Distractions: Wherein I discuss keeping players on track

I haven't posted in a while now, but not for lack of want. I simply haven't been able to get a session together. I did finally get one yesterday, but not of my normal game. This time it was a different group (with some substantial overlap) of players, and we were trying out the new D&D starter set running the Phandelver adventure. I don't know if it was because my brother was present and he tends to derail games (which is why I don't usually invite him) but it seemed like the session went off topic more than usual. I noticed numerous times where cross talk distracted some of the players (and even myself once or twice). There were also issues with players looking at their phones a lot, which slowed the game down causing other players to look at their phones. I'm making it sound worse than it really was, but it did slow the session down noticeably. I'm normally a pretty easy-going DM, but I think it's time I instate a few table rules to keep distractions to a minimum.

1. No phones at the table. Once one player starts looking at their phone and slows the game down, it makes other players take theirs out to do the same. I had one player Snapchatting, one on Reddit and a third reading Tumblr. I think this is the most important one to be strict about, since there were so many disruptions from phones. I'll probably amend it to allow checking texts, and obviously I'm not going to stop a player from picking up on an important phone call. Other than that, phones should be in pockets for the entire duration of the session.

2. Minimize off-topic chat. I like my players. We're all friends and we all hang out regularly. We like to talk about the things we all like, video games, TV shows, etc. But when we come to the table to play D&D, we should play D&D. There were several occasions where people started talking about what show someone else should watch, or what games they should play. I even got in on some of these conversations, so some of this is my fault. This one isn't so much a rule for the table as it is me needing to remember to cut those conversations short so we can focus on playing the game.

3. Manage speakers. Several times during the session, I couldn't hear what one player was saying because two others were talking at the same time, and slightly louder. This was probably the most disruptive problem, because I missed people rolling for things, asking if they could do certain actions and making inquiries about the scene. I can't pay attention to everyone at once, so I need to come up with a reasonable solution so I can hear what everyone has to say.

4. Make the players pick a course of action. It only happened once or twice, but the players spent a good ten to fifteen minutes discussing the pros and cons of two conflicting actions without actually getting anywhere. At some point, at least one of the players got bored and started staring at his phone (see 1 above), no longer contributing to the discussion, nor making any decisions. I don't really know how to fix this, other than maybe finding a more decisive player to add to the group. It's not usually a problem in the other game, because one of the players has taken kind of a leader role. I don't want to force the players into any action, because then they aren't making choices themselves and aren't really playing. At the same time, if they never make a choice, they aren't playing the game anyway.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on table distractions. I hope my regular game gets back on track so I have more things to post about.

-Daniel

Addition: Wherein I discuss adding new players to an established game

Due to general player flakiness real lives, I found myself short a few players in the last few sessions. To solve this problem, I invited two new players to the game. Unfortunately, it took rather longer than I would have liked to introduce them to the homebrew setting we use. I asked the other players to introduce their characters and explain what was happening, but it ended up being an out-of-character discussion that quickly became sidetracked. Maybe it's an issue with my players, but as a GM who is supposed to keep the game on track, I don't accept that. The players also had some difficulty explaining the variant rules we use, even though they demonstrably understand them.

In all, adding the new guys was a bit of a clusterfuck, and I need to come up with a more efficient method. I'm considering asking one of the players to write a kind of in-character journal entry at the end of each session. And possibly having them rotate if they would prefer that. This would actually solve several problems: first, adding new players would be a breeze, as they could simply read the journal to catch up on the story. Second, it would serve to refresh the players' memories at the start of each session, since we don't play weekly and they forget things sometimes. Third and finally, I think that it might get the players more invested in their characters. Plus, it might be funny to see the barbarian dictate his entries to the wizard, since he's illiterate.

I'll try it out and report back.