How to give a quiet player a voice!

RPG has long appealed to a wide variety of people with a multitude of interests and personalities, but if you’ve been a GM for very long you might have noticed that there is

a type of personality that can have a harder time getting a fulfilling experience during a

campaign than others.

Enter the master of background camouflaging and dodger of conversation, the quiet player! Vampires are well known to be jealous of those disappearing skills and the rogues are eager to recruit any they can find.

Some people are just harder to get comfortable enough to engage with the gameplay, but fear not! Today we have a list of ways to help you give your quieter players a voice during campaigns!

1. Tailor moments for their character.

A good GM is always taking their players’ characters into account during the campaign – their backstory, skills, and interests. For a player who is more on the quiet side, you can use this information to specifically draw them out and into specific events in the campaign. This can help them feel more connected to the story and to the other players.

Leverage the strengths of their character by crafting specific situations where the party needs to use those skills in order to progress. Doing this provides a place for them to talk and share their abilities without the pressure of having to try to stand out from the group, or being put in a situation where they have to interrupt

anyone.

Another fun way to draw a quiet player further into the game play, is to give that player a secret! And no, not a personal secret from you own life, haha. Provide them with a secret clue or a moral choice that they need to ponder and keep close to the vest until the right time pops us in the game, and let them get to make the big reveal.

2. Provide prompts and/or guidance via skills.

This is also known as the “GM gentle nudge.” If your player is struggling to speak up, send them a message with a direct hook by rolling a skill check and then giving them a direct prompt. For example, you could say, “Your character notices an odd scent reminiscent of a poisonous gas – what do you do?”

It’s best to keep these questions low-pressure by asking leading questions. Use specifics to help guide them. Here are a couple more examples:

 “Would your character like to investigate that?”

 “What does your character think of this situation?”

3. Use NPC interactions.

Instead of the GM direction asking the player specific questions, you can always have an NPC specifically seek them out for help or start conversations with their character. If you want to spice things up and add a long-standing aid to that player, you can even give their character an NPC sidekick or an informant which would naturally engage them in conversations.

4. Rotate the spotlight.

You can use a technique that used to be pretty common in video games to gently shift the focus to each and every character during key moments in the game. The turn-based battles that were common in the Final Fantasy series allowed each and every character to have a balanced turn, and you can implement something like that not only for during the battles, but also during key moments.

Another way to share the spotlight is to create encounters that are completely dependent on teamwork. Having puzzles that require skills specific to different characters will naturally create the opportunity for conversations and engagement.

5. Check in privately.

Sometimes, all a player needs is a little encouragement rather than constantly being pushed into the spotlight. You are all friends trying to have fun together, so don’t feel worried about pulling them aside before or after a game and asking if they’re enjoying themselves, or even asking for other feedback.

Making sure that everyone is enjoying themselves during a campaign is part of the GMs responsibilities. Sometimes the quieter players can fall into the background and not get as much engagement as the others, but we hope that all of the suggestions provided above can help you provide a fun and fulfilling experience for everyone.

Are there any additional tips you think we missed? We’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment below, on our YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W043bA_MQTo), or even on our Discord Channel (https://discord.com/invite/g2NBTssuMh)!

Credit: Written by Meraki Forest