@arkandel said in Encouraging Proactive Players:
But I think it's a completely separate issue than the one discussed here. Maybe someone should make a thread called "proactive staff".
This. So much this. I sort of feel like if there's not some meta-plot going on, that I'm probably going to get bored.
I think @Auspice MIGHT agree with me when I say that a sort of ideal situation is where there's an ongoing meta-plot, wherein PrPs can be run in tandem, possibly associated with, and ultimately affecting said meta-plot.
IE:
The goblin king is moving to siege the city. He's got massive armies at his command. Players could run various plots to thwart the goblin king. Attacking supply lines, harrying pickets, scouting the numbers, hit and run assaults, ambushing enemy scouts... the list really goes on, and is limited only by the creativity of the players.
Now, the end result is that the more players get involved, and come up with ideas, and submit logs, the easier the 'final showdown' is with the Goblin King.
And that brings me to what will be my next separate post later, but that is returning to the original topic.
@roz said in Encouraging Proactive Players:
@faraday I think the disagreement here is whether something that's an OOC scheduled scene means that it's an IC event. Which I don't think it has to be. For me, and I know for a good number of others, +event is just an OOC calendar. Why shouldn't an OOCly scheduled event go on it even if it's not something that's ICly scheduled? Do we just need to change it to +calendar or something?
I think what +event is used for varies greatly from place to place. Some places, such as Arx it seems, are large scale RP events. Other places, Like Tenebrae/Symbol of Ea, use it to announce specific time and day that a GM intends to run a play for 3-5 players of X level.
@auspice said in Encouraging Proactive Players:
...I'm about to just say look, man, I don't think I can hook him into this one. I know you want to, but you have shot down every single hook I've given you. Your character has hooks into the one-offs I've been doing with other PC. I will probably be running stuff in the area your alt is in on my alt down the road. I think we need to give up on this plot.
I feel bad doing it, but at the end of the day, he is giving me nothing to work with and he's the outlier.
This is absolutely the thing. People are often unwilling to meet you half way, and then complain they're not getting enough action.
Sometimes, it really isn't viable for a character to be in a plot. That's fine. But the player should at least say, "Hey, what about this as a hook, would that work?" and then you say, "Maybe not that exactly, but what about this?" "Hey! Sweet!"
When you're throwing gold at a garbage disposal, you lose the motivation quick.
@pyrephox said in Encouraging Proactive Players:
Didn't one of the Amber games have programmed objects that were essentially 'plots in a box' that people could take and run with without a dedicated GM? I never played there, but I remember hearing about it, and thinking just how fantastic that sounded. While there's a fair amount of front-loaded work, that work is something that people can do on their own time, and then players can just meet up whenever for it.
Tenebrae/Symbol of Ea also has a really cute "random plot generator" for PrPs. You pull a lever and it spits something out like, "<Class/Villain type> is doing <thing> and it's pissing off <group> so they've hired a group of adventurers to stop them!"
@thatguythere said in Encouraging Proactive Players:
@three-eyed-crow said in Encouraging Proactive Players:
@faraday
In my experience, unfortunately, you'll get more complaints and bad feelings about "exclusion" if a private event is posted publicly where everyone can see, than you will if who can see it is locked.Not only that but most people don't like to be exclusionary but sometimes the tools point that way, for example I will occasionally run short plots. My participation limits for them is a hard max of four in a scene. that is just my limit for what I manage in a scene without it feeling stressful as hell. If you put up a +event with a max signups of four i have found two things happen, it tends to get filled quickly and then you catch a lot of why can't i be in your event too, and then on the night of the thing you are lucky if you have 3 of the 4 who signed up on. So I tend to not use +events but @mail to do the scheduling which then limits it to those I know well enough to personally ask.
It's entirely possible to put standby slots for limited signups. The first set is just the first to jump in. Standbys can still sign up for if someone doesn't show. If you're running a set for 4, allow 6 standbyes, and there's a pretty good chance you'll get 4 between the two, and the standbys generally aren't bummed if they don't get included, because they'll know it was a maybe from the start.
Also, with the standbys, it somewhat allows you to fill a party's needs, if they have them. "Oh, we've got 3 physical characters and our social didn't show. Well, here's 2 socials and a brain, and the other 3 standbys are physicals. I don't think we need any more of those."
