Hey Veeky Forums, how successful have you guys been at getting some tear jerk reactions from your players?

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3 maybe 4 times. I'm not certian how tear-y qualifies.

Advice to cause it. Get good a describing things. Keep learning new words. It allows you to create more evocative scenes.

As Robin Williams said in the Dead Poets Society:
> "So avoid using the word ‘very’ because it’s lazy. A man is not very tired, he is exhausted. Don’t use very sad, use morose."

This will assist hugely.

Another important thing is players rarely cry if you tell them how their never seen in-game home town is destroyed and all their families eviscerated. The players/characters will swear vengance and that's about it. You may get them roleplaying sadness but not much more.

In order to get them to tear up you need to make them care. Make the thing important, if only because it offers comfort or laughs or whatever else. If they don't care it doesn't matter. Some players get quite attached to NPCs, places or similiar. Take advantage of it after they have grown to love it. 2 of my tear jerks are based on this.

I'm sure I could ramble forever but I don't want to do that.

Never seen anyone be legitimately sad in an RP, much near tears.

Tons and tons of sullen disappointment though.

Im terrible at reading my players emotions while i'm GM because my focus is on keeping the story tight.

I know players have told me they've felt goose bumps and have felt genuine anger that their character might feel.

This is what keeps me going with my moody campaign writing. This is my end goal. Did they feel?

I've managed anger, a sense of hoplessness, joy, excitement, awe but... sadness? No this one is hard. It's very easy to disconnect from that. This is why its easy for players to shrug off a character death that happens right in front of them. Still, I'm trying to find a way to bring out the tears. Maybe it's not the right group for that.

This is all sound advice.

I can only think of once. An loyal NPC that they freed from servitude who had been with them since the first adventure, he eventually died in a pointless, horrible way that they could have prevented if they hadn't neglected him. To me it shined as the cruelty of death.

One player started crying, then the second, the last got up and walked away.

The first player would never play with us again, despite many requests.

Whether because we're bad storytellers or just hopelessly cynical, we've yet to achieve something like this.

Not that we've really TRIED for tears, but still. We've managed mindblowing revelations, shocking swerves, explosive RP arguments, tense standoffs, sullen silence, subtle bromance, and genuine triumph, but drawing out tears has been damn elusive.

Get the players invested in the characters.