Lord.Sorasen
2010-12-06, 01:14 PM
So, I'm about to DM for the first time, and I'm getting all sorts of things together. Currently, my plot revolves around the Vasharan (Book of Vile something, the race was originally human but worse (literally, there was not a single advantage to choosing it) so I buffed them a lot.), who have managed to invent psionic energies (which in my campaign world had yet to exist) in order to become God-Like without relying on Gods (psionics here are referred to as the original powers, which even the Gods used to create the universe.)
Anyway, my issue here is my group. They want to roleplay a somewhat more serious story, yes, but we all crumble so fast when roleplaying comes up. Usually, roleplaying attempts lead to metagaming, and character personalities often blend so far with the player's personalities that it gets very difficult to immerse oneself into the fantasy world presented. Please note that it's not that the players want to, but rather that they find it very difficult. So I'm wondering: What techniques have you dms come up with to help engage players in roleplaying?
Some basic info
Game played: DnD 3.5 (this cannot be changed. Our group has just finally finished learning these rules, we own the books, and we're not really ready to start over after only a year of playing tabletop RPGs.)
Age Group: 19-20 (We're all late to the game, I guess. Maybe this will be useful info to people.)
Time spent playing: Technically a year, but there's been a big gap between Summer and now where only I have actually gotten to play. One of our players has played only one short campaign so far, and one more has never played a campaign yet.
The people in our team. I'll give them names to refer to them by if you so choose to refer to the individual
Matt: This guy is really into video game RPGs. He likes roleplaying, but puts his character's power before his fluff without a doubt. He doesn't actually know much of anything about power gaming so it's not too big an issue. Last campaign he played a half-orc barbarian. This campaign he's going with a psychic Warrior Half-Ogre(template) Neanderthal we are referring to as Ancient Ogre. He's actually mentioned several non-combat uses for his expansion power, including fording the party across short rivers, so I'm a little less worried.
Daniel: This guy has always attempted to come up with interesting character quirks. His first character was a gnome bard with bagpipes named "Error" as a tribute to Legend of Zelda II. He mostly responded to NPCs with "I AM ERROR". His next character was a dwarf scout with two crossbows with a pet dove, attempting to imitate John Wu movies. These have been fun, but perhaps his problem is that characters never get passed the first quirk. Error said he was error, his John Wu clone released doves from his robes... Not really anything deep there. Though he wants to try. His current character is either a half-giant favored Soul, or a Hadozee (stormwrack) rogue.
Liz: Liz has a huge issue with roleplaying. She metagames constantly, gets distracted when it's not her turn by other things, etc etc. But, I must note, when she wants to roleplay she's the best of us by far. Her first character was a human monk, a drunken master (not the class). When asked to introduce herself to the party, she bursted into tears, crying (in between gasps for breath) that no one at her temple wanted to play Majong with her so she ran away forever. Currently she's playing a warforged Dragonfire Adept. She has big plans and I want to make sure she can utilize these.
Hannah: Hannah roleplays well enough, I suppose. She has a similar problem to Liz, and she's not quite as good at making things awesome. She's great at the backstory but gets a bit too quiet when the gaming begins. Currently she's going to play a naiive human paladin.
Maria: She's my sister. She's never played before, but when she does I imagine she'll be like me; with a lot of ideas but a bit too much nervousness to make them all show up. She's playing a Vanara (3.0 Oriental Adventures) beguiler w/ Dungeon Master Guide's "witch" alternate spell list. Hopes to make a living as a fortune teller who's managed to use illusions and lies to convince people she's a competent diviner. The party does not know of her beguiler powers, her character sheet says "sorceress".
One of the biggest issues I think, is that characters barely talk to each other in character at all. They'll talk in character to monsters or NPCs, but they never really seem to have a good enough excuse to communicate with each other. It seems they're either giving the dm there actions or listening to the dm tell them what's happening. I'd really like to encourage PC to PC interaction, though maybe that's not a thing DnD really has happening.
Any help? Sorry if this is too long/nonsensical. If it is I'll do my best to rewrite it asap.
Anyway, my issue here is my group. They want to roleplay a somewhat more serious story, yes, but we all crumble so fast when roleplaying comes up. Usually, roleplaying attempts lead to metagaming, and character personalities often blend so far with the player's personalities that it gets very difficult to immerse oneself into the fantasy world presented. Please note that it's not that the players want to, but rather that they find it very difficult. So I'm wondering: What techniques have you dms come up with to help engage players in roleplaying?
Some basic info
Game played: DnD 3.5 (this cannot be changed. Our group has just finally finished learning these rules, we own the books, and we're not really ready to start over after only a year of playing tabletop RPGs.)
Age Group: 19-20 (We're all late to the game, I guess. Maybe this will be useful info to people.)
Time spent playing: Technically a year, but there's been a big gap between Summer and now where only I have actually gotten to play. One of our players has played only one short campaign so far, and one more has never played a campaign yet.
The people in our team. I'll give them names to refer to them by if you so choose to refer to the individual
Matt: This guy is really into video game RPGs. He likes roleplaying, but puts his character's power before his fluff without a doubt. He doesn't actually know much of anything about power gaming so it's not too big an issue. Last campaign he played a half-orc barbarian. This campaign he's going with a psychic Warrior Half-Ogre(template) Neanderthal we are referring to as Ancient Ogre. He's actually mentioned several non-combat uses for his expansion power, including fording the party across short rivers, so I'm a little less worried.
Daniel: This guy has always attempted to come up with interesting character quirks. His first character was a gnome bard with bagpipes named "Error" as a tribute to Legend of Zelda II. He mostly responded to NPCs with "I AM ERROR". His next character was a dwarf scout with two crossbows with a pet dove, attempting to imitate John Wu movies. These have been fun, but perhaps his problem is that characters never get passed the first quirk. Error said he was error, his John Wu clone released doves from his robes... Not really anything deep there. Though he wants to try. His current character is either a half-giant favored Soul, or a Hadozee (stormwrack) rogue.
Liz: Liz has a huge issue with roleplaying. She metagames constantly, gets distracted when it's not her turn by other things, etc etc. But, I must note, when she wants to roleplay she's the best of us by far. Her first character was a human monk, a drunken master (not the class). When asked to introduce herself to the party, she bursted into tears, crying (in between gasps for breath) that no one at her temple wanted to play Majong with her so she ran away forever. Currently she's playing a warforged Dragonfire Adept. She has big plans and I want to make sure she can utilize these.
Hannah: Hannah roleplays well enough, I suppose. She has a similar problem to Liz, and she's not quite as good at making things awesome. She's great at the backstory but gets a bit too quiet when the gaming begins. Currently she's going to play a naiive human paladin.
Maria: She's my sister. She's never played before, but when she does I imagine she'll be like me; with a lot of ideas but a bit too much nervousness to make them all show up. She's playing a Vanara (3.0 Oriental Adventures) beguiler w/ Dungeon Master Guide's "witch" alternate spell list. Hopes to make a living as a fortune teller who's managed to use illusions and lies to convince people she's a competent diviner. The party does not know of her beguiler powers, her character sheet says "sorceress".
One of the biggest issues I think, is that characters barely talk to each other in character at all. They'll talk in character to monsters or NPCs, but they never really seem to have a good enough excuse to communicate with each other. It seems they're either giving the dm there actions or listening to the dm tell them what's happening. I'd really like to encourage PC to PC interaction, though maybe that's not a thing DnD really has happening.
Any help? Sorry if this is too long/nonsensical. If it is I'll do my best to rewrite it asap.