Bystander Effect: The Psychology Behind Passive Players and the Design & GMing That Fixes It

Comments · 1K

• RP

  @rpgphd · 4 months ago (edited) · pinned

  Be sure to join us on Discord!! &nbsp;<a href="https://discord.gg/FxEdfeJFqJ">https://discord.gg/FxEdfeJFqJ</a>

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• WH

  @whitehairedbadass3475 · 3 months ago

  Video: &quot;dungeons a dragons&quot;<br>What my teacher brain hears: &quot;encouraging engagement and participation in the classroom&quot;

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• AL

  @alanmallagan · 4 months ago

  I&apos;ve played at a few tables, &nbsp;and run even more, and the one where I&apos;ve seen the least player engagement comes from the DM always starting their sessions by describing a room, city, or social setting, then asking, &quot;So... what do you do?&quot;<br>I&apos;ve never liked that phrase as it always felt like an incomplete invitation to the game. I&apos;ve always likened it to describing a ball to players and expecting them to start a game, when you should be throwing a ball at them and forcing them to react. This whole video was an in depth breakdown of social and psychological dynamics that I&apos;ve felt for a long time, but was never able to properly articulate. Thank you.

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• JA

  @JaunusEnder · 4 months ago

  I had one player have a panic attack at my table, I slipped her a note saying, &quot;you don&apos;t need an excuse or to wait til your turn you can just go&quot; on the back I had to fit &quot;take a moment and let me know&quot; and she only read the inside, thought I was asking her to leave, stormed to her car, cried, read the back, stormed in, hugged me and asked for a moment in private. We all laughed about it later when she tried to apologize for my badly laid out note and supported her almost unanimously at the table when we kicked her abusive soon to be ex girlfriend.

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• RU

  @runeblade82 · 3 months ago

  I always remembered the bystander effect from my first aid classes. When you are helping someone with a medical emergency, you specifically point to someone and tell them &quot;You call 911&quot; in order to prevent the bystander effect. I&apos;ll have to try applying this technique more often when I DM

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• DO

  @douglasphillips5870 · 4 months ago

  I&apos;ve played games where talking uses no time, so characters can say something even if it&apos;s not their turn, taunting the bad guy, shouting a warning, making a quip, etc which helps keep players in the scene

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• BA

  @BabyKrogan · 4 months ago

  I had the opposite problem as a player for the longest time. I was intensely locked in the whole time and whenever there was even a second of silence I felt like I had to do or say something, dominate every NPC conversation, etc... When I noticed I was completely taking over all the time I had to physically pinch my own mouth shut to stop myself from doing it at first but I was able to become more thoughtful and calm as time went on.

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• FI

  @FitFig-b3u · 3 months ago

  One thing that I&apos;ve noticed that helps any passive players at my tables is to stare what I think their character is thinking/feeling/etc. then asking for confirmation. Either they agree or correct me, but the goal has been achieved either way. I&apos;m centering their mind into their character&apos;s inner world. Thus, when I ask them specifically what they want to do, they still have choice but it&apos;s much less paralyzing.<br><br>Plus, since RPG players generally care, at least a little bit, what their party members are feeling, it can force them to engage with the scene, at least somewhat.

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• MA

  @marcuselias4412 · 4 months ago

  It&apos;s insane that youtube never recommended your channel until now. I&apos;ve been facing this exact problem for years with very little in the way of finding actionable solutions. You give logical, modular, straight-forward suggestions with examples. Amazing work. 👏

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• MA

  @Mahu0tsukai · 3 months ago

  As a teacher, I can confirm this absolutely plays out in classes, so often. Ask an open question? No-one answers. Name a person and ask? They are willing to answer and know the answer

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• KE

  @kevinmcmanemon3948 · 4 months ago (edited)

  A group of 6 that I used to DM for had trouble staying engaged while others were taking their turns. &nbsp;We decided to try rolling new initiative at the top of each round of combat. &nbsp;It technically slowed things down, but since everyone had to pay attention to the state of the field since they didn&apos;t know how long it would be before their next turn we found that players had actions ready more often on their turns which made up the difference. &nbsp;It also meant that the plate wearing paladin wasn&apos;t always stuck at the back of the line waiting and the rogue didn&apos;t always get to act first each round (mostly, but not always).<br><br>One thing to be cautious about if you&apos;re going to try this is that the DM rolling high on one round and low on the next meant that most of the party would get to go twice before the enemies could act (and vice versa). &nbsp;It was usually fine, but there were occasionally big swings in tempo when this happened. &nbsp;Conditions that affect initiative or Dex (paralyzed, Slow, etc) became just a bit more powerful.

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• NO

  @Noraver_Tidaer · 4 months ago

  Wow, this is spot on! &nbsp;I&apos;m typically one of those people that likes to &quot;fill roles&quot; and not step on anyone&apos;s toes if they want to be more main-character like, so I always thought me being EXTRA quiet on top of that was a &quot;me&quot; problem.<br>Turns out it can be as simple as a DM simply not talking directly to someone or saying someone&apos;s name! &nbsp;Brilliant, you&apos;ve got a sub from me!

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