Roleplaying tips for new players.

Dinian · Feb 21, 2011

Myself and 5 other friends have finally started playing D&D again after about a year hiatus while our DM dealt with some family issues. Last night was our first game and it was great. Myself (a dwarven warrior with a charisma of 8) rolled a natural 20 to seduce the dwarven barmaid at the inn we started in, I lost a fight against a door (don't ask) and as a party we dispatched 5 goblins. It was amazing.

The battle was exciting as all get out. We struggled with a few things, such as attack rolls, on the character sheets for your abilities are all modifiers already presented when it says atk= 9 v ac, etc, just some technical stuff but we made it through.

I am looking for some advice though. I am trying my damnedest to foster an atmosphere in which all of the other players will really get into their characters. Myself and the DM seem to have very little trouble doing this as we have each played RPG's in one way or another, but the other players have NEVER played an RPG in their life. I would love some tips that I can pass onto them as to what is the best way to roleplay and present their character during sessions. Active versus passive voice, when you should use either, speaking about your characters actions in 3'rd person (we had one person do this, it struck me as really weird), taking decisions out of the DM's hands (one person would roll insight, then then decide what information she gleaned, not let the DM tell her), etc.

Do's and dont's lists would be amazing, common mistakes would be great, advice on what you to do get "in character" would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

PS. Hope I put this in the right section, was going to do general roleplaying but since we are playing 4E I decided this would be the best place.

wedgeski · Feb 21, 2011

Hey, welcome to the board and it sounds like you had a great first session!

I might not be answering the question in the way you asked, but I would suggest that unless these other guys are actively *asking* for advice, I would not offer it. This is especially true if they're having as good a time as you are.

There are a thousand different playstyles for D&D and RPG's in general, most of which can work together quite happily at the table. The 3rd vs 1st-person roleplaying is a good example: even very experienced roleplayers might prefer to narrate their character's actions in the third person.

tobiasosir · Feb 21, 2011

wedgeski said:
There are a thousand different playstyles for D&D and RPG's in general, most of which can work together quite happily at the table. The 3rd vs 1st-person roleplaying is a good example: even very experienced roleplayers might prefer to narrate their character's actions in the third person.

This. I'm still new to the game myself, but I've already seen that different players have different play styles. Getting everyone to play the same way might hamper the fun.

That said, it might help for the DM to set out some rules or a kind of "player's guide." Things like ettiquite, basic rules, DM's role vs player's role, etc. If one of your players is telling the DM what she learns from an insight roll, for example, there's no room for the DM, and that breaks the game. Style differences are one thing, but you should all start on the same page. And remember that whatever those differences in style are, the DM is effectively the god of your created world--in the end, it's his rules.

As for getting into characters...my DM had a great idea for getting us involved. He created characters for us to start with--with the option to roll new ones after a few sessions--and made up a back story for each. The really helpful part was that he gave each character two secrets which we as players had to play by and keep.
Our characters all knew the others had secrets--none of us knew each other before the campaign started--so we were all asking each other questions to find out what those secrets were. This caused us as players to think more in character, because we often got questions we didn't want to answer for fear of letting the secret out. Soon, we were all coming up with character quirks outside what the DM created, and within a few sessions, we had fully fleshed out characters. This also has the nice side effect of our characters becoming friends and working better as a team.

DracoSuave · Feb 21, 2011

In general, I give the following advice to new players, and let them use that to inform them in how their character should act.

'Picture a cool guy on a cliff. Tell me about that guy.'

Use that to inform character creation with the DM or other player's guidance.

Then, in situations where the player is indecisive, ask him what the cool guy would do. When he says something, say 'Do you want to do that?'

A player's first character shouldn't complicated, it shouldn't be an exercise in deep immersive roleplay. It should be an exercise in cool.

Quickleaf · Feb 21, 2011

Hi Dinian, I don't believe there is a *best* way to roleplay a character, or speak in character or about your character. In every group there are some players who prefer more immersion and others who are more casual, and it doesn't necessarily line up with experience.

The issue about narrative control... Depending on the type of game your DM runs a new player jumping in like that could be awesome. If the DM prefers more control (and that's the groups preferred play style) he/she needs to make it very clear (before the next game) that the players are in control of their characters, but that the DM is in control on the NPCs and setting, and that premise is what creates suspense and conflict.

GameDoc · Feb 21, 2011

An oft overlooked but helpful tool is in the chapter on character creation in the PHB (pp 23-24) as well as the like chapter in both Essentials Heroes books. It gives you some questions about your character's personality, as well as discussing mannerisms and background. Combine this with some of the suggested personality traits listed under the character's race and you have a good set of guidelines for role-playing.

Arlough · Feb 21, 2011

I agree that this is much something that is determined by each player, but there are a few things that I have noticed help in general at the table.

You do what you say!
Since we have to say what we do, the reverse is only fair.
If someone says "I bite my thumb at him." It happens, unless they preface it with something indicating that it is not in game.
This:

helps keep everyone involved
prevents the taking back of actions when things go unexpectedly "I was just joking, my character would never actually start a fight with 6 lvl+6 enemies!"
can lead to some very amusing results

What your character says matters!
Similarly, if someone's active and passive voice are the same, then when they respond jokingly/flippantly to a PC or NPC, their character has actually said that out loud. As for why, see the above list. In addition, if there are other ways of communicating, indicate this as well.

Example: In one game, the group all agreed to spend the time (and linguist feat) to develop a signing language (hands), code language (spoken key words), and written code (cryptography) so we could be communicate without giving stuff away to our enemies. If we were using the sign language, we would make up signing gestures as we spoke, to indicate that we were communicating silently. We also had a gesture indicating what the key words were when we were sending verbal cues.

Another example: In my current group, one of the characters has telepathy. The way he indicates that he is using telepathy is he touches his brow with the index finger. The one time he forgot was also amusingly the time his character had just been heavily drugged, so he was speaking out loud in a drunken stupor, and all guards could hear his plan on breaking out of there. It was hilariously fantastic!

Everyone should have a goal!
Every character is seeking something. Let's face it, adventuring is, quite frankly, crazy. Risking life and limb in the most hazardous places imaginable is something you have chosen to do instead of getting a reasonable day job. Why?
Is it for the money, the fame, to avenge your father who was killed by a six fingered man? Everybody needs a reason, and should be striving for this.
Warlocks have even more of a need to define this, they already sold their souls to a powerful being! Why in the world would they do that?!?!?

That's all I can think of right now, but if I come up with more, I'll be sure to return and let you know.

Sasahara · Feb 22, 2011

Hi! I agree with a lot of what has already been said. I would put my $0.02 (that's Canadian money, so maybe $0.03 US at this point...) on the subject.

It might be worth a conversation with your whole group, led by the DM, if the DM wants to encourage more role-playing. You can talk about what will motivate the characters. Also, I find that it helps if the DM works to reward decisions that are not the best from a rules-lawyering point of view but make sense in character.

Another thing that might help new players to learn about role-playing is to recommend a good RPG podcast where they can hear role-players playing in character to get a feel for how it *can* be done.

Finally, having an hour or so at the beginning of a session to talk, in character, about how the characters know each other, etc. might help. My favourite character gen system is Spirit of the Century, which integrates characters knowing each other integrally into the system.

I hope this helps!

Kannik · Feb 23, 2011

One thing that might be worth distinguishing is what I call the ‘core’ of Role Playing vs the ‘expression’ of it. To me, the core is acting and relating to the game/world/scenario as though your character were there. If an ogre bursts through the door, right now, you’d have a reaction, and everybody’s reaction would be different. When the big sparkly zone of unusualness appears we’d be amazed, suspicious, mesmerized or fearful. So too in game, thinking and reacting as your character would.

The expression doesn’t have to be full-on method actor to be considered RP. If someone wants to talk as “my character says X”, that to me is as equally valid an expression of RP as someone who just speaks it, complete with accent and mannerisms. So long as the sense of what the character is doing/reacting in reaction to the world, then cool.

Being a game there will be some game talk of course, and every group will have a certain balance of meta to RP that works for them (and beginners will speak more about the rules as they’re still figuring them out, the rules tend to fade into the background as they become familiar). Letting it be known to your new players that they don’t need to ‘act’ to be in character may provide for an easier pathway to getting into character and RPing (not everyone feels comfortable being on stage). Just ease them into thinking as the character would.

The last two suggestions I would give is first to give each player a one-page narrative at the start of the campaign that gets their characters into the current situation, told from a first-person perspective. How did they get here (both physically and emotionally), what are their goals, what are their moods, etc. If the players have given you a backstory generate this one-pager from that, if not you can create something. Once they’ve all read them start the adventure, as though picking up from where the page left off.

Secondly, it’s often best to lead by example. If you and your friend RP, just RP and get enjoyment out of it. Gradually your other friends may try it more and more until they are RPing in stride. Especially if one of the newcomers tries it out, doubly especially if they choose a different expression, for now it is demonstrated there are several ways to do it. It could be infectious. Or not, and either way can be cool.

Peace,

Kannik

MortonStromgal · Feb 23, 2011

Ask each player at the end of every session on a scale of 1 to 5 how well did you feel you roleplayed your character and why, examples. Give them XP for it and talk about if you agree with their assessment.

Also I like to give out action points if someone does something cool.