How many hardcore roleplayers are in your group?

[Liolel]

One player in our group is an obvious strong roleplayer. I myself try to roleplay well when I play but I'm only a decent roleplayer, an area which I would like to improve.

The real thing I've noticed is people roleplay certain characters they play better then others. I'm noticed this with myself, and with other players.

 

[F5]

I voted 2 or 3, but honestly I don't believe there ARE hardcore roleplayers, only hardcore groups.

I like to get in character. I don't get up and LARP at the table or anything, but I like using the accents and the personalized ways of speaking that can develop around a really solid character. BUT, if I'm the only one getting in character that way, it falls flat. There's no point being that in-character when there's no one for your character to interact with. So, I'll find myself referring to my characters in the 3rd person, and focusing more on the rules-and-stats part of the game, if that's what everyone else is doing, and I have just as much fun.

As the people in my gaming group have changed, we've gone from having several strong in-character roleplayers to having none (excuding myself, I guess), and I've gone along for the ride.

 

[der_kluge]

Now, I'm not implying that *not* being a hardcore role-player is a bad thing, mind you. It's not - I'm not. And perhaps my definition of "hardcore" was too extreme. Even those guys in my group that I would call really good role-players aren't hardcore about it.

Come to think of it, most of the really hardcore role-players I've ever met were at conventions. I suspect that kind of thing is a lot easier to pull off for one-shots, than for entire campaigns. That, and they could very well be playing the same character they play in their regular game and I wouldn't know it. That's one thing I do like about conventions.

 

[barsoomcore]

"Hardcore"?

In character "All the time"?

No. All of my players ask for someone to pass the chips, or excuse themselves to go to the bathroom, or make Buffy-related in-jokes, during any session.

To me, being a great roleplayer is less about funny voices and unshakeable personality displays and more about allowing a character to be a PERSON -- somebody with flaws who can grow and make mistakes and change over the course of the campaign. Not just become tougher, faster, better. I really like DMing players who let their characters fail, who look for opportunities for their characters to have emotional reactions to events around them.

Not necessarily in terms of histrionic displays of amateur acting. It doesn't have to be "first-person" or "in character" -- there just has to be something to the character other than the stats on the page. Just because for me, those kinds of stories are more interesting.

There's lots of ways of having fun, though, and telling one kind of story is just one way to do that.

 

[takyris]

Mu.

Your question is flawed.

Zooming the PC-camera in for a conversation with the bartender is not the end-all and be-all of roleplaying. In fact, if you're insisting that he say it how he'd say it, it's likely that you're forcing a average-charisma PLAYER with a high-charisma PC to act out something that is not as good as his character could do.

Equally valid interpretations of Hardcore Roleplaying include:

- Willing to walk into an ambush cheerfully, leaving his armor back at the inn, even when the player knows full well that it's an ambush because the party split up and the other PCs got captured and the bad guys bragged to them about how they were going to ambush the last guy. All of this happened in the open at the table, and the player heard it, but is roleplaying his character as being blithely ignorant.
- Willing to disagree with the party over something that is not ordinarily disagreed-with for game-easing purposes -- eg, playing a paladin of a merciful god who argues strenuously against killing evil prisoners that might be redeemable.
- Willing to try a combat maneuver that isn't in the book, trusting that he and the DM will agree on a reasonable and not-overpowered mechanic for it.
- Willing to run away if the party seems to be losing.
- Willing to refuse to use the equipment of slain enemies.

These are equally valid examples, and none of these are the end-all and be-all, either.

 

[Desdichado]

Mu.

Your question is flawed.

Zooming the PC-camera in for a conversation with the bartender is not the end-all and be-all of roleplaying. In fact, if you're insisting that he say it how he'd say it, it's likely that you're forcing a average-charisma PLAYER with a high-charisma PC to act out something that is not as good as his character could do.

Equally valid interpretations of Hardcore Roleplaying include:

- Willing to walk into an ambush cheerfully, leaving his armor back at the inn, even when the player knows full well that it's an ambush because the party split up and the other PCs got captured and the bad guys bragged to them about how they were going to ambush the last guy. All of this happened in the open at the table, and the player heard it, but is roleplaying his character as being blithely ignorant.
- Willing to disagree with the party over something that is not ordinarily disagreed-with for game-easing purposes -- eg, playing a paladin of a merciful god who argues strenuously against killing evil prisoners that might be redeemable.
- Willing to try a combat maneuver that isn't in the book, trusting that he and the DM will agree on a reasonable and not-overpowered mechanic for it.
- Willing to run away if the party seems to be losing.
- Willing to refuse to use the equipment of slain enemies.

These are equally valid examples, and none of these are the end-all and be-all, either.

You're right, and our group routinely does that kind of stuff all the time. Roleplaying is complex, and equating good roleplaying with amateur theater hour in my living room is a mistake, IMO.

It's one way to encourage roleplaying, but it's certainly not the only way.

 

[Belbarrus]

Which brings me to this poll. In my current group, most of the players, who are all good people, mind you, aren't really hard role-players. They like the game, they follow the story, they pay attention, and they know the rules. I couldn't ask for a better group, really. We all get along, and the players all work well together.

Yup, you are pretty much describing my gaming group as well. All good friends, we all like the game and like hanging out together.

It's a special treat when I do, though. We're talking - people that speak in character the whole time, add in a crazy accent, or aren't afraid to get up to act out some important scene or something.

This is the type of role-playing that I encourage and I give out Bonus XP for players that do do this. I also started up a "roll -playing" campaign, that is basically a 3-module dungeon crawl. In this campaign, I dont "encourage" roleplaying with bonus XP (if someone DID RP though, I would give them a bonus) because this campaign is just supposed to be a nitty-gritty, just-have-crazy-fun sort of game. My players like the "roll-playing" game better heh

When I play, I like to have some kind of background for my character and try to act out a "personality". It's hard to keep up though when no one else does. But at least my current gaming group doesnt try to "dissuade" role-playing like my last group did

B

 

[Treebore]

I said 2-3. My group isn't hardcore. Neither am i. We do it when we are in the mood to do it. So our roleplay is more like a roller coaster ride. Sometimes we are heavily into doing it, most of the time we do the bare minimum.

It is very much a mood thing for us.

 

[Lord Judas]

Id say 3 in my group of 5, but one of them is a total newbie (4th *session I think), and only by barsoomcore's definition. Occasionally even the best slip and say "I talk to the Bartender...". My 02, Ive found that rich NPC's help this process. I created a small town and defined almost every person with a Name, one line description (or more for special NPCs), Job, and a few personality words like "Timid, Amicable, arrogant". So when they say "I go to see the bartender..." I immediately go "You see Cill working the bar, he greets you: "Hi, hows it going today?" So far, this seems to prompt the player to respond in character- because saying "I tell him im fine" sounds absurd perhaps...

But no, theres no dressing up. I throw in an accent or two, but not much. I do somethings with emotion, but not everything. Rich Descriptions add to the whole deal.

Now granted, this was a TON of prepwork, but I am a programmer so I made an NPC class to hold data (C#) and organized them on an array list. Then I made a windows form with a drop down that has all the NPC names on it. Now its all available in point n click. Yes, I use the laptop while running the game. It was also quick n dirty code (hardcoded data). Also 20000names.com is a goldmine of authentic names in any language.

My only fear is that the characters will eventually outgrow my little town and ill be painted into a corner...

 

[mikedidthis]

The members of our group are all very strong role-players, but the situation is a bit different as we are all part of a play-by-post online game. We're physically located in different areas around the world (mainly europe, no. america, and australia), but we play daily in a campaign that's been in existence since about '85. I've been involved with the campaign for about a year and a half.

I have found that playing on-line is a good way to learn to play more in-character for several reasons. Because we try to post as though we're writing a story, we do things both in third-person and first-person (i.e. "Anuk stares the bartender in the face then moves his eye toward the dagger on the counter. 'You got the guts to use it?' he snarls.") Writing this way really forces you to try to find an emotional reaction for your PC, especially when the other players are doing it as well. But, it's nice not to actually have to act in front of others if that kind of thing makes you nervous. Plus, you have time to come up with a good line of dialogue (we only post once a day).

As the story progresses, you begin to see how your in-character reactions affect the story the group is writing. It's very rewarding to have your character do something that all of the other characters react to and rally around. For example, in a recent battle that had really taken our group down a notch, my PC crested a hill and shouted out a battlecry that was tied to earlier events in the campaign. I had intended it to simply be something my character said before rushing into the next stage of the battle, but the rest of the group treated it as a rallying moment, each in turn sharing the cry as we charged together. That kind of unexpected result was really kind of gratifying as a player.

Anyway, in the past my playing was definitely more in the third-person mode. But because of my PBP experience I think I'll be much more likely to get involved in the character role in my next face-to-face campaign.