need help keeping players in character..


Advice


So we have an issue where half of the group is not in character a lot of the time. I could use some advice on how me and the other GM can accomplish this. We were thinking of a talking stick that you have to hold when you to speak out of character. Would this work? Any other ideas?


My wife and I tend to use an accent, a vocal inflection or a tone when in-character. When we drop it, you know we are not.

I've seen players simply raise their hands or say something like 'OOC' (out-of-character) before they say something.

If you're thinking about a talking stick, read 'Lord of the Flies' first, note how that one turned out.


Good point that LoF stick did not work,but it has gotten a little terrible the last few months or maybe its been that way and we were hoping the players would grow as they were new 2 yrs ago.


You can try addressing whatever they are saying in character. In my experience, when a person can't stay in character it's shown through sarcasm and humor. Don't be afraid to respond accordingly. If you stay in character they will tend to stay in character. This gets to the root of a different problem though. Maybe the characters they have created aren't 3 dimensional. If they don't view their characters as more than numbers on a page it's hard to stay in character. I would suggest encouraging deeper character personalities, flaws, quirks and passions.

Keep them enthralled. Usually the larger the group the easier it is to fall out of character because the PCs get bored. See if you can find a situation to challenge their character's personalities.


The best advice I can give you is to along with your GM, discuss this issue with the whole group. Let them know that you are having a tough time with the amount out-of-character talking.

Some folks just don't see the IC/OOC differentiation as a priority, or just don't want to and/or don't feel comfortable roleplaying.

That's fine...as long as they're respectful of those who do and don't dominate the table with a lot of chatter at the expense of those are are trying to roleplay.

If it's been two years of playing, hopefully it's just a matter of making the whole group aware that there IS an issue, then talking it over.

If you and your GM express your concerns to the group and they just arent having it, then it's probably time to find another group or game session for your roleplaying.


While I don't believe there is any one true answer. A couple of things that have worked in my group are to refer to the player by character name, especially when doing initiative, and regularly asking players if that comment was in character.

Also entertaining is to have npcs react as if the stupid thing the player just said was in character, though I'm not sure if it is really effective in encouraging roleplaying.


Have you sat down and talked to the players about it? Some times people dont even realize its a problem. Other times its a matter of this being the only time people see eachother. If you game every week, that may be all or most of the time those people spend together and thus have lots of things they want to talk about. If thats the case consider setting up an hour of chatter time before or after the game (or at some other time if you can swing it). Maybe have like a light board game so everyone can socialize and talk about the new episode of game of thrones or whatever. Ive found if people can get it out of their system they end up being more focused during the game.

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