Campaign Diary: Just Go With It, It'll Be Fine
The Game: Dungeon World - Ellisondale Campaign
Second Session
Players: 1 vet, 1 recovering AD&D 2e player, and 1 brand new
A common issue for GMs is getting your players motivated without just shoving them towards the direction the story seems to be heading. No GM should enjoy having to shove their players towards a goal. When a game breaks down to that, it means something went wrong. This isn't to say that GMs shouldn't have a few carrots on sticks dangling in front of the players to keep them interested in pushing the story forward. That being said, a GM should have to shove the carrot down the player's throat just to get a reaction out of them.
Player motivation can be tricky. There is a fine line between providing motivation and railroading the players toward the McGuffin the GM planned. They need a reason to act, but the glory of adventure isn't typically enough of a motivation to get a player to act. Especially when players start imagining the personality of their characters. The motivation doesn't need to be something tailored to the character or the campaign.
In the first adventure, the players had helped clear out some cranium rats in the basement of a tavern. Their reward was free room and board at the tavern's inn. When it was time to start the second session, there was no clear reason for the players to want to do anything because their room and board was taken care of already. That made the motivation was simple. The innkeeper brought them their belongs from their room and told them that the rent was due and it'd gone up. A big festival was due in town in the next month, so the local shop owners were all raising their prices to gouge the people in town for the festival.
The motivation was simple: you need a place to sleep and food to eat and you've got no coin to cover it. This gave the players a clear motivation to act, without pointing them in any particular direction. Dungeon World is particularly good at giving the players the ability to push the fiction forward in ways that are centered around their character. It let each of the players come up with ways their character would start looking for work. A some rolls later and they'd found more than a few people are looking for help, what with the upcoming festival and all.
A simple motivation is all it takes to push the players into action. If I had instead said, someone in the inn approaches you and offers you a job to hunt down some evil things in exchange for some coin. That would have been motivation, but it would have taken the agency away from the players. If one of them had decided they thought the best way to raise money was to rob the richest house in town, that story would have played out just as interesting and engaging as the one then ended up with (hunting goblins that attacked caravans).
Some GMs don't see the difference between letting the players find the adventure they had planned and throwing the adventure at the players. They will still end up hunting the goblins either way, why waste time by having them dick around trying to find the thing that triggers the adventure? Because one is a story that involves players taking action and pushing the plot forward, while the other is players reacting on cue for the sake of a pre-destined outcome.
In the first adventure, the players had helped clear out some cranium rats in the basement of a tavern. Their reward was free room and board at the tavern's inn. When it was time to start the second session, there was no clear reason for the players to want to do anything because their room and board was taken care of already. That made the motivation was simple. The innkeeper brought them their belongs from their room and told them that the rent was due and it'd gone up. A big festival was due in town in the next month, so the local shop owners were all raising their prices to gouge the people in town for the festival.
The motivation was simple: you need a place to sleep and food to eat and you've got no coin to cover it. This gave the players a clear motivation to act, without pointing them in any particular direction. Dungeon World is particularly good at giving the players the ability to push the fiction forward in ways that are centered around their character. It let each of the players come up with ways their character would start looking for work. A some rolls later and they'd found more than a few people are looking for help, what with the upcoming festival and all.
A simple motivation is all it takes to push the players into action. If I had instead said, someone in the inn approaches you and offers you a job to hunt down some evil things in exchange for some coin. That would have been motivation, but it would have taken the agency away from the players. If one of them had decided they thought the best way to raise money was to rob the richest house in town, that story would have played out just as interesting and engaging as the one then ended up with (hunting goblins that attacked caravans).
Some GMs don't see the difference between letting the players find the adventure they had planned and throwing the adventure at the players. They will still end up hunting the goblins either way, why waste time by having them dick around trying to find the thing that triggers the adventure? Because one is a story that involves players taking action and pushing the plot forward, while the other is players reacting on cue for the sake of a pre-destined outcome.
The other thing that happened in the session that I feel is worth noting is the addition of their new follower: a goblin one of them had lit of fire and tried to kill but another one healed and helped. I think it was Vincent D Baker that said a GM should always either say yes or have them roll. This advice, although simple, has been invaluable to ensuring the players stay engaged. 99.99% of the time when they players ask for something saying yes won't change much about the situation. If there is a chance it would change, then have them roll to see if they can and let the dice decide how it all goes down.
The group found a lone goblin outside the goblin hole the party was to clear out. After suffering at the hands of the Immolator who set it on fire and the Thief that hit it with an arrow, the Paladin used Lay on Hands to heal the goblin and then proceeded to parley with in in an effort to gain it's trust. I could tell that the player thought it would be fun to convince the goblin to join up with the group, so I let him roll and just went with the result. They party now has a follower named Gobo the goblin.
I could have argued or said it's not possible to convince the goblin to join them, but I don't ever like saying no to a player idea that they seem excited about. That's how you stifle motivation and creativity. Not what I'm about at all. Besides what harm could there be with a goblin following them around all over the place. I mean it's not like the majority of the world considers goblins murderous monsters and are either afraid of or disgusted by them...
The group found a lone goblin outside the goblin hole the party was to clear out. After suffering at the hands of the Immolator who set it on fire and the Thief that hit it with an arrow, the Paladin used Lay on Hands to heal the goblin and then proceeded to parley with in in an effort to gain it's trust. I could tell that the player thought it would be fun to convince the goblin to join up with the group, so I let him roll and just went with the result. They party now has a follower named Gobo the goblin.
I could have argued or said it's not possible to convince the goblin to join them, but I don't ever like saying no to a player idea that they seem excited about. That's how you stifle motivation and creativity. Not what I'm about at all. Besides what harm could there be with a goblin following them around all over the place. I mean it's not like the majority of the world considers goblins murderous monsters and are either afraid of or disgusted by them...
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