Why Your D&D Game Feels Flat

Watch or listen to this article here.

If you’ve never read A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, you probably should; it’s really good. But today, I want to tell you the tale of two D&D groups that I was a player in recently.

Both groups were playing very similar old-school roleplaying games. Both had solid game masters. But one game was a frustrating slog that I really just wished would end, while the other was absolutely amazing.

So, what made the difference? It wasn’t the adventure. It wasn’t the rules. And it wasn’t the game master.

It was the players—and not because anyone was cheating, arguing, or causing problems. The difference was something far more subtle, but it completely changed the energy and enjoyability of the game.

I arrived to the first game excited to play, but it was a game system I’d never played before. Now, I’m a quick learner, so I wasn’t worried too much, and the game master did an amazing job of explaining things as they came up WITHOUT drowning me in front-loaded rules and explanations before we ever started playing.

I think that’s something really important when introducing a new player to a game they’ve never played before. If you give them a half hour discourse on rule mechanics before a die is ever rolled, first, they will likely forget most of what you said anyway, and second, you’re just overwhelming and possibly intimidating them and making the game seem less approachable.

Instead, simpler is better. Explain the concept of a roleplaying game: you control a fictional character in a fictional world. I will present a situation in the world; you simply tell me what your character does, in plain English. Then, as needed, I’ll explain any dice you need to roll and walk you threw the mechanics. This way you can ease a new player into the game without overwhelming them, and you can get them hooked on the FUN of a RPG instead of drive them away with the MECHANICS.

For what it’s worth, this is why I prefer rules light games such as Shadowdark or Pirate Borg or Mothership when introducing new players to TRPGs. If you start off with something super rules heavy like Pathfinder 2, or even D&D 5e, it’s just more challenging.

Anyway, back to the first game. We start playing the game, and the GM is doing great. First, he’s STANDING while game mastering, and I gotta be honest, when I see a GM standing, that’s a good sign. It indicates enthusiasm and energy; and this guy had it.

He was running a super solid game right out of the gate, and I also was bringing my A game as a player. Once I had my character, I chose a voice to use—one of the standard voices in my arsenal that I practice frequently—and roleplayed with energy and enthusiasm as I usually do. It was a great start.

However, I quickly noticed that the three other players were kind of just lumps on a log. Sorry if that’s insulting, but it is what it is. They were sitting there without any enthusiasm or emotion really. Well, to be fair, I think one of them was just a little timid, but the other two make me wonder why they had even come to the game. In fact, afterwards I was talking to my wife about the game, and that was exactly what she said, “Why did they even go to the game then?”

But maybe I’m just being too hard on them, I don’t know. My point here isn’t to rag on them too much. I mean, there is a reason I’m not saying when, where, or what game this even was. To protect the innocent or maybe not so innocent.

However, as we played I increasingly noticed something happening to me as a player. I was being infected by their apparent disinterest or at least lack of enthusiasm. As the game went on, I felt less and less like talking in character, and my own enthusiasm was dying. It was like their attitudes and emotions were CONTAGIOUS.

But to the game master’s credit, he continued on full bore with all the energy and enthusiasm he had at the beginning. Another good mark of a solid GM. Marching forward even when the table is threatening to bring you down.

And despite the adventure being interesting, despite the GM doing a great job, I walked away from that game thinking it was mediocre at best.

Now, fast forward a bit. One of my friends comes up to me and says that he needs my help. He says he ran a D&D game for a group of players, and he needed to know what he was doing wrong. Because he felt like the players didn’t enjoy the game or that he did a bad job or something.

So, I’m asking him questions about the game, trying to figure out what might be the issue. And, honestly, this is a hard thing to diagnose just by asking one person about the game. Really, the conversation needs to be with GM and players to see what’s going on. And, ideally, you’d also WATCH the game being played. Then you could really draw some conclusions and give some concrete actionable advice.

But, I’m doing my best, because I want to help if I can, and frankly, I have a reputation to keep, you know! So, one of the things I discovered after asking my 21 questions, was that his players were a friend group, and it seemed that many of them were disinterested in playing.

And this is something I’ve noticed over my decades of GMing: when you get together a group of existing friends to play D&D, some of them will actually WANT to play the game, while many of them couldn’t care less, and they are really just there for the social aspect: to hang out with their friends. So, what you get many times are disinterested players. They aren’t problem players; they just don’t contribute. They don’t contribute to the story; they don’t contribute to the atmosphere at the table; they don’t contribute to the fun, to the camaraderie. They are really just lumps on a log, sitting there.

And this affects the game. It can make it less fun for the other players, AND it can make the GM think he’s doing something wrong. It can make him question if he’s any good at all, or if he should just hang up his screen.

Of course, none of this means game masters shouldn’t work on improving their own skills. You can’t control what your players bring to the table, but you can absolutely control what you bring.

Want to Become a Better Game Master?

You can’t control how much energy or enthusiasm your players bring to the table, but you can make sure you’re bringing your A game.

The Secret Art of Game Mastery is packed with practical advice for running better tabletop RPGs, from creating engaging adventures and encounters to managing your players, improving your preparation, and handling the countless situations that come up behind the screen.

If you want to sharpen your game-mastering skills and run games your players look forward to every week, The Secret Art of Game Mastery can help.

👉 Check out The Secret Art of Game Mastery.

Anyway, this is the big reason I prefer to run TTRPGs with strangers who WANT to play the game over trying to strongarm and wrangle my friends into playing. Instead of getting disengaged players who are only there because of a social obligation, you get players who, again, WANT to play the game. They are engaged. They show up. They care. And many times, you end up becoming friends with them, too!

So, my friend and I are talking, and we’re literally walking to a game that we’ll both be playing in as players. But this game turned out to be NOTHING like the first one.

The game master was great, just like the first game. It was a system I wasn’t too familiar with, though it is similar to D&D, so it was an easy transition, and there were three other players. The set up was practically the same, EXCEPT for what the other players brought to the table.

Because they brought their A game. One in particular was a SUPER STAR. There was enthusiasm, energy—two of us were talking in character, using special voices and mannerisms, which I strongly believe makes a huge difference in a game. And the result was the polar opposite of what happened in the first game.

Instead of my energy being DRAINED and instead of just wanting the game to be over as quickly as possible, I got more excited as the adventure went on. It’s like our energy fed off each other, creating a sum that was greater than the four parts.

The point of this Tale of Two Groups, if you will, is that we should never underestimate how much good players impact the enjoyability of a game. If you’re a player in a meh game, don’t automatically assume it’s the game master’s fault. If you’re a GM in a meh game, don’t automatically assume that it’s your fault.

In TTRPGs, there is a SHARED responsibility for fun at the table, so each and every one of us should be asking, “What am I bringing that positively contributes to this game?” Because whether we are game masters or players, we can always be improving—and we should, because we all have more fun when we do.