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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Irda Ranger" data-source="post: 4657753" data-attributes="member: 1003">Does roleplaying matter at your table?Maybe you say it matters, but does it really? Do you put your DMing where your mouth is?I'm not trying to be a jerk here; I said it that way to get your attention. That's how it was said to me when I needed to hear it, and it worked. So now that I (hopefully) have your attention, let me say that a different way.Does roleplaying direct the course of the campaign, or does the DM provide a constrained world of simple "Left or Right?", "Cave or Woods?" -type decisions? Because in the latter case you don't need roleplaying (a coin to flip will do) and trying to roleplay is frustrating (it doesn't change the choices in front of the PC). PCs won't roleplay when it's both <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt="(:" title="Smile    (:"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname="(:" />1<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> unnecessary and <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt="(:" title="Smile    (:"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname="(:" />2<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> frustrating.On the other hand, when roleplaying is both <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt="(:" title="Smile    (:"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname="(:" />1<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> required and <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt="(:" title="Smile    (:"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname="(:" />2<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> rewarded, you get roleplaying in spades. It's all about the incentives. I'll give an exaggerated example from my recent campaign (names have been changed to protect the unfairly represented):Two results: <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/1.gif"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":1:" title="One    :1:" data-shortname=":1:" />) Fred directed the quest. Not me. (Intrinsic Reward) His choice controlled the choice of quest, the goal of the quest, and (just as importantly) what the quest isn't. To be clear: the Quest wasn't "Wipe out the goblins" (although that's an option); it was "Make sure the human villagers are safe from goblin raiders." Any course of action that meets that goal is a "Finished Quest."<img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/2.gif"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":2:" title="Two    :2:" data-shortname=":2:" />) Fred's character got +10% bonus on the Quest XP. (Explicit Reward)And note that there was no immediate Karmic result for being a racist jerk. If you want roleplaying you have to allow it to play out, not punish it. Otherwise you get meta-roleplaying and PCs asking "Ok, how does the DM want us to react here?".I like <a href="http://www.freedrive.com/file/434988,neceros-4e-10-minute-background.pdf" target="_blank">this worksheet</a> from Neceros. But just to drive home the point: the worksheet is useless unless you support its use at the gaming table.</blockquote>

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