Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Water Bob" data-source="post: 6022128" data-attributes="member: 92305">As long as you're helpful and respectful and make non-snarky comments like you did above, I won't need to any longer.     Hm.  I'm not arguing with you, Rumbletiger, but I find that hard to believe.  Just about everybody I've met that love roleplaying have strong imaginations.  I'd believe that they're not used to roleplaying or acting a certain way, but that's up to the GM to change that (if he wishes). Many times I've had people at my table who just want to roll dice, feel silly speaking in character, and look at me like a deer in the headlights when I ask them to show me, not tell me, exactly how their character acts in a particular situation. What I've done in the past with these players is just try my best to make them comfortable and guide them.  I'll set up the situation for them and try to get them "inside the skin" of their characters:  "You're standing there in the sun.  Sweat is rolling down your face.  Everybody around you is all of a sudden staring straight up the trail and guiding their horse off to the sides.  You squint, and you see figures on horse back slowly coming towards you.  You blink again, and  you can see that it's gnolls.  They wear armor.  They hold polearms.  And, as they move closer, you can see that all of them bear teeth, panting in the heat like dogs.  They seem proud but also very, very dangerous.  You're the only one still in the middle of the trail.  All of your comrades have left you there.  Think about it.  If you were in this situation, what would you do?" I try to get the player's head into the game by telling him what he sees, smells, hears, and feels.  I try to get them to imagine it, then simply tell me how they act. I also do this (sometimes--when appropriate) when players ask questions. I avoid direct answers and try to put the player in the character's shoes in order to get him to describe to me how he did a certain task--not just what he did. For example, a player may say, "I go into the pub and quietly ask questions of the patrons.  I'm specifically trying to find out if anybody knows about a gnoll lair close to the village.  What's my DC for my Gather Information check?" "Hold on," I'll say, "I want you to imagine the town at night.  You're walking through the streets.  There's a slight breeze, but it's humid.  It's just a tad uncomfortable.  You hear the noise as you approach the pub.  There are three wooden steps to mount before you push open the rough, oak door.  Inside, the place is crowded.  It's the only social establishment in the county.  A long, polished wood bar runs along the back wall.  Oak kegs are stacked behind the barkeep.  The room is open with a few wood columns here and there.  All the tables are circled with patrons.  There's a young elven girl quickly moving through the crowd. She seems to be the only waitress.  Her skin is a milky ivory. "Three dwarves, obviously drunk, have arms locked on each others' shoulders.  They're dancing together, belting out out of key song, swinging their mugs with their free hand.  The floor is wet with splashed ale beneath them. "Standing by the fireplace is a figure.  You can't tell much about him or her.  He seems tall.  A deep hood hides his face.  He stands with his back leaning against the wall.  His arms may be crossed--you can't tell because he wears an outercloak that encircles his body like a drape. "Hey!  Close the door, mate!  It's a man wearing a quilted jerkin yelling at you over the crowd.  You realize that you've been standing in the doorway for a moment, taking all this in. "You're a fighting man.  You've been around, so you automatically look for exits and take in threats.  There's an archway to the right in the far back.  Your guess is that it leads to the kitchen.  Three windows, shuttered, are on the wall to your right, while two more windows are to you left.  You see the patrons.  There are several of them, but it's the dwarves, the man in robes, and the man who just yelled at you that gets your attention right now.  The latter, wearing the quilted jerkin?  You know that's what is usually worn under armor--chain mail most likely. "What do you want to do?" And then the player might say, "I'm going to walk over to the dude in the quilited jerkin and ask him if he knows about the gnolls." If I'm trying to teach this player to roleplay a bit better, I'll stop him right there and say, "You're going to just walk straight up to him and say, Hey!  Are there any gnolls around here?" This allows the player to describe, in more detail, exactly how he does what he wants to accomplish. If I feel the player doesn't need he hand held any longer with respect to roleplaying, I'll start taking what he says and how he describes his character's actions at face value....and usually the situation doesn't go as the player expects. "OK, so you enter, look around as I described, then beeline for the man in the man in the quilted jerkin immediately after he yelled at you to close the door. "A few steps and halfway to him, you can see in his face that you're startling him.  He stands up from the chair, and his right hand crosses his gut to rest on the handle of a dagger he has hanging from a belt.  Are you still walking up to him?" Sometimes, I have to drag it out of players, but the more often they do it, the deeper I see them get into the game.  I can usually tell that they're enjoying the game more because they're visualizing living in the game world more often--not just rolling dice.</blockquote>

Verification