D&D General Seeking DM Advice: Managing Extroverted Players

[guachi]

I'll echo the "ten-minute turn" idea. Sometimes the old ideas just work. By reducing many things to ten minute blocks - and telling players beforehand I'm doing this - it allows everyone to do something during a typical dungeon delve. Short rests, for purposes of using HD to regain HP, were changed to ten minutes so players had a standard block of time to do something after combat - usually search bodies, search the room, maintain watch, eat and regain HP.

I found this most useful with the daughters of a friend who were playing. They were definitely extroverts but new to D&D and often hesitant to speak up. I think knowing they had a time in the spotlight to state what their PC did was helpful.

 

[CubicsRube]

A lot of great advice and all I have is to agree with the above comments.

Managing spotlight is one of the core aspects of being a GM in my opinion. Your games will be better for it.

I definitely ask specific players what they are doing if I feel they haven't been able to participate much. This is the easiest way to resolve this situation in my experience.

If I notice I've been with some PCs for a while or they keep asking things, I'll stop them and say "in the meantime/while this is all going on, player x, what are you doing?". I will sometimes even ask this when a player has rolled for something and waiting for the results - an in media res type solution.

The "I roll arcana" vs "I check the tapestry or magical icons" is really a player preference issue. If it bothers you I would be bringing that up before a game (and in session 0 before other campaigns)