dice.camp is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
A Mastodon server for RPG folks to hang out and talk. Not owned by a billionaire.

Administered by:

Server stats:

1.8K
active users

Vinnie (any)

BitD yesterday was a disaster. The players didn't remember anything about previous sessions and started endlessly planning and talking to gather information. Next time around I'll need to spoon-feed them their opportunities more. Anyone got tips?

@greenWhale I have learned that if you have players that don't track clues and information trails, you just can not play games that depend on that. Alternatively, you start every session with a "this is what you know" monologue. I find the latter less satisfying, but have done it some times.

@AndreasDavour the issue is rather that we played The Sprawl before, and they're used to do 'legwork'. Need to ween them off off that. 😅

@greenWhale ah, so it's managing expectations then.

@AndreasDavour probably, even though I did communicate the 'no planning' thing Ad the first two sessions went just fine. I was expecting them to grab this opportunity but they went full paranoia 'everyone is out to get everyone', believing they were being set up for failure by a religious charity. 😬

@greenWhale huh, trust is a fragile thing, indeed.

@greenWhale isn't #bitd designed around flashbacks rather than planning? You might need to just not allow them to do so much planning.

A recap at the beginning of the session is often a good idea anyway. Since you don't write a plot for BITD, you could ask one of the players to do it if you like

@trantion yeah, I agree. Didn't work sadly. 😭

@greenWhale which part did you try but didn't work? Even (more so) in games without flashbacks, getting players to stop over planning can be important.

If they can't agree on a plan, I make sure they've all spoken and then pick someone "at random" whose idea is reasonably sensible based on what I know that they don't.

If they all want to plan too much, make consequences for inaction. Perhaps they lose an opportunity, or the guards get suspicious

@trantion consequenties for inaction are always great in theory. Think i need to add ideas for those in my prep. Thanks, will look into it.

The talk about no planning and a recap is what I already tried. They just kept on looking for plots against them, while it all was just a simple opportunity.

@greenWhale do the players also think it's boring, or do they like planning? If they agree, remind them they're meant to be dashing rogues who take risks, and failing can be fun. If they like planning, maybe it's not the right group for you

Some of my players overanalyze in combat. E.g. one dove into the rules & measuring squares to jump over a river. I told him that's like his PC checking the site with a tape measure during combat, and if he'd fallen in the river it would have been fun anyway

@trantion the tactical thinking really isn't the issue the social overthinking is though. I have some?ideas?now to implement. Thanks! 💚🐳

@greenWhale I make the players write down their three most important lines of inquiry at the end of each session. "What is top of mind right now to your characters?" And also we rarely go longer than two weeks between sessions.

@mrundkvist aha. Might be interesting to try the inquiry thing. Was already trying to come up with one (they chose the score already last time, but didn't remember it) possible idea, maybe I need more? 😅

@greenWhale Pardon? The players come up with their own inquiries.

@mrundkvist maybe I need more inquiries like you said, was what I meant. Not that I need more from you. Your comment was helpful, thanks. 💚

@greenWhale If you as the GM make the players take responsibility for their planned inquiries, then you will know in advance what they are going to do at the start of the next session. Makes it easier to prep. 👍

@mrundkvist yup, added this to my prep template. Thanks.

@greenWhale I usually only let my group ask one Gather Information question per player *before* a score, to limit excessive inquiring. Gathering further info is either done during the score or in a flashback.

Gathering Information before the score also isn't so much about planning but more about scene building. If one player asks "What kind of defenses are there?" and someone says "I'd love to do a score with ghosts!" then there'll be occult traps or something. That isn't necessarily bad.

Also, some players *enjoy* the planning part. BitD gives you an engagement roll and flashback mechanics so you can shorten the prep to a single "planning & load" question and then dive straight into the action. But that doesn't mean you *have* to use it.

In future games, consider giving your players some time to come up with the rough outline of a plan, and then when they start diving into minutiae and contingencies, just say "I think now it's time to roll engagement!" and go from there.

@hostilearchitecture I'll add the one question rule to my game, thanks. 🐳

@greenWhale Well, for one, I can tell you that they're not playing Blades in the Dark and you're letting them not play Blades in the Dark. One of the chief axioms of play is “Drive it like you stole it” in reference to your character.

If they feel like they've got time to endlessly plan and talk, then they aren't out there driving it like they stole it. They're not feeling the pressure to accomplish things; they're just feeling pressure, which means they don't feel like they need anything that's going to push them out of that safe space.

They're not hungry. Your job is to make them hungry. Part of that very well could be simply not giving them the chance to be otherwise.

I assume that you finished up downtime at the end of the last session, however long ago that was. That means this session absolutely should have kicked off with a banger in media res. If they want to talk to people and investigate, it needs to be in flashbacks. Right here, right now, they are in the shit and have to make decisions appropriately.

Particularly after a break in play, you absolutely have to get right back into the thick of things and make it be really hot; otherwise, the engine just doesn't turn over.

@greenWhale Maybe you're already doing this, but "assertively pushing" your players into the score framework on p. 127 helped me corral large groups of players into a score. The *instant* that they can identify a type of plan, start asking them what the detail will be. Once you have a detail and a type of plan, start the engagement roll and, go!

@greenWhale
My best tip is cut to the engagement roll and be lenient with the price of flashbacks. We flesh out the details with flashbacks, while we build the engagement dice pool.