[RPG] How to cater to the Three Stooges and good roleplayers at the same time

dnd-3.5egm-techniquesgroup-dynamics

As a little background, in case it matters: most of the players in my group (but not all) are college aged, and all of them are personal friends of mine. We're playing D&D 3.5. I myself am the group's only real DM, but even I'm more of a long-time listener than a long-time caller. I've been running roleplaying games for most of my life, but I've probably only run half a dozen real play sessions of any system as complex as D&D.

My group isn't currently playing because we're separated for work reasons. This gives me a little time to reflect before jumping back in.

So my players — let me tell you 'bout my players.

  • The Barbarian loves D&D perhaps more than anyone else at the table. But he couldn't tell you just what a saving throw is. He tries, but he's got mild dyslexia, and hates reading almost as much as he loves role-playing. So he tries to rely on me/other players for the rules and plays a Barbarian because 'hit it with my axe' is always the correct solution. He's never once invoked his Barbarian Rage power.

  • The Wizard is stunningly poor at thinking strategically. I have to practically bean him over the head out-of-character to remind him that he has the power to cast magic spells. In addition, he's so shy and non-confrontational that he can't even hold an assertive conversation with fictional NPCs.

  • The Bard is super chill. No matter what happens, he's happy, because I gave him 500 bonus XP at the start of the campaign for drawing a picture of his character. And for pretending that all the other PC's are members of his delusional band. No problems here.

  • The Rogue is the only player who I could say with confidence has read the rulebook. Many times, he's snuck off in the middle of the night to go use his Sneak skill, and the entire table (myself very nearly included) has sat in awe as he uses sheer brainpower to accomplish things the other party members never thought possible. There's no Munchkin roleplaying here, no Thespian roleplaying–just pure creative problem-solving.

  • The Ranger (and elf Ranger, no less) doesn't seem to have grasped the ways in which D&D is different from a video game. He's a little frustrated because his character doesn't deal much damage with a default shortbow, but can't seem to make the leap to realizing that he needs to take some initiative if he wants to change that. I can't even get the guy to go shopping for a composite longbow.

So those are the regulars.

My question here isn't about the fact that most of them don't know the rules very well; I've more or less given up on forcing them to put in study time they don't want to, and instead choose to hope that over time, with gentle reminders, they'll pick up the rules they want to pick up and become pretty competent. This seems to have started working, to a degree.

My Problem Is:

How do I keep the game entertaining for this entire band of misfits at once? The Rogue is getting a little bored because no one else can keep up with him. He's asking me about a Ninja prestige class while I still have to walk some of the other players through leveling up their base class. The Wizard is getting a little discouraged because he can't keep up with the others. The Barbarian's fun times are interrupted every once in a while when he realizes that he could be doing things even cooler than hitting if he'd read a few more rules. The Ranger is just getting aggravated that his Ranger isn't a badass yet, and he's already level 3.

Over the last couple sessions, I once let the Wizard try his hand at being the DM. To make a long and depressingly bizarre story short, the party is scattered across half the fictional continent, and the party members who aren't in captivity are more interested in getting back 20K of 'Russian' gold than rescuing the others. I'm uncertain of my ability to bring everyone back onto the rails, because even getting them to finish a single dungeon is a major accomplishment. Even if I give them a map, they manage to get lost and conclude that they're supposed to exit through the nearest window.

You're free to tell me that we're playing this game wrong in every conceivable way. But please try to include an answer to the question as well if you choose to respond.

Best Answer

Well that sounds about par for the course. I have a regular group that I DM for since 2009, and your player archetypes sound pretty familiar to me. (And yes, those are the real archetypes, not what is described in the DMG).

Don't worry so much

First off, don't worry so much. From your post, it seems like it's going ok. The important part is that you have fun. If the group has fun, there's not a big problem, even if you as a DM might feel you are doing stuff wrong.

Talk about it

After a session, or maybe during a coffee or smoke break, ask the players about these topics. What do they like, what do they dislike? How do they think the game can be improved? If everyone says it's fine, great. If not, I am sure they have some suggestions for improvement. I do this after every session, sometimes for 3 minutes, sometimes we discuss this for half an hour or more. It really helps.

Play to the player's strengths

If a player or his character is good at something (and everyone has has a speciality), give him or her a chance to use this strength. So the rogue player is inventive - give him a chance to use his wits. What I do is that I generally prepare some specific additional puzzles or challenges for them. I think the best way to integrate those is if you have a fight and at the same time some additional pressing matter that people have to attend to, either with some skill checks or just with good ideas. So maybe while the party deals with the brunt of the attackers, someone must slip through the enemy ranks and disable the ballista before the city walls are down.

Help your players

So the ranger treats this like a video game, but is not pro-active enough. Well, he doesn't have to go shopping. Drop some loot for him that is a part (one third) of a magic bow. Maybe a bow string made out of dryad hair? This should awaken his video gamey instinct to collect all parts, involve him more into the story and finally lead to him getting a better bow.

Some answers on this board stress how important player agency and pro-active players are for the game. I am not sure I fully agree with this. Some people are just naturally more passive, and if you can help them so they have more fun and everyone has more fun, just do it.

Use mechanics to cover the player's weaknesses

For the wizard - maybe propose Sense Motive, Gather Information or similar (Insight in 5e) checks when you feel he's missing something. If he succeeds the check, give him a hint. Like this, you can use the character's strength to cover the player's weaknesses. And after a few successes, it is likely that the positive reinforcement will lead to the player doing this on his own more often.

A similar thing about this assertiveness: Have a friendly NPC cast a spell him, or maybe an enemy a curse, and tell him how this makes him feel more assertive, mighty and filled to the brim with power. Sometimes this helps such players to slip into a role they would not otherwise take on.

On the other hand, specifically this is not really a problem in my eyes - a nerdy shy wizard doesn't seem so out of place.

Offer help with their characters

So this is a two-sided sword. It might be a great help, but can also ruin a lot. Make sure the players want and appreciate your help with their characters before doing anything. You really want to avoid messing with 'their guy' if they don't want you to. But if done right, it can be a great help to certain players.

One of my players is like your barbarian player. Doesn't like to read the rules, but is very enthusiastic and a great addition to the game. Before a new campaign, I generally have a skype conf with him and discuss the background a bit and what character he wants to play. Then I build a character for him, send it to him and we discuss some changes he usually wants. Once we have a character he's happy with, I make him a nice colourful character sheet in Numbers with all the important stuff up front. This worked out very well. It allows him to focus on the game, and not worry about details or picking whatever CharOp stuff from way too many sources he's not interested in, while still playing his concept and being on a similar power level as other players who are more into optimising.

Allow them to rebuild or change characters (within reason)

Sometimes, a new player might choose a character that doesn't really fit his play style. Might be the wizard player would be happier with a sorcerer - new players tend to fare better with the simpler approach of having a few known spells instead of building a spellbook and preparing their daily prepared lists.

The system

Finally, maybe D&D 3.5e is not the ideal system for players who don't read up on the rules themselves. If your group is open to change the system, I can suggest two options:

  1. D&D 5e. While similar in many respects, it has one advantage: A lot of stuff is just way simpler and easier than 3.5. While 3.5e is my personal favourite among all D&D editions, for my main group, I have switched to 5e, and we haven't looked back.

  2. Games with far less rules: Dungeon World or Fate come to mind. I have played them, and had fun, but for my group, it was not the right choice. We like the miniature battles and everything around that. But those are certainly great games.

And, in the end, the evil master plan

Of course, all this cuddling and making players happy only serves one goal: to make them experienced enough so you can start being a true evil dungeon master. Once they know the system, know their characters and have a fair chance to survive bad things, the fun starts: Poison, traps and and horrible dismemberment. It's no fun punishing them if they have no chance to deal with it. But once they have shown they are up for the task, you can start driving the finger screws in, and let them into the tomb of horrors.