Is Roleplaying a form of acting?

[Pika...]

Every Saturday morning when I am walking to my college class I see this acting group of some kind.

Today I got to thinking if rolepaying is related to acting in some way. Well, at least for those who do not merely hack-and-slash.

[Rettu Skcollob]

As someone who wanted to be a performer for some time and focused his efforts as such, with the right people there is not too much difference between roleplaying and an improvised play with pre-established characters, a la commedia del arté

[Thufir]

Yes. What, you need more?

[Thes Hunter]

Yes.


Someone who was a roleplayer and an actor might just look like This (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI)

[Icewalker]

Roleplaying is acting. Acting spans more than just roleplaying, as you have what I assume you meant more specifically, like work on the stage. But they're basically the same thing at the base level. Roleplaying is improv theater, acting as you mean it is scripted theater.

[Mauve Shirt]

Yes, roleplaying is acting. Which is why I'm pretty bad at it. :smalltongue:

[Silverraptor]

Yes, roleplaying is acting. Which is why I'm pretty bad at it. :smalltongue:

You can't be that bad.:smallsmile:

And I think that roleplaying is a perfect example of acting. Especially when you get into character. So if you want to be an actor, play DnD.

[arguskos]

Yes, roleplaying is acting. Which is why I'm pretty bad at it. :smalltongue:
You could be as bad as I am. And I DM! :smalltongue:

[skywalker]

Yes.

But the two are not necessarily the same. I once had a player in my game say "I look to my right" while looking to his left as tho demonstrating his action. I explained "that's not your right." His response "I'm not LARP-ing" was unsatisfactory to me. I consider LARP to be a specific subset, and I think taking on the mannerisms, manner of speech, etc. of your character is good roleplaying. So I say yes, they coincide greatly.

[Volos]

It depends on what you are asking. I can only imagine you mean one of two different things here. Either you are asking if tabletop D&D Roleplaying is akin to acting, or you are asking if freeform roleplay (chat or forum) is akin to acting.

In the first case, the tabletop D&D, I would have to say that they are not. Though there are some who could be concidered actors in their own right (you should have seen this 6'4" guy play this halfling bard, just awesome!) there are just too many "I'm a Barbarian with 18 Str and 3 Cha" people out there. Acting it might be, just not good acting.

In the second case, I would have to scream YES! Roleplaying a character with other people's characters in an interactive and immersive story is a high form of acting if I ever saw one. Look at the word character. Char, denoting a persona, and acter, denoting an actor!

Just my two coppers.

[Silverraptor]

It depends on what you are asking. I can only imagine you mean one of two different things here. Either you are asking if tabletop D&D Roleplaying is akin to acting, or you are asking if freeform roleplay (chat or forum) is akin to acting.

In the first case, the tabletop D&D, I would have to say that they are not. Though there are some who could be concidered actors in their own right (you should have seen this 6'4" guy play this halfling bard, just awesome!) there are just too many "I'm a Barbarian with 18 Str and 3 Cha" people out there. Acting it might be, just not good acting.

In the second case, I would have to scream YES! Roleplaying a character with other people's characters in an interactive and immersive story is a high form of acting if I ever saw one. Look at the word character. Char, denoting a persona, and acter, denoting an actor!

Just my two coppers.

I think it's worth alot more then that.

[skywalker]

It depends on what you are asking. I can only imagine you mean one of two different things here. Either you are asking if tabletop D&D Roleplaying is akin to acting, or you are asking if freeform roleplay (chat or forum) is akin to acting.

In the first case, the tabletop D&D, I would have to say that they are not. Though there are some who could be concidered actors in their own right (you should have seen this 6'4" guy play this halfling bard, just awesome!) there are just too many "I'm a Barbarian with 18 Str and 3 Cha" people out there. Acting it might be, just not good acting.

In the second case, I would have to scream YES! Roleplaying a character with other people's characters in an interactive and immersive story is a high form of acting if I ever saw one. Look at the word character. Char, denoting a persona, and acter, denoting an actor!

Just my two coppers.

Really? I think you've gone completely the wrong way. In the first case, those people are actually interacting with others (which is a key component of acting), talking in character, and having an immersive experience. There are just as many people dimming the lights, putting on ambient music, and affecting a brogue for four hours straight as there are saying "I swing my axe, and do 23 damage." I'm an actor. There are plenty of people who "act" around a D&D table. There's also more to tabletop than just D&D.

In the second case, no matter how much you get into it, you are still typing words into a computer. You are not acting in any traditional sense of the word, since you are inherently defeated by the media. I cannot type like an orc, for instance. If I did, I would probably be banned from the PbP section, because my posts would be so hard to read.

In the end, in both cases you get to explore a character's motivations, participate in their growth and in the growth of the story.

In my opinion, it is easier to internalize/embody your character and their actions when you are at least marginally participating in a manner other than typing.

The medium is much more important than the system.

That's my two coppers.

[AstralFire]

Inclined to agree with Skywalker. Though I prefer text roleplay, that is more of cooperative storytelling than it is acting. That is, in fact, why I prefer text roleplay. My mastery of the written word is much preferable to my clumsiness with the spoken as well as body language.

[Trog]

I'd say it depends. A game of DnD is such that it is quite possible to play it without any. My gaming group does a minimum of acting but a lot of role playing. That is they say a lot of what their character is doing and such but hardly ever talk in character. Mostly it is third person. This is probably because I have a small group and each of them plays two characters and since we've been doing it for so long we have all but slipped out completely. And if you look at (non MMO) RPG games on computers you play the role of a character but again there is no acting. This last is perhaps getting off the topic a bit but since they stamp it an RPG game I'm bringing it up here.


Though I prefer text roleplay, that is more of cooperative storytelling than it is acting. That is, in fact, why I prefer text roleplay. My mastery of the written word is much preferable to my clumsiness with the spoken as well as body language.
Yeah, me too. Though the only text role playing I have ever done has been in the Town. I've never done any of the PbP ones ever where mechanics come into play.

[Kallisti]

As a lifelong and dedicated actor and roleplayer, yes. Yers, yes, yes; roleplaying is basically improv theater with more breaks for Monty Python and internet memes quoted.

Acting, as in stage acting, not so much. After all, you rarely have lines pre-memorized for a charachter. I sometimes do, but that's because I have nothing better to do with my time than figure out what my characters would say if X...

But improvisational acting? Absolutely.

[skywalker]

Acting, as in stage acting, not so much. After all, you rarely have lines pre-memorized for a charachter. I sometimes do, but that's because I have nothing better to do with my time than figure out what my characters would say if X...

But improvisational acting? Absolutely.

Stage acting can sometimes turn out to be improv... :smalleek:

[Kallisti]

Stage acting can sometimes turn out to be improv... :smalleek:

Oh, GOD, yes. That's one of the reasons improv is important. So to all you nascent actors: Roleplay like your careers depend on it--they just might.

[Berserk Monk]

Role playing is acting as you are ACTing the part of some other character not yourself.

[bosssmiley]

Every Saturday morning when I am walking to my college class I see this acting group of some kind.

Today I got to thinking if roleplaying is related to acting in some way. Well, at least for those who do not merely hack-and-slash.

"Merely hack-and-slash"? Them's fighting words. What are you, some kind of dirty 'storyteller'? We skin and eat thur kind around here. :smallannoyed:

Yes, RP and acting are related: acting is the gimped, half-the-content-missing, totally railroaded, style-over-substance idiot brother of proper role-playing.

I mean, no DM worth his salt would pull the kinds of half-baked idiot plots and blatant DMPC deus ex machina that Aeschylus, Shakespeare and those other hacks tried to fob people off with; we know better now. :smallbiggrin:

[BritishBill]

Yup, a very hard form of acting because you have to make everything up yourself :smallbiggrin:

[valadil]

Absolutely. Though that doesn't mean that all RPG players act. Tactical combat has little to do with acting.

[Katana_Geldar]

I'd say yes, but it depends on how far you would take it as well as how you play.

Roleplayers, actors and storytellers? A definite yes! Not so for munchkins and powergamers, as it's more about the actual game than the story, their characters are more extensions of themselves or their own ego or desires.

As a GM, I feel I have to act when I roleplay NPCs. Not just voice but diction (Jedi Masters and politicians have a much more proficent vocabularly than your average barkeep or Twi'lek dancing girl) as well as mannerisms and gestures. The reason being is that this how my players (as well as me) can differentiate between NPCs, particularly when I have more than one talking to them. There's also the fact that some of the NPCs I have are established characters, like Yoda or Bail Organa. I just have to put on their hat and it's cool. :smallcool:

The DM in the 4E game I play goes one better, he gets up and walks about and sometimes gets in our face at critical moments.

[Moff Chumley]

Acting is roleplaying. But roleplaying is not always acting. Like, a square is always a rectangle, but not vice versa.

[skywalker]

Acting is roleplaying. But roleplaying is not always acting. Like, a square is always a rectangle, but not vice versa.

Acting is playing a role, but not always "roleplaying," however. At least, for certain definitions of roleplaying.

Cripes, this is getting recursive.

[EndlessWrath]

I'm an actor. and thats how I do my roleplaying at least. :smallamused:

Although more often than not, my group doesn't feel like roleplaying.. so they don't really bother. :smallfrown:

[Maryring]

Acting is when someone performs the role of a character in a story-telling medium, so quite technically even a Hack-n-Slash game is acting. Only technically though. It's not something anyone would count as acting.

And not what is asked either. When using the implication it carries, Roleplaying means that it is the character, the setting and the story that is the primary focus being compared to acting.

And in that case I'm going to say yes. In fact, funny as it is I've been considering this question a lot lately as I've been working on representing a local roleplay group in the cultural program on our local radio. I found that comparing Roleplay to a form of collaborative and improvisational theater is a surprisingly apt description of what roleplay really is. For all the mechanical rules involved, it is the acting part of the game that sets Roleplaying apart from a regular table-top game like Othello or Go.

[AshDesert]

As one of the best roleplayers in my former group (gotta hate when people move), I can say that roleplaying is very different from scripted acting. This became especially evident in my English III class, in which we are reading The Crucible (probably the first time I've read a good play in English). I was given the part of Reverend Hale, yet I found something very interesting happen. Despite having played a sanctimonious, holier-than-thou Cleric in one of my more recent campaigns, I just couldn't get into character when I had to read from a script instead of coming up with what the character would say on the spot. I still read fairly well (better than most in a regular Junior English class anyway), but it came out bland and lifeless to my ears.

However, in that same respect, roleplaying is very much like improvisational theatre. You have to really immerse yourself into the character, their thoughts, their feelings, their world views. You have to think of what to do on the spot, based entirely on how you feel the character would react.

Of course, that's entirely based on tabletop roleplaying, not text-based. As AstralFire said, is pretty much cooperative storytelling, rather than acting. It, of course, has it's merits and is very fun, but it's a different animal altogether.