How much do you really Roleplay and Immerse yourself in your character ?

[Hackenslash]

Hello All,

I have noticed after reading some of the posts on this site, that there seems to be a whole other world out there that really enjoys the roleplaying aspect of a roleplaying game. What I mean is that there are people who really immerse themselves in their characters and use voices and intonation to great effect and can have whole gaming sessions with great dialogue and hardly any combat. I would like to be a part of a group that games like this but unfortunately that probably won't happen so I was curious as to how many of you out there really enjoy actually roleplaying and getting the most out of your characters. My group tends to stop at a few voices once in a while but focuses heavily on dice rolling and combat and forget mono-dialogueing with NPC's. They are more concerned with their characters statistics and performance in combat than how they will act in a situation or with another character. I think it stems from fear of ridicule if they try and use a voice or a certain tone, and everyone will laugh, but that's just my opinion. While this is fine if that's how they enjoy the game, then fair enough, but I have played with some very good roleplayers in the past and yearn to try somthing different and experiment. Any comments or suggestions please let me know and thanks for voting on the poll.

 

[Grapeshot]

We have 7 including the DM in my group. There is one that is more interested in loot and stats but he'll also roleplay a little too. Everyone seems to be in character fully until it comes time to combat. Then we have to go in and out to ask questions about certain spells and so on.

Our dm is strict about it though. You can not leave character unless you hold up the time out signal (right hand over left fingers). Everything said at the table without a time out is assumed in character.

 

[Holy Bovine]

I do get into my character squite a lot (both when I'm DMing and playing) but one thing I hardly ever do is change my voice. I may have characters act differently but talking in a high pitched voice for a female elf and a baritone for the dwarf fighter just doesn't work for me and can actually be very jarring to my suspension of disbelief.

I will still do stuff like a drunkard slurring his speech or a thug curse at the PCs wtc. but I just never could get into the different voices for every characters thing.

 

[sparhawk]

Character

I agree w/ Holy Bovine. I get very much into my characters but I almost never change my speech patterns. I just am not good at changing my voice patterns and I am not comfortable doing that, I do however play characters that are very much unlike me as possible I just use my voice for them even if I play a female character.

 

[Pielorinho]

We generally play very roleplay-heavy games. The latest story-arc IMC has involved:
* Setting up a hospital for a refugee camp
* Finding a cure for a congenitally deformed little girl
* Making peace with several priesthoods
* Having dinner with the captain of the guards
* Squaring off against a fundamentalist shadowdancer (no combat, but harsh words)
* Tracking down and eventually killing a demon-spirit of disease, a ten-foot-diameter coil of writhing worms.

Only the last item involved any combat; several of the other items have been occasion for great roleplaying.

As a DM, I do voices occasionally -- creaky old-people voices, deep giant voices, breaking teenager voices. They're not my strong suit, but I try them out. As a player, I don't do voices as often: what's fun for a one-appearance NPC can get annoying for a character played for years at a time.

I try to give my PCs distinct sentence patterns, mannerisms, and other traits, though: one PC might grunt a lot and begin sentences with, "I reckon..." where another one pauses and smiles before speaking, and a third never uses a short word where a prolix polysyllablic plethora of verbiage suffices. I find that verbal patterns are much harder for me to think of on the fly (i.e., to do as a DM, where I have to make up new personalities constantly), so I mostly save them for PCs.

Daniel

 

[Voadam]

I try to do little things for my charachterization of PCs, for my merchant prince I only addressed people by their surnames to portray a businesslike formal attitude and never used contractions, for my viking loremaster I came up with short oaths based off of viking mythology ("Odin's missing eye!" "Tyr's severed hand!").

I try to avoid anachronisms in D&D games.

 

[Praeco]

Sadly I am not very good with accents and the like, so I have difficulty portraying people from different countries and regions. At times I wish I was more effective at this because I feel it would make me more capable at creating immersion when running a game - most of the time however I fear I will just come off as cheesy.

I don't have much of a problem playing characters with different ideals or moral codes - I find it fun as well as enlightening at times. I think a person can really learn about their own unnoticed behavior if they take some time to consciously work outside their ethical and behavioral boundaries.

 

[Aaron L]

I am all the time, but I don't use funny accents.

 

[Wicht]

I went with Most of the Time, but I don't really do voices that well and try to focus on character motivation instead.

 

[Hackenslash]

Thank you very much...

Hi all,

Thanks to all of you who have voted so far and to those who have posted their comments. An interesting spread of results so far from 39 votes. Most of you clearly try your best to roleplay as much as possible. I have read all the supporting comments on the thread and have found it very interesting how people approach roleplaying in general. Please keep the comments coming and feel free to post suggestions on improving roleplaying techniques and ways of overcoming shyness in the group. Thanks again and keep voting... Cheers !!!