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Hello!
I was curious about what House Rules people may have created for their tables to help promote and reward role-play at the table. I know everyone runs their tables differently, but at our table (at least when I am DMing) roleplay is a primary importance. There are plenty of tactical board games out there, and I do not really want to spend my weekend running another.
As such, a few House Rules have sprung up over time to help facilitate this, and I was curious to know what other DM's may have come up with as well!
-Descriptive Bonus-
What?: If someone describes their action, attack, etc with exceptional panache or superior role-play, I usually tack on a bonus to whatever it is they are attempting. While this is typically just a +1, there have been instances of jaw-droppingly memorable moments where higher bonuses have been allowed.
Why?: This is to escape from "I attack again." *Roll* I missed.
I find this a great way to get the number obsessed into the roleplay seamlessly.
-Unarmed Attacks-
What?: Everyone in our games are considered to have improved unarmed strike, though they must still take it as a feat to qualify for any feats or skills that have it as a prerequisite.
Why?: Because movies, stories, games, etc are chock full of people throwing punches, knees, shoving, etc in the middle of pitched fights and it seems a shame to rob the players of that for something they just wanted to do for the sake of roleplay. IE: Forgoing another powerful sword swing to rattle off a quip while headbutting their opponent. Few will want to do that /and/ get an AoO against them for the sake of roleplay. I find this has drastically improved the cinematic quality of our combat scenes as a result.
Further?: On a case by case, CMD checks might also get a pass- DM allowing, if it makes sense in the situation.
-Questionnaire!-
What?: For particularly heavy campaigns (Like modules, that investment should not go to waste on shallow concepts) character questionnaires can add completely unexpected depth to characters. Example questionnaire.
http://dreadpiraterose.wordpress.com/2009/12/30/100-questions-to-ask-about- your-role-playing-character/
Why?: Because if you are going to sink days and days and weeks and months of your time into creating and breathing life into a world for a group of people, the least they can do is humor you enough to fill out a sheet.
A more serious answer though, is because it really adds unexpected depth to characters. I have had several players come up and remark on how much more interesting and enjoyable their stories were after completing those, as it forced them to really flesh them out in ways not available to them at the table. It gives them history, and reason, and goals.
-Roleplay Tally Sheet-
What?: Mark down your player's names, every time they roleplay something out in a very satisfactory way, mark down a tallymark.
Why?: Because (I don't know how long you guys play) at the end of 16 hours of gaming, it is hard/impossible to remember all of what occurred and players can feel a little cheated on roleplay XP rewards. Keeping a tally sheet allows you to easily count up a reward at the end of the game that makes sure that players leave the table feeling that their roleplay helped them in return.
-Spontaneous Enchantments/Curses-
What?: Heroic/Harrowing events can leave their mark on objects present at the time of the event. This can result in enchanted or cursed items naturally metabolizing over the process of adventure.
Why?: Because magical doodads just coming from number-crunching enchanters looking to make some coin is very.. very... boring. Useful and necessary come time to spend money, but also boring. I don't enjoy my players best items coming from a trip to Walmart.
Instead, the DM can allow dramatic events to leave their mark. A dagger used to kill a family member is now cursed with their vengeful spirit. A sword (actual example) that took a Drow priestess to negative hitpoints over ten times in one combat now seems to almost seek out Drow naturally. Armor that withstood the scorching breath of a dragon as a warrior huddled over a child to protect it now seems to shrug off further exposure to heat.
Adventures are chock full of situations that could leave magical/fate residue on equipment that are way... /way/ more interesting to the players than "I bought it at Magic Mart." I have even had players attempt to harness this intentionally, like with a certain Blackguard embarking on a side quest to plunge his sword through the heart of X amount of _______ under the light of a full moon, culminating with the final one being on a special dark holiday. All to get a magic sword he probably could have bought. Awesome.
-Rare Regents as Focuses to Help with Spellcasting-
(This one might be a bit out there for people, sorry.)
What?: A slain magical creature can have a portion of it's being harvested as part of a simple ritual to capture it's essence into the object. Ex: The Horn of a Dragon, the Stone Heart of an Elemental, the Claw of a Linnorm. These can in turn be used to empower spells that sync up with their aspect in some way. (DM's Discretion on Requirements and Effect, always one-time use.)
Why?: Because I have found this makes even the most innocuous random encounter or monster fight have memorable echos down the line, and also makes their defeat more rewarding as they usually do not carry treasure. When a player triumphantly raises the dagger sized stinger of a monstrous wasp they defeated four levels ago to help empower their new swarm spell at a critical moment- all of the pieces fall together in very satisfying ways for players and DM both. All from an otherwise forgettable encounter.
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I'd love to hear what other DMs and Storytellers have come up with. These have worked wonders at our table, and I hope to learn about more ways to embolden roleplay at the table. I understand that my own examples I've listed would definitely not work for everyone's table, but I hope that someone else gets some good use out of them as well.
Event based leveling.
Leveling based on completing certain tasks, and/or getting to a certain part of the story.
No XP farming.
We did this for a long time, and still do in some games. Others, we follow the traditional xp chart. I think it largely depends on if you find players displaying meta tendencies about seeking mechanical gain, or if they are more focused on the story.
But I definitely agree. The first time I see new players alter their behavior based on an invisible mechanic like XP, it is time to discuss and change things up a bit. Often going to a system like what you mentioned.
I would without any doubts not use even one of these houserules.
There are ways to bring people to roleplaying, but unless you're playing with some little kids measures like that should not be necessary.
But rewarding roleplay on a mechanical level is not the way to get your players to roleplay - its more like forcing it on them.
I never ever played or GM'ed in a group that I could not make to roleplay - at least as much as it is fun to the players. If they do not like it - well, then they dont.
Just roleplay as GM, when you're doing it good it will encourage your players to do so as well. Some might really go for it, others maybe just a little bit. But do not punish the players interests.
Wasum
PS: Im a huge fan of event based leveling
@BT: Yes, but that doesnt mean I have to make up rules in order to force my players to roleplay.
You as GM have so many devices to encourage roleplaying, such rules are just not necessary - no, they are even likely to hamper the joy of your players.
I mean usually you are not playing with a bunch of int2-idiots. Talk to them, encourage them to roleplay, be an example and accept if they just dont want it (even though I experienced that players usually have at least some interest in roleplaying - why else would they play a RPG?) And encouraging them most of the time is enough to create a health roleplay environment.
And honestly Pathfinder is closer to a board game or table top than most other RPGs and therefore there are actually a lot of "number cruchers" whose interest in RP is smaller is not the primary reason to play that game.
Most problems are solved by talking and not by making up house rules.
@AoB: I share that experience - good points!
In our groups we often use the things you mentioned.
With the right words and ideas you can get pretty much everything in our games. This can go so far as to granting an extra action during your round or even when it is not your turn.
Most often it is used to help an ally, for example: Someone slips and falls and fails their reflex save to grab the ledge. A friend nearby can try to catch him in the last moment despite not being his turn.
And we also use the rule with the rare ingredients. The way we handle it is that rare ingredients can replace material costs for stuff you create (Dust from a mighty fire-elemental could replace the material cost to enchant a weapon with the flaming property for example).
It is lots of fun to have items that were crafted from materials with a backstory.
I recall a Shield I had made from the belly scale of a huge magma worm thing. It had free fire resistance.
A troll character I had made a weapon from his own body parts.
But usually the special events/material stuff only aides the enchantment process. I have not tried using an alternative system where actions and such can make an item magical on its own. Sounds interesting ^^
-Questionnaire!-
What?: For particularly heavy campaigns (Like modules, that investment should not go to waste on shallow concepts) character questionnaires can add completely unexpected depth to characters. Example questionnaire.
http://dreadpiraterose.wordpress.com/2009/12/30/100-questions-to-ask-about- your-role-playing-character/Why?: Because if you are going to sink days and days and weeks and months of your time into creating and breathing life into a world for a group of people, the least they can do is humor you enough to fill out a sheet.
A more serious answer though, is because it really adds unexpected depth to characters. I have had several players come up and remark on how much more interesting and enjoyable their stories were after completing those, as it forced them to really flesh them out in ways not available to them at the table. It gives them history, and reason, and goals.
My problem with this is that sometimes Characters only start to "become alive" after some time.
In the beginning you just have some idea about it, but after some time the pc developes a real character a real personality that I could not have guessed before.So if I write down a pc and have to write a backstory and fill out a questionary this pc might just wither and die because what I guessed he would become like is different from what he really becomes.
Ouch. =/
Seems something got lost in translation there. I don't really feel like I am forcing my players to do anything. Pretty much everything I listed is an incentive or reward for roleplay, outside of the questionnaire thing which- in the post I infer the enforcement to be a joke.
Wasum in particular, I am very glad to hear that you have a solid stable of players that seem to have a very strong grip on roleplay fundamentals. That is not always the case, and I find it a little crude to refer to anyone who doesn't as "little kids".
I constantly invite new people over and get people to play who have never touched a tabletop game before, and with whome the concept of roleplay is very fresh and new. Many of which have other gaming backgrounds that can easily bleed over. I do not see the harm in offering incentive to get people to really step up their game and get into things.
I am curious to know which of the houserules feels like they are forcing the characters to do something? Genuinely. I really do not see it that way, but I always appreciate perspective.
I always try to put as much flavor into the game as I can, I spend most of the session on my feet waving my arms around describing things. I use props, encourage players to do so. Costumes if they want. I am not just trying to shirk my responsibilities as a DM as.. it.. seems some people have gotten the impression of? I just want the players more involved, and the methods I posted have had good results for me.
Again, they are just ideas, thank you everyone who is posting their own.
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A troll character I had made a weapon from his own body parts.
That is hideous and beautiful and I want to steal that sooooooo bad for something in one of our games. May I?
To this whole roleplaying issue:
I always used to be a big fan of roleplaying and in the past I've often played in games where a good description trumped the rules now and than.
But lately I've often been confronted with the opposite.
Exaple 1: I build a Barbarian/Bard for a game of Ravenloft using 3.0 rules because I thought it would be a roleplay heavy game. I was wrong.
When someone did something he seldon said "I do.." but allways "my Elf does.." and things like diplomacy were not played out but just rolled.
When we, after some time, arrived at a town where a musical contest was about to happen I was excited. My pc prepared for the contest, aquiring some special balm to easy his sore throat, he practised and played in some taverns to make him, the stranger known. When finally the day was there, I got to roll perfor once, failed and everything was over. Just "bad luck" with no roleplaying bonus. The NPCs did not have to roll btw.
Example 2: We were attacked by a dire wolf or something like it. I wanted to buy some time for the others to grab their weapons so I described how I wanted to use my shield to wedge it into the beasts mouth when he wanted to bite me, hoping to stuff his mouth for some time. The GMs reaction already showed, that he didn't like me doing something not covered by the rules when he told me to roll an attack.
In the end the only effect was that the wolf didn't just take away some of my hp with his bite but explicitly did bite my shield arm. No additional effect.
If you "have to" play in games like that you lose the interest in doing other things than use predefined rules where a roll decides the outcome.
And you try to build a pc that is (much) more likely to succeed in what he wants to do than else. Because when succeeding at a roll is everything that matters you'll want to fail the roll less than you succeed.
AoB gave some good examples on hpw these houserules might hamper their actual purpose.
What I meant is, that if you talk to new players about how this works, and encourage them to roleplay by just interacting with them "oh my dear friend! How come you travel along this dirty animal? (Pointing on dwarf)" and you just involved 2 characters in some kind of roleplay by one question of a commoner.
Usually players will not ignpre this but answer and that way you can create roleplaying situations - the more often the more your players will get into it.
And this should work for most players - for some better, for some worse, but it will at least inspire some roleplaying unless your players are really trying to prevent that. Those are the kids I was refering to.
Rykka,
I think you have lots of good ideas listed, I personally think positive reinforced rp is a good incentive. At my own table I award 'roleplay points' (lvl x 50 experience... Medium track). Nor do I, nor my players, feel like they are forced into roleplaying. I award them when players do or say something exceptionally witty or just plain cool. Sometimes I might pause the game briefly to ask a player why his character did something that didn't quite follow for me. With an insightful description, I award an rp point as well.
The players, both the newbies and seasoned gamers at our table seem to enjoy it, and it has allowed great interactions and encounters, as well as an increased depth of character.
Conversely, I'm not too keen on holistic or event based leveling. As a player in such games, to me it feels like I'm not 'earning' anything, I'm just along for the ride and get a level when the GM thinks it is okay. This might not have been the case, but it was how I felt as a player.
I guess the experience changes for each table... To each their own!
Thank you. I think I just worded my post poorly and gave people a bad impression of how or why these are used. None of them are necessary at all, I just find they help out- and more importantly, that people enjoy them.
@Wasum: I think I understand better, thank you.
And yes. Table to table, each group is different and responds to different things with equal variance. Still interested in hearing other people's own twists and techniques that help add extra flavor to the table.
Thanks for posting, everyone.
Event based leveling.
Leveling based on completing certain tasks, and/or getting to a certain part of the story.
No XP farming.
That's pretty much every game I've ever played (with the exception of things like White Wolf). I sometimes forget people keep track of experience in games that I read about here ;o
I used to award extra XP, back in 2.0. I then started handing everyone a real sword or mace or axe when they walked in the door to play. The players descriptions of attacks got a lot more detailed, and some of the players got scars...
Did you find any real trolls for them to cut up and burn, too?
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My group has a similar questionnaire (I THINK - your link doesn't work, but the one one of my players posted is a "100-question Interview with your PC") and is usually posted publicly, as well as one that goes on this line, sent privately to the GM:
For each, please list the number of examples in order from least to greatest importance.
FIVE things your character fears:
FOUR things things your character loves:
THREE things your character is embarrassed by:
TWO things your character is proud of:
ONE thing your character would kill (or in the case of very good/non-violent characters, go to extreme effort) to keep a secret:
Partial questionnaires are allowed, even encouraged, since my players are the type who tend to take a little bit of play to get into their character's mindset and/or flesh out their backstory in detail.
Speaking of backstory, I generally request a one- or two-paragraph summary at start, then welcome more information as the player comes up with it or it's revealed in-game.
I sometimes give a small bonus for exceptional roleplaying or description, depending on the circumstance.
I like the magic item and special reagents ideas. Do you happen to have a list?
For each, please list the number of examples in order from least to greatest importance.
FIVE things your character fears:
FOUR things things your character loves:
THREE things your character is embarrassed by:
TWO things your character is proud of:
ONE thing your character would kill (or in the case of very good/non-violent characters, go to extreme effort) to keep a secret:
Partial questionnaires are allowed, even encouraged, since my players are the type who tend to take a little bit of play to get into their character's mindset and/or flesh out their backstory in detail.
Speaking of backstory, I generally request a one- or two-paragraph summary at start, then welcome more information as the player comes up with it or it's revealed in-game.
I like that. Especially the pert about filling in stuff at later dates.
But why so strict about how many answers to which question?
Some characters might have more things they are rpoud of than things they fear, for example.
Even for my two most well rounded and "alive" characters (both from Shadowrun) I would have a hard time finding 5 things they fear.
But as you say you accept/encourage partial questionaries I guess you would accept it when one would fill in more for one of the questions, as well.
I didn't make up the questionnaire, I just found it (on these forums somewhere, actually). I like it, as it gets the character's priorities in each category. So I guess you could read it as "five things you fear most, four you love most, three you're most embarrassed by, etc."
I like that too. I think it might be a much more meallable, less intimidating process than what I posted. And, as someone mentioned earlier in the thread (Umbranus), some players like to flesh things out as they go- and that might be a better system for that.
Thanks!
No problem, hope your players enjoy. =)
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We've gone away from XP-based gaming to Story driven advancement. Major goals can be met or perhaps just enough sessions and we bump a level. I find it more likely we'll spend an entire session with one combat and the rest role-playing from time to time.
I tried (during the XP years) to give a bonus bump in XP to anyone the group thought, by vote, enhanced the game that day, but it went nowhere.
I've gotten away from lengthy backgrounds; ultimately a character dies and the player who spend 4 hours writing a background and filling out questionnaires is upset at having wasted all that time. Just as negative would be the GM fudging dice rolls to keep a character alive because their background story is interesting and we've got to find out what happened to his twin brother who was kidnapped at birth...
What does work in encouraging some role-play is when I, the GM, get into the game. Bad voice-overs, taunts, dancing around, facial expressions. Anything more than just rolling the dice. If the players see the GM getting into the game, they're more likely to follow suit.
As to role-play of combat, I never say no. I may not have a mechanic in place but I'm sure I'll make something appropriate up, or at the very least provide description.
The questionnaires are great tools (although I prefer the 10-20 question ones rather than 100), as long as they're not required to be completed.
They're great for both inspiration when making a character, and as a place to record character info as it's discovered in game.
Descriptive bonuses I'm a fan of too. I'm always happy to give out a GM bonus to a roll when the player helps group immersion with good descriptions of actions.
Not so much a fan of the bonus IUS, and GM fiat power components or enchantment/curses, though.
I like rewarding roleplay, but prefer to keep my groups all at the same level, so give out other types of rewards.
Usually I stick to minor useful or rp loot awards, like a fancy saddle, travel toiletry kit, friendly squirrel, special material arrows, etc. On special occasions, I may give out a skill rank.
I find keeping good notes on a session, such as a gold star style tally sheet, improvised NPC details, and unexpected goup decisions, is a very useful GM tool.
Between the roleplay rewards and being an active participant in the roleplay (as other posters have shared tips about), I've been able to help raise the amount of roleplay in my games to a much more enjoyable level. I've found if I slack on either end of it though, the group and I move back towards tactical gaming again.
I have over the years decided that most rules which "encourage" role play end up just rewarding the players who enjoy role playing, which tends to punish those who don't enjoy role playing. Which in some cases can actually tend to increase the discrepancy between the two types of players, making eager role players more active, and making reluctant role players less active.
I have told my GM not to reward me for role playing. I enjoy it and I do it because I enjoy it. Rewarding me is just giving me benefits for doing what I enjoy and that makes me feel guilty when I see the less active players not getting benefits.
It has been my experience that the best way to draw reluctant players into the role playing is for the other players to work with them. Too many times the GM is considered too much of an authority and actually can intimidate players instead of encouraging them.
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XP rewards for role-playing strikes me as a little silly. Assuming you're using XP, you don't want to make the rewards too powerful--certainly not on the same scale as a full encounter, unless the encounter itself is one of "role-playing" (in quotes because presumably all encounters should be role-playing). The result is that the XP rewards are either paltry or too much.
A GM I know once said on the topic (and I'm paraphrasing), "You don't get XP in my games unless you role-play." The man is a very good GM, which is one of his few redeeming qualities, and I try to take that angle. Not to say that you should kick people out if they're not role-playing, but I feel like verbal encouragement and a patient, understanding GM will help to encourage role-playing more than a sliver of XP will.
In D6 Dramatics, here are the mechanism "baked into the game"
1) Upshifts. Describe what you're doing in two sentences before you pick up the roll. Your skill dice succeed on a 4+ rather than a 5+. This also solves the "find the biggest gun" problem, because the guy who wants to play the cool sniper can describe the "takes windage and dials in the sight" to take his shot moment as readily as the swasbuckler can describe leaping for a chandelier.
2) Goal Pools. Your character has goals. Work towards the goal, get dice put in the pool. Work against the goal or cash those dice out as XPs, they go down. Goal dice are also "spent" to activate Kewl Powers. If you're taking an action where you're rolling dice and it also furthers your goal, roll the extra dice in the pool for every die roll in that scene.
"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."
3) Flaws and Schadenfreude Dice. If one of your character's Flaws shows up in game, you get a Goal Die in the Goal of your choice. If you fail at a skill check and give an interesting and entertaining description of the failure, your fellow players can nominate you for a Schadenfreude Die. The GM can second nominations, but not initiate. This can ALSO be done when someone roleplays into their Flaw rather than trying to minimize it.
I have over the years decided that most rules which "encourage" role play end up just rewarding the players who enjoy role playing, which tends to punish those who don't enjoy role playing. Which in some cases can actually tend to increase the discrepancy between the two types of players, making eager role players more active, and making reluctant role players less active.
I...I agree with AD.
I have over the years decided that most rules which "encourage" role play end up just rewarding the players who enjoy role playing, which tends to punish those who don't enjoy role playing. Which in some cases can actually tend to increase the discrepancy between the two types of players, making eager role players more active, and making reluctant role players less active.I...I agree with AD.
There there, it's not like casting an evil spell... there's no taint...
An odd thing I did in my Champions game was to pass out the background sheet for players to fill out. I then took what had been done and worked it into the games. One player was an escaped apprentice, another was searching for a lost friend, etc. When one player got miffed because everybody else got 'highlighted' for an episode and he didn't, another player asked: "Well, have you finished your background so he can incorporate it into the next game?"
I had it before the day was out.
The best, and pehaps only, way to encourage roleplaying without penalizing those who don't is allowing people's backstory choices to have significant influence on the story. People who can't/don't come up with anything don't end up disadvantaged, and people who do feel like they're playing in a reactive world.