3 Tips For Better Player Engagement

How can you get players engaged more in roleplaying encounters?

Game Master Vildara presents this tricky session situation:

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Last night was a bit of a first for me and I find myself here looking for advice to avoid a situation like this.

The crew is escorting a bride to her new husband on some backwater world.

She has been catfished by this man who is not as young as communicated, but definitely wealthy. Additionally, the daughter of the catman has already secretly hired a group of mercs to run the girl off by scaring her away.

The crew shows up to deliver this girl to the ranch with both these folks there and the ensuing drama.

I folded. I could not figure out how to run the scene. The PCs weren’t really active in it, I didn’t really have a predefined outcome, the challenge of RPing three different personalities at once was daunting. I had come prepared with ideal outcomes and goals for each character but could not stick the landing.

I ended up stepping out of RP mode and having the players decide what happens and how the characters behave. It was disorganized and sloppy and I left the session feeling icky.

I am curious what advice the group here might have.

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Thanks for sharing your session experiences, V! We’ve all had moments where we feel things didn’t go well, which attacks our confidence and leaves us feeling defeated.

There are a few topics I’d like to offer some tips and ideas on that I mined from your post:

  • Passive Players. “The PCs weren’t really active in it.” The PCs were unengaged for some reason.
  • Multiball. “The challenge of RPing three different personalities at once was daunting.” Struggling with the heavy cognitive load of running several NPCs in an encounter.
  • Prepping Outcomes. “I had come prepared with ideal outcomes and goals.” Additional cognitive load introduced perhaps from too much GM agenda.
  • Hot Potato. “I could not figure out how to run the scene.” Not driving interaction forward when the plan stalled.

Apply Immediate Pressure

“The PCs weren’t really active in it.”

In our hobby, player engagement ultimately comes down to conflict. When players lack a clear reason to interfere, they slip into spectator mode and let us do all the talking.

Here are some quick ways to fix this before your next session:

1. Give PCs Tangible Long-Term Goals

Give each character a long-term goal at the adventure or campaign level to create engagement through motive.

This transcends the encounter container, so you can poke this arc whenever you like, across multiple encounters and sessions.

Ensure the goal has an in-game physical objectives like specific people, places, or objects to make it gameable.

Next time, when a player just sits and watches the ranch drama unfold, you can describe a unique tattoo on one of the mercenaries that matches the mark of the villain their PC’s been hunting.

2. Use Treasure as Stakes

Create a list of d6 treasure ideas for each character to grab at-will and offer up as Stakes mid-encounter, along with an Impediment, to kickstart engagement through desire.

Ensure any treasure dropped into encounters has an impediment blocking it, such as a foe, trap, hazard, or obstacle. The party sees the prize, realizes an obstacle stands in their way, and must take action and jump into action to claim it.

3. Keep Players Intensely Engaged With the 3 Conflicts

Drop a clear, immediate problem directly into play to provoke player (re)action.

  • Interpersonal: An NPC demands something from the characters. The bride begs the PCs to defend her from the mercenaries
  • Environmental: The encounter location forces action or quick decisions. The power suddenly goes out, leaving you all in darkness.
  • Internal: Present a hard choice testing a character’s beliefs, morals, identity, or tenets. The wealthy catfisher offers the party double their escort fee to abandon the bride and leave quietly.

Conflict provokes response. When you apply consequences and pressure to the party, players must act.

For more help with character conflicts, check out these tips from the archives: Keep Players Intensely Engaged With the 3 Conflicts.

Next time, we will tackle the Multiball problem. I’ll share three practical tips for roleplaying multiple NPCs in the same scene without frying your brain. Keep an eye out for that!

Cheers,
Johnn
roleplayingtips.com
https://discord.gg/6MxTRAqQ76
Have more fun at every game!

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