"Okay, so?" or, "Stop staring at me and do something!"

[iceemaker]

I've noticed of late that my players tend to take all of their queues for action from me. Maybe they are simply the kind of people that would rather be told a story than participate in it, but it is a little unsettling to me. I present a scene to them, they know their basic objectives, and yet they still loiter about, waiting for me give an in-game hint from an NPC or have some dramatic event occur without any impetus from them.

An example is probably in order. I am currently running the Revenge of the Giants super-adventure for my group, and I have made some modifications to the module so they can tackle the various giant threats in any order they choose, as well as offer some side-quests that don't necessarily pertain to the primary objective. Maybe I'm just not explaining the objectives clearly enough? Or maybe they have no idea what their characters want or should do? I have a feeling it may be both factors.

At any rate, my question is thus: how do I get my players more engaged, more active in decision-making? To encourage them to initiate role-playing and exploration, rather than waiting for Joe Non-Player The 35th to stumble in and give them a quest? I always do the Ross-esque, "What is everybody doing?", but it doesn't seem to suffice for my players.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Tadanori Oyama]

Well, assuming that you've told your players that you want them to be pro-active and make the adventure player driven and they are still doing nothing, than I don't believe there's much you can do. People won't do what they don't want to unless they have some motivation. If you need to motivate the PCs than Patrick could probably give you some carrot and stick tricks, he's good at manipulating people's minds.

[crash2455]

Some players just don't respond well to sandbox games.  One solution may be to try and wean them off of Joe NPC by offering more and more opaque plot hooks.

[clockworkjoe]

If a player does something unexpected do you let them run with it or do you shut them down? Many players experiment with trying their own thing but find that the GM isn't prepared to deal with tangents so they learn to stay on the tracks.

Don't give them any obvious plot hooks. Ask what they are doing and when they stall, just let it linger. Horribly awkwardly. Eventually someone will try something just to get the game going or the game will die and a game that dies because of a little silence or lack of action from the GM isn't the type of game I would play in it but that's just me.

[Tadanori Oyama]

And, depending on how much you like your friends, they could always come across a Bee Queen.

[Dogfish]

End all of your descriptions with a question as how they want to react.

[clockworkjoe]

Angry rattlesnakes released if no one does anything

Whiskey at the table

Mouthy NPCs that make fun of the beliefs of the real players

prop weapons that are really weapons

frame players for crimes in real life

Box of pain

set small fires

players are given two choices: do something in game or stick hand in box of pain

scorpions everywhere

loop this with hidden speakers http://fingersports.blogspot.com/2010/08/tortura-sounds-of-pleasure-and-pain.html (thanks warren ellis blog)

Box of Pain needs payment. in pain.

why haven't you paid box of pain

box of pain is not happy with you

did you know your head can fit in the box of pain

it will fit

i will make it fit

stop screaming

thats either a scorpion or the spider eggs

they're hatching

i can kill the spiders with paint stripper

down it goes

in the box of pain

with you

now will you stop being such a goddamn wall flower

[Tadanori Oyama]

To paraphrase Ross, make it clear to the players that things will happen to them unless they choose to make choices of their own. These things don't have to be constructive, just basically random life events (in a high fantasy world).

There's a house on fire. What do you do?
Nothing? Just going to watch?
The next several houses catch fire as the flames seem to leap to the buildings on either side. Now what do you do?
Not sure? Want to wait some more?
Your house is on fire. What do you do now?

This whole thing, of course, kind of undercuts your goal of not having to do all of the story work on your own since you'll be forcing the players into action just like you would if they had an NPC walk up and give them a quest.

[clockworkjoe]

box of pain

[Setherick]

box of pain

Basically what Ross is saying is trap your players in a box and make them watch Tyler Perry's House of Payne.

[Kroack]

To paraphrase Ross, make it clear to the players that things will happen to them unless they choose to make choices of their own. These things don't have to be constructive, just basically random life events (in a high fantasy world).

There's a house on fire. What do you do?
Nothing? Just going to watch?
The next several houses catch fire as the flames seem to leap to the buildings on either side. Now what do you do?
Not sure? Want to wait some more?
Your house is on fire. What do you do now?

This whole thing, of course, kind of undercuts your goal of not having to do all of the story work on your own since you'll be forcing the players into action just like you would if they had an NPC walk up and give them a quest.

yeah, repercussions and consequences should always be looming over the pcs, for better or for worse.

[iceemaker]

ok ross i

i

you scare me

seriously

And yeah, I basically did what you described, Tad. It really does seem somewhat counterintuitive, but at least it forced them to make a decision quickly. At every decision point, everybody typically just fucks around for twenty minutes making references to the G.I. Joe PSA dubs and forgetting why we're all sitting at the folding card table.

I definitely think I should be asking, "What do you do/How do you react?" more often, rather than just presenting a scene and waiting for their reaction.

Oh, and I probably should try TALKING TO THEM, I guess. Ugh.

[Charlie72]

At every decision point, everybody typically just fucks around for twenty minutes making references to the G.I. Joe PSA dubs and forgetting why we're all sitting at the folding card table.

"You see a boy being attack by a pack of wolves. What do you do?'

"I Yell "Hay kid, I'm a computer! Stop all the downloading!""

[iceemaker]

"A child is trapped in the middle of the frozen lake! One wrong step will mean her end! What will you do to save her?"

"Yell at her, 'WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU FUCKING KIDS DOING ON MY FUCKING ICE?! DON'T ACT LIKE I'M NOT TALKIN TO YOU'".

Yeah, that's basically how it goes.

[Tadanori Oyama]

"A child is trapped in the middle of the frozen lake! One wrong step will mean her end! What will you do to save her?"

"Yell at her, 'WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU FUCKING KIDS DOING ON MY FUCKING ICE?! DON'T ACT LIKE I'M NOT TALKIN TO YOU'".

Yeah, that's basically how it goes.

The child dies. By his own admission the PC owns the ice so the child died on his property; making it his responcibility. He is now hunted by the child's family, friends, and whatever kind hearted adventurers they can convince of the PC's black hearted ways.