Discussion:I need to know if this happens to anyone else's group.

If it was a group you did have or a group you may have now, has anyone had a very dysfunctional group? I mean to the point where things couldn't get done, and half the time you got all together you didn't even get to play. My group wants to play and we make plans to get together and it appears that it will work out. Then we all get together and we might get to play but most players get far to distracted with things in and out side of the game. My group has two people with ADD and Its just a bad mix, but they both just keep wanting to play but when together they are distracted or lead themselves or others astray. But i've never seen any other group as dysfunctional as us. So have any of you ever had a group similar to us?

Marasmusine (talk) 17:16, 2 December 2013 (MST)

Alas, D&D is a game which requires the players to focus on what is happening. I have one player who is always checking his phone or wandering off: I don't bother waiting for him anymore. If he misses out on a bit of story, I'm not repeating myself. If he's not there when it's his turn in combat, he misses his turn. But that's just one player. If your whole group is like this you can try two things. 1) You can switch to a more carefree fantasy game. Try Sorcerer's Cave (or whatever the 21st century version is, Super Dungeon Explore perhaps). 2) If they still want D&D, communicate firmly. If it's a particular thing that's distracting them like phones, ban phones from the gaming table, you don't even start playing if they are present. Before you start, tell them you want them to get their game-head on. If they start talking about something non-game related, give them a minute (we all natter about out-of-game things) then tell them to focus. If they keep doing it ask them if there's a problem with the way the game is being run. Do they want to play it or not? Marasmusine (talk) 17:16, 2 December 2013 (MST)

SgtLion (talk) 13:10, 3 December 2013 (MST)

I used to play DnD in online sessions, usin' Skype and a thing called gametable. People often would show up very late, or not at all. Sadly there was never much we could do about that, but provided at least a few people were around and paying attention, our sessions went on finely. People who were heavily distracted or didn't show up just didn't participate much for the session, if their character was necessary for anything the DM would just assume their character and the player could deal with the consequences (though rarely anything drastic) as punishment for not being around to play it themselves. Though I guess that only works if you have enough people. And same as da big M up there, people would just miss combat turns and useful story if they weren't paying attention. It's extremely frustrating if people are too distracted to participate in any meaningful way and the game barely progresses. But yeah, they should probably be more excited to play if they really want to, I'd see if there was some way to improve the experience for them, if they care about playing, they'll probably pay more attention if yah do somethin'. --SgtLion (talk) 13:10, 3 December 2013 (MST)

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