I am having a bit of a problem with RPGs in my new gaming group.

I followed the patented FTB2000 method and grew some local gamers to play with. One of them I knew from work/socially and the other through the first, although I know both quite well from non-gaming socialising now.

One has a (long dead) warhammer background and the other plays WOW. We have been playing boardgames every other Sunday. This has been great - we played small world today and it rocked my geek world!

The first RPG they played was a one off supers game played with a load of gamers I know from uni who I had down for the weekend. This was definitely a 'in the deep end' situation but they both seemed to enjoy it so I decided run an RPG session for them.

We all like HP Lovecraft so I ran a Call of Cthulhu game using savage worlds about two months ago. It was a four hour session with no combat but plenty of RP and voice.

There hasn't been a second session and while one of the players wants to do another session, the other just politely told me that he didn't like the roleplaying itself (I think he liked the gaming aspects).

I think the RP and voice may have been too much for him. He is pretty happy playing Castle Ravenloft (which he brought!) so now I am thinking of hooking in a couple more people and playing D&D with a heavy emphasis on dungeon delves.

That way I think RP could come later naturally, but I am not sure if this would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater?

I need some advice on this before I commit!

*I posted this prematurely and edited it to finish it*

My first inclination is to ask your friend why he didn't enjoy himself. Obviously the other guy was having a good time, so what was it about the situation that set the first guy off?

Obviously, if it's something he does not want to pursue any further, you're not going to make him. But at least get an understanding as to why. Keep it light and let him know that nothing he will say will offend you.

The second bit of that is let nothing he might say offend you unless he outright calls you ignorant, foolish, or uncreative. If nothing else, it'll be good criticism that may help you improve as a GM.

I see role playing similar to cooking. You need to find the right amounts of measurements to make it work out and have it to the taste you are looking for. It sounds like you are looking for an intrigue game rather than a combat heavy game and its about what you are interested in running. I have a very diverse group of players right now. I have a rules lawyer, power gamer, role player (does all the voice and stuff), and a mix of all. I add a little of everything to each game and its just to keep people involved. Its a matter of cooking to taste to each player and group. The FTB 9000 is a guide line for people to become better game masters as well as players, but dont be afraid to add things that you like or take out things that you dont agree with. Get to know your players and build the games to fit what they are looking for. Just dont sell your soul for what players want, its your game and you can put what you want to see as well.

In this scenario like the others have mentioned ask the player who dissatisfied with your heavy role playing session what prevented him or her from having fun. Now based on what you said earlier both of yours player enjoyed a superhero game awhile back. Hopefully that is at least a benchmark to what your role playing savvy will accept as combat in a game. What I worry about in your scenario is your friend will walk away unhappy because there was a hour or so gritty dungeon crawl. So try to find manageable compromise between combat and role playing Maybe try to keep combat and role playing in your sessions to roughly the same allotted time which I sounds much easier to say then achieve.

RPG stands for Role Playing Game. Role Playing can mean talking in funny voices, or it can mean taking on a role... the roll of a fighter, a thief, or a cleric then playing out what you are doing. Not everyone goes for the funny voice thing... I definitely don't. I'm more of a "So I bust the guy over the nose with my .45 and tell him that if he doesn't tell us where the rest of the guys who ambushed us are hiding, we'll tie him to the front of our deuce and a half and run that fucking roadblock." I want to do stuff that I can't do IRL. I don't want to spend a whole session talking... I do too much of that at work and at home. I need to run some dice, and I want some combat... not just that, but it should be there.

The idea that "mature" RP is all funny voices and little combat is false. You don't grow out of combat as a part of improving your game. You find out what you need to do for your group to have fun if you want to improve your game. Your friend might have realized that his idea of a good game and yours are too far apart, or maybe that he really likes Ravenloft.

You got lucky, your friend politely told you what he didn't like about the game. The boards are full of people pulling passive aggressive BS to get their way. Talk to him to see what he liked about the game, and run with it. Maybe a dungeon delve was what he would like. Give it a reason and a plot. It might be a plot as deep as the average porno gets, but have a reason. Throw in some plot elements with the loot. Just because someone doesn't like heavy RP doesn't mean they don't want any kind of story.

While I do agree to this to a limited extent, I'd note that the specifics of how talking work vary highly. Sure, I spend plenty of time talking in real life - however, I've never had to negotiate for time to pay off a debt with a violent loan shark, and probably never will. It's something that is fun in an RPG, is different than what I do in real life, and is ultimately something I want absolutely nothing to do with in real life. Similarly, I'm unlikely to be involved in politics at the level a character might be - sure, I volunteer with a political party, but discussing and making policy with people is way beyond that level. So on and so forth.

I note, too, that you ran a rather small party -- only two PCs. Looking back over my gaming history, the least pleasurable games I've been in have been with the smaller groups. Role-playing is harder and not as much fun when there aren't as many doing the role-playing (as GM you aren't playing a single character). You're roleplaying half the time instead of one-quarter or one-fifth, and you get less time to think out what you're going to do (your turn is every other turn, not once in four or five turns).
I have trouble drumming up a full four-party adventuring group, myself, and note from other forum comments that that is a frequent problem. Perhaps we should start a thread on strategies for finding new players.

I agree, that stuff can be interesting... I just don't want that to be the only thing going on. No, I don't negotiate more time with a violent loan shark, but I do enough negotiating for more time to fix a machine with an enraged production manager. I have spent enough time trying to get alliances between different factions in the union on board with a resolution that doing it in an RPG will get old if it is all we are doing.

In the end, we all come to games with different interests and ideas of fun. The key is to make sure you hit the right notes for your players. Trying to make them like what they don't like is a poor choice of goals IMHO.

My obligatory answer is to tell the RP guy and your GM to switch to Wushu where at least talking earns you dice to DO something.

Gotta love a game where banister sliding and describing the 'axe cam' as the weapon is hurled across the battlefield is worth extra dice in your attack. [And yes, the same system can be used for giant singing robots, dueling fighter planes, and cat mis-adventures.]
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TAZ

These were good suggestions so I emailed him, which was weirdly a little awkward. I did get some good feedback. He likes the mechanical and gamey aspects of the games, and not so much the creating a character and playing a role.

He did say he wanted to carry on with the game though, which is good!



This definitely made a difference; especially as me the and the RP player had an RP love in.



This would be a great idea! I've been trying to get more players but didn't have any luck.




I think that's what I'll try to do now - which brings the question of how.

I know the RP player likes mechanics too so I need to get the game more mechanical/gamey. I'm thinking of using rulesy set pieces

The players are investigating a cult in a small town and where they left of they wanted to bust someone out of an insane asylum..which is begging for some kind of mechanics heavy action

I am struggling for other rulesy set pieces to build the game around though; car chases and combat is all thats leaping out at me. I'm going have RP in the game but make the action the centre of the game not the characters talking to each other.

I'm thinking of using board sections and mini's for combat - I spent ages making them for a different game so I might as well use them! Its a savage worlds game so it still wouldn't be too hard...I hope!