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Game Master's Laboratory

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1 contribution to Game Master's Laboratory
Vague Player Goals
I'm starting session 1 of a new campaign next week. I've already had a session 0 and my players came up with backstories and what I consider to be the beginning of character goals. I'm running into two problems in my session planning: 1. Specificity in goals. Most of my players seem very hesitant to identify goals with an reasonable amount of specificity. I keep bringing them back to the principles of measurability/achievability and the possibility of failure, but they don't seem to be getting it. I wouldn't really consider many of them to be goals at all - ie - "Meet new people and have new experiences" 🙄 or "Find a purpose" 🤮. This is making it difficult to plan encounters for session 1, which leads me to my second problem. 2. If I can't get players to be more specific in goals, how do I plan a session with encounters that feel worthwhile and encourage my players to take goal-making seriously? If I can't get them to have good short terms goals at the very least, would it be best to create an initial encounter that might get them at least to start asking themselves how their characters would react to situation and new information learned?
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New comment 23d ago
2 likes • 26d
@Tim Oltjenbruns I think old habits might be key here. One player had some really low hanging fruit for goals based on the backstory he came up with. Even as he was setting up vague goals, I kept saying "What about this from your backstory? That seems like good goal." I just think being allowed to participate in the creation of the story just isn't something they're used to.
2 likes • 26d
@Tim Oltjenbruns I'll try some of these with them this weekend online. Hopefully it will give me enough to shape the first encounter. I'm hoping that after that they'll get more into it.
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Devin Morrill
2
11points to level up
@devin-morrill-9578
Plays mostly DnD 5e and 2e. Interested in Call of Cthulhu. Can't wait for Cosmere.

Active 1h ago
Joined Aug 9, 2024
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