Talking with Atraties the other day, we came up on something we both agree on almost completely with. Namely, how we handle it when a player just isn't picking up on a plot thread or hook. Now, personally, we both subscribe to the 3 strikes and their out mentality. Basically, you give about three chances to pick up on the plot, and then, well, it moves on without them. Things happen like they would if a player wasn't there to interfere, because, well, there isn't. If the player gets involved later, then hey, that's great. They just have to do some catch up.
Now, this doesn't mean we do it as a cold, heartless monster. The plot is there, and they can get involved. We'll even tell them there are threads out there to pick them up, but neither of us are interested in forcing a plot the player, or the player on the plot. It just isn't worth going out on a limb that much to snag one player, because it puts the rest of the game at a disadvantage, especially when that player isn't listening or jumping in. They likely have their own reasons, but either way, best not to force things where they don't want to be, right?
So, how about you? How do you handle it when a player just isn't picking up on a plot thread? Do you give htem multiple chances? One and done? Hit them with a more blatant opening? Let us know. I'm curious to see other ways to handle it.
I had one thread a while ago that the players never picked up on. I just let it go. There were three or four hooks that they could have picked up but it really wasn't their fault, I was purposely throwing things at them that I knew they wouldn't know how to deal with. I was hoping one of them would put some pieces together but I didn't expect them to. Later after the campaign was long over, I laid out what was going on behind the scenes to a player just to get the story off my chest.
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