Cultivating an Engaged Tabletop Party
Running a campaign of any tabletop game is a hefty task in and of itself. It requires clear communication, schedule coordination, and a social contract accepted by everyone at the table. Part of the social contract at my table is the acknowledgement that you are responsible for knowing things about your character and the game itself. I like to provide a little leniency where applicable, such as when we’re trying a new system or when a new player joins the group. However, I think it’s extremely important to stress that your players should know the basics of the game, their character’s roleplaying information (quirks, backstory, fears, biases, etc.) and their character-specific mechanics.
Few things are as annoying, in my opinion, as a player who puts a 15-minute pause on the game just so they can review a class feature they should understand for the third time in the middle of combat. Similarly, it can drag out a session if a player needs to ask the group, “How does that work again?” over and over. It’s something that no one really wants to play with, and it’s something that can be addressed through engagement and positive reinforcement, at least in my experience.
Ask Pre-Session Questions
The first way I like to encourage players to learn mechanics for both the game and their characters is through a pre-session quiz. It can be quick and simple, requiring very little preparation from the GM. Prepare one question for each member of the party about something they should know, and have a reward in mind if they answer successfully. The questions should cover things they’re already expected to know, not details they need to go out of their way to research. The rewards should be small but useful so players are genuinely encouraged to answer correctly.
For example, if your party has a rogue, you might ask how evasion works because it’s a mechanic core to the rogue’s gameplay. If the player correctly explains that a successful Reflex save against an effect that normally deals half damage instead negates the damage, they could earn an action point in D&D 3.5 or gain inspiration in fifth edition. Action points are a go-to for me in my 3.5 games because they have varied applications that make characters feel more dynamic and useful in a pinch while remaining fairly balanced overall, much like inspiration in 5e.
You can also mix in questions about the narrative to make sure your players are paying attention. Ask them to recap what happened during the previous session as a “last we left off” moment, or ask them for the name of the primary antagonist, the city they’re in, or the boss they’re about to fight. It’s the repetition that counts here. I once had a player who never knew the names of characters in my campaigns, or even the names of my characters when I played alongside him, but one day I decided to repeat one character’s name as often as I could. I slipped it into sentences whenever it made sense, and eventually it clicked with him. The same principle applies to the quick quiz: it creates an opportunity to make something clear to your players and gives them an anchor for remembering it.
The reward doesn’t have to be either of the suggestions. It could be something homebrewed, something more ambiguous like giving a player grace during a social encounter where they misspeak, or something more powerful like a buff spell effect being cast upon their character. What matters is making sure there’s a clear benefit involved.
Reward Investment in the Story
The next way to help your players ingrain important information, especially when they put in the effort to roleplay in a semi-serious manner, is to provide positive feedback. Tell them how cool their backstory is when they bring it up. Connect that backstory to the main plot through characters or locations they mentioned. More generally, encourage them by making it feel good to take roleplaying seriously in the first place.
Add callbacks to previous sessions that scratch the pattern-recognition part of the brain and make your players say, “Wait, that’s the person who…” Providing an environment where players feel rewarded for doing something that may be outside their comfort zone is how you coax their true heart and soul into the game, and it’s a big part of cultivating a table that’s genuinely engaged. It’s like training a dog: you love them and want them to be able to do a certain task, so you reward them for doing it successfully and provide a bit of praise. In this case, it probably behooves you to be a little more subtle with the praise... unless that’s your thing.
Give Quiet Players Clear Openings
The third option is to make sure players have opportunities to interact with the game. If one or two players seem to be avoiding the roleplaying aspects, specifically direct part of the conversation toward them. An NPC can say, “You there,” to a player who hasn’t interacted, immediately giving that player something to do or say. You can be subtler by asking, “What do you think?” while the party is discussing something.
You don’t need to do this all session or make the game depend on their every move, but you can and absolutely should give them clear openings. Often these players do want to interact but have difficulty seeing when they “should” do so. They could be socially anxious or have trouble picking up social cues, a genuine classic for the hobby, so bear with them and guide the table toward an enjoyable share of screen time for every player.
Communicate Directly
Lastly, there’s the solution I always bring up and no one likes to hear: communicate your feelings with the group. You want your players to be more engaged? Tell them. Tell them to get off their phones while you’re monologuing. Tell them they need to have some kind of backstory. Tell them they need to understand what their character does at a basic level.
It’s okay to need to look something up from time to time, but if it’s a consistent issue where someone is interrupting a session or sitting like a dead fish while everyone else is playing, say something. You can even say, “If you don’t have some kind of backstory or motivation, I won’t introduce your character yet.” It can seem harsh, but something like a cursory backstory is a reasonable minimum to expect from a player. If the carrot doesn’t work, sometimes you may need the stick.
Start with shared expectations: If the campaign hasn’t begun yet, use Session 0: A Guide to Starting Campaigns to establish the group’s responsibilities and preferred style of play together.