D&D 5E The Ultimate Guide to Helping Your Players Role Play

[Ralif Redhammer]

Interesting food for thought.

I think there’s a difference between people that don’t get into character at all, and just treat the game as a mechanical exercise, like a videogame, and people that get into character, but it just so happens to be the same character every time, regardless of whether they’re playing an gnomish prince or a half-orc bruiser.

I'd be really interested in advice on the latter case. How do you encourage someone to grow as a role-player. In those instances, I've tried putting in things directly tied to their backgrounds, but it rarely seems to work. As a DM, it can get really dull when you've essentially got the same PCs for every campaign.

 

[DMSage]

Good article with a lot of good advice, but I have a question about the section on "blocking" other characters and the rogue and cleric example.

Why does the rogue get to 'win' the scenario? Why can't the cleric make the attempt to stop him before he actually picks the pocket? In all likelihood the rogue is going to win the Dex check anyway. Maybe the cleric is tired of pulling the rogue's butt out of the fire yet again? Maybe the cleric's player is tired of the rogue's player always getting them into these situations. Go pick a merchant's pocket, someone who can't have your head off in the morning. That wasn't a win-win RP situation. A cleric isn't going to want to deal with the consequences AFTER they happen. He's stated his goal: stop the rogue before he gets their heads on pikes. You ignored his stated intent (goal). Better, perhaps, is this:

Rogue: I want to pick the king's pocket.

Cleric: I want to stop him! He'll get us killed!

DM: Roll Insight vs. his Bluff.

(Cleric likely wins b/c high Wis)

DM: Now make opposed Dex checks.

(Rogue likely winds b/c high Dex)

DM: Make your Sleight of Hand check.

(Success)

And now you can RP the cleric trying to get the rogue to put it back.

Everyone got to use their skills more, and you had a similar result without "blocking" anyone. And I'm not sure that "blocking" another character is always a bad thing.

"I think I'm going to go poke the sleeping dragon."

I agree.
I don't always use this tactic, but when one player announces they want to do something, I try my best to allow them to do it when the other players yell no. I say you guys all see him start to... And then they can stop them. But there are absolutely times where it is perfectly ok to block.. It's just a style and a tool to spice things up.

 

[DMSage]

The only thing bothering me is that I feel like the author equates "role-playing" to "acting" or "narrating", which I do not believe to be entirely true. Otherwise, there's some nice advice in here.

While any action you take or thing you say constitutes RP, the things that players and DMs lack the most tends to fall into those categories. No player has trouble saying "I attack"... So I don't really cover how to say "I attack" in the article. If there are other big gaps in RP that you think I'm missing let me know because I'll analyze it and see if I can me up with tools for people who want to improve.

 

[DMSage]

Interesting food for thought.

I think there’s a difference between people that don’t get into character at all, and just treat the game as a mechanical exercise, like a videogame, and people that get into character, but it just so happens to be the same character every time, regardless of whether they’re playing an gnomish prince or a half-orc bruiser.

I'd be really interested in advice on the latter case. How do you encourage someone to grow as a role-player. In those instances, I've tried putting in things directly tied to their backgrounds, but it rarely seems to work. As a DM, it can get really dull when you've essentially got the same PCs for every campaign.

I don't have a great answer to that. My initial thought is to look at the question asking portion of the guide. Ask the character how he feels about other characters, why he feels that way. How his character does things different from the other characters, how his race Or background affects his personality or how he is different than the previous characters he's made.
If that doesn't work is just ask the player directly if he likes playing the exact same character every time intentionally or if it's just a lack of tools to RP differently.
If he is doing it intentionally, who are you to spoil the character he wants and how he has fun, as long as he isn't disruptive to everyone.
Hopefully that idea works.

Anyone else have more experience on this?

 

[iserith]

My initial thought is to look at the question asking portion of the guide. Ask the character how he feels about other characters, why he feels that way. How his character does things different from the other characters, how his race Or background affects his personality or how he is different than the previous characters he's made.

Anyone else have more experience on this?

Other than leading by example and rewarding playing to established characterization with Inspiration, asking questions like this works well in my experience.

I also spend time at the beginning of a campaign and at least the first few sessions of that campaign working with the players to flesh out ties between the characters, the setting, and the adventure. This creates a lot of context to draw upon later on when a player wants to engage in social interaction and helps provide a basis for making decisions. If I notice that a tie has been highlighted during play, I reward that with XP.

 

[Morrus]

Black text on a black background. Most people can't read this. Formatting info here:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?348563-Dark-Text-on-a-Dark-Background-Tutorial

 

[Istbor]

I think the part that hits home the most with me is the leading by example bit. I usually start off well role playing various NPCs but will sometimes fall away from that practice for various reasons.

It is something I always strive for when I am DMing. A new member to my home game who was not as comfortable about RPing confessed his feelings to me after the third session. Asking how long it took to become good at the RPing aspect, I laughed and asked "I'm good?".

I think it helped him greatly to know that even those more comfortable RPing, still have that uncertainty and that it is totally fine attempting to RP even if you don't think you are all that good at it.

Most of my area for improvement is realistic reactions and conversations from the NPCs. It also hadn't occurred to me to have the different NPCs actually interact with each other. I feel rather foolish now.

 

[KahlessNestor]

The issue with this example is that the rogue's player hasn't actually taken any action. Is he or she telling the cleric what he or she wants to do? If not, and the player's intention is to tell the DM what the character wants to do, the DM's response is "How?" so as to get the player to commit to an approach.

You've also put a lot of mechanical process ahead of player input. The players in the example have stated no goal and approach to be adjudicated. The DM is just asking for a bunch of checks for some reason.

The checks are shorthand for writing out the RP, not just for "some reason ". But that ignores the larger point I was trying to make. Why is it not okay for the cleric to "block" the rogue, but it IS okay (practically required by your arguments ) for the DM to block the cleric?

Neither rogue nor cleric indicated an "approach ", but the DM in the example guves the rogue a free pass. The cleric indicated a clear intention to STOP the rogue BEFORE he caused trouble by lifting the king's purse. He didn't ask to argue with the rogue about it after the fact and try to convince him to put it back. This clearly to me sets up a contest or series of contests which yhe DM can then explain via skill rolls.

But no, Mr. Rogue, go have your fun. Cleric, you're SOL. Thanks for playing. Buh-bye.

 

[iserith]

The checks are shorthand for writing out the RP, not just for "some reason ". But that ignores the larger point I was trying to make. Why is it not okay for the cleric to "block" the rogue, but it IS okay (practically required by your arguments ) for the DM to block the cleric?

Neither rogue nor cleric indicated an "approach ", but the DM in the example guves the rogue a free pass. The cleric indicated a clear intention to STOP the rogue BEFORE he caused trouble by lifting the king's purse. He didn't ask to argue with the rogue about it after the fact and try to convince him to put it back. This clearly to me sets up a contest or series of contests which yhe DM can then explain via skill rolls.

But no, Mr. Rogue, go have your fun. Cleric, you're SOL. Thanks for playing. Buh-bye.

The term "blocking" comes from improvisational acting, so it's important to understand that it doesn't necessarily mean "stopping someone from doing something." It means to fail to accept an offer and build on it. An offer is dialog or action that adds to the scene.

Having said that, the rogue in either the OP's or your example isn't actually making an offer, unless the statement of "I want to pick the king's pocket" is dialog. If it is not dialog and is just an offhand statement to the DM or other players, then nothing has been added to the scene - the rogue isn't talking to the cleric and isn't taking any action. Instead, the rogue's player is simply stating a desire to pick the king's pocket and the cleric's player is stating a desire to have his or her character prevent the rogue from taking that action. Nothing has actually happened. No offer, no blocking.

 

[RadarMonk]

Wow! I love your advice.