Your Players and your audience are one and the same, so the success of your game depends partly on their participation and entertainment. While you can't force either of these things, you can certainly encourage both. How?
Through Spotlighting - a DM's tool that focuses the table's attention on one player, who assumes a principle role. The intent is to make the spotlit player the Star of a particular scene while the remaining players take support roles. You commonly see this in mechanics that enforce discreet "turns" of play, like combat initiative where the spotlight changes from moment to moment.
Widely applied, we can draw attention to one or two players in any scene, inviting them to drive the action, and inviting anyone else to play up the support. Before you get into that, you'll need to know which player should have the spotlight - which character matters right now?
Once you've identified the Principles, address their characters and ask them what they do (what do they want to accomplish & how they go about it). Once you have those answers, ask the Support Players what they're doing to help the Principles achieve their goals. Then run the scene, keeping the main decisions and actions with the Principles until the situation (circumstance, scene, action, or moment) is resolved.
Sometimes, you'll get a player who wants to be at the center of every scene. Enthusiasm is great! But if you don't want that Player taking over someone else's scene, you can remind their character that they're up to something else (you asked what they were doing to help), or tell them that everyone's focus is on the Spotlit character right now.
(In one case, I addressed one
enthusiastic player directly, saying, "It's your brother's scene right now. He's like the main character of the moment and you're like a support character. Later, you'll be the main character and he'll be the support. So I want to know what your character is doing, right now, to help his character, without taking over the scene.")
As you play, shift the spotlight to another Player to make them the Principle. Run their scene (or circumstance) to completion and shift the spotlight again. Remember, each player is a Main Character in your game, so each gets a moment in the spotlight. It's also fun to spotlight two characters at a time, especially when they have an interesting dynamic like a frenemy, rival, or dynamic duo. Keep an eye open for the next scene - who's ready for their Closeup?
Ps - If you're a player, try to recognize the momentum of the scene you're in. Are you driving the action or is someone else? Is there a moment to seize? Try to change what you do and how you play according to your role in that moment. Be proactive and bold in your scenes - heroic. In other players' scenes, try to play up the relationship or caricature you've built.
Look at Jayne Cobb in Firefly. He's the surly, gun-loving "heavy." When he's the main character in an episode, we get to see him wrestle with complex situations with emotional nuance, or play up his bombastic style (Jayne's Town).
But when he's not the main character, he's still a surly Heavy, but he acts in support - playing up the caricature of himself with disturbing one-liners ("That's why I never kiss 'em on the mouth") or moments of violence in his role as heavy ("You know what the chain of command is? Is the chain I beat you with until you know who's in command!" - shouted before succumbing to drugs and passing out).
He bows out of the spotlight while portraying his character faithfully. Look for and play these moments!
Please, Sunset Boulevard is too groovy a film reference for you to reference as your thread title.
...have some respect...
Thanks for posting this, bawylie. I think I may try something as direct as you did with that one player, and ask my players to help me with making sure each one of them gets a chance to shine one or two at a time in each scene.
zoroaster99 wrote:
On a slightly longer time frame:
In our regular sessions, there is a paladin who is accepted as the natural leader but if a new player joins (or a regular player starts a new character), we let him take centre stage for one or two sessions, let the story revolve around him and see what develops. If all goes well, it gets the character firmly established and injects fresh story lines. Then we raise the profile of the other PCs back up to their normal dynamic. It works for us, as long as everyone understands what is going on.
As always, good stuff. I've got your blog bookmarked. 
Azzy1974 wrote: