• The VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!

Roleplaying Encouragement

Camelot

Adventurer
I'm looking for a system to add onto my games that will encourage my players to roleplay a bit more. When I say roleplay, I don't just mean say some colorful things about they way they smash the kobold's head in, but actually play a consistent character and form interesting connections with the other player characters. If anyone knows of such a system, or even if its just rules from another RPG that can be ported into other games, I'd love to know!

The best I can come up with myself is a system of points that reward the players more if they stick to their character's motivations and traits against meta-judgment (such as a hero letting the villain live when it makes more sense just to kill him, or in an opposite situation, a character killing an NPC who wronged him when it would have been better to leave him alive). They could then spend these points to do something...interesting. I dunno, this is why I need help!
 

log in or register to remove this ad


Obryn

Hero
It sounds a lot like FATE. Basically, you or the GM can invoke negative aspects to get fate points you can use later.

I'm considering adding something like Aspects to my own D&D game.

-O
 

Radiating Gnome

Adventurer
Savage Worlds includes "bennies" which allow PCs to reroll bad rolls, shake off damage, etc. They can earn new ones by playing in character, especially along one of their hindrances. An award system like that could work.

I spent a lot of time trying to work out the nuts and bolts of a Fate-like aspect system, including the invoking, too -- I really like the system, but the more I tried to design a house rule to emulate it, the more I figured it would just be easier to play Fate. ;)

Which, I should point out, we haven't done. I'd like to try it out, but it's hard to get our home group to move off D&D.

Oh, I'm also a fan of Fiasco -- I'm prepping a playset to build the relationships for our next campaign. Should be interesting.

-rg
 
Last edited:

Quickleaf

Legend
Yeah, Fate, Fiasco, Burning Wheel - those are the ones I know of that have mechanics you could borrow to "encourage roleplaying". I put it in quotes because there's a fair number of D&D players who don't like to go deep in the role-play direction, YMMV of course.
 

darjr

I crit!
Yeah, Fate, Fiasco, Burning Wheel - those are the ones I know of that have mechanics you could borrow to "encourage roleplaying". I put it in quotes because there's a fair number of D&D players who don't like to go deep in the role-play direction, YMMV of course.

Yea, I've known quite a few. Many were OK with doing things in the third person. They would describe what their character was doing or saying vs acting it out. In a few situations the rest of the table really needed to explicitly say that third person gaming was OK and when that was done the gamers seemed to have a great time.
 

GreyLord

Legend
I find it works better if you play a system that rewards XP for Roleplaying rather than other things. If it rewards them for roleplaying instead of killing, or treasure, or other items...they'll be more likely to roleplay since that's what is rewarded.
 

pemerton

Legend
Yeah, Fate, Fiasco, Burning Wheel - those are the ones I know of that have mechanics you could borrow to "encourage roleplaying".
Many were OK with doing things in the third person. They would describe what their character was doing or saying vs acting it out.
I don't think there is a big correlation between strong roleplaying and 1st vs 3rd person.

In BW, there are many ways to earn artha, and only a couple require 1st person performance-style roleplay.
 

Quickleaf

Legend
I don't think there is a big correlation between strong roleplaying and 1st vs 3rd person.

In BW, there are many ways to earn artha, and only a couple require 1st person performance-style roleplay.
Not what I was saying at all.

I was just warning the OP that the best of DM intentions and slickest indie rpg systems don't matter (and can be counterproductive) if the players are content just describing "colorful ways they smash the kobold's head in."
 

sheadunne

Explorer
I have never found rewards (XP, action points, Karma, etc) a good incentive to roleplay. I have found DM/GM encouragement and putting the work into working directly with the player is the best motivation (side stories that don't involve the plot directly). Maybe a character's sister shows up. Maybe a character wants to open a bar. Maybe a love interest. Maybe a rubbery villain (one that always seems to get away and irritates one particular character, perhaps talking with a silly french accent, but never is actually any danger to the character or the other characters in the party, just irritating). Every player has something they like that doesn't involve rolling dice and killing things. Find what those things are and make them something special and interesting only for that particular player. Just don't devote a large chunk of time to these in game since they focus only on one particular player, leaving the rest sitting around eating pizza.

Example

In my usual group we spend most of the time running PF APs, which doesn't always leave a lot of time for roleplaying necessarily. We were playing Cauldron and my Cleric/Wizard decided that the town needed a temple to Bocoob. It had nothing to do with the AP but it allowed me to have some roleplaying fun. I bought a building, turned it into a temple (which was really just a library). I spent my treasure helping the residents. This eventually became part of my roleplaying inside the main story of the AP. I had to think how my character's actions would effect my followers. I couldn't just kill the bad guy disguised as a town leader, I had to expose him first so that my followers wouldn't think I was out to take over the town. Basically my "side story" influenced my characters reactions and encouraged roleplaying that wouldn't have normally happened. We didn't spend much time on it "in game," most of it was done through emails or during the "set up" time before the game started, or when we didn't have enough players that night to run the AP, we'd still get together and play around with the side stories.

When I run games I try to create NPCs that work with the particular player's preferences, rather than necessarily the campaign's story. If a player likes to play the drunken dwarf, give him a drinking companion. If the player is the type of guy/gal that likes a little drama, maybe have the companion hit by a runaway wagon one night while the characters are off saving the world. He'll return and find him in need of a raise dead or need the character to sneak him in some beer to the hospital without the nurses finding out. Maybe he dies and players goes to the bar to drink away his sorrows when the companion's wife shows up and tells him how now she doesn't know how they'll survive without his income from working in the mines. The next thing you know, the player is putting aside money for the widow, maybe checking in on her when he's in town. Maybe he buys the bar and has the widow run it. The point though is to keep it to a minimum at the table, just enough to remind him/her that there's life beyond the adventure.

Anyway, that's the type of roleplaying I like in my games, especially when there's not a lot of time at the table for it. We're all busy people and I know I like to unwind with a good "kill em all" when I play. But I also enjoy the side stories that make my character 3 dimensional. I don't need rewards, only a DM willing to work with me on developing the side story.
 

Voidrunner's Codex

Remove ads

Top