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LilligantEX
2013-10-31, 11:38 PM
I am currently DMing a long campaign that has six players. Of recent times, it has been incredibly difficult to make sure they are all paying attention. I often have to repeat information two of three times because players are busy chatting to each other and not concentrating. I have explained that this is a problem to them before, but it doesn't help for more than a few minutes. Two of them have attention disorders, so that obviously doesn't help.

Part of the problem is that there are six of them. When we have played nights with 4 because people have been away, things tend to run incredibly smoothly. We're all friends though, so just ditching people is not an option.

Any suggestions?

AMFV
2013-10-31, 11:41 PM
If dropping people isn't an option. I would have storylines where they split up more often, ask the conversers to leave the room for a bit, that way you can focus on the other players, then give them their moment in the spotlight as well. This will lead to a longer game but more in-depth interactions, it will also give the attention disorder folks an opportunity to leave the game and participate in other things to unwind.

Also what sort of things do each of your players enjoy? Knowing that might help us to give more specific solution options.

LilligantEX
2013-11-01, 12:07 AM
Oh sure, here's a little rundown on them:

P1 [Monk] - Likes role-playing and opportunities to show off his monk skills.
P2 [Witch] - Likes opportunities to use detect magic, spellcraft and cast.
P3 [Bard] - Tricky one. Likes to interact with characters, but sometimes is totally disinterested for a whole session no matter how hard I try. Though it doesn't always bother them: last session they were happy to trail behind the party and work on bardic songs for RPing.
P4 [Rogue] - Likes to role-playing and make use of rogue skills. Probably the most consistently enthusiastic and adapts well to all sorts of different challenges. Never just sits back because the current challenge doesn't fit his character's expertise.
P5 [Rogue] - Rarely, if ever, role-plays, but likes challenges and combat.
P6 [Fighter] - Struggles with the rules and doesn't like too much combat. Prefers to explore interesting places and find interesting things.

But it's difficult to keep their attention, even if they're up against something the majority of them enjoy. When they ARE paying attention, they tend to all yell at me at once. :P Then, if I talk to them one by one, everything slows down again and they get bored.

AMFV
2013-11-01, 12:14 AM
Oh sure, here's a little rundown on them:

P1 [Monk] - Likes role-playing and opportunities to show off his monk skills.
P2 [Witch] - Likes opportunities to use detect magic, spellcraft and cast.
P3 [Bard] - Tricky one. Likes to interact with characters, but sometimes is totally disinterested for a whole session no matter how hard I try. Though it doesn't always bother them: last session they were happy to trail behind the party and work on bardic songs for RPing.
P4 [Rogue] - Likes to role-playing and make use of rogue skills. Probably the most consistently enthusiastic and adapts well to all sorts of different challenges. Never just sits back because the current challenge doesn't fit his character's expertise.
P5 [Rogue] - Rarely, if ever, role-plays, but likes challenges and combat.
P6 [Fighter] - Struggles with the rules and doesn't like too much combat. Prefers to explore interesting places and find interesting things.

But it's difficult to keep their attention, even if they're up against something the majority of them enjoy. When they ARE paying attention, they tend to all yell at me at once. :P Then, if I talk to them one by one, everything slows down again and they get bored.

Okay I would definitely allow people to leave the room for brief side conversations. Try to make stuff that's more focused on certain characters so that they can each get their own thing, then you can have the side conversations outside. This works even better if your players are smokers.

They all seem like good players, so I would just make sure that you focus on each of their interests separately, that way everybody doesn't have to maintain focus on stuff that they're not enjoying, until you get to large combats.

In combat try to explain things excitedly, encourage planning and strategy, music can help with focus, timing people can help as well, because that way you don't get bogged down which is the worst part of combat.

Does that seem like a workable solution to you, or do you see issues with that?

LilligantEX
2013-11-01, 12:22 AM
Planning, strategy, music etc. should help, I think.

Leaving the room is more difficult, since we play in a very small apartment and options for that are limited.

AMFV
2013-11-01, 12:31 AM
Planning, strategy, music etc. should help, I think.

Leaving the room is more difficult, since we play in a very small apartment and options for that are limited.

Try putting the beer and munchies in the Kitchen and then move side conversations that direction. Or in another region of the main game room.

LilligantEX
2013-11-01, 12:40 AM
I'll give it a shot. Thanks!

Psyren
2013-11-01, 10:31 AM
Is everything you say relevant to everyone at all times?

When you're saying something the whole group should give an ear to, just say "listen up guys." And if you're just roleplaying with one person (e.g. the face) then let the others' attention wander a bit/poke through splatbooks/fiddle with their gameboys, as long as they're quiet about it.

If you force them to pay rapt attention to you at all times, even when they don't need to, you'll just foster resentment and make it less likely they pay attention when it's truly important to do so.

Irenaeus
2013-11-01, 11:13 AM
I'll just flat out reccomend downsizing the group. Small groups are awesome, and it's perfectly possible to be friends with people without playing with them.

An alternative would be to spilt them into two entirely separate groups of three players each, and run two different campaigns.

I'm perfectly aware that these probably aren't the suggestions you're looking for, but I think it's at least worth thinking about other options. If the same six players continue with the same game and the same GM, I think the room for improvement is limited, since social dynamics are very difficult to change.

Magesmiley
2013-11-01, 12:28 PM
Don't repeat things if they're not paying attention. If the players are chatting and not paying attention, assume that is what their PCs are doing. Make this very clear in advance.

If they want a repetition, they'll have to have their character spend time taking a look around. Or ask the NPC who was talking to repeat it. Possibly annoying the NPC. Or if it is an event that won't happen again or be repeatable, just shrug your shoulders and say, "Evidently your character wasn't paying attention and missed it."

If it comes around to their turn in initiative and they weren't paying attention or has no clue what to do, their character is delaying. And keep on running the combat.

I've run games with upwards of 10 players and doing these sorts of things helps (but never seemed to eliminate) the issue.

Karkos
2013-11-01, 12:35 PM
This is the exact reason that I limited myself to 3-4 players when I was DMing.

valadil
2013-11-01, 01:08 PM
I prefer having 4 or 5 PCs, but 6 should be fine.

Here are my ideas.

1. In combat, call out the player whose turn it is now and the player whose turn is coming up next. Calling out the next player on deck will give that player a full round of combat to review what's happened and plan his turn. This won't turn off the distraction entirely, but it mitigates some of the damage of a distracted player.

2. Appoint a designated rules lawyer. Questions with GM judgment should still go to you. "Do I use d6s or d4s?" or "what book is the UberNinja prestige class in?" can go to the rules lawyer. This will keep the player question from interrupting you and it will keep the rules lawyer busy.

3. Give out background tasks. One of my puzzle oriented GMs always had us intercepting messages. Solving a puzzle would decode the message. This was great when you were out of the spotlight, but only worked in a game that had room for puzzles.

In lieu of puzzles, figure something else out. I give out XP for character backstory. If a player wanted to write up more backstory, I'd let them do so during game. I'd even accept drawings of the party.

Other background tasks include cartographer, treasurer (make sure you give out lots of little tidbits for them to track though - 2000gp at the end of the adventure is less paperwork than 0-50sp in each NPC's pockets), etc.

lytokk
2013-11-01, 01:33 PM
Speaking as someone with ADHD, it can sometimes be a problem to keep me focused on a game. Sometimes.

If a conversation starts to derail the game, its occasionaly a good idea to take a break. You said that you're all friends, which is a good way to play, but since you're all friends conversations are going to happen. Maybe before the start of the game, have a half hour after everyones gotten there to just talk. You get your notes organized, everyone else gets themselves situated, grab a drink, pop the popcorn whatever. Then, when the times up, let them know its time to get down to gaming.

If you've been playing for a few hours, take a break. 5-10 minutes for every 2 hours or so is about my general rule. Gives the smokers a chance to smoke, bathroom breaks for everyone, and some general conversation. One of the best times I've found for breaks are right before an encounter starts. Before initiative is rolled, but this way, you start up right after a cliffhanger. Sorta like cutting to commercial after a twist on a TV show is revealed, all you can think about is whats going to happen when they get back from commercial. Don't forget to recap what happened in game time 10 seconds before the break. Little tricks like this can help with focus.

Sometimes as a DM you've gotta direct traffic. If people are talking when someone else is doing their turn, its somewhat of a sign of disrespect. While no one means to do this, sometimes you have to remind all players of this aspect.

As was said earlier, having a second person with good system mastery there to help you works wonders. They can explain to someone what damage X weapon, or what skill they're going to need to use to do X. I can't stress enough how important this person is to a large group.