When I had this issue I made it my characters goal to engourage my party’s growth.

I ended up being the leader by merit of my character being more forward thinking and organised.

So instead of me handling anything I’d be like… “Elf go talk to that guy I have a feeling you will get in well”

I encouraged them to grow in character.

I feel so bad when one of my players engages and then later apologizes for “taking too much spotlight” 😭. Honey, you’re fine! We’re all grateful as fuck for you.

You might feel that way, but if they’re complaining that you steal the spotlight too much, theyre probably introverts who find it too hard to cut in without you allowing them a chance.

Sometimes I come to a session from a busy workday to decompress a bit, and might not engage the NPCs as much as the party face. But then again, I don’t hold that against him.

It’s a fine line to walk. I try to get other players RPing more by asking them questions or asking them to do a thing. One of our players specifically said that she just liked watching everyone play, which is rough when you’re trying to share the spotlight. It’s not a passive game. Everyone needs to engage a bit or all of the weight is on the ones who will.

Any table that has a “main character” can fuck right off

And as a DM the Omni man player is far far more welcome at my tables.

I 100% relate to this! It gets really old being the only one who plays their character instead of themselves, and I try to help others be motivated to engage, but lots of times it doesn’t work out and it feels like I’m a frontman to the whole group when that’s really not what I want at all.

I actually really appreciate the basic intro to FATE core because of this. When I led a one-off it’s what I started all the players with before they created characters, and I feel like it helped them become more engaged. The rules of your character in FATE Core are (my summary):

1. Your characters are proactive, competent, and dramatic
2. you are an active participant in storytelling - everything needs to make sense - narrate your rolls and justify [using inspiration]
3. Fighting isn’t the best outcome many times, look for creative solutions as you can

I encourage high engagement players to toss the spotlight to lower engagement players. It isn’t solely on the GM to make sure everyone gets their turn in the spotlight.

Have your character ask other characters what they think, refer NPCs to them, suggest they go first/attempt a task, etc.

Eh, I’ve seen it cut both ways (as someone who GMs 90% of the time).

Had a player I was friends with, and roommates for a while, who was a huge ‘spotlight hog’. Since some players are quieter and less assertive, I try to make sure each player gets at least one ‘spotlight moment’ each arc. And this player was real bad for always kinda muscling into other player’s ‘moments’.

After having multiple talks, eventually just had to kick him (cause he didn’t stop), which has pretty awkward considering ‘roommate’.

So I’d take players that need to be coaxed into RP over players that have main character syndrome any day (though, of course, ideally all the players just RP readily but politely).