RP attracts all sorts of players and I feel most groups have some kind of balance between the… let’s call them Contributors and Observers. Contributors are the RPers you can depend on to push the plot forward. They are quick to interact, quick to try things, quick to look for solutions. Then there are Observers, who tend to be more timid, rarely do anything without direct prompting from the DM, and generally seem content to sit back and watch rather than interact.
Do you do anything to coax the latter into becoming more like the former? Do you have any methods to share?
(Note: I’m talking about RP from the event perspective, not social RP.)
Its very much about trying to make sure you respect how different people approach rp and also the fact that some people may be a little more hesitant or shy, or suffer from social anxiety when put on the spot.
I think the best way to encourage people is to ensure that you do have a very welcoming atmosphere where people can join in whenever, without feeling forced to.
Where every contribution adds a little something and makes it enjoyable, but you’re fine to watch till you manage to jump your own shadow too.
I’ve been a part of a couple guilds and letting people get some inspiration and see how things flow helps them set something up themselves.
Initially we only had 2-3 people hosting, but eventually more and more people encouraged each other after having a go, each with their own spin on storytelling but with a framework for encounters and stats to make it easy to for people to set up a fight here and there and more without having to design it all from scratch.
It took a while but after a solid 2 years almost of trying to reinvent the wheel but we ended up with a very lightweight dnd inspired system that takes the best of that and makes it something far easier to pick up and adapt ^^
Edit: We ended up being fortunate enough to even find someone who knows a thing or two about modding and made a small add-on that lets you set and see your stats and makes appropriate rolls with a click, adds any modifiers up and puts them in the group or raid chat.