The Level of Roleplaying in a Game

[jdavis]

Don't give the PC's all the information, make them dig for it, finding the map to the dungeon can be just as interesting as fighting the monsters. If they hear people at a bar talking about a crypt full of treasure, make sure the information is second or third hand and is full of inconsistancies, then they can go looking for people who know more about the story and keep going from there. Role Play it out. You can also get them to role play out the preparations, say there is a 40 foot chasm to cross to get to the entrance, have them role play out their planning and getting the supplies.

I always liked the house rule of staying in character when you are gaming, if they say something assume it is the character saying it, if they want to discuss something out of character, tell them to leave the table. Ask the group first before you put a rule like that in, but it does help with roleplaying.

Sometimes it is good to have the players come up with a glaring flaw for their character. You can incorporate them overcoming their flaws into the game. If a character is scared of high places then play out them trying to cross the 40 foot chasm in detail.

A big thing to remember is to not force anything onto your players, discuss your ideas first and see if they agree, maybe they have some ideas thye would like to add.

 

[AngelTears]

The techniques I use is that every player has to have a background history written up on the character. With as much detail as possible. I'll also try to connect the characters together, not necessarily nicely either.

I'll then run a solo adventure for that player from the characters childhood or youth, to show what kind of world is in question, and to show a major twist that may have reshaped that characters life.

I also prefer giving players the chance to roleplay. This means handing the reigns to the players and letting them loose.

I think a good group of roleplayers can roleplay the fight on who get's the last sausage.

But I roleplay for character interaction not to get more experience points.

-Angel Tears

 

[Fenes 2]

We don't deal out exp, but just level up when the group feels like it. this may also help to motivate player to roleplay since they don't feel like they are missing out on exp when they take longer scenes without battle.
Roleplaying xp, story awards etc instead of the kill lists are also a good way to encourage roleplaying. If you have player always eager to level then dropping encounter-based exp in favoir of story-based exp may be the best way to make them roleplay more.

 

[Agback]

My question is, how do you get everyone to increase the amount of roleplaying in a game? I realize this probably differs from group to group, but I'm hoping for some sort of general suggestions.

First, a caution: not everyone likes character-focussed gaming. Some players may not like it and either won't change or won't enjoy your new style of game. Don't feel that they are incompetent or inadequate, 'role-playing' is not in any objective sense better than 'roll-playing'.

Now for the advice:

1) Work gradually. Don't expect an overnight transformation. Start small.

2) Reward role-playing with GM attention time and with success, not with experience points.

3) Don't set writing assignments. They will give the impression that this role-playing stuff is drudgery, when the impression that you want to give is that it is more fun.

4) Make adventures that depend more on what NPCs want and what they are like, and that depend less on defeating monsters in mazes of tunnels. This means a switch to plot-driven adventure design.

5) Recognise that this has an art, or at least some tricks to it. I suggest reading this essay.

6) Play up to stereotypes. Reinforce your players' character concepts by providing foils and opportunities to excel. Do not try to negate the advantages of a character being who he his, or to have all NPCs take precautions against a character's signature move. Encourage, don't discourage.

Regards,


Agback

 

[Synicism]

Docking XP is never a good idea. It will just make people upset. One way to encourage RP is to shift the focus of your game away from combat.

The Challenge Rating system doesn't require PC's to fight in an encounter to gain EXP. If you design your games so that the problems can't be solved solely by combat, they will learn to get into their characters. If you draw plots based on your characters' backgrounds, you'll add a personal element to the game that will encourage RP.

 

[StalkingBlue]

Hey, if shopping works for your players, let them shop more!!
I mean it. Give them stores, give them caravans with musty wagons full of stuff to browse through, give them markets.

I don't like to manipulate players through XP awards. At all. All the characters get the same amount of XP at the end of every session, no matter what.
I've found that you can have great success in guiding players by what they like. Experiment.

If your players like to shop (my players do, their characters still enjoy haggling over silver pieces at fourth level ), they may also enjoy downtime between adventures. My players love it when their characters get to spend time training for gaining levels. I don't formalise this - I just tell them the group will have a week or two at their disposal and I ask every player what his or her character would like to do.
Each came up with tentative ideas the first time round: buy a new dress, stroll around town watching people, meet all the priests in town, gain access to where the militia trains and learn a few new tricks, sit in the attic and practice throwing my daggers blind. Nothing to fill a week with, but so what.
I thought a bit about what every character would encounter doing what they'd planned, whether at the temple or in the attic or at the forge. We played out one or two highlights from that first week for everyone, ending the session with a local tournament in which the PCs took part. Everyone had a blast.

The PCs went back to adventuring very well rested, in good spirits and a lot more fleshed out than before.


Again: Experiment. If you have a player who already has a personal goal or piece of personal background, let that appear in the game. Surround it with mystery. Be sure to talk it through with the player ahead of time to be sure they'll want to play along. Players like to be asked. Players also like that extra bit of spotlight.
Examples:
Let the PC have a dream. During the session, hand the player a sheet of paper with the dream on it. Tell him or her in front of everyone that "you decide whether you want to share that". Watch ears grow around the table. Even if the PC shares the dream, the player will likely enjoy the mystery too much to tell the others just everything all at once.
Let mysterious people (from the PC's past) turn up and fade away before the others really get to see them, let strange letters in secret writing be delivered to him, let him find clues to something he or she would much prefer to forget.

Once you start this with one PC, expect all the other players to want something cool like that, too. One by one, take them aside to ask whether they'd like to have something personal in the game, and step by step introduce their personal little agendas into the game.


Huh.

Got carried away.

Well. I guess I just love players.

 

[Zappo]

I second the general trend of not docking XP. Handing bonus XP isn't the panacea, either, though it probably won't hurt. Good roleplaying is something you have to do because you enjoy it, not for extra XP.

Designing plots around the characters' background definitely helps a lot. Unfortunately, if you just let the players make whatever character concept they can come up with, you'll more than likely end up with 6 unrelated characters. Even worse, it could happen that at least a few if not all of the players will catch the tragic figure syndrome*.

It'll be hard enough to find a reason for them to adventure together, let alone finding a plot that involves all of them. I haven't found a viable solution except making sure at creation that their characters have some kind of tie already, and that this tie is a major part of their background.

*"Tragic figure syndrome" is what I call when a player makes a character who is the son of a virgin mother, has received prophecies from three different messengers of the gods, bears a number of birthmarks, has a bunch of ancient family relics, and was cursed at birth. Ok, maybe that doesn't really happen, but the last campaign I DMed featured three characters with strange prophecies attached, one of which had 40 pages of background explaining how he was the leader of a great army, but lost his memory (and levels) due to a magical artefact and was banished on another plane and... I'm talking about 1st level characters here.

Trust me, that kind of characters just might work in a novel or movie. Not in a RPG, and really not if there's more than one. The other players want to play, too.

It's far better to have a character who is more interesting than your average character of the same level, but not much more so.

 

[Bagpuss]

Try a diplomatic mission, then add a little action to keep it from getting too heavy for them, it makes a good change of pace and often benifits from the slow build-up.

Previously in Birthright I've had then negociate an trade and mutual defense treaty between a number of nations. Spiced up with a tournament and an assassin when it needed some action.

And in Star Wars I had our Jedi party oversee the dismantling of an impounded Trade-Federation warship. Having to deal with the various unions and investors who each claimed the ship was rightfully theirs in payment for wages & debts owed. Spiced up with terrorist activating the battle-droids and trying to steal the ship.

 

[Quickbeam]

Some repetitive baseline remarks:

-- Don't shave XP for those less involved in roleplaying.
-- Don't force lengthy written assignments for PC background and history.
-- Don't assume this change will be easy or thoroughly embraced by your players...and be prapared to adjust your expectations accordingly.

Now, here's what I do:
** Try to lead by example. In other words, I attempt to use different voices and manners of speech for my NPC's, and always speak in character when the players address an NPC or "monster."
** I keep a list of pregenerated NPC's (farmers, constables, merchants, bartenders, etc.) handy. This list has names, races, and distinguishing physical and personality traits for the various NPC's...that way I'm always ready to roleplay a given person, and I can return to the same folks without scrambling to remember how they were previously described.
** Limit OOC conversation and the use of player knowledge.
** Create situations where the players can (and often need) to rely on their skills like Diplomacy, Gather Information, Bluff, Sense Motive, Intimidate, Disguise and Perform.
** Reward strong roleplaying with a system that King_Stannis and I created. Essentially, I give players a token (actually a glass floral bead or marble) which we call Elf Stones for exemplary roleplaying efforts or acts of true heroism. These Elf Stones can be redeemed for additional XP or a re-roll whenever the player desires. Each stone is worth 50XP times the character's level OR a free re-roll at any point during our sessions. Elf Stones cannot be reused, and they aren't handed out like candy. But it's amazing how hard most players will work to earn them !!

 

[AereonBlaze]

Just checking up on this thread...let me say this: THANKS!

There's a ton of useful info here that I'll utilize to the best of my abilities soon.

Just to let you know, I've definitley decided not to dock XP, I was thinking that might be going overboard myself, and I don't want to force roleplaying out of everyone if they simply aren't up for it anyways.

I'll try what's been suggested repeatedly here: start slow, and gradually build into something if I can.

I'll reply back here when I fully get a chance to look over all the posts and come up with some kind of coherent plan for next game. Just wanted to thank you all.