How Can a DM Encourage Roleplaying?

[Ramius613]

As a DM, your goal should be that everyone has fun. This includes being a referee if someone at your table is impeding on someone else's fun.

As others have said, not everyone is a roleplayer. That's fine, if you are putting out the effort for your 'watchers' to pick up on it, take some comfort in that. It's like fishing, try different baits(read: other angles), and you might catch one or more of them in it. You will remember that time and approach when it presents itslef in your game, because you will have fun, and so will your player, because they will have gone from watching the story to being the story. Don't expect full shakespearean performances (You don't go out expecting to catch a world record fish on the first cast, do you?) But be mindful of their involvement, and watch for signs of piqued interest, then pursue that to bring them in. This won't alway work, but is definitely worth a try.

On the flip side, talk to your 'Watchers' about their heckling. Explain that you are all there to have fun, and there is no reason that everyone should not be able to do it in their own way. Ask them to scale it back, because it is hurting your and other people's enjoyment. If they feel the need to do it suggest that they do it in character, that way they at least have to think and put some effort into it, and they may decide to forgo it if its too much effort, or you will get some roleplaying from them and your 'actors' can interact with them.

One thing to keep in mind is to speak privately with the people you see as disruptive, and politely explain your situation. If they respect you and your game, they should be able to accommodate your requests.

That's my two cents. Sorry for the all the fishing analogies, I don't know why they kept coming up.

 

[lostingeneral]

Thing is, generally speaking the gm gets to play other gendered people. If not, that leads to some interesting world-building gender roles. Really, that particular thing is just silly, as it tends to mean just 'I prefer that guys play guys' as people tend to be more uncomfortable that a girl is at a table then if she plays a guy.

This, of course, doesn't apply when characters hit on people, but really, there are few situations where that isn't weird.

The DM has to. World building is a distinct scenario; it implies a kind of distance between the DM and the characters s/he plays, because there, everything is transient. But a player character is sort of an extension of you when you play, and for the most part you're sort of stuck with it. I would certainly feel the same way if a girl at my table attempted the reverse.

Besides, silly or not, there it is. You can't always attach rationality to these kinds of aversions. Back to the original question - regarding a way to avoid this - there really isn't one. I'm not against it to the point where I would actively harass a player that made that choice, but I doubt I would ever be completely comfortable with it, and there's nothing I can think of that a DM could do to alleviate that.

 

[weem]

Before I begin, I'd like to thank anyone who takes the time to read and/or post in response to my question. I really do appreciate the help.

As a DM, are there any good ways to encourage roleplaying within a group?

I wrote an article a while back with some tips for this based on things I do. It's long or I would just share them here again, but you can read it here if you have the time...

http://www.enworld.org/forum/genera...60-weem-s-dm-tips-rp-prompting-immersion.html

 

[Gaming Tonic]

As long as players are not being disruptive with their lack of participation and you have at least a few solid players participating then I say let it be. This is the old immovable object vs. unstoppable force scenario. Some of the things I have read in this post says that some of you need to find new players who mesh with your GM style and the rest of the groups style. If it ceases to be fun and starts to be work then something is wrong. If the players have no background and you are playing 4th Edition then why does he select a background? It is their to help you fill out and answer a few questions about your character. Why do those character have a theme? Where did they get it? Once again this is a quid pro quo scenario. You should only get them if you can define them. D & D has never focused on background elements to characters and offers less than a lot of systems for coming up with them. You can always break out the crowbar and start throwing XP at the players but I personally hate this. You can always insist on a few quirks for characters before the game starts, this won't make them role-play but at a minimum it should get players thinking about characters.

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=97839]Fusiox[/MENTION]
I don't think there's any general answers about how a DM can encourage roleplaying because it's such a subjective thing and there's so much about your group in particular that influences how roleplaying looks at your table.

Number of players, age, differing experience levels with D&D (or RPGs in general), how well everyone knows each other, player styles, DM style, outside observers or sleeping children in the next room, etc.

Maybe you have an example that encapsulates the "problem" in your mind? Or some other specific observations you've made of how your players treat role-playing?

 

[SpydersWebbing]

I don't know how industrious you are, but I always find that whenever someone doesn't give me a backstory I make one up.

People start getting ideas about their back stories fast when you inform them that their amnesiac character is suspected of being a succubus. If they complain, inform them that this is the game that you're running and that if they don't like it they don't have to play. That you like story, and if they don't run story they have no business being with you. And then have a witch hunt for that suspected succubus. And if necessary kill off a character. No one said that you had to be fair.

Sounds means, I know, but it's better for everyone if you're honest, forthcoming, and a devious bastard.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

I think a good bridge between just rolling dice and being a full-on roleplayer is having the players build a good character background. You can do this just sitting around the table BSing for a bit before the game starts or even having people write up their answers in email or a campaign website.

DS

 

[jbear]

One fairly simple way to improve this situation a little:

NEVER ever EVER allow: "I intimidate him" or "I use my diplomacy to..."

Sentences like this have to be consistently met with a "No you don't. You tell me what you say and how you say it and I will decide based on that which skill roll, if any is required"

I do this with other non social skills as well, not as consistently, and situation/rhythm dependant. But as a DM it is within your role to establish what you expect of them. If you let them get away with "I use dungeoneering", then players with no inclination of engaging with the game by jumping into their chartacter/role etc will try and get you to just tell them what the answer is or how to solve it because their dice rolling was high enough.

I not only what, I need my players to engage with the adventure, otherwise it's not fun for me. I have expectations. I let my players know what those expectations are. What flies and what doesn't. Not RPing doesn't. Telling me "I b¡uff him" is the equivalent of saying "I do nothing" to me.

If you want to bluff, tell me what your character says. Depending on how well I consider you have bluffed and who you are bluffing I will set the DC. Awesome Bluff? Why roll a dice, it works. Good bluff, easy DC. Okay Bluff, Moderate DC. Weak Bluff Hard DC. Saying 'I Bluff', DM says ...err, no you don't.

As for backgrounds, I bribed my players to expand their background. Each player that did it received a custom magic item. The catch was that the custom magic item also had to be tied into their background. I took their ideas of what they wanted their item to do, and then worked out the mechanics myself to keep them fairly balanced.

Anyway, good luck.

 

[KidSnide]

As many have said, it's hard to encourage role-playing in a group that not used to doing it. Your best bet is to lead by example, but that's hard advice. If your group is already used to playing without role-playing, then they are used to you running a game where that's acceptable. That having been said, there are two concrete things you can do:

1) You can create games where the role-playing matters. If the players need clues or cooperation from an NPC, or if there are problem solving challenges or moral dilemmas, those are all reasons to talk in character. It is hard to role-play effectively when you are just exploring a dungeon. It's much easier to role-play if your characters' interactions and beliefs matter to the game.

2) You can play NPCs in character. Whether it's a funny voice, a facial tick or a repeated phrase, cheap little characterizations make good theater and encourage the players to reply in-kind. Also, by being a little silly yourself, it makes it easier for your players to take social risks without feeling like they are the only silly people in the room.

Related, I recommend having NPCs respond favorably to the role-playing of your PCs, at least for a while. If you want to encourage role-playing, you want to make role-playing an effective way of solving problems. Obviously, it's not realistic to make every NPC amenable to negotiation, but it's good role-playing training to game in a world of unusually flexible and persuadable NPCs.

-KS

 

[Riastlin]

I agree with the sentiment that you just are not going to convince everyone to roleplay no matter what you do. The trick here is to try to determine if the watchers are receptive to the idea of roleplaying, or if they are simply looking for a combat sim.

I don't have the link handy at the moment since I'm at work, but I think on the WotC community site there were a couple of blog posts recently by one of their featured blogs on encouraging roleplay. Might be worth a read.