Engaging Players: "What is everyone else doing?"

Getting everyone involved

Player engagement can appear like the holy grail of running Dungeons & Dragons. Or any roleplaying game. Or any other game we are designing for that matter. When we are running D&D, we want to engage all of our players. We want them to be listening for every detail in our fantastical descriptions. Players should relish every twist and turn in NPC interactions, and yearn for opportunities for grand action in combat. Engaging players means making them care about what is happening at the table. To achieve that, we can let player characters take the spotlight and jump into the action frequently.

An obvious tool for engaging our players is the question, “What is everyone else doing?” While the question seems to get the job done at first glance, it is hardly the right tool for player engagement in every situation.

What is everyone else doing?

Often the question is asked after the DM has described the situation. One player has an idea, and immediately jumps in to describe their intent. The DM responds with “What is everybody else doing?”

DM: “You arrive in the Cathedral of Ominous Doom and see three corpses laying inside of three runic circles.”
Player: “My character rushes forward and investigates the first corpse.”
DM: “OK. What is everyone else doing?”

This example interaction seems perfectly justified. Especially if the outcome of the scene depends on the minutiae of each character’s behavior. Maybe the room is full of traps, or a monster that can sense movement lurks in the shadows. In such instances “What is everyone else doing?” is valid and necessary.

But in almost every other instance, the question creates a problem. It makes the action grind to a halt. The player that wanted their character to rush forward is left with uncertainty while the other players are scrambling to find something to do. One simple question can have the adverse effect of killing the momentum of a scene. The effect of the dramatic description fizzles out, and we enter a slow pace akin to initiative. Instead, we could have immediately resolved the action declared by the first, eager player. We can play out the dramatic moment as they enter the cathedral, and return to the other players afterwards. We might then ask, “What are the rest of you doing while this is going on?” That way we preserve the quick pace of dramatic exploration, while still engaging the other players in the action.

The power of spotlight

Although it is a noble goal to give every player equal opportunity for action in every scene, individual players should occasionally take the spotlight. Especially if there is a reasoning behind the spotlight that is part of the fiction of our game. Maybe the cathedral that the characters just stepped into is the home of a cult of one player character’s nemesis. In such instances, we can balance our intent of engaging all our players with our sense of dramatic pacing.

We have just seen how the question, “What is everyone else doing?” slows down the pacing, and robs the player of an opportunity to be in the spotlight. The DM could have resolved the investigation of the body first. That would have given the player an opportunity to discover the evil human sacrifices their nemesis is conducting. Instead, we are stuck in an exploration scene that becomes almost turn-based. “What is everyone else doing?” shuts off the spotlight, one of the most powerful dramatic tools of our roleplaying games.

Sometimes we want to specifically draw another player into the scene. We might know that they are too shy or polite to speak up. However, they might still enjoy roleplay when being called upon. Their character might also have an in-world reason to be engaged in the scene. In such cases we can be more specific than the broad strokes of “What is everyone else doing?” We can point a player towards an interesting detail relevant to their character. We can also connect the action of the initially active player to one of the other characters’ motivations. “You see your companion move towards one of the bodies. Your arcane senses tingle and you realize that these runic circles are still active. What do you do?” Such questions are a great way of engaging our players based on the fiction of the world. They provide rich opportunities for roleplay engagement, and conserve the dramatic pacing of the game.

Is there anything else you want to accomplish?

Instead of asking, “What is everyone else doing?” we can ask, “Is there anything else you want to accomplish?” The latter question focuses on the intent of the players. It guides players to think of meaningful actions they might want to take. And it allows an easy “no” as an answer.

Sometimes one character will spend 10 minutes to an hour executing a single task. Most often this will be the casting of a spell. Casting any spell as a ritual adds 10 minutes to the regular casting time. The rest of the characters might wait for the ritual caster to finish before they continue on with the adventure. They might want to wait for detect magic to finish to reveal magical traps in the cathedral. They might need to cast identify to find out what the mysterious magical candelabra can be used for. In these situations we can ask whether there is anything the other players would like to accomplish in the meantime. If there is nothing meaningful the characters want to accomplish, we can move the scene along. We can narrate the casting of the ritual spell, and get the characters back into the action.

Engaging means knowing your players

“What is everyone else doing?” forces players to come up with an answer to that question. Even though they might have had little or nothing to do, now they must think of something. Often this can lead to mundane or repetitive actions. Players say their characters walk into the room, do the same thing as the previous player, or just stand and look. Players might have been content or even excited to watch what the first player’s character would discover. “What is everybody else doing?” forces them to participate in the moment, regardless of the players’ intent.

Here we must know our group. To find fruitful ways of engaging players, we must have an idea of the player types and personalities around the table. If there is one player who always takes the intiative in every scene, and another who is very polite or even shy, we might want to balance that at the table. Not every player must be equally involved in every scene from the outset. A player might enjoy the game more when they can sit back and watch the other’s take the first step. We, as dungeon masters, must use our best sense of our players, their personalities, and player types to determine what will bring the most enjoyment. “What is everyone else doing?”, however, is a crude tool at best, and one with the potential to instantly rob the game of excitement.

The right tool for the right job

As dungeon masters, we try to engage all of our players in the fiction that is unfolding at the table. Often we default to the question “What is everyone else doing?” This happens especially, after one player has declared their intent and we try to give everyone else a chance to act. The question, however, slows down the pace of the game, and potentially robs individual players of dramatic moments. If we want to engage all players in a scene, there are different methods and questions that can help us. We can ask after the resolution of the first player’s action, “What are the others doing while this is going on?” When time passes in the game, we can ask everyone “Is there anything else you want accomplish?” These questions focus on intent and make it easy for players to say no if they have nothing meaningful to add to the scene.

While “What is everyone else doing?” can be a useful tool in the right circumstance, we must not default to it. The question might give us dungeon masters the feeling that we have done our job. After all, we asked “everyone.” If that question doesn’t engage our players it’s got to be their own fault! But “What is everyone else doing?” is a crude tool at best. Instead of it, we can focus on the narrative moment, and use spotlight to draw relevant characters into the scene. We can provide opportunities for engagement for every individual at the table when the dramatic pacing calls for it.