GM Arrgggghhhh!

HurstGM

OK so minor irritation rant. My players are agrivating me! So my current game USS Sanctuary is coming to an end. Thats all well and good and life has prevented the endgame from happening yet, but thats not my irritation. My newest game is still set to private until it is ready. I consider it ambitous in several ways mostly because it taxed my programming abilites and well im trying to make it look cool. So its a more character driven story so their backgrounds not the cruncy part of their characters is more important. Of couse i know gamers are nortious for waiting until the last minute and i keep getting told ill get around to it. One guy was done WAY ahead of time, but he coming back from honduras so he is a gaming junky looking for a fix. The rest of them are not getting it done of course. I know this is the plight of the GM and I am trying to be a pain and overly demanding. I was wondering any ideas to get players more engaged. I have thought about electroshock therapy but im sure the battery cables would be uncomfortable.

GamingMegaverse

I find that letting them participate more in the process helps quite a bit. I encourage my players to participate by giving them multiple options on which direction to go. Currently, as they had not acted as a group, there is a bit of a reset, and they have 8 different places to go in the world. This has led to a string of emails, questions, and discussions outside of the game (which happens Saturday). The other way I keep them involved is rotating the logs through the group, and rewarding anyone who does a log with xp. Most of all, I take it seriously when players tell me something is not working. I heavily encourage feedback, because if the players are having fun so is the gm.
killervp
"A God...Rebuilt":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/a-god-rebuilt
Duskreign's "COTM for November 2011":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/wyrmshadow/wiki_pages/112011

arsheesh

Along with the positive incentives mentioned by Killer, you could try negative incentives as well, such as letting your group know that the campaign will not begin until everyone has completed their bio. So long as this is done in a non-confrontational manner, and you explain the reasons for this decision (that is, why character bios are so important in this campaign), then I think this can be a good way of communicating your expectations for the campaign up front. Moreover, it puts pressure on the procrastinators to get their act together since their inaction is holding up the whole group. If things get put off for too long you can always just find more responsible players to fill the seats of more flaky players (but let's hope it doesn't come to that!).

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

twiggyleaf

HurstGM

I appreciate your pain. Both KillerVP's and Arsheesh's advice are good but each gaming group REALLY does differ in this matter. Some players are just not as interested as us GMs and sometimes you just have to accept this and be grateful for any input. However, it IS important to have characters set up for the GM before play if possible so I would continue to offer gentle coaxing if I were you, but remember, even if players only bring their updates on the night, you can still have a good time playing!


twiggyleaf
"Shimring - The Faces of Divinity":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/shimring
(a multiplanar 3.5 D&D campaign)