Characterization ideas

[tim01300]

So I am having a hard time getting a few of my players to get into their characters when we play. Some guys do fun voices, back stories and jokes, while others won't even make a name for their character. I don't think its that they don't like role playing I think it is they just don't care about their character yet.

While watching the PAX 2010 d&d game on youtube I really liked once moment where to active a portal the characters had to each tell their darkest secret. This seems like a fun way to give depth to the characters, it can be funny or serious and helps the players get attached to someone they have built.

So do you guys have any other moments that you have witnessed along these lines? A puzzle or idea that sneakily focuses the players into adding depth to their character?:smallbiggrin:

Really could use the help, thanks!

[Vaz]

Any awkward silences after "I'm a virgin... In character, g'dammit!"?

I've got some guys who love their character building with backstories 12 pages long detailing everything they've done and backstories for NPC's added for flavour; inevitably getting File 13'd, and others who are usually dead chill and their names no more interesting or thought out than Choppy Choppington or Wolfy McWolfywolf.

And for the most part, there's no correlation between power-players and optimizers churning out names like Nuck Chorris or Let Ji and the casual players with their War-and-Peace-sized Memoirs of their Level 1 Commoners.

[Zanthy1]

I have a good friend who never has any of the character details, only the essentials. In the roleplay aspect, I have difficulty getting him interested in the roleplaying part, but during encounters that don't involve diplomacy or something, he is fine. Like he has great ideas, but he only shares them out of character, and gets upset when the other players characters don't do what he said. I told him that if he had those ideas, his character could to.

Small things like encouraging them to start talking in game to each other. Its fun when all the players are talking as their characters, regardless of fun voices. Nothing like standing in front of the city guard when a debate about whether or not to rob a shop comes up. It not only has them attempt a little roleplaying, but also can lead to an encounter or a new story line.

Had a NPC guy who was a notorious their. The party was trying to get into the Baron's keep to warn him or something, and one guy goes up to the guard and says, "were friends of the their." needless to say they had to role play their way out of it, in an interrogation cell. And there was much rejoicing :)

[Laserlight]

to active a portal the characters had to each tell their darkest secret. This seems like a fun way to give depth to the characters, it can be funny or serious and helps the players get attached to someone they have built.

IIRC Savage Worlds has a mechanism whereby during interludes (such as when you make camp for the night), one of the players draws a card. If it's a spade, he tells about a victory he was involved with; diamond, a prized possession or other desire; heart, the "girl back home" or some other relationship; and club, a tragedy that affected him.