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Tell me about it. No really, tell me about it. It would make me feel marginally better to know I'm not the only one. Two of my players just cancelled on today's session with abolutely pathetic reasons. Reason A: "I've got a sore knee". Reason B: "I've got a house inspection tomorrow". I'm almost certain that the real reason in both cases is that they are just too damn lazy to get out of bed.
I think a lot of players don't really realise how much preparation it takes to make a roleplaying campaign happen. I spent about 6 hours yesterday drawing maps, making notes, and printing out handouts, then another 3 hours this morning transferring their character sheets from an illegible scrawl. All for them to just flake out and forget to show up. I've been DMing for about 15 years, and been with this same group for about 5 years. What does it take to make them realise how much work goes into this stuff? I love doing it, but sometimes I feel so taken for granted.
I've never played in a game with handouts (at least not more than one sheet that gets passed around the table), or intricate maps, or have a GM rewrite a player's chicken-scratch sheet. I might like you as a GM.
I've rarely gamed around an actual table...But anyway, I know how you feel. My boyfriend's in a game now that keeps getting pushed back because of one player. I'm running a game that I had to write two characters out of (out of 3) and write one into because of lazy players.
Something I heard from a GM once who also ran LARPs. He said that LARPS were twice the work as a tabletop with half the reward.
Sounds like they're not that into it. There could be many reasons for this. Keep all those notes though; they will be useful for another game if this one doesn't work out; nothing is wasted.
Here are a few ideas.
•Talk to your players. The group may have a playstyle that is not a good match for where they anticipate the campaign going. Or it may be that the game time conflicts with other social stuff. Is it on a weekend night?
•Take a break from DMing. Enjoy being a player again. If it's with this same group, you might see that they get more excited about a different type of game. If it's with a different group, you might find other gamers who are more respectful, or are a better match for you.
•Start from a prewritten adventure. It's less work for you. You can add to or replace the parts of the adventure that are most fun for you to develop, without having to generate all the other stuff. This is a compromise between the total control of starting from scratch and workload.
Most of my players have at least tried to DM at some point. That's an experience that breeds appreciation!
I've heard horror stories but I've been rather blessed to have both my groups pretty good about showing up and rather appreciative of my DMing. It helps that everyone in Group One has had their time behind the screen save one guy (who's my brother, husband of one of the other players, and an all-around good fellow) and Group Two is a bunch of newbies I introduced to the game plus one other veteran. We've had some rocky starts with the second, but you get that, and players get better over time; when we have misses there are usually good reasons for it, and when there aren't I get profuse apologies from the player in question.
For your group, I really have to second Exle. All four of his suggestions are really good, and I agree most with the last - nothing makes a player appreciate the GM more, and respect the game a little more, than taking a spin behind the screen. With some though, you may never get them back out... that's certainly what happened with me =) Used to be one of my Group One players (who we affectionately dubbed "WTF DM") was always the ringleader and the rest of us players, but after I offered to run a game we ended up switching places almost immediately.
I know how you feel Shifty.
My suggestion would be to communicate your feelings to your players, help them to understand the situation. It needs to be understood that gaming is a two-way street.
If that doesn't help, I suggest finding players that respect the work you put into it.
Good luck.
Sounds like they're not that into it. There could be many reasons for this. Keep all those notes though; they will be useful for another game if this one doesn't work out; nothing is wasted.
Here are a few ideas.
•Talk to your players. The group may have a playstyle that is not a good match for where they anticipate the campaign going. Or it may be that the game time conflicts with other social stuff. Is it on a weekend night?
•Take a break from DMing. Enjoy being a player again. If it's with this same group, you might see that they get more excited about a different type of game. If it's with a different group, you might find other gamers who are more respectful, or are a better match for you.
•Start from a prewritten adventure. It's less work for you. You can add to or replace the parts of the adventure that are most fun for you to develop, without having to generate all the other stuff. This is a compromise between the total control of starting from scratch and workload.Most of my players have at least tried to DM at some point. That's an experience that breeds appreciation!
The 'not that into it' explanation would make sense if the players were not the ones constantly asking me when I'm going to run another campaign. They seem to enjoy it a lot whenever they do show up, and they pester me to the point of harassment to start again whenever we're on an absentia enforced hiatus. As for your ideas, I've unfortunately already tried most of them. The timing doesn't conflict with anything social that they do, because most of them don't really do anything, and I just came off a long break from DMing due to uni/study commitments. I'd happily play a game with someone else as DM, but nobody seems to want to do it. A few of them have tried, but they're as flaky and unprepared as DMs as they are as players. I usually do make campaigns from scratch, but the adventure I was supposed to run today is a prewritten campaign, Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, adapted to Pathfinder.
I know how you feel Shifty.
My suggestion would be to communicate your feelings to your players, help them to understand the situation. It needs to be understood that gaming is a two-way street.
If that doesn't help, I suggest finding players that respect the work you put into it.
Good luck.
Thanks.
I guess I'm not really much of a communicator.The closest I get to talking about my feelings are Sense Motive DCs.
Put the gaming on hold for 6 months or so and they'll get hungry again. That's been my pattern every few years.
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Ahmen brother. In my group, we play at my house, use my books, my models, I bring pizza EVERY TIME, and the only thing they bother to bring is dice. At one point, one of them wanted me to drive all the way into Toronto (roughly an hour and a half long trip) and buy him a new model with my money because he was unhappy with the model that was available. Then they have the gaul to get mad at ME when I want to switch things up a bit. When I brought up the aforementioned things I had one of them say to me with a completely straight face 'those are all unimportant'.
To quote penny arcade: 'players are vampires'.
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So, Kaz, your group brings their own dice?
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*pfffft*.....not always.....
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Just keep a big bowl of dice at the center of the table for everyone; if they didn't bring their own they have to dig out what they need, and if they can't recognize the various polygons, then it's just their own fault for failing Geometry, right?
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Oh yeah, and I don't have a car. So whenever we have a session at someone elses house I have to pack about a dozen hardcover books into a backpack and ride there on my bicycle. But then whenever it's at my house, they complain that it's too hard to get to... in a car.
So, Kaz, your group brings their own dice?
Haha. I too, would be lucky if they even went to that much effort.
I once had someone argue to death about the ruling of an Assassin attacking the cleric with a Death Attack (I gave them a sense motive roll, and they didn't meet the DC.), but he argued that they'd knew (Seriously, in reality, if you see someone in a jail cell, awaiting the fate of the demon altar, your first reaction SHOULDN'T be "He's evil, kill him."). Then later, he said he needed to head of to someone else's game, so he left the game early (his character the only possible chance of winning.) I was at the game he mentioned later, and he brought up the idea of Player Knowledge vs Character Knowledge to screw our party over. Really pissed me off to the point that I'm just going to avoid any game he GM's, and I'm not going to GM any game he plays in (and I'm talking about Society.)
Not to be a jerk or anything, but I really don't think this thread is necessary. I was just about over this whole charades, and now I'm pissed about it AGAIN. It could just be me, but seriously, this thread just sounds like a bad idea.
Oh yeah, and I don't have a car. So whenever we have a session at someone elses house I have to pack about a dozen hardcover books into a backpack and ride there on my bicycle. But then whenever it's at my house, they complain that it's too hard to get to... in a car.
Wait, other people drive and they can't be bothered to give the DM a lift to the game he's running for them? You are underappreciated.
You'd think they could at least do a little something for you on GM Appreciation Day.
Not to be a jerk or anything, but I really don't think this thread is necessary. I was just about over this whole charades, and now I'm pissed about it AGAIN. It could just be me, but seriously, this thread just sounds like a bad idea.
Perhaps you're right. Ill-tempered complaining is rarely therapeutic. I just wanted to know that other GMs felt my pain.
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On the contrary, Shiftybob, I've often felt that heated complaining helps me get over something, especially if someone else is on the bandwagon with me. Once they're complaining with me, I hear myself and how stupid and irrational I sound. It puts things into perspective.
OUCH! Seconding Shadow. I'm guessing they're not complete jerks otherwise you wouldn't go through the effort. =/
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Oh, you're not alone, not in the slightest. From the teenager who only pays attention when there's a combat to the dude who can't stay off his phone to the guy who randomly wanders away from the table to chat with people in the other room, it sometimes feels like herding cats.
Or when you're trying to run a game and, in the middle of a combat, someone decides it's the perfect time to bring up the hilarious event that happened to them in the store yesterday, or they decide to talk about some dumbass WoW quest they ran.
Or when you've run a weekend full of games at a con, and not a single person at any of the tables says "thank you" even though you're not getting paid and certainly won't get to play.
Or when you've spend the week getting ready for a game, worked all day, run a long game, and since the game has run later than usual everyone heads for the hills leaving you to carry all the bags and boxes of minis and books to the car by yourself.
Definitely stick with it, though. I think of it like being a teacher (which I'm not, but it's in The Plan). You can't obsess about the hordes of ungrateful kids (and even worse, parents) who ignore you - you have to recall the few shining stars who make it all worthwhile, whether it's individual games or certain players.
I feel for ya... Very much unappreciated at times.
Obvious answer YES!!
The last campaign I ran I made sure to tie in aspects of the characters' backgrounds into the campaign and write detailed towns and unique npcs and build difficult combats with out killing any of them.
I had exactly one player who paid attention to the details and made my work seem worthwhile. The others were totally lost and usually didn't respond to hooks from their own background stories. One had his nose in an I pad while we played.
When I TPK'd them (an accident involving them not using magic items I had specifically put in their hands) only one player expressed any remorse at the game ending.
My regular group, on the other hand, we may drive each other crazy, but all make it a point to only miss with weeks notice and we all have our own dice and food and transportation. If you understand what the small, important things are, the rest works itself out. Basic respect for other human beings is a good start.
Oh, you're not alone, not in the slightest. From the teenager who only pays attention when there's a combat to the dude who can't stay off his phone to the guy who randomly wanders away from the table to chat with people in the other room, it sometimes feels like herding cats.
Or when you're trying to run a game and, in the middle of a combat, someone decides it's the perfect time to bring up the hilarious event that happened to them in the store yesterday, or they decide to talk about some dumbass WoW quest they ran.
Or when you've run a weekend full of games at a con, and not a single person at any of the tables says "thank you" even though you're not getting paid and certainly won't get to play.
Or when you've spend the week getting ready for a game, worked all day, run a long game, and since the game has run later than usual everyone heads for the hills leaving you to carry all the bags and boxes of minis and books to the car by yourself.
Definitely stick with it, though. I think of it like being a teacher (which I'm not, but it's in The Plan). You can't obsess about the hordes of ungrateful kids (and even worse, parents) who ignore you - you have to recall the few shining stars who make it all worthwhile, whether it's individual games or certain players.
Or when you have an inseparable couple which one of them is a pleasure to play along, but the other is a damned deadweight load, then proceeds to play WoW, WITHOUT headsets, and you get *the look* because you had the nerves of telling him to use some damned headsets!
Oh yeah, and I don't have a car. So whenever we have a session at someone elses house I have to pack about a dozen hardcover books into a backpack and ride there on my bicycle. But then whenever it's at my house, they complain that it's too hard to get to... in a car.
Shiftybob, all this is sounds like the players make it their game (with you being a slave in a leash rather than a GM), when it should be a game for you all, not just the players'.
Talk to them. Tell how you, and only you, feel about this. If they're adult minded, they can take it and response in kind. Otherwise, thank them and set out to find another group.
EDIT: some grammar.
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Tell me about it. No really, tell me about it. It would make me feel marginally better to know I'm not the only one. Two of my players just cancelled on today's session with abolutely pathetic reasons. Reason A: "I've got a sore knee". Reason B: "I've got a house inspection tomorrow". I'm almost certain that the real reason in both cases is that they are just too damn lazy to get out of bed.
I think a lot of players don't really realise how much preparation it takes to make a roleplaying campaign happen. I spent about 6 hours yesterday drawing maps, making notes, and printing out handouts, then another 3 hours this morning transferring their character sheets from an illegible scrawl. All for them to just flake out and forget to show up. I've been DMing for about 15 years, and been with this same group for about 5 years. What does it take to make them realise how much work goes into this stuff? I love doing it, but sometimes I feel so taken for granted.
But your work isn't wasted, you can use the same work you did the next time you play. Because you did the prep already you won't need to spend the preceding day getting ready, just a 15 minute refresher. Don't get me wrong canceling a social occasion on short notice is rude - but the work you have done is still valuable. Maybe they will appreciate it later?
Kazarath on the other hand has a bunch of social criminals as players. Seriously, next time buy a burger instead of pizza and eat it yourself.
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The last group I ran for Pathfinder went like this: I had two stoner buddies show up and hour and half late with no explanation, one older gentleman who had a noise maker where every time someone rolled a 20 or a 1 who would push a button and make obnoxious noises, and last but not least one player who just sat at the table rolling his eyes waiting to be entertained. I ran one session with the group and promptly bowed out. I find that a lot of GM to player issues comes down to mutual respect; it seems as if the younger players don't have any for the game or the other people they play with. Good groups are hard to find, always have been. The good thing for us GMs is that we are always in demand; very few players want to transition to GM because they know it takes a lot of work. We get to pick who we want to game with, which is why I have no problems being a GM if need be.
Tell me about it. No really, tell me about it. It would make me feel marginally better to know I'm not the only one. Two of my players just cancelled on today's session with abolutely pathetic reasons. Reason A: "I've got a sore knee". Reason B: "I've got a house inspection tomorrow". I'm almost certain that the real reason in both cases is that they are just too damn lazy to get out of bed.
I think a lot of players don't really realise how much preparation it takes to make a roleplaying campaign happen. I spent about 6 hours yesterday drawing maps, making notes, and printing out handouts, then another 3 hours this morning transferring their character sheets from an illegible scrawl. All for them to just flake out and forget to show up. I've been DMing for about 15 years, and been with this same group for about 5 years. What does it take to make them realise how much work goes into this stuff? I love doing it, but sometimes I feel so taken for granted.
Eh, truthfully, I have more trouble getting my players to want to do something else. Sometimes I'd love it if they'd just come over and we could watch movies all day or something, but it's generally "D&D! D&D! D&D!". GMing fatigue sets in after a while. (o_o)'
Definitely stick with it, though. I think of it like being a teacher (which I'm not, but it's in The Plan). You can't obsess about the hordes of ungrateful kids (and even worse, parents) who ignore you - you have to recall the few shining stars who make it all worthwhile, whether it's individual games or certain players.
As a teacher and GM, I have to tell you, it's all about communicating an enforcing rules.
I started out where you did, just hoping that everyone would show some respect on their own. I then had a guy proceed to clip his toenails onto my floor, mid-game.
Now, there are rules. There's even a process for admitting new players on a trial basis. I've booted players out before, and I'll do it again if it's needed. And because everyone knows the rules, it's all smooth.
Definitely stick with it, though. I think of it like being a teacher (which I'm not, but it's in The Plan). You can't obsess about the hordes of ungrateful kids (and even worse, parents) who ignore you - you have to recall the few shining stars who make it all worthwhile, whether it's individual games or certain players.As a teacher and GM, I have to tell you, it's all about communicating an enforcing rules.
I started out where you did, just hoping that everyone would show some respect on their own. I then had a guy proceed to clip his toenails onto my floor, mid-game.
Now, there are rules. There's even a process for admitting new players on a trial basis. I've booted players out before, and I'll do it again if it's needed. And because everyone knows the rules, it's all smooth.
It's kinda funny. I'm also currently studying to be a high school teacher. The two pursuits are really pretty similar aren't they? Underpaid, overworked cat wrangling. I guess if you're doing for fun the same thing you do for a job, that's probably a sign of a good career choice. But, holy crap! Clipping their toenails? That is truly disgusting.
Eh, truthfully, I have more trouble getting my players to want to do something else. Sometimes I'd love it if they'd just come over and we could watch movies all day or something, but it's generally "D&D! D&D! D&D!". GMing fatigue sets in after a while. (o_o)'
When I started playng again the first rule was that there wasn't going to be only one D.M. You should be alternating from D.M. to player at least every other game.
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...one older gentleman who had a noise maker where every time someone rolled a 20 or a 1 who would push a button and make obnoxious noises...
Am I the only one who thinks that older gentleman sounds HILARIOUS? No? Oh, Okay then.
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nothing makes a player appreciate the GM more, and respect the game a little more, than taking a spin behind the screen.
Trying this. I still don't know how you keep it all straight.
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This thread has made me very grateful for our current gaming group.
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I'll just throw more weight behind the "Players who GM have more respect for GMs" theme. In the group I game with, we all have had experience GMing, and while some put more effort into it than others, we all know how much work even just a simple dungeon crawl can be for the GM behind the scene, and we try to respect that the best we can.
...one older gentleman who had a noise maker where every time someone rolled a 20 or a 1 who would push a button and make obnoxious noises...Am I the only one who thinks that older gentleman sounds HILARIOUS? No? Oh, Okay then.
I think it would be funny for a while at least. =)
I'm with you 100%. They're all good people and I name all of them friends, but they frustrate me to no end.
Last minute cancellations (often with the excuse "I was up playing video games too late"), just plain not showing up at all without a word, a couple are constantly late (usually between a half an hour to an hour), ignoring emails about when to meet week to week, and even just walking out in the middle (for reference we play over skype/maptools and they will suddenly just not be there without a word for long periods of time).
There just doesn't seem to be any desire to take part. It's almost depressing. =( If my schedule wasn't so wonky I'd definitely be considering playing in another group (or even DM another group if my time permitted it).
I have only ever felt under-appreciated as a DM a few months ago when a couple that plays in my group started giving silly reasons to not game. It screwed over the whole group as they usually hosted the sessions. I thankfully had enough interested players that we began a second campaign another day of the week and it's going swimmingly. I still have a player or two that don't show some weeks, but both notify me the morning of session if they may not make it.
Half of my players are involved in area theatre companies, so my standing policy has always been your work comes before your play. Rehearsals just mean your character is played by someone else and cannot die. If you don't show without telling me, I play your character and they may die.
I thankfully never had players such as shiftybob or Kazarath described - I even had one group I was involved with as a player giving me fuel money on an occasion or two.
(Y´know, that time in your life you make some really bad financial decision - in my case, renting a place for small-scale LARPing with the understanding that all participants would pay some money back to me - which did not happen then. Until I canceled that nightmare, I had lost quite some money.)
Anyway, if I had players like this, I would ask them if they did appreciate my DMing at all, plain and simple. Depending on the answer, I would either cancel the game immediately or give them another chance - and make it clear that it would be the final chance. Running a game for players like this is seldom worth it IMO. I think it is better to run no game at all than a bad one. But then, I enjoy reading the PF stuff immensely.
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We have two tables that merged together back in mid '06. Group A (my group) has been playing together since '88 when most of us were all in middle school. Group B started playing together in '94. As a whole we mostly have played 2nd ed with group B wanting to retire and make new characters once they got their followers.
Both groups have 4 guys. Group A has Pe An Br Jo & Group B has Pa Je Ni Ke.
Pe only plays ninja's or rangers. strong silent type of character
An will play anything, generally bards or healers
Br (me) likes multiclassing and will play anything.
Jo plays everything.
Pa loves halfling pallys and clerics
Je loves melee dps and loot
Ke loves healers and DMing
Ni loves loot
Far as Responsibility.. We all agreed to a 6pm start time.
pe comes from work and is there by 430. (never missed a game)
An is host and has everything set up for us by 4.
Br is generally there by 4:45-5 (depending on how long that last world of tank match goes for) (never missed a game)
Jo - shows up most the time by 6 (missed maybe a dozen games in 6 years)
Pa shows up bout 6.
Je started new job and gets there asap after work 8:15 (he gets off at 8 and its a 25 min drive he makes in 15mins)
Ke as a player he shows up bout 7-8, as a DM he shows up bout 5.
Ni shows up bout randomly
Ni, Br, Pa are retired, Ke is between jobs, Jo gets off work at 3.
An, Pe, Br, Jo, Pa are all frustrated as all heck with Ni and Ke attendance. Neither of them have any excuses other then ale and wacky smokes. But we cant kick them out. Ke is in 2 bands with An (and lives there with An) and Ni has been a friend of all of us for almost 20 years. All consider each other family.
Ni and Je both could care less about the fluff/storyline. All either of them care about is getting as much gold as possible. They argue every week about how they should get a higher coin split and how we shouldnt ever pay NPC's a copper for anything (even if the NPCs are the only reason we have said coppers) If any magic shows up, they want to roll Need even if they cant use it cuz they could sell it to get something they could use. Table A + Pa + Ke are all great and have np with a NBG loot system. its a fight every week to get Ni and Je to shut up about the loot. we actually banned the both of them for a month, but in that month those two pulled so many scams in wow that got a have dozen accounts each banned. they are Trolls, thats how they both describe their gaming lifestyles.
If when we merged tables we would known that about Ni and Je they wouldnt have been allowed to join us. But half of us were in military at the time or living in another state when we merged. Which is why the merger happend in the first place because both tables were at 2-3 people.
Half the guys all forget their dice, so we started a tackle box with 20 full sets and about 1000 other dice in it so we always had enough dice for everyone.
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Oh yeah. You work for hours and hours trying to get a certain mood or feel, spend an entire day making NPCs, memorizing certain types of dialogue, sitting in front of a mirror attempting to see every side of a potential conversation to see how an important NPC might react, stat up villains and monsters, draw out maps, read and re-read an AP. Adjust for class choices, for alignment, scan and correct Morton Forks (if you have a Paladin who you don't want to be vindictive to), insert Morton Forks (if you have a Paladin you really don't like), and on, and on...
Then your players show up and decide that their character's first response when talking to a physical manifestation of a god is to pee on them. Characters who decide to utterly ignore your entire dungeon which you spend hours handcrafting and putting hooks in for their characters specifically because, for some arbitrary reason they've only decided to explain now, their characters wouldn't do it. When you've spend days juggling your own busy schedule to get everyone together and they call at the last minute to tell you that they can't make it for some stupid reason. When they don't bother reading about or even bothering to remember any details of a campaign setting or AP player's guide, and decide to become a Cleric in Rahadoum for sh*ts and giggles, just because they know it'll cause you problems. When they (seemingly deliberately) make incredibly disruptive characters they know for a fact won't jell with the party mechanic, just to screw things up for you even more...and when they kill your bad guys with an insta-kill, though granted, that part is the only one that's fair and reasonable, but still feels like a kick to the place where the sun don't shine. They can laugh about it, but you know that what took you an hour to craft and devise (if not more) was taken out of the picture by a single die roll...
Yeah, DMing isn't easy. But then again, do it right and it can be very rewarding. But no, you aren't the only one. In all honesty, I don't think anyone in a leadership position of any kind doesn't feel like that sometimes. All part of the job.
I feel your pain. My wife is sick of hearing about players being twits.
I play with adults - 30 to 40 year-olds - and it's amazing how many of them can't keep a calendar. The day of the game "didn't realize my kid has a play I have to go to" and can't make it.
My latest annoyance is we level up one week, do the players level up on their time? Hell, no. We spend the first half hour of the session with them leveling up and I literally sit there doing nothing.
Or another favorite, we play by VTT. I'll have a player that is clearly not paying attention "Mike? Mike? Your turn, Mike?". After the session, I'll get on Facebook and see the 10 pictures he's commented on.
The only thing that keeps me sane is remembering a story Monte Cook posted at some point. I forget the details, but it was essentially Monte making the exact same complaint about one of his players being a twit. If Monte Cook can't get 6 dedicated players, then what chance do we have?
DMing is like A Tale of Two Cities...the best of times, the worst of times.
Best of times:
a) one player lived 200 miles away and would drive down every other week for our sessions because he enjoyed the game that much
b) getting perfect scores from multiple tables of RPGA players at GenCon and being told it was the best session of the con (not to mention the grins on their faces)
Worst of times:
a) pretty much most of the above
I've definitely felt underappreciated. We rotate DM's but it doesn't really help. Much of the time the players just aren't focused on the game. They are focused on socializing, which is all well and good but is disruptive to the game once it starts. Most nights nobody says "thanks!" after the session or "man that was fun!" Everyone just staggers out into the dark night and heads their separate ways.
I used to have a rule that if you missed a session without 24 hours notice and without a good excuse (work or family) that your character came down with DM's disease (purple blotches all over). Miss again and they become comatose. Third time and they die. No one ever got to the third time and most never became comatose.
I miss the days of yore when we would all go to grab a Whataburger at 3 AM and rehash the session. Now we stop much earlier and all of us head home and to bed as quickly as possible (we're not the youngsters we used to be).
DM solidarity for the win!
Lately, I feel totally underappreciated as a DM. My last session may have been my last.
I GM for a large group. Starting the game was not my idea but I agreed to GM every week with my only request being that one of the teenage players coordinate everyone to make sure we can play.
She turned out to be a terrible coordinator. She only thinks of it when we are together for something else.
I level up half the characters. One time, I showed up and half of the rest of them had not leveled up after a two-week break and it took hours when we had only an afternoon to play with.
They talk on their phones, they go into the other room to watch TV if it does not involve their character and they are barely aware of what is going on. I have to remind them what their characters' names are when I call on them.
I put forth several hours at least a week and I own most of the books I use but they are just not interested. They don't read the books to see what their options are and half the time they forget what their characters can do. I have a player with an inquisitor character who so far has mostly just shot a crossbow; he's never used bane or a judgement and I have to remind him about detect alignment.
I also bust my ass trying to make detailed counters and full-color pictures of their characters because I can and I enjoy it but I think I have run out of patience. I can't be the only one at the table that give a crap about the game. I don't know their reasons for playing and I understand if they are not as obsessed as I am but A LITTLE EFFORT OR INTEREST IS ALL I'M ASKING FOR!
I could continue this little rant of mine for a long time now. Most of my players are my family and they have apologized but it really doesn't change anything. They just don't care about the game like I do. I'd love to find some new friends, heck they don't even need to be friends if they would just focus for a while.
Sad. I love the game but can't continue with the people I play with.
