Comments on: Getting Them to Give a Damn about Roleplay

By: LordVreeg

LordVreeg — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:27:01 +0000

The first and hardest way to bring more role-playing into your game is for the GM to heavily role-play first. It’s difficult when you are controlling and tracking the whole rest of the world, but the players will not dice into role-play without the cue coming from the GM. So rule one to get the balll rolling is to get into character yourself.
This includes in combat. Try to describe faces and voices more, and make sure that more powerful intelligent villains act and speak that way. Try to overdo it. You’ll be surprised how hard that is.

Rewards are critical for behavior modification. If you are playing an encounter-based game, comabt experience should be the primary mode, but in a game with social and politcal dimensions, you are shortchanging the whole game if there were not good experience rewards here.

By: Gixustradt

Gixustradt — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 01:37:23 +0000

@ Sand Worm: Sounds like your newbie would be a good Hackmaster 5th Ed player. The simultaneous moves/ per second action system that game has might fit them better. Or worse, depending. I’ve also encountered the problem of running out of ways to describe combat, but I’ve found subtly varying the location and type of hit serves well enough EG: Hit 1: You slash the Orc about chest level, his armor absorbing much of the blow; Hit 2: A thick gash in the leg has the Greenskin howling in rage, but he parried your blade to avoid total amputation.” It’s worked well so far. I’ve come to appreciate how much HP allows for abstract hits, instead of specific hits. Still, HP makes things like called shots easily broken if allowed. I miss that part of WFRP…

My players go in spurts of roleplaying, having an odd tendency to bitch about fighting monster after monster, but rarely participating in any RP with the various denizens (both important and incedental) of NPChood I toss their way. I think they just haven’t found their niche, or maybe -I- haven’t found it, but at least they have fun, and some…-interesting- stories.

By: Sand Worm

Sand Worm — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 00:38:58 +0000

I think that there are differences between roll-playing, character development, and role playing. Usually I DM, but when I get a chance to play I focus more on character development than role playing, since I don’t have the talents in creating voices or impromptu dialogue. When I DM most of my players are more concerned with roll playing, and I would like to see more role playing but I understand that they may not want to for their own reasons, however I have gotten a little bit of role playing to emerge through character development. Most of my players don’t have the time/inclination/imagination to write a detailed history but I found a nice little random background generator (created from the 3rd ed book) which I can then print out a couple of them and let them put the pieces together in a way that makes sense to them.

Although it may seem tedious and unimaginative to say ” I hit an AC of 20 for 8 points of damage to the goblin in front of me” it is often easier than describing the action so elaborately. However I did take on a new player a few years ago and his style was a bit more… eccentric as he described what his character did not with words but with sound effects. Now I’m sure that what he wanted his character to do was very impressive but at first I had very little clue what all the wooshing, clanging, grunting and awkward breathing actually translated to in terms of actions. Then to get him to narrow down trying to stuff 10 rounds of combat into a single round is a task I’m still working on to this day.

By: Adrian

Adrian — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 23:57:59 +0000

Actually, I hadn’t set DCs for that challenge, just used the players’ responses for the information the ghosts gave with the occasional (ie on the nat 20) dice roll for a boost.

By: Harvester

Harvester — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 22:08:04 +0000

Adrian – that just sounds like Roll-playing. In Role playing you allow the players to change the outcome of a situation by playing a role – by talking and acting etc – in my opinion if you have the 4th Edition ‘Skill challenge’ mind set – you will always be a Roll-player…… So in the Ghost situation your players would just talk to you (as the ghosts) and you would ‘Role play’ the conversation out. No need for dice rolling unless you players have no imagination or personality.

I remember playing 4th Ed at a games shop and I wanted to search something – but was then told by the DM that it was a skill challenge and therefore it would be best if the person whose character had the best score should roll for the search…….. In a role-playing game anyone of the party can look at something or have a search around for things that aren’t in especially hidden places.

GroovyTaxi – Why can’t characters earn experience points from Diplomacy?? They get more powerful by earning experience points – which could mean they get more powerful by just experiencing all aspects of life (not just laying the smack down on some goblins) – there is no logic for a fighter having 120 hit points – he hasn’t got physically tougher – he has got magically tougher…. It’s a fantasy game…….. real people can’t survive a direct hit from a fireball or a bite from a dragon…….it’s magic…. (well that’s how I like to see it)

As you can tell – I only DM Role-playing sessions…….