I feel like sometimes when I’m playing a game my players don’t take enough time in one location?
In play throughs on yoochooob people can take up to 2 hours sometimes just investigating a mysterious hut and seeing what it’s made of and what’s in it and things like that.
I find however that my players are in and out and most of the game is spent them running backwards and forwards across the map I’ve given them and me saying ok so that will take you 3 hours to get there on foot and them taking long rests 24/7 without them staying and exploring one place fully.
I’ve been throwing in random encounters and trying to make more interesting destinations so they ask more questions but they are simply too focused on the objective to take the time to look at things and take longer in one place?
Do you other DMs have any tips for me to get them more interested in exploring places further and asking more questions about things?
I’m really stuck here :confused:
Comments (8)
Im not a DM but this is what I would do. If they're solely focused on an objective, put objectives in the area or things that can significantly help them towards the main objective.
As a player, I wish we could explore more often but my group is constantly talking. I just wanna be like "Our character's dont even know each other's names yet. Can we just slow down-"
Give them a needle in a haystack to find. Have them search for an object in the house of a hag. Have some of her piles of junk be cursed, some of them contain magic items.
I agree with the idea that they don’t know who or what or where their objective is. It makes them stop and search the area. Don’t know their in a city? They better go looking for them .
Make their objective vague, I guess?
For example, “find this person, he’s in this abandoned castle.”
“But where in the castle?”
<Shrugs> “Dunno. For all I know, he could be somewhere AROUND the castle.”
Well, now, the players are forced to take their time to look around if there are no obvious places he could go. This could lead them to find treasure, uncover lore that could potentially be a hint (the lost king had 2 chickens, 5 goats, and 30 wives, so the to further in the castle is 25-30 or something).
I’d recommend just let their goals be wider and broader, with no real “solution”, to force them to think about it some more.
This might not be helpful, but hey who knows.
Edit: Ah, Mathsya said (around) the same thing I did. It might be good advice!
Make places confusing. Like the last person said, put required elements across a location. Traps are a great way to make people look around because you only make that mistake once. Hiding treasure. Planning curious objects, symbols and whatnot that lead them to info or hidden things. You can also say suggestive things like, "There's something unsettling about the three poles on the wall." Or "There looks like there might be a pattern to..."
Punish and reward your players for ignoring these hooks with traps and boons. Perhaps they missed a warning about a future peril, or a puzzle/ interactive thing that could cast helpful spells on them or provide treasure or NPCs.
YES I HAVE TO THIS THAT IS GOOD! Thank you!
Maybe don't have the destination be that clear, like a treasure hunt for example. So they can see multiple locations on their quest because they don't know where to go first.
Or, make it require some steps. E.g. finding clues one at a time so they explore more than one place to get more clues.
Or, give them a vague objective. This could also include riddles and puzzles.
That’s a pretty good idea actually! I’m definitely gonna try this out, thank you :blush:
Reply to: I Am Bored
You're welcome, and good luck!