dagob
Hello all,
I am a DM for a D&D 4th edition group and I am new to obsidian portal. Reading through some of the campaigns I have seen on this site, I have been impressed with the level of player participation, i.e. writing and updating character logs, bios and 'campfire talk'. I made a wiki for our campaign on wikia.com before I knew this website existed. I put a lot of work into it and was frustrated with the lack of participation from my players.
I created a log with a summary of what happened every session along with a preview of what was going to happen next session, with the hope that my players would go to the site to get a heads up on what might happen, and then read the log so that they may actually remember what they did last session. I also tried giving players who miss a session an EXP reward for coming up with a good story of what their character was doing during the missed session, hoping that that would be another incentive to keep up with what was going on.
I want the campaign to be everyone's story and not just what I want it to be, so I don't want to deliver ultimatums. Do you guys have any tips or suggestions? Also if you are taking the time to respond to this, I would also be interested to know what your opinion is of the D&D 4th ed. character creator on the wizards website.
Thank you,
dagob
Comments
Well you've just hit upon one of the most vexing issues of running a site here at the OP. I've been here for over a year now, have run two campaign sites through the Portal and have browsed literally hundreds of others and in my experience, players who regularly contribute to their DM's campaign site are quite rare. I have run into some really motivated players who do actively participate in their campaign site, but these seem to me to be the exception rather than the norm. There was actually a "discussion thread":http://forums.obsidianportal.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=1231&page=1#Item_48 about this very topic some time ago that might offer you some ideas.
As for myself, I use "Prestige Points":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/age-of-legends/wikis/prestige-points to encourage my players to contribute to our Campaign Sites. In essence this is a point based system similar to Action Points, but more elaborate. Players earn points for activities such as: keeping a character journal, writing an interesting back-story and creating NPCs related to that backs-story, etc. They can then use these points to gain either short term or long term benefits (e.g.
Sorry that was kind of a rant... I guess my point is, use positive reinforcement to get them involved, and if they aren't interested in doing the work outside of the game that's okay too. I had a couple players with 10-15 prestige points at one point, and another with 0. This gave the players that were participating out of game a little edge, but didn't hinder the other. Also, if they don't feel like adding to the story in their own ways, then you shouldn't really feel bad about determining where the story goes, because that's probably what they want.
Also, welcome to the Portal :)
For example, when I ran "Sanction of the Athar":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/sotfa, there was virtually no participation from the players. Conversely however, "Sins of the First Age":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/sotfa, which shares a number of the same players, has loads of great input. The key differences? Sins includes lots of opportunities for us players to elaborate on the story, and lots of details we need to keep track of (our storyteller is the one who contributes the least to the wiki). People are much more likely to contribute new stuff than recap things they experienced in person.
Also: Welcome!
I personally enjoy participating in the sites I'm involved in (and the "prestige points" concept in one of them, though I am yet to "burn" any points in gameplay, is a nice touch) but those who don't have the time or interest in engaging in that aspect of the game shouldn't be punished if it's just not their thing.
Welcome to the site, and we'll see you around the forums. I think you should already be able to see that we're pretty engaging here with questions/answers/overall support, so don't hesitate to chime in.
Welcome to the site, dagob! And just so you know, I agree with everything said by my fellow OPites...
And like many other OPites I feel your pain. I put in quite bit of work to the site but its very difficult to get my players engaged. My players REALLY enjoy what I put up on here, they've actually expressed disappointment when I haven't done an update after a session, but getting them to do it is like pulling teeth.
One way I got them to at least give be a character background on the site was to actively incorporate elements of character backgrounds into the story as soon as they gave them too me. Fate chips haven't been much of an incentive sadly. I might have to resort to bribing with pizza, hah!
I have yet to get my players to be active on the site. It was a feat just to get them to sign up and join the campaign... :( I want to try to use something like Prestige Points in this upcoming game to see if I can get them even just slightly involved. Good luck Dagob!
The general rule I've alway gone by for anything online, whether my Facebook page, my website, guild forums, etc... is that everyone else will never be as invested as I am. :)
I've always had XP awards for Journals, art, etc. which I've recently codified on the wiki using what seems to be the standard acronym on OP: SEX
http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/spelljoined/wikis/sex
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My players don't have the same levels of free time combined with ready access to a computer as I do (I work in front of a computer, and my actions are largely un-policed, so no one actually knows how little time this job requires of me), and might not be as motivated to contribute as I am even if they did.
My current experiments mostly center on them submitting things to me in writing (write-ups, background info, etc.) for me to post up for everyone to see. I reward these submissions either with minor experience bumps or single-use in-game rewards.
Good luck, dagob, and welcome to the Portal!
I wish I could just get players. The Borrog Warriors Campaign is ready to go and I'd like to play online using D20Pro. Just Google d20pro if you are not familiar with it.
Arsheesh, I really like your prestige point system and I think I will discuss using it with my players. I usually run low magic campaigns, that is with very few or no magic items, and just give the players inherent bonuses. So far we have all mostly liked that because it simplifies things, but I was thinking that they could buy magic items with their prestige points, with options for other rewards too. That way, if I have a player or two that do not earn prestige points, I can give them inherent bonuses instead. I was thinking that that would make their characters less cool but not left underpowered compared to the other characters with magic items.
Another thing I have tried with some success is doing a role-playing vignette at the start of each session where the players role play an important scene from one of the characters past. I tried to reward one of my players who wrote a good bio for their character by focusing on his story. I wonder though if focusing on a players character who has a weak bio might encourage or interest them to create a more in depth story....
What do you guys think?
Also, how many of you use the wizards character creator and how many of you just use pencil and paper?
Like most of the others here, I was hoping for more player involvement. I do get some though, but others before me are right - some players just DON'T want to be involved and you have to be OK with that. I also instituted the Prestige Point system and this works to an extent. But at least I do get some player involvement on the Forums every now and again, and some have even updated their characters with one of the 3.5 Dynamic Character Sheets, so I can't really complain.
One has to be happy for any player involvement and just don't get upset when it is less than you would like. That's life!
"I met a traveller from an antique land....."
CotM May 2016: Mysteria: set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.
Previous CotM Aug 2012: Shimring: High Level Multiplanar Campaign
Inner Council Member
can some of you spare a moment to let me know if my proposed rewards are in right ball park? they feel very generous to me, but I woudl like feed back from you all to compare it with
each pennant represents a 'bene' here
https://the-great-pendragon.obsidianportal.com/wikis/the-players
and the more in depth explanation of rewards are here
https://the-great-pendragon.obsidianportal.com/wikis/in-game-rewards
There is more discussion on this topic "here":http://forums.obsidianportal.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=1231
Just trying to help out.
I agree with KVP. Your rewards seem cool. Don't worry about being over generous, but if you find that some enterprising player is making a monster of his character contributing too much to the site (sic), then implement a limitation. Contributing too much.....? LOL! The very thought of it.....
twiggyleaf
CURRENT CAMPAIGN: "Mysteria":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/mysteria - set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.
Previous CotM Aug 2012: "Shimring":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/shimring
"I met a traveller from an antique land....."
CotM May 2016: Mysteria: set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.
Previous CotM Aug 2012: Shimring: High Level Multiplanar Campaign
Inner Council Member
OK, I will hold my nerve and see how the rewards system pans out: Then we get to find out if the rest of the party get motivated or de-motivated, as Stealth and Ramsey start racking up the points for the work they are doing already!
I agree with killervp and twiggyleaf, your rewards look fine. I have gone with a system that I have seen here on a few other games adapted heavily for my campaign, despite the rewards being fairly generous I still have one player that doesn't usually take the bait. Not everyone participates, it's a sad fact of life for us GMs. My system (for others looking at this thread for inspiration) is here. "RP Points":https://rise-of-the-durnskald.obsidianportal.com/wikis/rp-points
-Abersade
DM of "Rise of the Durnskald - Wrath of the Fallen Goddess":https://rise-of-the-durnskald.obsidianportal.com/
GM of Rise of the Durnskald: Wrath of the Fallen Goddess - February 2016 CotM
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