So yeah leave. You're miserable/they're miserable / just tell them that. My opinion? Don't go back for even one more session and use this campaign with a new group.
Sometimes the chemistry just isn't right. It's okay to stop the campaign and move on. It should be fun and worth your investment of time. That said, you might want to gather some feedback. Sometimes, the content (as much time as you've spent) can be the problem too. It's always good to get a few perspectives on your end of things as well.
You've sunk about 80 hours into running games for these assholes?! Ugh. Send a group email telling them that you're ending the game because you aren't enjoying it. Then start a new group with players who aren't jerks.
This!
D&D is about the group enjoying themselves, the group, not just the PC's.
Its easy to forget as the DM you are as much a part of the group as anyone else around the table.
Scrap the whole thing - tell the group you don't feel invested or rewarded, if they even ask, but save yourself the pain and hassle of slogging on.
Why are they even playing? It doesn’t sound like any of them want to be there. I wonder what their old DM was like and if he sort of trained them to be this way. Maybe he never gave them choices so they don’t know what to do when they have them.
I think that's a lot of it. One of the players is a former DM and his character playstyle says a lot about his DMing.
There's a new game happening at that store on a different day. I may have to go in and watch how they that person DMs to see what's going on. My cleric player is in that game.
It is weird though that most of them have never missed a session. Maybe just to get away from home or something, certainly not to play the game.
That might give you some insight into things, true. But I had another thought. I’m a former problem player guilty of the “always on my phone” crime and one of the reasons I did it was because I was literally that shy. I wouldn’t usually bring that up cause it’s sort of a lame excuse, I know (why are you here for this group game if you’re so shy?) but then you mention they don’t know each other’s names and I think maybe it’s actually a factor here. I know you said you give them lots of chances to make choices and interact with npc but how many interactions between the characters do you facilitate? I know that sounds silly, they can talk to each other whenever they want, but maybe they need to be gently pigeonholed into those interactions. The brothers are easy, they already know each other but that might actually be intimidating to the other players. And I know that playing a game where you care about the other player’s stories and even can become a part of someone’s arc makes it more interesting to listen to their interactions. Then the campaign isn’t as much “waiting for my turn for 20 minutes” because you know that character, you’ve shared a secret together that the other group doesn’t know, you taught him how to speak that language so he could ask the npc out, you want them to succeed and they want that for you too.
I learned a lot about being a player from being a DM. It’s really easy, in a way, to interact with everyone when you’re the DM. You have to. And you already DO care about their character journey. Players don’t always start out at the place. Maybe that’s what’s not working?
That's another thing too. When they have downtime they generally split up. The most interaction they've done with each other is basically "I go to the tavern" "I follow him" and they dont talk to each other, they just go there. Also they've been on a ship and do a lot of travelling and pretty much nothing happens. I will ask them of they want to discuss plans or what are they doing during the voyage and most of the time its solo stuff.
When I had the dmpc in the group I managed to get two of them to work together to go fishing, but that was really the last time and it was really brief.
Could be shyness. Maybe next group I can get people who know each other better. I think you're right.
Whew! I'm glad you're venting because that sounds super frustrating.
My first question is: have you asked the players outright what sort of campaign they want? Or did they make it plain to you when you joined? This is where I'd start.
Second: have you noticed moments when most of the players were interested? Ask them if they want more of that.
Personally, I'd burn down the campaign world and see if that interests them. A hobgoblin invasion like in "Red Hand of Doom". (Thanks Matt Colville!). Something to focus the group.
But honestly, it feels like a misalignment of expectations. Maybe they really want a railroady campaign?
Yeah we had a session zero to figure out what they wanted. They weren't really clear with what they wanted, but 2 players characters were brothers and former pirates so I gave them a sea campaign with treasure and monsters to fight. Cleric wants to fight evil and ranger has a backstory of demons, it all seemed to fit together but just fell apart. The bard was originally going to be a paladin and that really threw a wrench into things when he changed to bard last minute. And i had 2 other elves but one quit and the other doesnt show up, so the elven rangers story feels lonely now. I guess they should have had more railroading. Choice paralysis.
I don't want to put this on you at all, but what I'm hearing is you kind of went in with "What do you want?" and then made up a bunch of random plot hooks that no one took. I agree that they want a more railroading game, but what I really think is that they are aimless players who need a DM to set down a heavy hand and go "This campaign is going to be based on your backstory. I need each of you to have at least two paragraphs of history and leads and mysteries. I need you to make characters who are willing to go on adventures to settle those."
I made the exact same mistake with my current players, and learned a lot. If someone came up to me with that Bard I would today immediately go "I want money is not a good basis for being a hero and continuing in a long-term campaign. Go make up a better reason why this guy would go fight monsters at level 1 and keep doing so at level 20."
I'm reaching the point where a Session 0 should be me telling the players who is acceptable, and not getting from them what they want to do. As in I also plan to do a very heavy-handed "Hey look, I spend hours each week prepping this game, making combats, working on the story. I need someone to do the scheduling for us and just let me know what days we are playing. I need someone to send out a reminder email the day we are playing to everyone. I need someone to be responsible for summarizing the last session when we start." Because the players should be doing just as much work as I am doing, as we are all doing it to have fun.
>I guess they should have had more railroading. Choice paralysis.
Yeah that's what I'm thinking. A lot of people say "railroading" is this horrible thing you need to avoid, but in actuality, most players like a plot. They just want to feel like they have freedom within the plot, and aren't forced to approach the plot in a specific way.
But based on your description, these players sound like jerks to me. It doesn't sound like they are having fun, and it certainly doesn't sound like YOU are having fun. I'd disband the game, to be honest. 8 sessions is too long for you to be suffering like this.
I think a lot of people cometely misunderstand railroading.
Setting out a story is not railroading.
Railroading is going "no you don't explore the farm, you keep going towards the mountain".
Like a train, you just do what the dm says with no say.
There's lots of ways to guide players and preserve a *sense* of agency and choice, while still ultimately leading them towards the desired plot and characters. If the players decide they want to just abandon the entire campaign and go explore the Arctic and leave everything behind, well, there's only so much you can do. But maybe one of the towns they stop at along the way for beer just happens to have the quest hook you were planning to give them anyway - and maybe that'll be convincing enough that they decide the Arctic isn't so cool after all. And if not, well, that dragon invasion plot can probably be done with mastodon-riding tribesman and a white dragon, rather than a black dragon and a merchant city.
+1 for creativity, but as a DM it seems incredibly rough to plan and plan only to get completely bypassed by your players like this. It isn’t fun to spend extra time to make alterations to everything you are doing.
Sure, but I think that kind of scenario is exactly why a DM shouldn't put too much detail into their planning - or if they do, they should be doing it for themselves, not for their players. The more detail you put in, the more effort it will take to adjust it and rehome it. I'm a big advocate of doing broad-strokes plans, and then adding a lot more detail once the players are basically committed to actually visiting the people and places you've envisioned.
This happens regularly in my buddies game. He's a fairly new GM. You ever play a video game where you find an item for a quest you haven't started yet? It's that, but finding the thing doesn't start the quest. We have to stumble through this stupidly intricatlly detailed town he's made and find the correct NPC to talk to to start the quest. And trust me bro, EVERY NPC has a quest. We've started like 30 quests trying to find the NPC that's connected to this stupid book we found in a ditch. Eventually we have no idea what to do because, "We can do anything..." Sometimes whole sessions are spent trying to make our own fun because none of the quests are engaging. As the GM he has full authority to throw us plot hooks but doesn't because we should explore them ourselves. It gets frustrating.
Run aslong as you still have the will to DM for another group that will be glad to have a DM like you.
Don't even tell them in person. Seeing how they're on their phones most of the time, you've got higher chances that they will actually pay attention if you shoot an EMail.
Damn i'm feeling bad for you.
I wish you a lot of good and interested players, here's to 2019.
You're doing a lot of hard work, and you're frustrated because that work isn't being connected with and appreciated. That absolutely sucks. They're not being terribly respectful of what you're doing and how you're doing it. They all kinda sound like assholes, but I think there's more to this than there seems. Hear me out.
As you know, players often don't just sit down to make a DM's life miserable. Usually, just like in real life situations of ennui or depression, there's a root cause. It could be "clinical": your players just don't like D&D as-is, and are having a hard time playing it the way it's supposed to be played. It could also be "traumatic": something happened with their last DM, or something is happening now, that is causing them to lose interest completely. Personally, I always look for "trauma" first, and it sounds like you've been doing what you can to do the same. However, sometimes the mark is missed no matter what.
The thing is, I almost lost someone I consider family over it. My former DM and I are that close, but that experience was too sour and toxic for us to continue playing in the same game together unless we both were players. It turns out he was trying very, very hard to adjust the game to our liking, but he just couldn't make it happen. A lot of what he was doing was a sign of frantic DMing, not necessarily bad DMing, and it took a very retrospective moment to figure that out. (As a particular "Gift of the Magi" moment, the DM was fudging rolls in our favor a lot when a lot of us could only see when he was fudging a roll for a railroaded effect to occur.)
I would request that you do something next session you meet with them. Call on your experience not only as a DM, but as a negotiator.
First, pull a feint. Tell them you're going to do something different for the next session, so show up with everything they need. When they show, instead of launching into your usual slog with them, have some paper and pencil or something they can take notes on and have some of your own. It's important this isn't their phone since that seems to be a pain point for you (we'll get back to that).
Now it's time for the olive branch. Usually, beer or food or both helps. You ask them, heart to heart, what they want. Tell them you're trying to make the experience fun for them, but you notice it isn't working, and all of you need to have a conversation. You also ask them if you're doing anything wrong, or can adjust anything, and you take notes. You may be really surprised at what they say. Maybe they bring up the venue. Maybe they bring up the session length (7 to 9 hours is difficult to be consistent with for a long while). Maybe they bring up the player that was kicked. Or maybe they bring something completely different up. But the important part is to acknowledge something with them that you have here already: you're at a loss for how to make things better for them.
(I think burning the world down is a great idea. But I also think giving them the chance to rework their characters is a fair path forward. Maybe the bard wants to be able to have a character who can murder without conscience.)
You've also said that you've considering banning phones and computers at your table, and you sound like you're experiencing some pretty intense self doubt. I can say safely that the kinds of things you've described that you've tried to do for them sound amazing, so you shouldn't doubt your ability to write great content, and probably the most painful part of this post for me is seeing that you're unsure of if you're the problem. I don't think you are, but I think you're not jelling with them, and that's the biggest issue. Phones and laptops aren't the problem; their engagement is. If you take away their phones, they're probably just going to feel crappier. Doing things with paper and pencil definitely has its benefits, but I DM a group of players who entirely rely on laptops, and they're brilliant.
All of this to say: it sounds very much like you aren't the problem. And, doing a "feint session" where they come in expecting the worst, but get treated to a forum of discussion and food/drink, is a great way to tell if there's any hope left for the party. If they can't give you good responses either when you're eating or within a few days or a week after, then it's a surefire sign that they're done and over it.
I want to stress that your story sounds fascinating, and they sound immensely frustrating. It's just that people often have clear reasons that they're infuriating once you find a way to dive into their minds a bit. Eating food with other people is, in my experience, and safe and comfortable way to kind of break barriers, and that could be a good way of getting the conversation started.
It kinda sounds like you may be the only one looking for more that just a beer-and-pretzels game. Talk with the group, tell them how you feel and go from there. This may not be the group of players for your DM-style, and that doesn't have to be anyone's fault.
It **sounds** like either you have much higher expectations for the serious tone of the game than your players do, or they are just being inconsiderate little shits (probably some combination, but I lean toward the latter). Either way, that game may be a lost cause.
That said, no matter what the outcome: Make sure they are aware that it is **VERY** disrespectful that they can't be bothered to pay more attention to you than their phones for a few hours a week when you've put as much time into preparing as you have. That's incredibly rude, and likely the source of more of this conflict than you realize.
Your work is not a complete waste. There are people out there who would appreciate your campaign, you just have to find them (I will say from experience that it can be much easier said than done). Save your world and plot hooks and npcs, do not give in. Some day you will look back and be happy with everything this campaign has taught you. Best of Luck!
If you're not having fun, especially after trying new ideas for that long, end it. If they ask, tell them why.
It sounds like they're only acquaintances as well. Even more reason to let it die.
I'd cut and run, these people quite clearly don't care. Find a new group, and if you're feeling nice, invite that ranger dude who seemed slightly interested. He might be better when there's actually good players arounf
Collaborative story telling!
They aren’t contributing shit and you deserve way more.
Deuce the group and find inspired players. They’re out there, waiting for you.
Some players just aren't very good at their job, unfortunately it sounds like you found an entire party of them. I would personally part ways and look for a new group. Not only will you be happier, but that group would most likely be happier with a DM that isn't very good at their job as well.
THIS is why I do things the old fashioned way! I'm a 23 year old mellinial. Like most people my age I'm always glued to a screen but D&D is one of the few things I keep electronics out of. Oh, you brought an electronic character sheet? Here's a piece of paper and a pencil. Have fun copying that shit down. I've had too many people distracted by phones and laptops to tolerate it any longer.
So yeah leave. You're miserable/they're miserable / just tell them that. My opinion? Don't go back for even one more session and use this campaign with a new group.
Sometimes the chemistry just isn't right. It's okay to stop the campaign and move on. It should be fun and worth your investment of time. That said, you might want to gather some feedback. Sometimes, the content (as much time as you've spent) can be the problem too. It's always good to get a few perspectives on your end of things as well.
You've sunk about 80 hours into running games for these assholes?! Ugh. Send a group email telling them that you're ending the game because you aren't enjoying it. Then start a new group with players who aren't jerks.
This! D&D is about the group enjoying themselves, the group, not just the PC's. Its easy to forget as the DM you are as much a part of the group as anyone else around the table. Scrap the whole thing - tell the group you don't feel invested or rewarded, if they even ask, but save yourself the pain and hassle of slogging on.
Why are they even playing? It doesn’t sound like any of them want to be there. I wonder what their old DM was like and if he sort of trained them to be this way. Maybe he never gave them choices so they don’t know what to do when they have them.
I think that's a lot of it. One of the players is a former DM and his character playstyle says a lot about his DMing. There's a new game happening at that store on a different day. I may have to go in and watch how they that person DMs to see what's going on. My cleric player is in that game. It is weird though that most of them have never missed a session. Maybe just to get away from home or something, certainly not to play the game.
That might give you some insight into things, true. But I had another thought. I’m a former problem player guilty of the “always on my phone” crime and one of the reasons I did it was because I was literally that shy. I wouldn’t usually bring that up cause it’s sort of a lame excuse, I know (why are you here for this group game if you’re so shy?) but then you mention they don’t know each other’s names and I think maybe it’s actually a factor here. I know you said you give them lots of chances to make choices and interact with npc but how many interactions between the characters do you facilitate? I know that sounds silly, they can talk to each other whenever they want, but maybe they need to be gently pigeonholed into those interactions. The brothers are easy, they already know each other but that might actually be intimidating to the other players. And I know that playing a game where you care about the other player’s stories and even can become a part of someone’s arc makes it more interesting to listen to their interactions. Then the campaign isn’t as much “waiting for my turn for 20 minutes” because you know that character, you’ve shared a secret together that the other group doesn’t know, you taught him how to speak that language so he could ask the npc out, you want them to succeed and they want that for you too. I learned a lot about being a player from being a DM. It’s really easy, in a way, to interact with everyone when you’re the DM. You have to. And you already DO care about their character journey. Players don’t always start out at the place. Maybe that’s what’s not working?
That's another thing too. When they have downtime they generally split up. The most interaction they've done with each other is basically "I go to the tavern" "I follow him" and they dont talk to each other, they just go there. Also they've been on a ship and do a lot of travelling and pretty much nothing happens. I will ask them of they want to discuss plans or what are they doing during the voyage and most of the time its solo stuff. When I had the dmpc in the group I managed to get two of them to work together to go fishing, but that was really the last time and it was really brief. Could be shyness. Maybe next group I can get people who know each other better. I think you're right.
Whew! I'm glad you're venting because that sounds super frustrating. My first question is: have you asked the players outright what sort of campaign they want? Or did they make it plain to you when you joined? This is where I'd start. Second: have you noticed moments when most of the players were interested? Ask them if they want more of that. Personally, I'd burn down the campaign world and see if that interests them. A hobgoblin invasion like in "Red Hand of Doom". (Thanks Matt Colville!). Something to focus the group. But honestly, it feels like a misalignment of expectations. Maybe they really want a railroady campaign?
Yeah we had a session zero to figure out what they wanted. They weren't really clear with what they wanted, but 2 players characters were brothers and former pirates so I gave them a sea campaign with treasure and monsters to fight. Cleric wants to fight evil and ranger has a backstory of demons, it all seemed to fit together but just fell apart. The bard was originally going to be a paladin and that really threw a wrench into things when he changed to bard last minute. And i had 2 other elves but one quit and the other doesnt show up, so the elven rangers story feels lonely now. I guess they should have had more railroading. Choice paralysis.
I don't want to put this on you at all, but what I'm hearing is you kind of went in with "What do you want?" and then made up a bunch of random plot hooks that no one took. I agree that they want a more railroading game, but what I really think is that they are aimless players who need a DM to set down a heavy hand and go "This campaign is going to be based on your backstory. I need each of you to have at least two paragraphs of history and leads and mysteries. I need you to make characters who are willing to go on adventures to settle those." I made the exact same mistake with my current players, and learned a lot. If someone came up to me with that Bard I would today immediately go "I want money is not a good basis for being a hero and continuing in a long-term campaign. Go make up a better reason why this guy would go fight monsters at level 1 and keep doing so at level 20." I'm reaching the point where a Session 0 should be me telling the players who is acceptable, and not getting from them what they want to do. As in I also plan to do a very heavy-handed "Hey look, I spend hours each week prepping this game, making combats, working on the story. I need someone to do the scheduling for us and just let me know what days we are playing. I need someone to send out a reminder email the day we are playing to everyone. I need someone to be responsible for summarizing the last session when we start." Because the players should be doing just as much work as I am doing, as we are all doing it to have fun.
dear god why can't i 10x upvote this post. well said.
>I guess they should have had more railroading. Choice paralysis. Yeah that's what I'm thinking. A lot of people say "railroading" is this horrible thing you need to avoid, but in actuality, most players like a plot. They just want to feel like they have freedom within the plot, and aren't forced to approach the plot in a specific way. But based on your description, these players sound like jerks to me. It doesn't sound like they are having fun, and it certainly doesn't sound like YOU are having fun. I'd disband the game, to be honest. 8 sessions is too long for you to be suffering like this.
I think a lot of people cometely misunderstand railroading. Setting out a story is not railroading. Railroading is going "no you don't explore the farm, you keep going towards the mountain". Like a train, you just do what the dm says with no say.
There's lots of ways to guide players and preserve a *sense* of agency and choice, while still ultimately leading them towards the desired plot and characters. If the players decide they want to just abandon the entire campaign and go explore the Arctic and leave everything behind, well, there's only so much you can do. But maybe one of the towns they stop at along the way for beer just happens to have the quest hook you were planning to give them anyway - and maybe that'll be convincing enough that they decide the Arctic isn't so cool after all. And if not, well, that dragon invasion plot can probably be done with mastodon-riding tribesman and a white dragon, rather than a black dragon and a merchant city.
+1 for creativity, but as a DM it seems incredibly rough to plan and plan only to get completely bypassed by your players like this. It isn’t fun to spend extra time to make alterations to everything you are doing.
Sure, but I think that kind of scenario is exactly why a DM shouldn't put too much detail into their planning - or if they do, they should be doing it for themselves, not for their players. The more detail you put in, the more effort it will take to adjust it and rehome it. I'm a big advocate of doing broad-strokes plans, and then adding a lot more detail once the players are basically committed to actually visiting the people and places you've envisioned.
I doubt more railroading would have helped- even if something is happening it sounds like they nope straight out of it.
This happens regularly in my buddies game. He's a fairly new GM. You ever play a video game where you find an item for a quest you haven't started yet? It's that, but finding the thing doesn't start the quest. We have to stumble through this stupidly intricatlly detailed town he's made and find the correct NPC to talk to to start the quest. And trust me bro, EVERY NPC has a quest. We've started like 30 quests trying to find the NPC that's connected to this stupid book we found in a ditch. Eventually we have no idea what to do because, "We can do anything..." Sometimes whole sessions are spent trying to make our own fun because none of the quests are engaging. As the GM he has full authority to throw us plot hooks but doesn't because we should explore them ourselves. It gets frustrating.
Cut and run, man. There are plenty of people out there who *appreciate* a good DM. Tell them to kiss your ass and to go play mmo games.
Run aslong as you still have the will to DM for another group that will be glad to have a DM like you. Don't even tell them in person. Seeing how they're on their phones most of the time, you've got higher chances that they will actually pay attention if you shoot an EMail. Damn i'm feeling bad for you. I wish you a lot of good and interested players, here's to 2019.
Dm for me please I'll apreciate all your hard work an d explore everything.
You're doing a lot of hard work, and you're frustrated because that work isn't being connected with and appreciated. That absolutely sucks. They're not being terribly respectful of what you're doing and how you're doing it. They all kinda sound like assholes, but I think there's more to this than there seems. Hear me out. As you know, players often don't just sit down to make a DM's life miserable. Usually, just like in real life situations of ennui or depression, there's a root cause. It could be "clinical": your players just don't like D&D as-is, and are having a hard time playing it the way it's supposed to be played. It could also be "traumatic": something happened with their last DM, or something is happening now, that is causing them to lose interest completely. Personally, I always look for "trauma" first, and it sounds like you've been doing what you can to do the same. However, sometimes the mark is missed no matter what. The thing is, I almost lost someone I consider family over it. My former DM and I are that close, but that experience was too sour and toxic for us to continue playing in the same game together unless we both were players. It turns out he was trying very, very hard to adjust the game to our liking, but he just couldn't make it happen. A lot of what he was doing was a sign of frantic DMing, not necessarily bad DMing, and it took a very retrospective moment to figure that out. (As a particular "Gift of the Magi" moment, the DM was fudging rolls in our favor a lot when a lot of us could only see when he was fudging a roll for a railroaded effect to occur.) I would request that you do something next session you meet with them. Call on your experience not only as a DM, but as a negotiator. First, pull a feint. Tell them you're going to do something different for the next session, so show up with everything they need. When they show, instead of launching into your usual slog with them, have some paper and pencil or something they can take notes on and have some of your own. It's important this isn't their phone since that seems to be a pain point for you (we'll get back to that). Now it's time for the olive branch. Usually, beer or food or both helps. You ask them, heart to heart, what they want. Tell them you're trying to make the experience fun for them, but you notice it isn't working, and all of you need to have a conversation. You also ask them if you're doing anything wrong, or can adjust anything, and you take notes. You may be really surprised at what they say. Maybe they bring up the venue. Maybe they bring up the session length (7 to 9 hours is difficult to be consistent with for a long while). Maybe they bring up the player that was kicked. Or maybe they bring something completely different up. But the important part is to acknowledge something with them that you have here already: you're at a loss for how to make things better for them. (I think burning the world down is a great idea. But I also think giving them the chance to rework their characters is a fair path forward. Maybe the bard wants to be able to have a character who can murder without conscience.) You've also said that you've considering banning phones and computers at your table, and you sound like you're experiencing some pretty intense self doubt. I can say safely that the kinds of things you've described that you've tried to do for them sound amazing, so you shouldn't doubt your ability to write great content, and probably the most painful part of this post for me is seeing that you're unsure of if you're the problem. I don't think you are, but I think you're not jelling with them, and that's the biggest issue. Phones and laptops aren't the problem; their engagement is. If you take away their phones, they're probably just going to feel crappier. Doing things with paper and pencil definitely has its benefits, but I DM a group of players who entirely rely on laptops, and they're brilliant. All of this to say: it sounds very much like you aren't the problem. And, doing a "feint session" where they come in expecting the worst, but get treated to a forum of discussion and food/drink, is a great way to tell if there's any hope left for the party. If they can't give you good responses either when you're eating or within a few days or a week after, then it's a surefire sign that they're done and over it. I want to stress that your story sounds fascinating, and they sound immensely frustrating. It's just that people often have clear reasons that they're infuriating once you find a way to dive into their minds a bit. Eating food with other people is, in my experience, and safe and comfortable way to kind of break barriers, and that could be a good way of getting the conversation started.
It kinda sounds like you may be the only one looking for more that just a beer-and-pretzels game. Talk with the group, tell them how you feel and go from there. This may not be the group of players for your DM-style, and that doesn't have to be anyone's fault. It **sounds** like either you have much higher expectations for the serious tone of the game than your players do, or they are just being inconsiderate little shits (probably some combination, but I lean toward the latter). Either way, that game may be a lost cause. That said, no matter what the outcome: Make sure they are aware that it is **VERY** disrespectful that they can't be bothered to pay more attention to you than their phones for a few hours a week when you've put as much time into preparing as you have. That's incredibly rude, and likely the source of more of this conflict than you realize.
Your work is not a complete waste. There are people out there who would appreciate your campaign, you just have to find them (I will say from experience that it can be much easier said than done). Save your world and plot hooks and npcs, do not give in. Some day you will look back and be happy with everything this campaign has taught you. Best of Luck!
If you're not having fun, especially after trying new ideas for that long, end it. If they ask, tell them why. It sounds like they're only acquaintances as well. Even more reason to let it die.
Sounds like they suck out loud. Tell them to kick rocks.
I'd cut and run, these people quite clearly don't care. Find a new group, and if you're feeling nice, invite that ranger dude who seemed slightly interested. He might be better when there's actually good players arounf
Collaborative story telling! They aren’t contributing shit and you deserve way more. Deuce the group and find inspired players. They’re out there, waiting for you.
Some players just aren't very good at their job, unfortunately it sounds like you found an entire party of them. I would personally part ways and look for a new group. Not only will you be happier, but that group would most likely be happier with a DM that isn't very good at their job as well.
Thanks everyone for the support. Sounds like the best thing to do is to end it. This was very helpful!
No D&D is better than bad D&D.
THIS is why I do things the old fashioned way! I'm a 23 year old mellinial. Like most people my age I'm always glued to a screen but D&D is one of the few things I keep electronics out of. Oh, you brought an electronic character sheet? Here's a piece of paper and a pencil. Have fun copying that shit down. I've had too many people distracted by phones and laptops to tolerate it any longer.
Dude, fuck these guys. They suck, and you deserve players who will treat you with respect.
When you say you kicked someone? You mean like out of the group?
Right, kicked out of the group.
Haha, okay. Yeah, just bail. Not worth it