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JusticeZero
2020-10-31, 06:43 AM
Trying to get the quiet player to be more active. One of the issues is that her quietness has resulted in me not knowing much about her character, so it's harder to find things to get her to speak up about. Any thoughts on how to put more things to react to in there?
So far, I have "Tinkerer", "Fisherman's Daughter", "Recent convert to the God of Pain and Surgery", "Recently discovered a love of hot spicy food", "Had a lot of medical knowledge implanted during the conversion". Which sounds like a lot, but we aren't currently in a space anybody finds familiar.
This week, the party is investigating a plot that spans three towns other than their own; other than the wererat lair the werecat is in contact with as fellow servants of the lycanthrope God, the town they are in right now investigating a lead follows a military God of death and undeath, and only trades with the pain god's people by riverboat.

False God
2020-10-31, 03:41 PM
Perhaps some strange exotic spicy smell in one of the towns draws her attention, and is conveniently connected to the plot somehow.

Perhaps there is an old dockside tavern full of old fishermen who talk of strange events but clam (buh dum tish) up when other party members are around, and only the fisherman's daughter knows how to get them talking.

You've got riverboats, so any sort of cajun/bayou stylization to the area would cater to both of these points.

Adamantrue
2020-10-31, 04:03 PM
You could try a sledgehammer approach. Have her pass by a guy someone working on a contraption obviously meant to aid in fishing, taking a break with a spicy meal, with a sign over his head that says "Ask me about my inventions".

Duff
2020-11-01, 09:52 PM
Sometimes it can help to talk outside game time to the player.
"How would your character react to..." That helps you know whether that scene will get the result and helps you both prepare a little
Or, some quiet players struggle to think quickly of how to react so:
"I'm planning to have a scene in a temple to Pain and Surgery. You might like to think about questions your character will ask the priestess"

Eldan
2020-11-02, 07:00 AM
Have you tried talking to her out of character? I think that's often a good solution for almost anything you feel uncertain about in character. The two first questions to ask could just be "Hey, you're really quiet ingame, would you like me to involve your character more or are you fine mostly being quiet?" and "What do you think would be things that could be done to involve your characters and yourself more in the game?"

Because some players are entirely fine being quiet and not always involved. And that's fine as a playstyle.

Yora
2020-11-02, 07:27 AM
That character sounds awesome.

I would try including elements in my adventures that are directly connected to the specific strengths and specializations of the characters in the party.

In this case, I'd try doing something with a Frankenstein necromancer who is assembling undead servants out of various body parts, perhaps with clockwork upgrades bolted on to them.

Spiderswims
2020-11-02, 04:01 PM
A simple generic hook can work great, and a good example is an item of power. You have a set up where someone runs over to her, badly wounded, and gives her an item, like say a ring. The wounded person dies, but then another shows up for the ring. Give the ring a nice generic power(once a minute get a +5 to any roll) and make it not come off her finger.

The 'quest' one works too....have a god, king, being, dragon or such pick her as the Chosen One to do a task.

A fun twist one is for the character to see a copy "clone" of themselves....and then try and figure out what is going on.

KineticDiplomat
2020-11-06, 12:14 AM
What does the character want to do/succeed at/pursue? Ask her to provide you a couple goals, with specificity, and you should have easy hooks. The key is specificity.

“Praise PainSurg” is not specific.

“Be ordained as as traveling priestess by the bishop of PainSurg for such and such diocese”. Well, that’s a goal that can be precisely pursued, implies there is a quest in the making to be ordained, and tells you that she is interested in dealing with an NPC and his organIzation.