How do I get more roleplaying out of my players?

[Lanefan]

You can lead a horse to water, but sometimes after that all you can do is drown it, 'cause it ain't gonna drink.

Getting people to write up a backstory (particularly if they don't wnat to and-or have no ideas for such) is probably more headache-inducing than it's worth. Sometimes, I'll dream stuff up on the fly for my characters (have I ever been to this town? ::roll:: nope, never even heard of it), erring on the side of bland and inocuous. But "what do you fear" type questions just annoy me.

That said, if anyone *does* come up with a back-story you've got something to build on.

Sometimes, the DM will have dreamed up some tables to determine roughly where you're from, whether you have any siblings, whether your parents are still alive, whether any of those people are significant somehow (being Dwalin the Dwarf is one thing, being Dwalin brother of Balin the Thunderer, Smiter of Giants is another thing entirely!), and that right there can lead a player into back-story ideas.

My 3e Illusionist, it turned out, came from a family of farmers and - according to DM roll - had an identical twin sister. It took a couple of pages of small type to explain how she ever wound up as an Illusionist (the sister went into Necromancy), but it was fun to do.

Lanefan

 

[pogre]

This is a little over the top and admittedly corny, but it can get things rolling. DMs shooting for even more involved drama might borrow some lines from the great bard, Shakespeare, and start the evening with this:

O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention,
A kingdom for a table, PCs to act
And monsters to behold the swelling scene!
Then should the warlike fighter, like himself,
Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels,
Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword and fire
Crouch for employment. But pardon, and gentles all,
The flat unraised spirits that have dared
On this unworthy tablehold to bring forth
So great an object: can this cockpit hold
The vasty fields of chance? or may we cram
Within this wooden O the very casques
That affright the air of legendlore?
O, pardon! since a painted miniature may
Attest in little place a million;
And let us, ciphers to this great accompt,
On your imaginary forces work.
Suppose within the girdle of these walls
Are now confined many mighty monstrosities,
Whose high upreared and abutting fronts
The perilous deep maze parts asunder:
Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts;
Into a thousand parts divide on man,
And make imaginary puissance;
Think when we talk of horses, that you see them
Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth;
For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our things,
Carry them here and there; jumping o'er times,
Turning the accomplishment of many years
Into an hour-glass: for the which supply,
Admit me Chorus to this history;
Who prologue-like your humble patience pray,
Gently to play, kindly to judge, our game.
- adapted from Henry V (I, chorus)

Following such an effort, a DM will send a clear signal that the game is afoot and the suspension of disbelief is to begin. There are many other movies and novels that have appropriate passages that could help set the tone the DM is striving for in his game.

 

[VirgilCaine]

Maybe you shouldn't focus on backstories. Believe me, writing those can get annoying. I've been in a number of internet campaigns, and they almost always require long backstories. (In a face-to-face campaign, I was supposed to answer 100 questions. Literally. I answered about 90 of them.) Ask for something short that you might find in a DnD novel.

I ask for important things: Family, Education, Quirks and Personality, Why Do You Adventure?, Education and Training...and maybe a couple other things. I had eight listed somewhere and if players give me that I give them 10% of what they need to level up.

 

[jdrakeh]

Any suggestions to help get them to Roleplay?

This will sound drastic, but here it is. . .

Take a break from your currrent campaign and test fire a few systems that support roleplay mechanically. Now, this isn't to say that roleplay is impossible in D&D, rather that it's merely a function of character acting in D&D, not a function of the rules (i.e., there aren't any rules in D&D specifically tied to involved social interaction or political skullduggery, for example).

I'm currently reading The Burning Wheel, for example, a game system that has a social conflcit system (called "The Duel of Wits") that is every bit as tactical as martial combat is in D&D. I've also heard very good things about the new edition of Exalted in this regard (though Burning Wheel usually gets the nod, which is why I picked it up instead).

And games like Conspiracy of Shadowshttp://www.bobgoat.com/conspiracy/cosRead.php, while lacking such rich social conflcit systems, rewards players by providing them with rules to build their own fantasy conspiracy cell (the default "party" in CoS) and spell out how it interacts with other elements of the world-spanning conspiracy.

I think you'll find that the inclusion or omission of codified rules that address roleplay, either directly (such is the case with Burning Wheel or Exalted) or indirectly (such is the case with Conspiracy of Shadows), have a huge influence on how people play a given game.

[Note: The Burning Wheel link above leads to the official support site -- check out the wiki, which includes examples of play, demo scenarios, rules excerpts, and a ton of other nifty stuff. The Conspiracy of Shadows link above leads to a lengthy exceprt from the main rule book that covers all of the game's basic systems, including cell creation.]

 

[Janx]

For new PCs, at most, I require a 1 paragraph summary of their PC. It should cover, parentage, siblings, home town, where class was learned. Any more than that is a waste, as the PC might die on the first adventure.

I don't even use PC background for the first few short adventures, as they tend to not be done, and the PCs are still solidifying how they want the PC to be.

Giving XP for roleplaying is a good idea. Its certainly better than doing nothing. Ideally, you'd want to give a comparable amount, akin to what the PC would get for combat. By making non-combat solutions equal in value to combat solutions, you make them viable alternatives. (note, one could argue that you could kill a shopkeeper and take the item you want, or negotiate...whether that's worth XP may be balanced by the non-monetary benefit of NOT killing him, aka not committing crimes has its own benefit).


You might consider making NPCs that are willing to talk. Talking to shopkeepers to buy gear, initially can be fun, but some folks find it tiresome to roleplay the purchase of supplies. If that conversation included local gossip, or whatnot, now you've transformed the interaction into some role-play opportunity.

Also, make your NPCs want to hear what the PCs have to say. Ask the PCs questions, for advice, what not. This may give your players incentive to talk.

Talking is the first step to roleplaying. Get them to talk to NPCs, balance the level of chatter (skip the boring parts), and you should be OK.

Also, don't make the whole thing about roleplaying and talking. Some folks belly up to the table to kill things and take their stuff.