I'm asking for some DM advice here.
I like creating stories and involving my players as characters in the play. I like passion and joviality and deep psychological underpinnings in my games. I like dialogue and role-playing.
My group that I've been playing with for 20+ years used to do the same but lately (in the last 2-3 years) isn't into it.
It is my turn to DM a campaign and I started to do world building on my own and plot out character arcs for NPCs and PCs. etc. etc. I then remembered that this is for all of us to have fun and not to jack myself off with. I asked them what they like to do and play. "Dungeons", "combat", "More of a guided adventure". So basically they want railroad dungeon crawls.
I've compromised. A bit of roleplaying and such at he new town they've wandered to and at the tavern, etc. Then they can go clear out the rats in the gigantic, gothic cellar and then the crypt next door.
The issue is that not even that is really working. The tavern keep introduces himself and asks their names. Crickets. The busty Mayor's daughter pleads for help! Silence. The shopkeep asks if they need any equipment. No one says anything.
Ok fine.. I will plop them in the dungeon in the next 30 seconds by fiat. "Ok, you're now in the damp, underground cellar. There are three doors in the room. The fungus growing on the walls lights the place dimly and you hear scuffles and shuffling from the east and west.
- Silence from players.
"Do you investigate the room?"
"yeah"
"Tell me what you're looking for"
"Anything helpful."
"You find a leather bound tome with a lock that has worn out from age."
- Silence
"Do you open it?"
-"yeah"
so on and so on.
40 minutes later.
"OK! Do you want to go through a door?"
"Sure."
"WHICH DOOR?"
- Silence
"Do you want to listen to the door on the left?"
- "ok."
"You hear orcish voices."
-5 minutes of silence
"You guys have to give me something to play off of, here!"
- Silence
"
>>44193521
"Do you want to light a torch for better light? OK. you do and you find a gem that was dark but reflects the light and magnifies it. It is beautiful and alien."
-Silence.
3 hours of this BS.
"You go back to town after slaying the cultists in the cavern. The mayor greets you and asks what happened and if you saw his dear son."
Silence
"Voice of mayor: My friends, your timely arrival has brought shame on me but good fortune for this town! How can I be a leader while I did not know what was going on in my own town!? Will you please help now with XYZ?"
Silence
"Mayor Voice: Well! I know that the town 20 miles north is having kobold problems!"
Silence
"Mayor Voice: and a dragon problem to the east!"
Silence
"OK guys, what do you want to do now?"
"I dont know"
"God damnit! I can't do this anymore. You dont even want to do a dungeon crawl. I cannot railroad you anymore unless I explicitly state how your character moves and thinks. We might as well play WoW if you want to interaction."
"Why are you such a dick?"
Im about to give up.
Ditch those shitty players, problem solved.
>>44193521
It sounds like they just aren't interested in story or puzzles or anything, and they just want to kill shit.
You either want to do this
>>44193737
or just give them a linear dungeon with some fights and then either write a novel or find another group or something to get your story on with.
If they want to play the game, they have to, you know, play the game. Either ditch them or impress upon them that you cannot be both GM and players at the same time. You cannot, and will not think for them.
Your players are stupid motherfuckers.
The only solution is to ditch them and get a better group.
You won't do this, because you will spend 100 posts crying about how they're your best friends and you've been playing together forever and you can't just not play with them.
And then this thread will die because there's no advice we can give you.
Please just end this now.
Those people aren't playing. There is another problem.
If this was a bunch of newbies I'd say get them involved with their characters, find out what they care about and build on that. Play a tutorial, connect their backgrounds, take their impulses and go with it. But this won't help you because that isn't the problem.
I suspect social tension. Either it's going over your head or it is about you. Either way, people are holding a grudge and that's what's killing the game.
Address it. Mix it up. Channel it into a competitive game. Find new players. Crying to /tg/ how bad these people roleplay won't help.
Drop them into the most fucking weird setting you can imagine.
Why are there mayors?
Why does the damp cellar have to be gothic?
Rats, again?
Oh. Dragons. Mm.
Mind you, the players are complete asshats for their failure to communicate. But I can't blame them for things just getting stale while there's been a /ton/ of innovation out there.
Mind you, I still play semi-generic fantasy with my friends because we're not 40-60, but seriously, a lich being the headmistress of the village's Sunday school is just not going to cut it anymore.
OP here.
Thanks for your responses
I'm definitely not going to keep going on like I'm married to a drunk Irishman. Its going to end after I finish up this adventure. Its not worth any bad blood and turmoil.
As far as the settings go. Why is it generic fantasy? Because thats what they wanted. I wanted Colonial Gothic but they voted for D&D.
>>44193521
OP I know your pain, I got a player who optimized himself for combat, but refuses to go adventuring.
If its been 20+ years, they're probably just doing it out of habit and long standing connections. Sounds like they're not actually interested in, or have fun, with rpgs anymore. That's okay, people change. But like, they need to figure out that if they're not into it, they don't have to be there.
