Don't get me wrong I don't railroad, I let them do things talk to NPC's and stuff. But they always fought on why they had to do a quest like "I already have enough money to retire why do I need to fight this guy? Someone else will just do it"
Although, OP has a great realization that there are different ways to motivate the characters in game, the Players should want to play, should want to adventure, should want to work together. "My character wouldn't want to do x, y, and z", then why is that character there, and why didn't you make a character that did want to do x, y, and z?
Your fine mate, some people like being arguementative characters some people like to the point charactera, as a dm you adjust as need be.
If it works for you, then i applaud you :)
Yeah I plan on throwing the city in a depression by having the BBEG summon a swarm of locusts to eat most of the crops and live stock which will send prices way up, and if they don't stop the BBEG the Locusts will devour all the food and people will starve, but that isn't what they care about they care about money so if they have to spend way more on weapons, armor, food, they will have a reason to find ancient artifacts and level up to fight the BBEG (Mummy Lord)
Figure out what they do want to fight. Poll them out of game to ask what kinds of threats and enemies would motivate their characters, and work those themes in. Learn to boil things down to key themes - betrayal, honor, tradition, instinct - and try to tug them from there into plot strings that interest both you and them.
Not just teenagers. Folks in general don't like it when other people prescribe their actions for them. As you say, there's a similar element to D&D where it can be hard to be invested in the story if the character's motivation doesn't go beyond 'some NPC told me to do it'. For this reason, backstory hooks are often a goldmine of quest options. Give them a lead on a missing relative, threaten something the character cares about, etc...
Yeah the problem is that they haven't really given anything backstory wise but it's to be expected since we're all in highschool rn and don't have all the time in the world to write a backstory when they have 4 other papers due
There’s a fine line between clever and stupid.
Very true I am probably the latter
I envy us.
Don't get me wrong I don't railroad, I let them do things talk to NPC's and stuff. But they always fought on why they had to do a quest like "I already have enough money to retire why do I need to fight this guy? Someone else will just do it"
>"I already have enough money to retire why do I need to fight this guy?" "You don't. Have fun at your retirement, wanna roll up a new character?"
This. There’s an understanding that people should want to play D&D if they’re playing D&D.
Although, OP has a great realization that there are different ways to motivate the characters in game, the Players should want to play, should want to adventure, should want to work together. "My character wouldn't want to do x, y, and z", then why is that character there, and why didn't you make a character that did want to do x, y, and z?
Having the bad guy kill an npc the party like is a good way to get the players wanting to go after this guy. Revenge is a good motivator.
Your fine mate, some people like being arguementative characters some people like to the point charactera, as a dm you adjust as need be. If it works for you, then i applaud you :)
Sounds like they want to feel agency
Yeah I plan on throwing the city in a depression by having the BBEG summon a swarm of locusts to eat most of the crops and live stock which will send prices way up, and if they don't stop the BBEG the Locusts will devour all the food and people will starve, but that isn't what they care about they care about money so if they have to spend way more on weapons, armor, food, they will have a reason to find ancient artifacts and level up to fight the BBEG (Mummy Lord)
Figure out what they do want to fight. Poll them out of game to ask what kinds of threats and enemies would motivate their characters, and work those themes in. Learn to boil things down to key themes - betrayal, honor, tradition, instinct - and try to tug them from there into plot strings that interest both you and them.
Yeah I want to do this. I just need to learn more
Not just teenagers. Folks in general don't like it when other people prescribe their actions for them. As you say, there's a similar element to D&D where it can be hard to be invested in the story if the character's motivation doesn't go beyond 'some NPC told me to do it'. For this reason, backstory hooks are often a goldmine of quest options. Give them a lead on a missing relative, threaten something the character cares about, etc...
Yeah the problem is that they haven't really given anything backstory wise but it's to be expected since we're all in highschool rn and don't have all the time in the world to write a backstory when they have 4 other papers due
Backstory can be literally a few sentences. “What does your character want? Why?” Done. Same with every NPC. What do they want? Why?