troubles.....

[milotha]

I agree. Good role playing starts with a good backstory. Pick something silly, pick something hackneyed, pick something serious, pick something over the top. Have fun with your backstory. If all else fails parrot a character from a movie or a book.

I find the more detailed my backstory and the more outlandish the character, the more fun it is to play. This gets me into the mind of my character. Let's me know how they think, what makes them tick.

Next ask yourself a bunch of questions. Pose a few moral quandries. Why am I adventuring? What would I do if I found a bag of money in the street? Am I the type to take prisoners? What are my long term goals?

After doing this, the role playing will come naturally. Don't do what you would do in the situation. Do what your character would do.

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

wow....i wasnt expecting this kind of response right away....anyways, thanks for the advice, and i will relay it to my DM, he should like it. And one final thing, how do we stop the videogame D&D-ing thing? Both of the other players i play with are gamers, and like alo9t of action really fast.....How can we limit this kind of mentalityu so that the key story parts are more interesting because we dont mess around?

Any thoughts?[

You'll find that questions are answered very quickly here by very friendly folks.

I think attaching an extended backstory really helps. I know you said you have one, but make sure to really keep it in mind. In videogames, the story is there for you (usually to some extent.) Give your character a family, friends, hobbies, etc. Make him real so you care about whether he lives, dies or takes damage. In video games, it's like, you can always reset, or go back to X number of points if you die.

Try to think of your character as a person who can't just reset if something bad happens.

Can you tell us a little about your character?

 

[Regal Worm of Slopp]

Also, do you enjoy roleplaying? Or do you prefer combat? Some people just prefer roll playing to role playing and there is nothing wrong with that.

I know people who've gamed for decades who prefer combat.

I suspect you do enjoy it, since you are asking, but I figured I'd ask.

I like anything where there is risk involved, and i have found no other source where there is the kind of risk that there is in combat. But i do enjoy talking and i can roleplay if i put my mind to it, but i do start to fidget a bit after and hour has gone by and we are still in the same place. So essentially any rolling of the dice i enjoy. The more the better

 

[kamosa]

You might also try to talk with the GM about easing up on you newbies while you are learning the game. I know that the first campaign I played in I was focused on manipulating the system over creating a viable personality. Nothing wrong with enjoying the combat mechanics.

Just ask him to be patient with you newbies and eventually you'll come around to roleplaying like he wants you too. Ask him if he can focus on running dungeon crawls for this campaign and for the next campaign run more of a mystery/roleplaying/interaction campaign.

 

[Samothdm]

wow....i wasnt expecting this kind of response right away....anyways, thanks for the advice, and i will relay it to my DM, he should like it. And one final thing, how do we stop the videogame D&D-ing thing? Both of the other players i play with are gamers, and like alo9t of action really fast.....How can we limit this kind of mentalityu so that the key story parts are more interesting because we dont mess around?

Any thoughts?[

Well, this seems like a difficult situation. Is it that your fellow players don't know how to stop the video-game mentality, or that they don't want to stop? It sounds to me like the latter. If that is the case, then it seems like their playing style doesn't really mesh with that of your DM.

I think the best thing to do is make sure that everyone is in agreement over what kind of game should be played for this particular campaign. There's going to have to be give-and-take: the DM will have to have some interesting combats available for those players that want that. In return, the players should respect the the DM wants to "tell a story" and have more roleplaying on the part of the players.

There should be mutual respect on both sides. Being a DM is a lot of work and no DM wants to think that his work is going unappreciated. On the flip side, the players are what keeps the game going. If the players are not getting much out of the game, they're going to stop and then the DM won't have to worry about it any more.

I'm not telling you anything that you don't already know, I'm sure. Just make sure that everyone is aware of everybody's elses' feelings and motivations for gaming.

 

[mmu1]

It sounds to me like the DM and the players in your game have completely different ideas about how serious they want the game to be, and the DM seems to be making things worse by showing everyone how little he thinks of their playing ability.

I really don't think experience has that much to do with it - it just sounds like personality conflict to me. If you think people can handle it, then try to sit everyone down for a serious talk on a)What people expect from the game, what the DM wants, what you'd like to see from your fellow players b)What the DMs definition of roleplaying is, so that everyone's clear on the subject and c)The DMs constant obvious annoyance with the players, if you think that contributes to the problem.

If that doesn't help, all you can do is try to replace the players or the DM.

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

I like anything where there is risk involved, and i have found no other source where there is the kind of risk that there is in combat. But i do enjoy talking and i can roleplay if i put my mind to it, but i do start to fidget a bit after and hour has gone by and we are still in the same place. So essentially any rolling of the dice i enjoy. The more the better

Sometimes, it takes a while for a group to get a good mix of both combat and role play. Kamosa's post is good about the DM easing up a bit on you. A good story WILL move along regardless of combat/roleplay. I'm not saying your DM is a bad DM but a lot of group dynamics can make things slow down (like a guy who takes forever to decide what he is going to do in combat).

The roleplay has to have a purpose. Either to gain information, or point the group in a new direction. If your DM wants you to roleplay, he has to have NPCs there for you to roleplay to and they have to have a purpose. Maybe not every barkeep you chat with will have info for you pertaining to the game or decisions your group makes, but a fair enough percentage of them should. (I hope this makes sense - it's late, I'm sleepy!).

I really think a talk with him and the whole group about what you all expect from the game is a good thing.

 

[Regal Worm of Slopp]

um.....my character is an elven archer-ess who left her home (Oak city) because her family (father in particular) disapproved of her human boyfriend. So she left, and settled down with him near a small-ish city. They were starting a farm when he died of a desease (havent decided what yet) unwilling to go crawling back to her family (father in particular again) she left and tried to ease her restless heart with wandering and adventuring. She found another man, a half-elven guy, but he was a theif and was excecuted for theivery in a very tighly controlled town. So again she was on the loose, really heart-broken. That was about 20 years ago. SHe is about 158. Brown hair, chestnut eyes and is very cool and relaxed on top, to hide her internal turmoil and shame for running away.

 

[Samothdm]

um.....my character is an elven archer-ess who left her home (Oak city) because her family (father in particular) disapproved of her human boyfriend. So she left, and settled down with him near a small-ish city. They were starting a farm when he died of a desease (havent decided what yet) unwilling to go crawling back to her family (father in particular again) she left and tried to ease her restless heart with wandering and adventuring. She found another man, a half-elven guy, but he was a theif and was excecuted for theivery in a very tighly controlled town. So again she was on the loose, really heart-broken. That was about 20 years ago. SHe is about 158. Brown hair, chestnut eyes and is very cool and relaxed on top, to hide her internal turmoil and shame for running away.

That's plenty to work with! Your DM should have no problem weaving elements of your backstory into the group's adventures.

Not to tell you how to roleplay your character, but based on what you wrote, an easy little hook you could use is to have a problem with "authority figures", based on your relationship with your father. You might not be able to hold your tongue from making insulting comments to aristocrats and leaders and such, as a way of "lashing out" at them as pseudo-father figures. Just an idea.

Do the other players in your group have similar detailed backstories?

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

um.....my character is an elven archer-ess who left her home (Oak city) because her family (father in particular) disapproved of her human boyfriend. So she left, and settled down with him near a small-ish city. They were starting a farm when he died of a desease (havent decided what yet) unwilling to go crawling back to her family (father in particular again) she left and tried to ease her restless heart with wandering and adventuring. She found another man, a half-elven guy, but he was a theif and was excecuted for theivery in a very tighly controlled town. So again she was on the loose, really heart-broken. That was about 20 years ago. SHe is about 158. Brown hair, chestnut eyes and is very cool and relaxed on top, to hide her internal turmoil and shame for running away.

Very cool. I would maybe suggest to the DM that once in a while he maybe bring up a member of her past (a family memeber, someone who knows the family). Something to involve your backstory in the plot.

My PC is a 1/2 elven sorceress 6 /bard 2. She was kind of ousted from her family as well, because her human father had an affair with her mother and her whole family blames her for their father's abandoning their mother. She has one older brother who hates her, a sister who was killed mysteriously and another sister and brother whom she is very close to. She also has one half elven neice, a baby born in a way similiar to her, to the dead sister and an elven father.

She also has a handful of friends who make appearances once in a while and when she is not adventuring, she is an antiques dealer like her father was. Our current mission began because on the way to somewhere else, she intercepted a message about a very valuable artifact that would not only make the party wealthy , but would also get them in good with some nobles.

I think your character is great. I see a lot of potential storylines that could involve her past and her future.