My players are having a hard time 'thinking outside the

>>49508605
Have you tried not playing D&D?

>>49508605
Break their legs and arms and leave them in the middle of bear infested woods with steaks hanging from their necks. Then find better players.

Betcha 10 bucks they are playing D&D 3.5, D&D 4e, or D&D 5e.

Use the simplest and most rules-lite game you can. Maybe even go diceless, or heck, just take their character sheets away and continue playing the original game.

>>49508605

>>49508632
If this isn't doable for some local scarcity issue, make them think. Prep a scenario that isn't addressed in the rules and needs to have a ruling at the table, and put their characters on the line.

Bring a "new player" plant that isn't shit if necessary to show them the ropes discreetly.

>>49508621
>>49508647
/thread

>>49508605
Make another -how many levels you want, adventure party and have them do non mechanical interactions against the players, like using caltrops or spiking doors, they will learn fast

I've only played D&d and rifts, but I've never had a gm that let you do anything that wasn't on your sheet. I played a wizard in 2e and I was almost booted for cheating because I said I was trying not to make noise while walking. It seems you have to be a thief to not stomp the ground and scream at the top of your lungs while walking in his mind.

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>>49515160
Not saying I don't believe you. But if its true that was one austistic as fuck GM.

Pictured: That GM

>>49511901
>If this isn't doable for some local scarcity issue, make them think. Prep a scenario that isn't addressed in the rules and needs to have a ruling at the table, and put their characters on the line.

This, if you challenge them mechanically they will answer in kind, also have them focus on their characters, their goals should be pretty complicated, and tend not to have a mechanical solution.

>Have you tried not playing D&D?

This could happen in every system, you could run a Vampire or a Rogue Trader game and have this happen. It's a matter of agency.

Your adventure could be either :
>Rescue that princess
or
>Go though the poisonned swamp, climb the mountain of doom and break in the castle to find the princess at the top

In short : complex problems require complex solutions

>>49508621
>>49508647
>>49514193
>Shitposts with no real value
Expected. Have you tried playing any system with new players? Seriously, post something that could help someone's campaign once in a while instead of being useless bags of wind. You might fell something like happiness for once.

>>49508605
As for real solutions try introducing problems in your game that can only be solved by social interaction or creative thinking, and if they get stuck too long try telling them what you're trying to do. You'd be surprised how many new players just don't know that roleplaying isn't just a word meaning you're an elf with stats. Don't listen to the moron squad dissing any particular system, D&D, GURPS, CoC, any system that's an RPG should be able to handle roleplay. Even the worst games of all time need to have some roleplaying.

>>49515160
That's just a moron DM.

>>49515160
>>49515523
Didn't read it fully. You say you've NEVER had a DM who would let you do things not on a character sheet? I know most stories are bullshit by default, but at least stuff is usually trying to seem reasonable.

>>49508605
I've found that beating them over the head with the rulebook while shouting your comments on their playing style usually works fairly well.

But if you don't play a game with a nice thick hardcover rulebook, or if your players are people you like, you can always try talking to them about this issue after a session.
That way you can use the session you just finished for examples and try for a sort of "show, don't tell" way of exposition.

Ultimately though players are thick headed morons who can't improvise their way out of a wet cardboard box and need to have their hands held or they'll get lost in their character sheet.

>>49515563
That is the truth. I had a 3e gm that said I automatically got ripped off because I didn't have appraise and always got lost in my hometown because I didn't have knowledge:local. He was a different guy from the stomping guy.

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Here's the thing: the issue might not be that your players are stupid or that they lack imagination, but rather that they don't trust you not to bone them when they try something you haven't thought of. Players rarely get boned for sticking with clearly-defined rules-based actions or for following the path the GM has set out for them. However, try something weird and unexpected, and if your idea of how it would work, or how the world works, or what kind of game you're playing is different from the GM's, guess whose version is going to be the way things are and whose is going to be totally moronic. A lot of GMs will heavy-handedly hint that your idea sucks and you shouldn't do it, or they'll let you do it and then punish you extravagantly and humorously for doing it.
>But anon, that's just bad GMing!
Maybe so, but it's very common, and I've seen it done more times than I can count by otherwise good GMs.

Yes, obviously, good communication helps, but until we have mind melds, these differences of perception are inevitable. Remember that as GM you have all the power, and all differences of opinion by default are resolved in your favor. Keep this in mind, and be generous when players try goofy shit. If a plan is remotely plausible or entertaining, let it have a decent chance of success. If a plan is hopelessly retarded, don't punish them too harshly for trying it. You understand perfectly the situation and how the world works because you are making it up, while they have only a very limited window - what looks retarded to you probably doesn't look that way through the players' window.

Last session I threw in a dmpc rogue for my relatively new party to show some of this sort of thing off ie acrobatics, grappling, aiming for non essential targets like disarming or using the environment. What ended up happening was the party sees that guy as a hero and just assumed that everything he did was because I was dm/he was better in some way. We haven't played since then so i don't know if wht I tried to say with him will have set in though, but while he was there they kept going with their usual way of dealing with things

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>>49508605
Even if it's just a one-shot, consider playing a rules-light game where there's virtually nothing on a character sheet. That's something like Barbarians of Lemuria, or Moldvay Basic, if you want to stick to the D&D family. Check out this character sheet for Swords & Wizardry White Box (a retroclone of original D&D); there's hardly anything there. And hopefully with the absence of clear mechanical options, your players will have to think outside the box, as there really is no box to be inside of.