DM help/NPC interaction

It's a temperament thing anon. Some players aren't interested in the world. Mine are, for example, to the point where they assume every throwaway NPC is important and the session drags out.

Do you have like, really obvious plot hooks? Like someone says "You should talk to X person about this"

>>54354379
The campaign started out with our contact (my NPC) getting a letter to check out kidnappings of local wildlife and villagers. They ran into another dude who sent said letter, who directed them to a guy in a tavern who was witness to it. Near the end of it, we ran into an alchemist who was the main alchemist for the bad guys, then the final guy was the prison warden who knew everything that was going on.

>>54354416

And they just weren't interested?

Maybe they're less into investigations and more into dungeon raids or hexcrawls.

But then, are they not asking things like "what's in this room" or "what do I see"? Usually you just have to say "you're in a room", and if you ask them about the room, then you can ask them for a spot check.

Maybe they just wanna murder things, in which case dialogue-heavy and plot heavy things aren't their game.

Did you have a talk about what they want out of a game before session 0?

>>54354452
>And they just weren't interested?
Seems like it. At first they were asking "Where do we go" etc etc, but I wanted them to convince this guy who was drinking himself stupid due to being traumatized where to go, ykno, to keep it realistic. My guess is that put them off. It seems to me they just wanted to get straight to the point, which I get, but I'm kinda sittin there thinking "You don't want any information, just run in and hope for the best?"
>Maybe they're less into investigations and more into dungeon raids or hexcrawls.
Could be, yeah. Or maybe they're stupid. I dunno
>But then, are they not asking things like "what's in this room" or "what do I see"?
They went into this cave and then just had at it. They didn't check for traps or nothing. We had one gal our last game who was actively looking for traps. This session she couldn't come, but apparently that didn't rub off on anyone
>Did you have a talk about what they want out of a game before session 0?
I didn't think to really ask that. I just jumped in and went at it. I'll do that next session. Thats a pretty good idea

>>54354357
They probably have videogame logic ingrained in their heads, its a real syndrome and it comes in various forms.

You got the "I can't do anything unless you tell me where the arrow is pointing at" type. Can be fixed. Ask them what they fear, maybe they don't want to ruin your narrative or something, or maybe they need more detailed descriptions. Ask them.

>>54354357
Have you asked them what they want to do in a game? What they want out of it? As players and in character?

If they're meant to be questioning NPC's why are they meant to be doing that ? Are they investigating a murder or robbery or something interesting in game?

The best way to get players to interact is to give them a clear goal and direction.

You realise in terms of checking for traps you're meant to use passive perception right? Then if they spot it they spot it and you describe that.

Likewise with traps I tend to describe details of mine very obviously when the players approach as the interesting thing is getting around them more than the gotcha of falling into them. Likewise do you really want games bogged down by endless perception checks every moment ?

Do they have multiple options of what they can do and where they can go?