Some folks don’t mind a campaign where three in-game months pass and the characters turn from farmhands into demigods. It doesn’t necessarily ruin the game, right? But it’s a bit of a smell that something is off. Worlds move slowly. Unfortunately, our attention spans do not.
The school bell rang at 3:19 PM. Dragonball Z was on at 3:30 PM. I usually missed the opening and “last time” recap. I couldn’t choose episodes or binge it whenever I wanted. But I had to know who this purple-haired swordsman from the future was so I raced home every day. It was months before I’d find out and it was worth the wait. When I wanted to watch a movie or play a new video game, I had to wait for the weekend and hope for a trip to the rental store. Then I had to hope that there was a copy available. If I was lucky enough, I’d have 3-5 days to play it before returning it. If I wanted to own it, we’re waiting for birthdays or Christmas.
This might sound like silly side-track into childhood impatience but it’s relevant, I promise. “In the olden days,” we didn’t have a choice but to wait. Time passed. Interests changed. Rewards were sweeter. I think there’s some overlap with this thought and how we run TTRPGs. I think our games move too quickly. We don’t let the setting and story cook. I think we should. I think there’s magic there.
Let’s circle back to our former farmhands, now demigods. In play, nothing felt off. There was time pressure on the plot. The big bad evil villain would destroy the world if the party didn’t act quickly. Why wait? I think we actually experience two related problems as game masters:
- We’re trying too hard to avoid player boredom.
- We don’t know how to run adventures over longer time horizons.
In this article, we’ll cover player boredom. In a separate article, we’ll cover how to run games over longer time horizons.
Player Boredom
No one wants their players to be bored. Games are supposed to be fun! But a boring game and a bored player are two different things. As game masters, the former is our domain. The latter is mostly up to our players. Here’s the blunt truth: a bit of boredom is good for us humans. What about players scrolling on their phones? I’d argue that’s a social contract issue and not a boredom issue.
This obviously becomes much harder in online play as the entire internet is one tab away. And I don’t have a great answer here beyond, again, talking to your players. I’m not opposed to online play. 95% of my games are online. It’s just naturally weaker than in person and boredom is more common.
The following are good signals that you might need to change something in how you’re running the game.
Players Not Asking Questions
Depending on your group, this one may or may not be a problem. Some groups prefer to avoid questions in favor of in-character actions (ex. don’t ask what the runes say, have your character investigate them). But for many groups, asking questions is how players engage with the game world. If you’re getting radio silence on this front, consider what you’re presenting. Do you need more secrets? More enigmatic lore?
Players Not Making Decisions
If your group is frequently silent when the time comes to make a decision, it could be a few things. It could be our hobby’s version of the bystander effect. A designated caller (a selected player that will “call out” the group’s decisions) is a useful tool to get around that. The problem could also be that the choices aren’t clear. In these cases, you can clarify the options in front of the party. But always leave room for the party to come up with new options.
Players Not Talking
I think this is pretty rare. But if you’re really struggling to get any amount of conversation going, it’s probably a red flag. Pause the game and open up a conversation with the table. Here’s a starting script to kick it off:
We’re here to play this RPG and I’m presenting what I think will be a fun time for this group. But I’m getting a lot of silence from you all. What do you think?
In many cases, a player is simply bored. Our society doesn’t encourage or promote healthy boredom so this isn’t much of a surprise. But don’t put the weight of alleviating their boredom on your shoulders as the game master. You have enough to do.
These are some signals that a player is bored:
- Player tunes out when it’s not their turn
- Player isn’t contributing to conversations
The only thing to do here is have a conversation. If they’re truly bored because of a misalignment in their interests and the game, consider parting ways. If you can make a minor tweak to include more of what they like, go for it. In the end, it’s okay for players to be bored. But their boredom might be their problem and should not affect everyone else’s fun.
Quick note: Diagnosed attention disorders are beyond the scope of this article. As always, start with an honest conversation.
The fear of player boredom is real. But the problem isn’t as scary as we might think. We can watch for signals to determine what action to take as a game master. Once we have a good handle on boredom, we can tackle the next piece of this puzzle: running adventures over longer time horizons.
Game on.