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There is a recent post about the differences between role players and roll players. One of the points that was made was that "no one asks for role-playing advice".
Well, okay...let's change that. What is your best piece of role-playing advice for character building/world interaction? How do you personalize your character in the role-playing sense?
Talk slower, as it's easier for people to hear and chew on while you speak, which enriches your personal interactions with others.
That's about all I got.
Backstory. I encourage all of my players to write out their characters histories, not just because I like to know them and try to incorporate them, but because it helps you to determine their motivations.
Most people when they start to put things in writing find they will add more and more to the initial history they had thought up. This will in turn add interesting nuances to a character. The wizard I play in my friends game refuses to use Disintegrate on living creatures because of events in his life. Little things like that make a character more organic and believable.
That's the best I got.
Happy Gaming!
Good question not sure if i have any advice except try and stay in character as much as possible calling the other players by there character names i find helps
And try not to rely on the mechanics so much.
I've found that the less you roll dice for the everyday things the more players will role play
I had a session last week where i think i rolled 2 or 3 times during the whole game that's the sign of a good role playing session
Well that's my two coppers worth
Oh and have fun most of all
My suggestion is to fit in with the group.
A: Hey everybody, Mike here. I'm playing the party healer.
B: Greetings my friends. My name is Elmordin, priest of Asclepius, God of Healing. It will be my duty and honor to aid you on this quest.
If everyone is speaking out of character, and using player names for character names and such, then response (A) would be better than (B) for roleplaying in that group. If on the other hand, everyone is speaking in character and using the name of their character then response (B) would be better than (A).
To roleplaying means literally to play a role. The role may be that as "party healer" or it may be that of "priest of Asclepius". The really wrong way to do it is the way that is disruptive to the group you are playing in.
Use a voice. Any voice but exactly your own. Doesn't have to be weird, just at least a tiny bit different from your normal voice.
Also means the GM can't interpret something you say ooc as ic...
Use a voice. Any voice but exactly your own. Doesn't have to be weird, just at least a tiny bit different from your normal voice.
Also means the GM can't interpret something you say ooc as ic...
I have had players tell me to stop doing that when gming because I sounded bad doing it.
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Some guy named James (during a Paizocon seminar on creating "better" characters) mentioned giving the characters unique quirks. Those that can be acted out help a lot around the table.
Admittedly, I might start out with a quirk or gimmick and work in the why of it (adding backstory). For example, I might have a character who was stabbed by a pixie once and now is afraid of all humanoids shorter than dwarves...
I've used accents/voices, props like hats and tiaras, and tried to understand how the character might react to in-game events based on back story. It's also been helpful to engage the other players around the table in-character.
I have had players tell me to stop doing that when gming because I sounded bad doing it.Use a voice. Any voice but exactly your own. Doesn't have to be weird, just at least a tiny bit different from your normal voice.
Also means the GM can't interpret something you say ooc as ic...
Yeeeeaah.... Can be overdone.
You weren't doing the Peewee Herman voice were you?
My druid hates decanters of endless water because if aimed at the ground and used for hydraulic mining they can destroy the nature where she was fishing. I think quirks work well.
Don't sweat it when things don't go your way. Learn to enjoy adversity because it leads to a greater emotional payoff. The best players to run for or play with are the ones who calmly accept that they're taking damage because they chose to play a frontline combatant (or accept whatever drawback their character choice comes with).
Approach difficult encounters by considering what your character would actually do, not what the game's construction says you "ought" to do. This can mean running away, ambushing threats, ganging up on threats, seeking out specialized equipment, etc.
Don't act entitled, but don't be afraid to ask the GM for opportunities either.
Shut up now and then and let the other players talk. Or, if you have the floor, ask another PC by name what they think should be done. Help the GM out by casting the question to the PC who needs some more spotlight time, assuming you have everyone's attention to begin with.
Conversely, don't be afraid to speak up if you haven't participated directly for a while.
For heaven's sake, don't burden the GM with contriving an excuse to get you in the party. Make a character appropriate to the campaign concept, and forge your own motivations. This is the player's responsibility. Foisting it on the GM, who already did more work than you by even saying the words "Yes, I will GM", is basically strangling the game in the cradle. If you're lucky enough to have a GM who can finesse this kind of player, he deserves double credit, but this should not be an expected part of the GM's responsibilities.
If you're going to mess with the other player characters, make it crystal clear that you're not messing with the player. Inter-player friction is a great way to ensure you never finish a campaign. If you derail the campaign, you lose, and you have no one to blame but yourself.
TAKE NOTES. Part of role playing is compensating for the disparity between your PC's immersion in the situation and your own. Your PC will remember the name of someone who she knows tried to kill her. You should too.
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Oh, and super-callous loner anti-hero types who don't play nice with others are annoying in this medium, no matter how well they play on the pages of illustrated power-fantasy monthly.
RPGs aren't novels or shows, they're a shared medium with characters competing for attention. If you hog all of the attention, you're failing at the "shared" part of the basic definition of that medium. The game will break down and you will never finish a story. That's losing.
If you go heavy on backstory, be flexible. Let the GM mess with it to integrate it into the story. Check in as the campaign progresses to see if there's any further embellishment that would help keep the party together.
Or, go light on the backstory, and let your PC be shaped by the story. This works especially well for Adventure Paths, where it can be a pain to integrate concept characters, but the sheer amount of adventure will eventually give any blank slate a personality.
Oh, and super-callous loner.....mystic, plagued by halitosis?
My next PC concept, thanks!
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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My next PC concept, thanks!Oh, and super-callous loner.....mystic, plagued by halitosis?
I wasn't sure if the reference would translate well in text, but it's seriously what I was expecting when I read the first part of your sentence. And now the song is stuck in my head, too. :/