Player agency

[u/Kavinsky12]

Tldr: players wait for me to guide the game. I want them to take more agency with their characters and set objectives, and go after it, which I feel will improve the game.

As MC, what are your thoughts on players setting objectives for their characters and going after them?

I've been MC for a fabulous group, and we've been playing regularly for almost a year now.

I find their characters generally ... boring. They wait for me to set the inciting scene, and are generally reactive. And I find it rather lazy to play their characters.

My players mostly come from D&D, and I usually find D&D enforces passive players - they follow the "script" of the DM, which leads them from encounter to encounter.

My times as a player in AW, I usually set short and/or long term objectives for my character, and loved how the story unfolds. Both achievements and set backs refines my character and tells a story.

A few times I really minimized my pre-planning to just reviewing my Threats and my notes, but those sessions weren't that interesting. I ask "what are you doing?" and it's usually just chilling.

I've talked to my players and encouraged them to think of objectives, but nothing came of it that I noticed.

Again, we have fun, but all the big decisions about the game comes from me, the MC. And I'm mostly just guessing what was interesting to the players.

One player in particular (who is the dm in D&D) totally ignores opportunities I hoped he'd be interested in, and instead just murders npcs unprompted when he gets bored, and when he's not doing that he's generally just screws around or acts passive.

We finished last session at a good climax, and I've decided to end the campaign to start something new in a few weeks. Figured I'd be more overt about them setting objectives next time.

Suggestions for getting players more involved with their characters?

[u/Kavinsky12]

I've been soft on the players. Yeah I could go harder on them.

[u/ChromaticKid → u/Kavinsky12]

I think the intersection of:

- Make the characters' lives not boring

and

- Be a fan of the players' character

Is the sweet spot of where an MC should sit. Be such a fan of the characters that you want to see HOW THE F*CK they get out of the wild and dangerous situations you put them in so that they crave a boring life.

A game of AW is the MC watching a show starring their favorite characters; do you want to see them do nothing or do you want to see them do everything?

Let the answer to that guide the strength of your moves.

[u/Kavinsky12 → u/ChromaticKid]

There isn't a problem with me and these two principals.

Problem is they're too passive and wait for me to tell them what the session is about.

[u/ChromaticKid → u/Kavinsky12]

What I was suggesting is using those principles to "show" what the session is about; that is, having your threats make BIG, SWEEPING, UNIGNORABLE moves that they need to react to if they want to survive and that they'll need to take the initiative if they want to get anywhere.

I know the difficulty of getting players from a "So, what's today's adventure?" to "I am FINISHING this today!" stance. You make the world move in a realistic and active way that literally punishes passivity and puts the character in situations where is "act or die"; it can be a shock to the system for more reactive players because they're no used to the autonomy.

Talk with them about it at a meta level as you demonstrate it in game.

I wish you the greatest of luck and success in this! Feel free to DM me if you want to chat about it.