“So you're standing off to the side? Wait, you mean that Railfoof, notorious treasure hunter, is just watching while they start poking through the wagon?”

or I step them through the process, basing my guiding on their character concept,

“She looks over at you, smiling in such a way that you know there's more to her story than she's told you, almost as if she's daring you to question her on it.” (And if they don't take the lead) “You're a High Priestess of the Chubabra. She's in your church mocking you with an obviously doctored story. How do you respond to her? You know that the king sent her, but you're in charge in this building.” (And if they still give an “I don't know”.) “You could ask her what more there is to the story, and let her know that you don't appreciate her games.”

In both cases the goal is to get their characters doing the things they built their characters to do. Typically as the game move forward, they begin to realize that all the need to do is tell me what they want their character to do, and I'll tell them whether or not it's possible (A lot of new players take that a step too far, and begin “I grab a low hanging tree branch and hit the were-bunny with it”. I let them know that that's what they are attempting, and that the die will tell us both how successful they are. If there's even a tree branch close enough. ;P”). By the end of the session they tend to have a decent “Grasp” of how things work, and they are happy that the character they built “Works”. ;P

“So you're standing off to the side? Wait, you mean that Railfoof, notorious treasure hunter, is just watching while they start poking through the wagon?”

or I step them through the process, basing my guiding on their character concept,

“She looks over at you, smiling in such a way that you know there's more to her story than she's told you, almost as if she's daring you to question her on it.” (And if they don't take the lead) “You're a High Priestess of the Chubabra. She's in your church mocking you with an obviously doctored story. How do you respond to her? You know that the king sent her, but you're in charge in this building.” (And if they still give an “I don't know”.) “You could ask her what more there is to the story, and let her know that you don't appreciate her games.”

In both cases the goal is to get their characters doing the things they built their characters to do. Typically as the game move forward, they begin to realize that all the need to do is tell me what they want their character to do, and I'll tell them whether or not it's possible (A lot of new players take that a step too far, and begin “I grab a low hanging tree branch and hit the were-bunny with it”. I let them know that that's what they are attempting, and that the die will tell us both how successful they are. If there's even a tree branch close enough. ;P”). By the end of the session they tend to have a decent “Grasp” of how things work, and they are happy that the character they built “Works”. ;P

What kind of tricks do you use to get them to engage in the objective that you’ve crafted for them? I personally haven’t played with many players of that mind set but I would definitely love some tricks if I do.