D&D 4E How Will 4e Encourage Role Playing?
- Thread starter JoeGKushner
- Start date
outsider
First Post
Characters have always had a defined role in a group. The "archetypical" party of fighter, mage, cleric, thief has pretty much always worked better than any other 4 member party composition. It seems to me that all they are really doing is making sure that the other classes are reasonable substitutes for those 4 classes.
As far as your example of a guy that thinks D&D should be "run like a computer game", it's possible he simply thought that your players would have actually enjoyed it -more- if you did it the way the book laid it out. He may have even been right. Since you gave no actual details about the change made and the reasons for making it, it's hard to say.
I think mapping out encounters will do more good than harm. Planning out the actions of a group of 5-10 monsters isn't really an easy thing, and can slow down combat alot. Plus, it's sometimes easy to forget even the most important of monster special abilities when you are trying to get a combat moving quickly. It seems like the system they are working on will help overcome those problems.
As far as encouraging RP goes, that's one of life's great mysteries. People that like to RP are generally going to do it. People that don't, generally won't. Other games like Vampire(just an example) might seem like they encourage RP, but I suspect what they really do is discourage the people that don't want to RP from playing the game at all. The more a game talks about RP, getting into character, and stuff like that, the more likely your "rules only" types are going to close the book and never open it again. I'm not really sure there's much a game system can do to actually encourage RP.
As far as your example of a guy that thinks D&D should be "run like a computer game", it's possible he simply thought that your players would have actually enjoyed it -more- if you did it the way the book laid it out. He may have even been right. Since you gave no actual details about the change made and the reasons for making it, it's hard to say.
I think mapping out encounters will do more good than harm. Planning out the actions of a group of 5-10 monsters isn't really an easy thing, and can slow down combat alot. Plus, it's sometimes easy to forget even the most important of monster special abilities when you are trying to get a combat moving quickly. It seems like the system they are working on will help overcome those problems.
As far as encouraging RP goes, that's one of life's great mysteries. People that like to RP are generally going to do it. People that don't, generally won't. Other games like Vampire(just an example) might seem like they encourage RP, but I suspect what they really do is discourage the people that don't want to RP from playing the game at all. The more a game talks about RP, getting into character, and stuff like that, the more likely your "rules only" types are going to close the book and never open it again. I'm not really sure there's much a game system can do to actually encourage RP.
Calico_Jack73
First Post
IMHO D&D has continually moved away from roleplaying and back to it's miniature wargame roots. Look at the spell lists. In 2e AD&D you had spells such as Bigby's Construction Crew (check it out in the Wizard's Spell Compendium vol 1) which had absolutely no combat value but were great from a role-playing aspect. Thumb through the 3.5E Spell Compendium... how many spells in there are similarly non-combat, utility spells. Not many... and even fewer players actually use them. Look at the feats... besides the Skill Focus feats most of the feats are combat related. IMO a PC has gone from being a "character" to a playing piece in a tactical wargame. I'll be interested to see if 4E follows this trend.
Tie all XP gained to the character and the characters goals.
The character gets experience for completing his goals
For interactions that further his goals and for setbacks that hinder his goals.
Give experience for a character that helps introduce a new and interesting NPC into the story.
That is probably the easiest way to encourage roleplaying (or storytelling) is to reward it and remove any XP awards for killing monsters, evading obstacles etc. Killing critters and passing obstacles are only useful in gaining XP indirectly in that they help the character complete his goals.
The character gets experience for completing his goals
For interactions that further his goals and for setbacks that hinder his goals.
Give experience for a character that helps introduce a new and interesting NPC into the story.
That is probably the easiest way to encourage roleplaying (or storytelling) is to reward it and remove any XP awards for killing monsters, evading obstacles etc. Killing critters and passing obstacles are only useful in gaining XP indirectly in that they help the character complete his goals.
Corinth
First Post
The white elephant in the room is that the majority of gamers aren't there to role-play; they're there to play the game, and the role-playing gets in the way of actually playing the game. Furthermore, there is a minority of gamers that actively hate role-playing; it's rare to see them speak up in a forum like this one, but you'll see them in the store and in MMORPG forums. When time is limited, and sessions infrequent, time spent yapping about stuff is time spent not running through encounters, gaining XP, upgrading gear or leveling- i.e. not playing the game. That 4.0 will be focusing far, far more on playing the game is a good thing; those that want RP don't need rules to do it and those that don't aren't forced to deal with it. (And, thanks to the online gaming support, can get their game on far more often than they used to; like that won't have an impact.)
Part of the problem is rules and role playing can often be at odds with one another. What takes priority a crappy die roll on a PCs diplomacy check or some very smooth talking by the player? If its the die roll your diminishing role playing, if its the smooth talking then your diminishing the rules or the significance of skills etc.
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