We’ve all been there before. Your first game night ever, a new group you’ve never sat down with before, or maybe it’s been many years and the idea of roleplaying a character is daunting. No matter what it is, everyone’s struggled at some point with engaging around the table. I know my first session after a many year hiatus was with a bunch of people I didn’t know, and I’m an introvert to boot! As the game master though, there’s a handful of tricks we can do to get newer players to really open up and explore the world their gaming in.

Giving Them an Opening

The first one’s pretty straightforward, but when there’s many large personalities around the table, it can be easy to forget about the players who are more quiet. This has happened to me more times than I can count. Luckily for me, a good number of game masters made it a point to call this out, specifically asking me or other newer players directly what we would like to do or something we’d like to say. In my opinion, finding that opening can be hard enough, but if someone gives just that little extra nudge, then they’ll start talking in no time.

Dialogue as Turn Order

This is something I’ve seen done before, but I really do like that Shadowdark RPG directly calls out this method: running non-combat on turn orders. While it can get tedious over time spent talking with merchants or a person of interest, it does give everybody around the table an equal chance and amount of time to have their say. The only real downside is it can make conversations seem a little forced since everyone is going to get their word in, but hey, if it works it works, right?

Nonchalant Session Zero

While it’s a little bit round about, hang in there with me for a second on this one. As somebody who’s pretty quite (shy, really) in general, what’s been leaps and bounds the most helpful for me is getting to know my fellow players better outside of the game. In my experience, that’s really where a session zero shines to me. The campaign hasn’t started yet, everybody is still talking like themselves and not doing silly voices or made up personality traits, and there’s no expectation of what’s to come. While everyone slowly becomes friends over the course of their adventures, that little extra groundwork at the beginning really makes things easier for me to get engaged and take up more of the proverbial stage.

Conclusion

Well, there you have it! My three favorite ways to get players to interact with each other more around the table. Has any method worked well for you in the past, or is there another you’d recommend that I missed? Leave a comment down below on what you think!