How do I get a combat-heavy player interested in ROLE playing?!

[Umbran]

I'll have to disagree. She's already got in-character players all around her, it's already been presented to her that some people enjoy it.

Watching someone else does not equate to doing it yourself.

So the answer seems obvious to me, and has been borne out over years in several case studies. People like what they like.

People are not born with a set of things they like, that never changes. Tastes change over time, and if we allow it, we are sometimes exposed to new forms of an old thing that we might find we like. If you stick by, "I like what I like, and nothing else," it becomes self-fulfilling prophecy.

This smacks to me of the DM giving the player an assignment they have to complete before they're allowed to get to the fun part. As a player, I'm very uncomfortable with the idea that I've got to earn my right to have fun with the combat part of the game by "playing the right way" through the DM's chit-chat sessions.

She already has such an assignment - "sit there and do nothing". If she has to have an assignment, it behooves the DM to try to make it as amusing as possible.

Your position smacks a bit of the "producer/consumer" thing being discussed in another thread. As a DM, I am not comfortable working with a player who is going to feel or act put upon when I occasionally ask for them to work with me outside of their normal habits.

Gaming is cooperative - it shoudl be give and take for all parties. I am not suggesting you force a player into a constant state of having to do things they don't like. But asking for an occasional bit of experimentation isn't unreasonable.

Yes, mayhaps they'll try it, and find she doesn't have fun with it, and that's okay. She can go back to what she was doing before, and nothing is lost but a little bit of time. What's so bloody offensive about that?