I feel so bad when one of my players engages and then later apologizes for “taking too much spotlight” 😭. Honey, you’re fine! We’re all grateful as fuck for you.
I’ve had one of my players pull up another for this. Matt would always engage and RP. He became the defacto leader. And James who never RPd pulled Matt up for declaring himself leader.
It’s a fine line to walk. I try to get other players RPing more by asking them questions or asking them to do a thing. One of our players specifically said that she just liked watching everyone play, which is rough when you’re trying to share the spotlight. It’s not a passive game. Everyone needs to engage a bit or all of the weight is on the ones who will.
I 100% relate to this! It gets really old being the only one who plays their character instead of themselves, and I try to help others be motivated to engage, but lots of times it doesn’t work out and it feels like I’m a frontman to the whole group when that’s really not what I want at all.
I actually really appreciate the basic intro to FATE core because of this. When I led a one-off it’s what I started all the players with before they created characters, and I feel like it helped them become more engaged. The rules of your character in FATE Core are (my summary):
- Your characters are proactive, competent, and dramatic
- you are an active participant in storytelling - everything needs to make sense - narrate your rolls and justify [using inspiration]
- Fighting isn’t the best outcome many times, look for creative solutions as you can
I used to be in a lot of bad groups, with really horrible DMs and they would regularly shame me for actually roleplaying my character and engaging in roleplay instead of just shitposting and being a dumbass, or for like, actually making a character instead of exclusively hyper-optimizing for solely combat.
Let me join your FATE group
And as a DM the Omni man player is far far more welcome at my tables.
Damn right.
You might feel that way, but if they’re complaining that you steal the spotlight too much, theyre probably introverts who find it too hard to cut in without you allowing them a chance.
I will literally let my table sit in silence before butting in.
Like, I’ve trained myself to hold back so much I struggle to get a word in edgewise in more proactive groups.
The problem is definitely they’re introverts, but I can’t force them to talk.
Dear gods, yes. Ask me how many characters I’ve had to reroll because the rest of the pasty plays mechanically and nobody else wants to Face or even knows what a Face is.
But then the table acts like I’m holding up the game when I do Face things to advance the game. It’s a role playing game, lads and lasses. What did you think this was, a dice game out back of the pub?
I encourage high engagement players to toss the spotlight to lower engagement players. It isn’t solely on the GM to make sure everyone gets their turn in the spotlight.
Have your character ask other characters what they think, refer NPCs to them, suggest they go first/attempt a task, etc.
I think there’s also only so much you can do if people just won’t engage.
Kick/leave
Any table that has a “main character” can fuck right off
No table should have a main character, but having standout characters is pretty common.
When I had this issue I made it my characters goal to engourage my party’s growth.
I ended up being the leader by merit of my character being more forward thinking and organised.
So instead of me handling anything I’d be like… “Elf go talk to that guy I have a feeling you will get in well”
I encouraged them to grow in character.
The way I handle this is that I make an effort to use my role-playing to make other players engage.
Ooooof
*too
No, the usage in the meme is correct. It’s saying “have to be” not “in addition to”.
I’m referring to “You RP to much!”, which is wrong.
Oh, look at that. Carry on.
