For me, getting the players to buy-in is a multistage progression where I invest players in the game by giving them choices and working their feedback (intentional or otherwise) into the campaign. It is a continuous process where player contributions are used in the game at every stage and which never really ends until the campaign does.
I usually begin by my campaigns by giving my players the choice of the game to play. I typically have several different games I want to run at any one time. So as first step, I draft a list of prospecti. These are simple short descriptions of the games I want to run. Typically I want the players to know the system I’m running (for example D&D), the major themes or conflicts (dragons or ghosts), and the broad strokes of the world. For example here are a couple of the choices I gave the players of my current online Mage: the Awakening game 3 years ago:
The Darkness that Men Make
The cabal is charged with dealing the city's spiritual problems. From hostile ghosts to alien spirits to full fledged demons, they must keep the peace through a mix of force and diplomacy, protecting the mortal realm from dangers they can barely understand.This chronicle would be focused on secret world beside Chicago, a world of century old burn scars, inversions of the natural order, and predatory memories. The cabal would be able to establish themselves as spiritual experts and an influential power in the city.
Ongoing stories might include resolving hauntings, dealing with corruption by demons, and helping to heal the city's tortured spiritual memories.
Useful Arcana: Death, Mind, Spirit
Loose Skeins
The cabal is ensnared in a mystery. Starting from their awakenings, the mundane and happenstance begin to spell out symbols and destinies. Fellow mages and Banishers appear as pieces on a board, while secret masters and the Seers of Throne attempt to make them pawns in their game.This chronicle would focus on the mages as they find themselves deep in a world of occulted secrets. Like Alice they learn how deep the rabbit hole goes. Leading first from a surreal waking dream, they find illusions and beliefs have more reality than the modern world around them. They find themselves joined by threads of fate. They soon find the secrets of their meeting lie in mysterious coded messages and secrets hidden in the depths of the Astral. As time passes they can try to take control of their destinies or pursue their programmed fates to the bitter end.
The game would delve into the Astral, chasing gods who never were and involving struggles with manipulative Seers and stranger beings cast down from the Supernal.
Useful Merits: Destiny, Dream, Meditative Mind
I then asked them to rate their choices on a scale of -5 to 5, where -5 is loathing, 0 is neutral, and 5 is “I can’t wait to play it”.
From the listings above it is clear I already had a few things I knew I wanted to do. I wanted to run Mage: the Awakening and I wanted to set it in Chicago. But I could see several different stories I could tell. By leaving the choice to the players, I hope to achieve two goals. The obvious goal is to run the game that my players wanted. By giving them a choice, I got them invested in the game, since it was their choice of what flavor the game would take. The second less obvious goal, was to ensure the group would be working toward a common purpose or interest.
This is also where the players’ choices began to feed back into my campaign design. Beyond the winning choice of the central themes of the game, what I found very nice about this method was looking at the choices that didn't win. The Darkness that Men Make was the overall winner but many of my players also rated Loose Skeins highly. That led me to incorporate more of those elements in the game to make the game more fun for them. The Astral become a potent part of the game as did manipulations of destiny. The final threat of the game, in fact, is a god whose existence was somewhat written out of reality.
The next step in getting players to buy-in is character creation. I try to work closely with my players when they create their characters. Again the reasons for this are twofold. The first is I want to see their character succeed. So whatever the player is trying to accomplish with their character, whether mechanically or roleplaying-wise, I try to make sure the rules and options are there to make it work. If they want to be a suave James Bond type character, I will want to point out the missing social skills on their sheet before it comes up in play. Nothing is worse than to create a character only to find out he or she is fundamentally flawed due to a rule misunderstanding or an option that was not taken advantage of. The sooner that is rectified the better.
The second reason is to learn what makes the characters tick. By getting involved early in the design process, I can see what aspects of the game the players are most interested in and thus can make sure to highlight those aspects. At the mechanical level, a character's statistics reflect what a player wants his or her character to excel at and thus when showcasing that character those are the aspects you want to focus on. For example, if someone put lots of points or dots in skill with a bow, then you want to make sure that there are opportunities for the character to use that bow. You want to incorporate archery contests, opponents attacking at range, and locations where they can rain death down upon their enemies.
From a roleplaying perspective, you want to get an idea of what the character's quirks and interests are. If they have goals or background characters they want to be a part of the game this is a good time to learn about them. Then you can build your world and initial sessions around these ideas.
To help with this aspect, I am a big fan of using Preludes. For those unfamiliar with Preludes, the concept is a short separate one-on-one session for each player where they roleplay some of the recent past of their character. This gives the players a chance to firm up their characters prior to actual play as well as allowing the Storyteller to get a sense of the character.
The main point here is that you want to personalize your game to the characters. They should always be the main characters of the campaign's story and by keeping the focus on them, you draw the players deeper into the game.
This process doesn't end at the first session however. In a very real sense character creation (and setting development) never ends. Each player choice in-game further defines the character. As a game master, I try to work in the choices and thoughts of the characters that come up in-game into future story lines. If a character decides that an NPC is untrustworthy, I may run with that idea. If in the course of play we come to learn some interesting background about the character (like their favorite food or a fear of spiders), then I try to make sure that element comes up again later in the campaign.
One of my favorite methods for buy-in comes out of my Mage: the Awakening game. In Mage there is a secret invisible place called the Astral, which is a realm of ideas and thoughts. Journeys to the Astral tend to be deeply personal as a character's history and personality shapes the realm. So a GM can use trips to the Astral as a way to learn more about the characters. Before a journey, I ask the players 3 to 5 questions that allow me to delve more deeply into their personalities. For example, I might ask them their favorite color or what their biggest regret is. While I use this in the game itself, an important point is that the act of them answering the questions forces them to focus on their characters more.
Getting players to buy-in to a game is a cyclical process and one that continues throughout the game. The GM must buy-in to the world he is creating. He or she needs to want to run this game and that enthusiasm will bleed into the players. The world (and the GM) has to buy-in to the players' characters by making them the focal point of the game and highlighting their strengths and important aspects. Finally the players need to buy into their own characters, to become invested in them so that they will stick around to see how their story turns out.
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