How to get players to cross the Despair Event Horizon?

[atemu1234]

Not linking the trope here, for obvious reasons. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife)

How to get my players to become so depressed by the contents of the campaign, they take it seriously and be either heroes or villains. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NeutralNoLonger)

[Phelix-Mu]

Not linking the trope here, for obvious reasons. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife)

How to get my players to become so depressed by the contents of the campaign, they take it seriously and be either heroes or villains. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NeutralNoLonger)

I will refrain from looking at the links in depth due to the late hour, but contrary to what might seem to be the case, being really depressed often has the opposite effect, and makes people apathetic and disinterested. Of course, your players will play it as they see fit, but that's how depression sometimes manifests in real life.

[Gnome Alone]

Yeah, do you mean "depressed" or do you mean more like "appalled"? Cuz, y'know, "anger can be power, if you know that you can use it."

Do you have a specific thing in mind or are you wondering about how to create a sucky suck-ass impending-crapsack-world (that sucks) from whole cloth?

[BrokenChord]

First, this might be better in the Roleplaying general section.

Second, you are sly. Trying to trap me in TVtropes under the guise of preventing nerdsniping. Gah.

Third... Hm. This is actually a really tricky question, and there's no surefire way to make it work. The method is different depending on the type of players you have.

For those that get really emotionally invested in the game and provide acknowledgement to fine detail, spend a good half the campaign setting up a base of positivity for them. Let's say they're part of a major guild in the game. Have them work their way up through the ranks over many missions, getting to know NPCs (both through working with them in minor ways and, of course, regular interaction) in occasionally major but usually minor ways. Have the young apprentice who joined the guild after the players (and who is thus at a lower rank) ask them advice about working his way up the guild while slipping in something involving a life goal of his; have the messenger make a small (non-creepy, though the boundaries here depend on your players) pass at one of the characters whenever he delivers a message to the group; have the old grumpy stable-hand reminisce about how similar he was to the adventurers back when he was a warrior himself; have the senior knight bail them out of trouble (with the law or angry people, not in combat) once in a while while being a generally cheerful guy who invites the PCs to parties and such (parties are ripe with options when it comes to throwing in plot hooks, so this is a multi-faceted benefit) without being the person who assigns them on missions and stuff, but rather just a friendly ally or even friend if the PCs choose to interact with him more; give the leader of the guild some sob story involving his son's soul being bound to a beast and his leading the organization for an opportunity to be the first to hear if the creature he's searching for is encountered so he can save his son from eternal binding. Of course, make sure to give them practical benefits for gaining rank too; aforementioned bailing out in legal situations, guild support, increased authority, stuff like that. Then put them through a really tough few sessions that stress them out a lot, particularly by way of somebody not related to the aforementioned organization betraying them. So they're pretty worked up, and hope to return home for some much-needed rest and time to ask advice of their contacts... And the guild, along with all those minor and major NPCs and all their unresolved conflicts and aspirations that the players have probably become quite attached to hearing about, have gone up in smoke. Everybody's dead, without any character resolution for them. They're just gone, due to something that has nothing to do with them (bonus points if you can make the players feel like their characters caused it indirectly), that they were powerless to stop, and that immediately halted everything they were all hoping to accomplish. That usually pushes players in their despair buttons.

Of course, you could also have the kinds of players primarily concerned with teh lootz and personal power, who randomly pick and choose NPCs to like regardless of your intentions to make them likable or the opposite, and who would take the deaths of those they care about as a sign that "this isn't the right game to be making emotional connections" right before looting the peoples' bodies. In which case, hell, target their loot. Give them OP equipment, then have one side attack them with Rust Monsters and Oozes with Disjunction SLAs. They can choose to flee, and probably become so desperate to keep their items that they'll resort to anything, or their souls will be broken as their equipment is. Either way, you done it.

And if they're somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, or more adequately described on another spectrum entirely, well, the best thing you can do for us to get our help is to describe your players themselves, so I won't bother listing other possibilities.

[Venger]

Not linking the trope here, for obvious reasons. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife)

How to get my players to become so depressed by the contents of the campaign, they take it seriously and be either heroes or villains. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NeutralNoLonger)

specifics would be more helpful than trying to give advice on the entirety of how to GM well without knowing anything about your group. anything you feel is relevant would be helpful, but I might start here:

1) what specifically is it in your game you were disappointed they didn't care more about?
2) why?
3) how did you think they would react?
4) how did they react?
5) why do you think 3 and 4 have different answers?
6) what kind of a game do you want to DM?
7) what kind of a game do your players want to play in?
8) do 6 and 7 have different answers?
9) how might you reconcile the two goals?

as it stands, there is no "right" answer to your question. if you're trying to run an involved horror game, CoC style, and your players wand a WoW style hacknslash, it won't matter how many dead were-puppy baby orphans you pile on them, they'll just keep spamming their highest DPS until you give them more lootandexpee. neither playstyle is wrong and one can certainly enjoy either (or both) but if you and them think you're playing different games, you're mostly going to talk past each other.

[Extra Anchovies]

I will refrain from looking at the links in depth due to the late hour, but contrary to what might seem to be the case, being really depressed often has the opposite effect, and makes people apathetic and disinterested. Of course, your players will play it as they see fit, but that's how depression sometimes manifests in real life.

This. The best way to get someone to stop playing a game is to make it stop being fun. Nobody likes being depressed.


Yeah, do you mean "depressed" or do you mean more like "appalled"? Cuz, y'know, "anger can be power, if you know that you can use it."

Also this. Give the characters a depressing situation, and the players will get angry at the setting that has given their characters such a sorry lot in life. Then they'll probably start taking the game as seriously as you seem to want them to.