My players arent interested in starting the game(?)
Tbh the subject text doesnt really fit but i dont know what to call this situation.
So my d&d obsession/interest began about half a year ago. Since then ive been reading rules and mechaniks, informed myself about races, classes, worldbuilding etc and read storys/ listened to podcasts about actual gameplay. A few weeks ago i talked to my friendgroup (all of them are absolute role players, weve been in some text rpg together) about d&d and they loved it! They were super interested, asked me about different races and classes, already had some character ideas and actually suggested that we could try the game out together. I was hyped! We planned on meeting up on halloween (yesterday) where we would fill out the character sheets and would play a short session to try it out. I would explain the character sheets and the overall gameplay to them and dm. I was so nervous but i took some notes that they needed to know, borrowed some dice from a friend who used to play and set up a short one shot with the most importand parts (some combat, a bit character talking, some simple riddles and much space for them to role play their characters and do some dumb funny stuff that i could not make up if i wanted)
Halloween came and i was super prepared to dm a nice tutorial session for them and have fun but when it was time to fill out the character sheets they kind of avoided the topic, pushing it a bit away saying things like „yeah we still got plenty of time“ or „lets watch a movie first“ I didnt think much of it but at some point i finally brought up that we stll wanted to play so it would be nice to finally do the character sheets They didnt complain or anything and it started really good but really soon they started to complain that they were hungry or didnt like the song that was playing in the backround so i had to skip songs, cook something, looking up data for their chosen races and classes and had to explain where they had to put what. And the more they complained the longer took it. We ended up taking an hour just to fill out the sheets (and i still left many things out!!!)
After filling out the sheets they were tired and just started talking about crushes and checked tiktok. One of my friends (who is also interested in d&d and already had a sheet prepared) kept trying to keep them on track by reminding them that we wanted to play or asking to put their phones away but they didnt even answer, instewad they asked if we could play fnaf and started the TV.
We didnt play yestererday. And now im pretty sad i dont feel like they were interested in the game at all even though they talked about wanting to play for about two weeks straight. Im so disapointed and dont know what to do because i still want to play but i dont want to bore my friends but there arent any other groups nearby that i could join.
Any ideas how i can motivate them or what to say to them? Because i dont want to annoy them with a speech about me being disappointed bcs they didnt want to play a board game with me. Pls help
Posted Nov 1, 2023, 4:02 PM UTC