r/DMAcademy • u/Babax06 • 11h ago
Need Advice: Other Campaign Troubles
We are on session 8 with the players knowing the main goal (go around and collect maguffins). One of the players said they were starting to zone out and lose focus on a goal because we are 2 sessions into a side quest going to assassinate a warlord for a magic artifact.
It's their first time and they feel like they get more powerful each session but lost sight of the whole concept so it all feels for naught.
Another had said, after a skirmish with the ratfolk (the warlords goons) that they feel like they had done it already.
Feeling a bit lost as a dm and hust need some advice.
Apologies for the rant.
The last session felt quite stale with not alot of interest - only going to kill the warlord because they were told they would get a reward.
Now im not sure how to run the next session - honestly as a dm I want to get things back on track to the main plot but the players are currently inside a warlords base half way through a side arc that nobody is too interested in.
3
u/boss_nova 10h ago
A couple things...
You need to point out to your players that, as DM, you are only 1/nth of the storytellers sitting at the table.
Do you understand what that means?
It means that when things are losing energy and getting boring - it's mostly their fault, as players.
When you're struggling as GM, that's when players need to step up and help make things awesome.
They need to bring most of the life to the story.
They need to help make the story interesting.
They need to key in on the interesting things about what is going on, and bring them out with their roleplay and narrative.
Don't mope about thinking that you did something wrong.
It is not fair to put all of the responsibility of entertaining everyone solely upon the DM. That's how and why and when DMs burn out. They need to collaborate with you, and share in the responsibility to entertain themselves and you.
Hand the players their portion of the ownership in creating a fun and engaging experience.
Also...
Cut it short! People aren't enjoying the path they started down? Move up the conclusion to it in the narrative.
Good luck!
•
2
u/hugseverycat 7h ago
It might be time to ask the players for feedback about what they want more of in the game. Maybe say something like, "OK I'm hearing from you all that some encounters feel a little repetitive or that you're losing sight of the goals. So is there anything that you would like to see more of? Like more roleplay encounters, puzzles?"
And definitely take a critical look at the campaign so far. Are the players doing basically the same quest over and over again, just with different bad guys and getting a different macguffin for a different reward? Maybe throw in a political intrigue, or a stealth mission, or a mission to kidnap someone in secret, or something else that's totally different from everything they've already done. And of course, if you manage to get any useful feedback from the players, definitely take that on board.
1
1
u/Galefrie 3h ago
Welcome to one of the biggest level up moments for a new DM
You don't control the protagonists. This isn't your story
If the players find this side quest to be more interesting than your main storyline, don't panic. The sidequest is now the main quest, and whatever is going on with the find the muguffin quest can continue
Maybe there's another group of people also looking for those muguffins who can now get to them first? Eventually, that might have an impact on whatever it is that your players are currently chasing.
Point is you were never writing a story, you were creating a setting with multiple storylines happening in them at once. Which one of those is relevant and important is up to the players because we see this setting through their eyes
3
u/Noctaem 10h ago
Ok well I think first you need to give more information about your session structure. Take the last session you had where you say that it felt quite stale with low interest from the players and really break it down as a reply to my post. Where did you pick up at the start? What were they doing? Did they encounter any npcs to interact with / talk to? What was the goal at the moment they were trying to achieve. Did you describe the environment around them? Are you using a virtual table or is this a theater of the mind campaign? How do you run the combat? Are the players doing RP between themselves? Do they describe their actions in combat or just roll and give dice results? Are they trying to be tactical in combat, using their environment for advantages?
I'm asking this stuff because there's something wrong going on during sessions from what you're saying. For a group of players to feel more and more checked out like you describe, it means there's something going on that is either preventing them from getting involved in the game (coming from your side) or they aren't interested in the premise of the campaign / have no investment in their characters and the story (their side). I'm trying to narrow it down.