Hey guys, I've got a slight problem. Most of my players sit there like lumps. I get that people play games differently and for different reasons. I've tried to engage them by putting in extra effort, tailoring encounters to their interests and talents, and using props, but most of them are very quiet people naturally.

Do you guys have any tips on how to draw them out? I have been toying with the idea of being a hardass in terms of their describing their actions (eg. sorry, you didn't say your weapon was out when you walked into the stormtrooper barracks, so now you have to draw it) but I'm not sure if that will encourage engagement or awkward grumbling.

I'm looking for little things I can do during a session to draw them out of themselves and into their characters. Any ideas?

Dramatically narrate the results of their dice pools yourself to try and encourage them. Explain also the more dramatic and entertaining a planned check is narrated beforehand can result in bonus boost dice.

I have been toying with the idea of being a hardass in terms of their describing their actions (eg. sorry, you didn't say your weapon was out when you walked into the stormtrooper barracks, so now you have to draw it) but I'm not sure if that will encourage engagement or awkward grumbling.

I'd expect the latter, because that leads to all kinds of paranoia on the part of the players. My group is made up of another GM who runs an "old school" fantasy campaign, so sometimes they fall back to that adversarial approach when I GM, and the game can bog down over stupid details like where exactly they park their speeder and who has the keys and is there an alarm on the speeder... I partly blame the other GM, because if we don't specify these things in his game he'll take advantage of it.

Anyway, my group has started defaulting to talking about the mechanics, e.g.: just "passing boost dice" and other mechanical effects without explanation or narration. So I'm going to (hopefully) nip that in the bud this upcoming session by asking them to explain narratively how the mechanical passing happens, otherwise they can't do the passing. The reward is if they come up with something great I might grant them an extra...at least for a while, until we get back on track. Not sure if something similar might work for you.

I have a rule that if they can't describe how they use their Advantages or Threats, then they don't. Ditto for Destiny Points. That helps. Always addressing the players by character name helps too, and "not hearing" when they refer to someone by out-of-game name.

We've played many different games and genres together, and they've all been somewhat adversarial (if not blatantly so). I've been running my EotE campaign as if the GM, me, is merely another player. In that way, I try to lead by example and fully describe anything that happens in the narrative and not using game mechanics.

It seems to be working, and yes, it's quite a bit more effort than usual.

What time do you play, because seriously, just making sure everyone's fed and awake can be a major determining factor in engagement. Also what you eat - the activity level at our table (particularly for the second half of the game) nearly doubled once we started cutting back on chips & soda in exchange for beer and fruit.

Otherwise, besides being excited yourself, which alway helps, watch your players closely. You should be able to see when one of them gets engaged and excited - and you want to make a note of that, as it's not always what the character's 'good at' that does it. Hell, we have a mechanic who tends to get the most involved in the game when fists start flying.

I find that referring by character names (As Terghon suggested) are also good, though I find it does more for engagement than involvement level, which are not always related.

Dramatically narrate the results of their dice pools yourself to try and encourage them. Explain also the more dramatic and entertaining a planned check is narrated beforehand can result in bonus boost dice.

Good call, I have tried that in the past with mixed success. They are just either uninterested in narrative, unimaginative, or shy. It's frustrating. I think I need to keep pushing it though.

I'd expect the latter, because that leads to all kinds of paranoia on the part of the players. My group is made up of another GM who runs an "old school" fantasy campaign, so sometimes they fall back to that adversarial approach when I GM, and the game can bog down over stupid details like where exactly they park their speeder and who has the keys and is there an alarm on the speeder... I partly blame the other GM, because if we don't specify these things in his game he'll take advantage of it.

Agreed, that's what I was thinking. I haven't been hard on that before, so it doesn't make sense to break the flow of the game.

I have a rule that if they can't describe how they use their Advantages or Threats, then they don't. Ditto for Destiny Points. That helps. Always addressing the players by character name helps too, and "not hearing" when they refer to someone by out-of-game name.

That makes sense, I'll give it a try. It has been getting too mechanical.

What time do you play, because seriously, just making sure everyone's fed and awake can be a major determining factor in engagement. Also what you eat - the activity level at our table (particularly for the second half of the game) nearly doubled once we started cutting back on chips & soda in exchange for beer and fruit.

Otherwise, besides being excited yourself, which alway helps, watch your players closely. You should be able to see when one of them gets engaged and excited - and you want to make a note of that, as it's not always what the character's 'good at' that does it. Hell, we have a mechanic who tends to get the most involved in the game when fists start flying.

I find that referring by character names (As Terghon suggested) are also good, though I find it does more for engagement than involvement level, which are not always related.

We play at 1pm on the weekend. We eat at 12, I normally bbq burgers and we drink water/beer/pop. We then chat until 1, and then sit down at the table for a game session. I find making a clear divide between eating and gaming, socializing and playing, very helpful.

My issue is that they don't. They don't get excited. They sit there quietly and roll the dice. They have no answers for me when I ask them about their character's backgrounds or traits, and they seem uninterested in anything but pushing through the adventure. They don't want to explore, talk to people, go off on tangents, or generally roleplay.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. I have to admit to being honestly a little pissed at them. They want to play an RPG, but they play it like a video game. It's very frustrating. I would say it's me, except that I have run several groups in the past and get good reviews... And it isn't all of them, but it is at least half of them, and it's draining my will to put effort in.

If it is difficult to for you to muster to excitement when playing with these players, then maybe consider closing out the current campaign and stop hosting the game. GMing is work but it shouldn't feel like work. Playing the game, especially this game, requires imaginative effort on the players' part as well. If they are not meeting you halfway on this, finish the campaign naturally and stop hosting the game. If someone asks why you're not hosting/GMing anymore than you can reply that it takes to two to tango (more in this situation obviously). You as the GM have put effort into making the game enjoyable and fun. The fun and enjoyment as a GM is seeing those players put effort into situations you have put forth to them.

I agree with Oden G, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. Life is too short, it's okay to call it and find new players.

I wouldn't go the hardass route, nobody likes that.

Maybe you could ask them questions to draw them in:

• go around the table and ask them to describe one sense when they enter a new locale.
• When they perform an action and don't describe it, you can lend a helping hand by describing it a little, then throw them in the fire for an adjective or something in the middle of your narrative. It's a team effort, the player isn't solely responsible for the story, get everyone in there.
• Frequently present your scenes in a way that you can end with "what do you do?"

Just some ideas that may have been tried or not.

Engaging environments, a video game has very defined boundaries where you cant go or do. give them tasks or environments that are 3 dimensional (or 4d when time restraints are put on them):

• "you need to get up this huge scaffolding in the next 5 min, but by your guess its going to take you an hour to climb it..."
• The cantina your meeting your contact in is party central tonight, whilst it makes mixing into the crowd easier (boost) all your negotiations will be harder (setback) unless you can find an alternative.
• on a PC's triumph or lots of advantage for a pilot/perception check in an asteroid field (that you placed for this particular encounter) "can i make a suggestion? on of the larger asteroids appears to have a facility on it, there is no time to investigate now, but it could be worth taking note of"

use destiny points to do things other than upgrading checks:

• half way through a speeder chase scene flip a dark side point, then describe a lumbering transport truck pulling out in front of them blocking their way or slowing them down.
• say as you flip a destiny point "the Rival your shooting at punches a button on his wrist com unit, suddenly a door opens in what appeared to be a dead end, with a grin he dives inside and the door closes behind him, leaving nothing but a faint outline in the wall of where its located.

I have a couple of players who do this as well, the strong silent type... Sometimes ill throw curve balls mid session to shake things up a bit, targeting their character and getting their attention.

• your standing in line waiting to get into the bar, a massive Wookiee suddenly pushes past you, knocking you to the ground, and punches one of the gangers you where supposed to be tailing in the back of the head, instantly the line erupts into a massive brawl.
• your hanging out in the apartment when there is a knock at the door...
• you arrive on the space station, its un-familiar and looks nothing like it did last time you where here, but the most notable thing is all the bounty posters with your picture on them...

I would also sudgest giving out boost dice liberally for those rare occasions where they come up with a good idea (perhaps 2 on the next roll, or a permanent one for a particular skill until the end of the encounter) , and also add setback if they sit there offering no solutions other than "i roll a mechanics check"

Make them come to you.

What are their characters obligations and more importantly what do these characters want?

Sometimes the best way to deal with this is set them in the outbacks on a ship with a malfunctioning hyperdrive and say... the nearest settlement is about a days drive away, but on your way down you detected a disused and possibly abandoned clone wars outpost that could make a great place to hide the ship and maybe find salvage to exchange for the parts you need.

Let them decide how they handle this, it might be frustrating but you need to coax them out of their shell and let their ideas discussed at the table be the adventure for a while so you can figure out what will keep them interested enough so it makes your job easier.

Maybe you could post some examples so the others here can better help you?

Edit: Missed the above posts!

Hello,

New to the forums, but can relate to your problem. I have been running games for the better part of 15 years and I have had some awesome groups and some real duds. My most challenging group of players had 3 of the 5 members of the party playing MMO's together regularly. Meta gaming was awful. Everything was relayed in mmo terms which confused the non-mmo players. Here are some of the things I found worked before:

• Buddy Approach - Either as a new member to the party or as a current member get one player on your side. Have them ham it it and then reward the action. Not to be dismissive of my players but sometimes it really is monkey see monkey do. Having one person hamming it up and having a good time can be infectious. Often the stale players will pick up their game a little.
• ​You'll regret it approach - Some times on my harder to crack folks I have had to be direct. "Roleplaying is a two way street, do you want to tell me what your character does or just roll dice. I'll happily fill in the gaps, but don't complain if you end up kissing a Wookie" It lead to some hilarious out takes and the other players getting a good laugh, but the point was received.
• Are we playing the right game? - At the end of the day I have had some groups where we just were not playing the game the group wanted to play. They didn't know it at the time but, I had a group floundering in DND that excelled when moved to Descent. Why? The players wanted more dungeon crawling and less npc interaction. Roleplaying was just too far out of the comfort zone.

Wait, wait - hold on. We're all missing the obvious: talk to them about your concerns! Tell them your feelings - away from the gaming session - and go "Look, the GM has a hand in running the game, but the FFG engine is suppose to be EVERYONE contributing to the story. Have fun with the dice, go crazy with the good rolls - and the bad! Tell me how awesome your character will be, and if it's cool enough we'll run with it!"

And then, hit them with a game that's got character hooks in it. Lots and lots of character hooks, The pilot's sister? Yeah, she's been kidnapped by the Crime Lord that the Mechanic owes money too and now you have to go to Bespin to rescue her where the Face runs headlong into the pirate that he's been ducking and the Gambler finds out that one-night-stand resulted in a kid Gunslinger who is in the employ of the Crime Boss and has a score to settle with dear ol' pappy.

. . . . and then someone steals the ship.

I don't have much to add beyond what has already been suggested. However, the title of this post immediately made me think of this:

LSP at the talent show

I hope things turn around for you and your campaign. Let us know if things improve!

I agree with Oden G, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. Life is too short, it's okay to call it and find new players.

Yes, I think it may come to that unfortunately.

I wouldn't go the hardass route, nobody likes that.

Maybe you could ask them questions to draw them in:

• go around the table and ask them to describe one sense when they enter a new locale.
• When they perform an action and don't describe it, you can lend a helping hand by describing it a little, then throw them in the fire for an adjective or something in the middle of your narrative. It's a team effort, the player isn't solely responsible for the story, get everyone in there.
• Frequently present your scenes in a way that you can end with "what do you do?"

I like this, I will try the partial description, that may be enough to push them. Unfortunately, I frequently describe the scenes that way, and it ends with them looking around to each other, 30 seconds of uncomfortable silence until the same player gets fed up and says "let's do 'x'".

Just some ideas that may have been tried or not.

Thanks so much for al those ideas. Great ideas. Yes, I'm going to work a bit harder on the environments being more engaging.

Make them come to you.

What are their characters obligations and more importantly what do these characters want?

Sory, should have mentioned that it is an AoR campaign. That's part of the problem, they don't have any idea of what their characte is and show no interest in exploring it. I have sent out short questionnaires, suggested equipment, literally written 3 different backstories for their character to try and encourage ideas... and they either don't respond or shrug and say they have to think about it. One guy even forgot what his character's race was! (So glad I put that relatable NPC in...)

Hello,

New to the forums, but can relate to your problem. I have been running games for the better part of 15 years and I have had some awesome groups and some real duds. My most challenging group of players had 3 of the 5 members of the party playing MMO's together regularly. Meta gaming was awful. Everything was relayed in mmo terms which confused the non-mmo players. Here are some of the things I found worked before:

• Buddy Approach - Either as a new member to the party or as a current member get one player on your side. Have them ham it it and then reward the action. Not to be dismissive of my players but sometimes it really is monkey see monkey do. Having one person hamming it up and having a good time can be infectious. Often the stale players will pick up their game a little.
• ​You'll regret it approach - Some times on my harder to crack folks I have had to be direct. "Roleplaying is a two way street, do you want to tell me what your character does or just roll dice. I'll happily fill in the gaps, but don't complain if you end up kissing a Wookie" It lead to some hilarious out takes and the other players getting a good laugh, but the point was received.
• Are we playing the right game? - At the end of the day I have had some groups where we just were not playing the game the group wanted to play. They didn't know it at the time but, I had a group floundering in DND that excelled when moved to Descent. Why? The players wanted more dungeon crawling and less npc interaction. Roleplaying was just too far out of the comfort zone.

These are excellent ideas... I'm definitely going to do the first. The second is simply becoming necessary. Many thanks!

Wait, wait - hold on. We're all missing the obvious: talk to them about your concerns! Tell them your feelings - away from the gaming session - and go "Look, the GM has a hand in running the game, but the FFG engine is suppose to be EVERYONE contributing to the story. Have fun with the dice, go crazy with the good rolls - and the bad! Tell me how awesome your character will be, and if it's cool enough we'll run with it!"

I have brought all this up two sessions ago. Nothing has really changed. They all reititerated that they want to play, that they want to play an RPG, and that they are enjoying the game. It's hard to do anything with that response, lol.

I have to say, this is a great community, everyone should be getting a pat on the back. What a response!

We are playing this weekend, I'll be sure to post what ideas work.

I wouldn't go the hardass route, nobody likes that.

Maybe you could ask them questions to draw them in:

• go around the table and ask them to describe one sense when they enter a new locale.
• When they perform an action and don't describe it, you can lend a helping hand by describing it a little, then throw them in the fire for an adjective or something in the middle of your narrative. It's a team effort, the player isn't solely responsible for the story, get everyone in there.
• Frequently present your scenes in a way that you can end with "what do you do?"

I like this, I will try the partial description, that may be enough to push them. Unfortunately, I frequently describe the scenes that way, and it ends with them looking around to each other, 30 seconds of uncomfortable silence until the same player gets fed up and says "let's do 'x'".

Hm, maybe start small and just ask for colors and small details, and reward them with XP. Are you certain they're clear on the information you've presented them?

Wait, wait - hold on. We're all missing the obvious: talk to them about your concerns! Tell them your feelings - away from the gaming session - and go "Look, the GM has a hand in running the game, but the FFG engine is suppose to be EVERYONE contributing to the story. Have fun with the dice, go crazy with the good rolls - and the bad! Tell me how awesome your character will be, and if it's cool enough we'll run with it!"

I have brought all this up two sessions ago. Nothing has really changed. They all reititerated that they want to play, that they want to play an RPG, and that they are enjoying the game. It's hard to do anything with that response, lol.

Now that IS a bummer. However, did you add what you want out of the game to the discussion?

Ummm... you may just be dealing with people who are not that interested in Star Wars. When I was working in the Web I used to start off creative meetings with clients by asking them questions about movies, TV, and magazines and not about websites. What magazine for example would they think their potential customer is reading and why, that sort of thing. What I was doing was priming their minds to think about things they like and what they think would attract customers, then I'd start asking about website that were achieving this. By this point people usually were getting excited about their website and the real work on the initial look and feel would begin.

With your players listen to what movies they are excited about or a book everyone is reading or video game they are playing and see what comes up. If all they are talking about is The Avengers or Game of Thrones or whatever and not the upcoming Episode VII you may want to run a different game.

Ummm... you may just be dealing with people who are not that interested in Star Wars.

Good point for the OP. I have to deal with that with my group. They aren't SW fans at all...they all saw the movies so they know what the Force is and what stormtroopers are, etc, but beyond that I can't expect them to know anything specific about the SW universe. If I say "you meet a Weequay", I have to provide a picture. If they need to know something about Weequay (like the pheromone communication) I spell that out.

On occasion I've tossed in too much SW detail and it hampers their decision making because they don't know which details are decision points and which are just descriptive. So mostly now I run the session like a generic sci-fi human-centric game, with SW flavour thrown in here and there.

Ummm... you may just be dealing with people who are not that interested in Star Wars. When I was working in the Web I used to start off creative meetings with clients by asking them questions about movies, TV, and magazines and not about websites. What magazine for example would they think their potential customer is reading and why, that sort of thing. What I was doing was priming their minds to think about things they like and what they think would attract customers, then I'd start asking about website that were achieving this. By this point people usually were getting excited about their website and the real work on the initial look and feel would begin.

With your players listen to what movies they are excited about or a book everyone is reading or video game they are playing and see what comes up. If all they are talking about is The Avengers or Game of Thrones or whatever and not the upcoming Episode VII you may want to run a different game.

Oh, I wish it was this simple. They all enjoy Star Wars, we often spend the hour before game time discussing the cartoon series/upcoming movies and watching Robot Chicken on youtube.

Oh, I wish it was this simple. They all enjoy Star Wars, we often spend the hour before game time discussing the cartoon series/upcoming movies and watching Robot Chicken on youtube.

Hm, they sound like the right sort of folks, have you tried beer?

Oh, I wish it was this simple. They all enjoy Star Wars, we often spend the hour before game time discussing the cartoon series/upcoming movies and watching Robot Chicken on youtube.

Hm, they sound like the right sort of folks, have you tried beer?

I have, but maybe redbull and vodka...

Hm, they sound like the right sort of folks, have you tried beer?

I have, but maybe redbull and vodka...

I cannot speak to the efficacy of that formula.

I just had another little idea to help your players to connect to their characters. Get everyone to flick through the FFG books you have, as well as Google images or deviant art looking for drawings that strike them as "THE" character they want to play. there is so much great work out there to draw from. If possible print the artwork out and laminate it and put it in the front of their Character Folios or whatever they use. This is probably best done before Character Creation, but can work any time to give more personality to the character.

A picture of the ship/s they fly can help too.

Oh, I wish it was this simple. They all enjoy Star Wars, we often spend the hour before game time discussing the cartoon series/upcoming movies and watching Robot Chicken on youtube.

Hm, they sound like the right sort of folks, have you tried beer?

I have, but maybe redbull and vodka...

Maybe Ecstasy and some cantina mood lighting?

But seriously I'm not sure your best course of action except a re-boot of some kind. A different game or setting, maybe it's just something as simple as when you are playing. Is it after work or really late in the evening, maybe everyone is just tired from a long day (in which case add some Ephedrine to the XTC ) or the weather is really good on the weekend and they'd rather be outside...