spent doing something else. The next time he's over, take him aside and ask him what he wants to get out of your campaign. If all he wants to do is paint his models, then he can do that at home and not drag down the rest of the group.
Ideally, all of the PCs would have goals and objectives that can be worked toward by all the players. Take a line from the better CRPGs; each of your companions might have goals in attacking a particular dungeon; one needs to kill a certain creature, another needs a special item somewhere in there, a third needs to do a ritual in a particular room. Give each PC something extra to do in each session, and make it something that they need help with.
Hope that helps.
Organized Play Developer
|
Is there a particular type of character your friend generally likes to play? Does he tend to, for example, play a lot of dwarven fighters with 10 Int who put their favored class bonus into hit points? It's possible that part of the problem is that the type of character he gravitates towards is one that doesn't have a lot of tools to participate in certain aspects of the game that you're emphasizing and helping him look at other ways to build a similar character with a slightly wider toolbox of skills and/or social abilities might help. For example, maybe he can get almost the same character by playing a Slayer while trading a point of AC for more skill points. It's going to hinge a lot on whether the issue is more that he doesn't feel like his characters have the tools to participate, he's not being given the opportunity to participate, or he's not interested in participating in certain types of in-game events. If it's the latter, talking to him about the kind of adventures he wants to have and doing more of that in your games could be a relatively easy solution.
It's also possible that he's not enjoying the pacing of the game. While a lot of people really enjoy being relaxed and using the game as an excuse to hang out, other people may be looking for an immersive experience where they can get into character and do some roleplaying. If your friend feels like he's not getting the opportunities to participate because everyone keeps going out of character and it takes too long for him to take a turn, it might help to speed play up. You can do that by instituting an egg timer and a limit on how long someone can take from the time you announce their turn to the time they have to start performing whatever action they're going to do; if the timer runs out before they've made up their mind, the character automatically holds their initiative until the player is ready. Keeping a brisk pace like that can help make combats in particular more exciting and engaging.
Does your group split the party a lot? It kind of sounded like that might be the case. If it is, then try adjusting your game to focus on more group activities so people aren't left twiddling their thumbs while a subset of the party has their own mini-game in the middle of the session. Players that play together are more likely to bond and have a positive experience than if everyone is playing their own disparate-but-loosely-connected games. If the encounters are designed for the whole group with enough enemies to fight or activities to engage in for all 6 players, they should only have to wait for the time it takes for the other 5 players to finish their turns before getting a chance to do something. If you use a timer to encourage people to think of what they'll be doing before hand and keep things moving, the game can be a lot more engaging for players who are spending too long between turns and getting bored.
He's not uninterested in playing, he's cold calculating (he's Warpriest Ironborn Prof. BlackSmith) in game work obligations he takes seriously. Since his job as a blacksmith, work in-game has been given to him. So he hammers away at his employer's shop. During the downtime, the Thief of the party does some heists and stealing. Since then the Thief has recruited two of the other players. The Paladin does some vigilante work. The Fifth player is finding new jobs for the party to do.
So I gave him a strange request from an unknown source to build parts of a dangerous trap he figures out that this is for something terrible and refuses the job. But, never does anything about it nor tells anyone else. I decided at the time (level 2) it would be a waste to follow through. The other was an errand request that he overheard at some length but dismiss it.
I planned to build up the party to level 5 have them shove off and go on a quest. But, giving them hints while leveling them what would be in store for them, one was a reoccurring villain that was an Alchemist Ooze Specialist, the other was reclaiming the lost cities of the dwarven kingdom (three altogether with NPCs to help them). The Warpriest and the Fifth player are Torag Worshipers so I thought this would be interesting.
But since this posting, I have talked to him. I promised him next session no more splitting up the party. They would start their quest, and I would give him more focus, and move the gameplay more efficiently. I also asked him what his plans were for his character and goals. He said he did not give it much thought, he believes in the focus and element of an Ironborn (and wants to follow it to the letter). But, he would be for next game.
I would like to thank you both Dracomicron and Michael Sayre for your input. I'll try to keep you posted on what goes on.
Thank you.
It doesn't sound like your player is uninterested in playing, but maybe he's just not being engaged as he would like to be engaged. Maybe he's not bored, but he's feeling like he's not contributing like the others do.
Try to prepare every session with an "opportunity for awesome" for each player. Like, if you know that there will be a combat vs. an <insert mob(s) here>, and your group has a fighter, skill-monkey, caster, and a ranged dps, try to plan the encounter with all of that in mind. So put things in the room that can be used environmentally (for the skill monkey), added mobs that are attempting to shoot the group from afar (for the ranged dps), a hard-hitting pushy-shovy monster or two (for the fighter), and some enemy or hazard that only can be dealt with magic (like a swarm or an enemy spellcaster for the caster to deal with). Whatever the case may be, design the encounters so that everyone has an opportunity to do awesome stuff that the others in the group might not be able to do. And that's not just for combat encounters, do the same thing for non-combat encounters too. There can always be a rowdy ruffian in the tavern causing problems with the patrons or an uncooperative bartender who needs threatened (for the fighter), some type of secret to overhear or lock to pick (for the skill monkey), etc.
Not sure this would work for everyone but I'd try to have a very open chat with him.
Tell him you understand that he's unhappy but also show him the opportunities you provided.
Perhaps he didn't recognize them or he is interested in some other form of story line. What that would be is very hard for you to guess. Ask him for a plot hook or idea. Looking for his long lost relative, recovering the ancestral blabla from the orcs...
He shouldn't provide the whole adventure just a directing to make his character feel involved.
Since it sounds your playing open world that could work from my point of view.
We even integrated stuff like this into APs.
On the other hand a character who already achieved all his goals just might not be an adventurer. So from my point of view changing to a different character might also be an option.
I just did this in our current campaign. Two APs back another player also had the feeling that in character his PC wouldn't really team up with the group and changed character.
All the best that work this out.
The fact that you two are already talking about the problem is a good sign. He's going to be able to tell you what he's looking for better than any of us.
With regards to the two solo encounter hooks that he passed on, I'll say that it's possible that he simply didn't recognize those as the adventure hooks they were. That might be his fault for not paying attention, but it could also mean you didn't make them as obvious as you think you did. It's important to remember that the players can't make decisions if they don't have all the information, and you often have to make the information more obvious than you think, because they don't know the whole picture like you do as DM. My rule of thumb when I'm DMing is any information that is absolutely critical (whether because they need to know it to understand the plot or because it's likely to influence their decision making) should be given/findable in at least three different ways.
For example, when given the job for the strange trap, he might need to know not only that it's suspicious, but also that he should do something about it (maybe innocents will be hurt, or maybe no one else can intervene in time). So the shady character offering him the job is one way to give the information - he gets the offer, notices the person looking over his shoulder, and the person makes a comment that points toward whatever bad thing he's going to do with it. Maybe later at the tavern he overhears another local talking about the same shady character, and loudly wondering what he could be involved in. Maybe he gets approached by someone else involved in whatever is happening who wants out, concerned that a bunch of innocent bystanders are going to die. By presenting it three different ways, you're making it harder for him to miss the hook, giving him multiple opportunities to consider what he could do, and you're also emphasizing that this is important.
Seems pretty clear that you are on the right track of skipping the boring stuff. There is a reason in action movies they cut to a montage when it time to do long term things like training.
The party should have a common goal, that is what the party is all about, and for the most part anything that an individual wants to accomplish that isn't part of the party goal should happen off screen, either via a few quick sentences during a game session or longer discussions at other times.
The game works best when the team is the focus, not one individual and then another.
Beyond that, just work on communicating more frequently and ask all of your players what they liked and didn't from time to time. Better to know they aren't enjoying something before they spend multiple sessions not being happy.
What Dave said.
Things like characters performing tasks for their day to day jobs (like his blacksmithing) should happen off screen. A profession is something to give your character personality and a skill that can be useful in the game, it's not a narrative anchor to weigh your character down. I don't understand how he is frustrated with a lack of things happening to his character when he is actively ignoring interesting things in favor of his mundane work.
But since this posting, I have talked to him. I promised him next session no more splitting up the party.
It sounds like you've already identified and solved the problem.
Splitting the party is bad for the PCs during encounters, and bad for at least some of the players OoC. In general, avoid extended run-on time devoted to any single character galavanting off on their own. In fact, get in the habit of doing this...
1. Ask every player for ten (or more, if you find that necessary) d20 rolls at the beginning of every session, to be used for away-from-party checks. They will hand you the lists.
2. When you need a number, roll a d10 (or smaller die) to randomly chose one of their numbers when needed, then mark it off.
This way, the highly-skilled, magical, and/or "face" characters don't monopolize play-time OoC. (This problem is especially acute when the fighters are played by "strong silent-type" players won't don't normally interject themselves.)
-- If the players want to RP, they should RP in-character with each-other. (If your friend has no interest in this, this is your tip-off that he either does not care for "magic tea party" and desires more combat, or that he may dislike the other PCs or the other players.)
