If they aren't excited about roleplaying their characters, who would they be excited to roleplay as? I'm thinking more in terms of personality than mechanics. Have them look at their favorite characters from games, anime, books, comics, movies, etc. They could most likely easily adapt the personality of one of those characters to their own.
Even if someone is playing a Life Oracle, they could still have the brooding, immature personality of someone like Squall Leonhart from FFVIII. They could be a brainy know-it-all like Hermione from Harry Potter, but still bash in skulls with a club as a Fighter. Ask them what characters get them excited!
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I try to do the following:
-Make my eyes glaze over when the player is boasting about their game mechanics build.
-Give players who create intriguing backstories fun side quests that directly relates to their back story, sometimes with very suitable treasure rewards.
-Have NPCs constantly ask about what the character has been doing for the last 10-20-100 years.
You could always invent some side quests for those who seem uninterested. Maybe one of them has a long lost relative, someone "claiming" to be a long lost relative, a new friend (stray animal, stray child, close talker/spitter, stinky kid, town drunk/idiot, blackmailing prostitute, etc.), someone "pretending" to be a new friend, an organization blaming them for something, an organization crediting them flasely for something, a unique but not necessarily magic item, someone finding/claiming said unqiue item is on PC. Sadly this adds to your work as a DM, usually involving lots of adlib, but it could pay off in the long run.
Possibly explain the situation to and ask the player (in private) who has given you the plethora of indepth information about his character for ideas on how to lure the other players into the game, he has an abundance of excess brainstorming going on, put it to use, lol. I'm guilty of this to a degree. It's great to see the DM use some of the material you supplied and even better to then see said player enjoy it. It doesn't have to be spoiler-type stuff, just simple background things to get you thinking.
The 2 groups I play in have a wide variety of players. Some like to SMASH things, some like INTERACTION with NPCs, some like SOLVING the puzzles/mysteries and some like combining those STRATEGIES. Overall I think both of my DMs do a great job, as I think it can be difficult to keep 5+ people interested/focused all the time. The fact that your players still show up for gaming sessions is your clue they're enjoying something about the experience. You may be being too hard on yourself, just sayin'.
(Edited heavily, I'm done now, lol)
If they aren't excited about roleplaying their characters, who would they be excited to roleplay as? I'm thinking more in terms of personality than mechanics. Have them look at their favorite characters from games, anime, books, comics, movies, etc. They could most likely easily adapt the personality of one of those characters to their own.
Even if someone is playing a Life Oracle, they could still have the brooding, immature personality of someone like Squall Leonhart from FFVIII. They could be a brainy know-it-all like Hermione from Harry Potter, but still bash in skulls with a club as a Fighter. Ask them what characters get them excited!
+1
We recently started a new campaign in our local group, and I asked the GM about posting an Adventure's Wanted ad. He liked my idea.
My character has decided that now he is 22 he wants to form a party and go adventuring. He placed an Adventurer's Wanted ad up (Inquire Within) and held interviews.
I ran the interviews on a FB group site. The PbP section here would work just as well. We got to interact and know each others players a little bit. It was all about personality, and a little about game mechanics. I asked questions like 'why do you want to join an adventuring party?' as well as 'why should I hire you?'.
It worked really well and everyone loved it. We sat down together at the first session and we all knew each others character's names, what class they are, and a bit about their background and personality. Some of the players said that they made it up as they went along, and they are happy to keep it as it come out.
I gamemaster a campaign for a group of close friends. I personally like to focus on storytelling, but combat is obviously present. None of the players in the group are powergamers, so we aren't worried about combat optimization, so that is no our problem. However, most of them don't get excited about characters, and, because of this, roleplaying obviously suffers. One player has made a detailed character concept that they enjoy playing, and while the roleplaying between us two works well, it seems to exclude other, less invested players. I can tell a strong character is the key to getting the players interested in the world and excited about play. I want all my players to enjoy the game, and I wonder if anyone out there has advice on getting players more invested in their characters and the game world. Thanks in advance for any advice.
Do they not get excited about ANY characters? or Just their current ones?
What kind of characters did they like BEFORE?
Is it the game 'world' they aren't getting into yet?
Really, I think its best to focus on what kind of movies, shows etc. that they like then trying to 'force' them to get into character.
No amount of DM pressure will ever make an ehhhh character your favoritist ever.
The best i could recommend is what I do for my new characters... Recommend a backstory. Help them if needed. use their friends/family/homes for as much fodder as possible. It's one thing when random city #6 is attacked by a dragon. It's another thing when Bill grew UP there...
Back off the combat, and focus on the conversation parts... This helps develop the personalities more...
THAT'S a double edged sword though... cause if the RP is boring to players... and you do too much of it... then they'll just get TOO bored and stop playing at all.
Really depends on the players as to how to do it... But the key is to have them play a character they like to start with.
We always play with at least one flaw in our games. Apart from getting an extra feat to mold the Pc to one's liking, it gives the characters more depth and potential for roleplaying. It can even be a key feature/motivation
I have for example a character that is a ranged combatant. He comes from a race that has a long tradition on hunting with bows. And he is really good with a bow (probably the best in the village), but he is ridiculed cause he has bad perception (-5 pentalty) and more often than not simply does not see his targets. The will to become a grreat warrior despite what everyone says is his primary motivation.
Another thing we use to encourage roleplay is aspects. They are kinda like action points but linked to personality traits.
If you for example have "Hates small people" as aspect, and you fight halflings you can spend a point to gain a bonus on attacks or for special maneuvers that might not fit completely into the rules/action economy (I grab one halfling and hit the other halfling with him)
But if your group comes into a remote Gnome village to resupply, the GM can say "The gnome merchant looks at you funny. Punch him in the face or pay one point not to do it."
If the player punches the Gnome on his own then the GM can even give him one point as a bonus for playing his character.
I'll be honest I don't get all that excited about role-playing a character I just created. I've tried the various methods a lot have suggested, detailed back stories, explain how your character got the feats he does, what does your character wants from life, even some contrived quest. None of it really works for me.
What does is get the game started, introduce interesting NPCs, locales, and stories. I find that my character develops in response to these external stimuli rather than just springing from the page. I don't think I've ever had a character end up like I imagined him at first level.
You have a good start in that you have a player who is engaged. Now you just need the others to become engaged. Continue to work with the engaged player, the others will probably join in as they see that is where the 'action' is at. If they are like me, in the beginning they aren't sure what their character would do, but they will develop over time.