Is there a fix?

[amberpup]

Hi, my name is Amberpup... and I'm a GM for a group that isn't very proactive.

But I can't really blame them, most of the steady game-masters in our club tend to discourage it even when they betray their players for not having it. <shrug> One of the universe's mysteries I guess.

In my DF game, I mostly throw out alot of stuff and then see what gets the players interest. Kinda your story buffet so to speak, with some real newspaper stuff thrown in for good measure. Yet they still wait on me, even if its just some favor to the story line like when I found this article about a fire at a local strip club. Since our neutral ground is a strip club, I decided have the same event take place in the game. The group of course, didn't buy the actually reason for the fire since I stuck in it the game. Didn't believe the police that one of the strippers set another stripper's undies on fire due to a argument. It had to be something more, the game was afoot! 

I will admit, it was a bit of fun but it also got me concerned that I had to be careful from that point on. Any favor, any color I dropped in the game could seen as something more. Now I'm thinking of novel between time for the characters, and how I might encourage them to take over the driver's seat. So the idea of a 'group aspect' came up, since it lets the group decide what cases they be interested in instead of just me asking over and over... and over, and not getting much back. Sure, I support 'lazy' but I do hope they at least spend some time thinking about the game and their characters.

So I guess my question is, have you tried a "group aspect" for DFRPG?
And what other trick do you use for players who only think about the game when at the table?

[synobal]

Have characters become affiliated with various supernatural groups/mortal groups. That has worked pretty well for the undertown games I think. Tory regularly gets jobs from her Yakuza connections, Edward gets cases from the FBI, Jack well jack is a freelancer more or less. Filii gets his missions from the church and Dowan gets hers from the White Council.

Each character has their own reasons to be at a certain place and at times it has them working together and at other times at odds but it is always in the characters best interests to solve what ever is put in front of them or else there is dire consequences.

Consequences are great 

[devonapple]

The simplest advice I've heard for starting out a scene in Dresden and ensuring player buy-in is to select one of the PCs' Aspects and then punch it really hard right away. Force the player to confront a threat to something they hold dear.

This could mean any of the following:
- Touching a character's psychological trigger
- Threatening a character, or his property
- Threatening a character's friend/ally/family
- Threatening a character's job/income/way of life

Basically: attack their stability. Don't dangle plot hooks. Give them a reason to chase down that plot: because their money/loved one/dignity is at the finish line.

And if the only real way to motivate a PC to do something is with a mercenary incentive, like money, then punch the player in the wallet before putting a job in front of his face with a chance to fix that income problem.

Closely related to this is the classic pulp noir scene starter: have someone walk into the room with a gun. Because the enemy may be aware of the PCs and the threat they pose, and could be motivated to throw them off the trail or buy them off sooner rather than later, or eliminate them entirely.

[amberpup]

Thx Synobal... I have been foreshadowing some new low-level npc support groups to help the players. Good witches, a cat's fae court, some local Totem spirits, a street gang.  Because with only four players at the table they do feel limited at times, unlike Harry and his friends.

We see what happens, how well I can sell these npcs.

As to punching folks in the nose.... been there, done that! In fact, in our local club I have a rep for doing that and no doubt that probably influences why I don't get the newer people at my table. Heck, I use to run Amber for years so I know all about making a player's life a living hell. So I rather put that tool back on the shelve for now, and only use it for special occasions.

So while I can twist the knife with the best of them, I rather try something new.

[sinker]

Keep in mind, that if the players won't leave an unrelated bit of color alone, that can be them expressing to you that they find that color interesting. If they want to investigate the strip club, then maybe there is something there. Allow them to direct the game away from where you might like it, and then if you want to be really clever tie it back into where you were going in the first place. If you can quickly adapt to something like this it can give the story more depth, and the players will feel like they are shaping the story and invested in the world.

[amberpup]

Keep in mind, that if the players won't leave an unrelated bit of color alone, that can be them expressing to you that they find that color interesting. If they want to investigate the strip club, then maybe there is something there. Allow them to direct the game away from where you might like it, and then if you want to be really clever tie it back into where you were going in the first place. If you can quickly adapt to something like this it can give the story more depth, and the players will feel like they are shaping the story and invested in the world.

I do agree, but time management is also my job. We already run into a little trouble with the fae cats which as just suppose to be a "small job" and took a whole session. Plus while I can adapt with the best of them, I'm trying to be more careful with this campaign because I usually go 'BIG' when I'm off the map and go all free-form. I'm not new to this, been rp-ing since 1981, even if this is my very first Fate game.

But any advise is welcome, cus you never know.

[Tedronai]

In my experience, you can be a bit more free to engage in that 'punching a player in the nose' business in DFRPG, and FATE in general, than in most other game systems, because A) the player is rewarded for such a Compel with a Fate Point, B) the specific nature of the 'punch' (ie. compel) is actually negotiable, and finally C) the player has the option to refuse such complications by paying off the compel.

First, make sure your players understand those facts, then go wild.

[amberpup]

First, make sure your players understand those facts, then go wild.

More like "Cry Havoc!, and let slip the dogs of war" for my players. 

[peregrinefalcon]

It's hard to be proactive when every time you leave your house, a pack of stories ambush you and take your lose change.

[Alatain]

I have found that the best way to get characters to be active in the game is to play to their desires for advancement. Gain is a big motivator for people, and in DFRPG, it is more difficult to see the "loot" from a venture, focus on setting/personal development rather than physical rewards. For instance, I had a PC that was trying to break in to Baltimore's crime scene for Marcone. He was put in charge of bringing the shipping industry under his control. After a few confrontations with the White Court in the area, I had the White Court cede control of the inner harbor to the PC. The idea being that this would cause the inexperienced PC into a sink or swim situation with a heavy emphasis on the sink part. This forced the player into dealing with the job of managing the supernatural contracts and issues of the area, drawing him into the setting with the promise of more power and challenge.

[YPU]

Alatain brings up a interesting point. The "normal" rpg experience is that the characters wade trough the walls of troubles, mostly enemies, to get to the treasure after which they can relax with their hard earned loot. At least until the next pile of gold calls.

You can twist this around. Does one of the PC's want to become powerful in any particular area? Let him have a piece of it, throw him a bone. They might get lucky and some old guy might retire and drop his piece of the cake in the PC's lap. Seems like its all to easy? remember those walls of trouble? they are going to collapse in in the character like big waves of trouble. But they got their bone, and they are going to fight to keep it, the old guy said he thought they had what it would take, after all.

[Alatain]

Exactly, YPU, sometimes getting what you want is the biggest complication of all.