What To Do When Your Players Aren’t Taking It Seriously

Players who don’t take your game seriously can kill a campaign. You’re struggling to create a vibe, atmosphere, and theme. But when the table ignores that and cracks jokes during horror adventures or breaks immersion with real world chatter, you get frustrated.

I asked RPT readers for advice on what to do when players don’t take your efforts and game seriously. Here’s their advice for you.

The Mother Of All Character Questionnaires

Use this list of questions to construct or add to your own character questionnaire. Character depth comes from player introspection. Prod your players to put a little thought into their PCs. This will pay you a lot of dividends as your campaigns progresses. You can use answers to design around character drives, roleplay off character details, and engage players beyond mere numbers.

Player Reward Cards

A bit of inspiration for you. RPT GM Richard Grilley created some cool player card props to reward his players with. Here’s how he did it.

D&D GMs: How to Solve Problem Players Once And For All – Without Messy Confrontations

One of the most frequent help requests I get is from GMs frustrated with problem players. If there is conflict in your group, your games will suck. And that’s a shame because role-playing games can be so rich and enjoyable when everyone is working together, on the same wavelength, creating amazing moments. Danny Iny of […]

Gm Interview: Christopher Burdett

This week we interview Chris, a free flowing GM who enjoys using  a variety of game mechanics, from dice to jenga blocks, to bring his adventures to life. Please introduce yourself Your name: Christopher Burdett – Not the same one that does art for WotC, however. Do you have a blog, website or campaign wiki? I […]

Starting and Running a Role-Playing Games Club

By Katrina Middelburg-Creswell Part One: The Birth Of A Club And Some Bumps Along The Way I’m a Middle School teacher who is a long-time gamer. So when some of my 7th grade students discovered my hobby “Hey – is that an R.A. Salvatore book on her desk? She plays D&D! No way! Cool!” it […]

Gaming Group Grind

by  Jeff Pawlowsk I’m always amazed by the way some games last years when no one in the game is having any fun. There is something mystical about having a regular game that is comforting and the hassles of finding and integrating into a new gaming group is a daunting task. It is very similar to […]

GM Interview: Rebecca

This week we interview Rebecca, a fan of D&D 4th edition from Ireland, a lover of Forgotten Realms and enjoy’s creating her own story arcs. Please introduce yourself: Hey, I’m Rebecca Maguire. From Ireland, studying to be an English teacher. Do you have a blog, website or campaign wiki? http://www.sites.google.com/site/forgottenrealmsdnd It is currently under construction. I’m not […]

GM Interview: Adrian

Today we interview Adrian, a GM who plays mostly one-on-one games and is a master of improvisation, enjoying a cinematic approach to gaming. Please introduce yourself: Your name: AD Do you have a blog, website or campaign wiki? Nope How long have you been a GM? Damnation, its been 10 years. What are your favourite […]

GM Interview: Trevor Wiley

This week we interview Trevor, a GM who enjoys AD&D, WEG Star Wars, and has a love for creating his own worlds and adventures. Please introduce yourself: Your name: Trevor Wiley Do you have a blog, website or campaign wiki? http://worldcrafters.blogspot.com , the home for my D&D campaign as well as some of my other […]

GM Interview: Rory Klein

This week we interview Rory, a GM from Cape Town who’s a huge Greyhawk fan. If you have any questions about his campaign feel free to post them below. Please introduce yourself Hi, I am Rory from South Africa, Cape Town. I am 39 years old and I work as an IT Consultant. “Online,” I go by […]

GM Interview: Chris Rheinherren

  This interview features our first GM who runs games over internet relay chat (IRC). If you have any questions about IRC, just leave Chris a comment below. Please introduce yourself Your name: Chris Rheinherren, online I use Bynw or Anlarye. My campaign’s website is located at www.teara-adan.com There is a link there to a […]

The Logic Death Guide to Players

by Doug Lochery There are two breeds of RPG gamer – Players and Gamemasters. There are several subtypes of the Player breed that, when faced with our glorious hobby, try to ‘break it’ in some way or other. This is not always a conscious decision on the part of the poor player. Below is a […]

Managing Intraparty Conflict

By Andrew McLaren Roleplaying is a group activity. One cannot enjoy roleplaying alone. Sometimes the GM’s job is made more complicated by conflict that takes place within the group, when arguments and fighting takes place between characters and players. Consider the following situation to get an idea of what I mean: Having defeated the evil […]

Managing Player Expectations

In the GM Mastery Yahoo! group, Randal recently asked, “How do you deal with player expectations? And more importantly, how do you prevent the game from failing as a result of not meeting those expectations?” Some great discussion ensued that included numerous points of views and GMing styles. I thought you might find snippets of […]

GM Interview: Frank Bartlett

This week we hear from Frank Bartlett, who GMs for his wife and two daughters. I love the idea of the whole family gaming together! Well done, Frank. Please introduce yourself Do you have a blog, website or campaign wiki? No, while I use my PC to create my campaigns, my group prefers old school […]

GM Interview: Alexander

What kind of GM does a quantum physicist and a French existentialist artist produce? Let’s find out. Meet Alexander D. Fagaly, aka Hourglass. Please introduce yourself: Do you have a blog, website or campaign wiki? My website consists of my gaming group and a few other friends. We post various alternative rules, campaign concepts and […]

A Trick For Easier In-Game Communication

From Joseph Rapoport Johnn, In regards to creating simple communications in games, I play in two campaigns and DM one in which we have all arrived at the same solution for communication. The solution is an item, a small hollow metal tube, which acts like a Message spell. The item comes in two forms: An […]

When You Need To Cast In Secret

From Morgan Joeck One thing that bothered me when I first started gaming was identifying the spell I was casting when those around me would not have known what it was. My solution to that was to print out colorful fractals or other designs on index cards and fold them into little envelopes containing the […]

Three Ways To Game With Casual Players

From Mark of the Pixie Johnn, I agree with your epiphany that we should play more. One way I am looking at to help facilitate this (as work, children, and other responsibilities reduce our time) is the logistics of how we play. Most of my games are fortnightly three hour face-to-face table top sessions in […]

Donkey Catapults and Leather Jackets

Hannah Lipsky from Chaotic Shiny Productions hosts the Brief Word for RPT#515. Tabletop with the LARPers I recently got shanghaied into an unusual Mage: the Ascension game with friends. The thing that makes this group different is that, unlike most gamers I know, everyone in this group got their start LARPing (Live Action Roleplaying) before […]

Use These Mechanics To Roleplay More

By Mark of the Pixie “How do you use ROLL-playing to add to the fun of the ROLE-playing aspect of your game?” Passions Biggest aid I have for this is Passions.  I let each player pick a single Passion, such as “protect the innocent.”  When that passion is in play, such as when the PCs […]

Contest: What do you want in a GM questionnaire?

by Silveressa Player questionnaires, we’ve all seen them in various incarnations, used by many a GM to gauge  a prospective players’ gaming style, plot interests and overall experience, yet no such tool exists for the GM. What sorts of questions would be ideal to ask a prospective GM, be it about their gaming style, campaign […]

Growing Up & Gettin’ Old: When Young and Old Collide

Guest Article by Darren Blair It happened again the other night. New group. New expectations. D&D 3.5.  And the would-be GM asked me what my experience was when it came to gaming before a mutual friend of ours could stop him. D&D all editions. Battletech, d20 Modern, Star Wars d20 and BESM d20. A funky […]