Pubblicato il 2/11/2025
It sometimes happens that players are not interested in the challenges presented or try to avoid risks. In general, there are three practical approaches to manage this situation:
An open conversation is often the best way to start. It is helpful to avoid judgment and prefer questions that provoke reflection, such as requests about choices made or character motivations. Establishing shared expectations together fosters a positive environment and builds enthusiasm for what awaits the group.
Useful quote from Hitchcock: two people talking in a café, and the bomb explodes—surprising the audience for a second. But if the audience knows about the bomb, the tension is sustained for much longer.
Anticipating consequences can encourage players to participate more actively.
Useful questions to open communication:
What do you expect from this campaign?
Which elements of the story have interested you the most so far?
Is there anything you’d like to explore more with your character?
How would you feel if your character faced [specific situation]?
Do you prefer more direct action or political intrigue?
Does the current pace of the sessions feel right to you?
The start of a campaign can always involve characters with a clear motivation to act.
If it’s not too late, always start from characters who have a reason to act. Always ask for an active goal for the character (something they can work towards) and an active opposition (a group or force actively hindering their actions). This means you can use these elements to motivate each player as you like in every adventure.
Remember:
An active goal to work towards
An active opposition that blocks the path
These elements give the GM ideas to involve every player meaningfully in the adventures.
Examples of active goals:
Find out who killed their mentor
Restore their guild’s reputation
Recover an artifact stolen from their family
Become the city’s arena champion
Find a cure for a disease affecting their village
Examples of active oppositions:
An assassin guild that wants to eliminate the character
A corrupt noble controlling the courts
A cult preventing the discovery of ancient truths
A rival competing for the same goal
An organization seeking to destroy what the character protects
To shake things up, it can be helpful to disrupt the status quo. For example, making an apparently safe refuge unsafe or involving an NPC dear to the PCs.
This technique should be used sparingly, since it can be perceived as excessively punitive, but remains a valid tool for evolving the campaign and bringing players out of their comfort zone.
A practical example is the destruction of a key location in the story, forcing the group to face consequences and immerse themselves in the plot.
Beyond individual objectives, it is crucial to identify a strong connection that unites all characters and motivates them to act as a team. A collective narrative hook creates group cohesion and justifies why these adventurers keep working together even when things get tough.
A good group hook should:
Be relevant for all characters, even in different ways
Offer opportunities for collective growth
Create narrative tension that requires cooperation
Evolve over the course of the campaign
Practical example:
Imagine a group of seemingly unrelated adventurers: an exiled warrior, a wizard seeking forbidden knowledge, a thief on the run from creditors, and a cleric in search of lost relics. The narrative hook could be that they all receive the same prophetic dream, leading them to the same city, where they discover they are the only ones able to see and fight shadow creatures invisible to others. This makes them essential to each other: only they perceive the threat, and only together are they strong enough to fight it. The bond deepens when they learn that their backgrounds are mysteriously connected to an ancient prophecy.
Final tip:
Using these approaches together makes sessions more engaging and stimulating, increasing player participation and the intensity of the narratives.
Blog adventure hooks, character creation, group motivation, player engagement, RPG, RPG advice, tabletop RPG
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