What to do when your players just want to Roll-play. (not role-play)

[xyamius]

Hi, just looking for advise on what to do on this.

How do you get players to switch off the video game mentality and turn on role-play mode?

[legomaster00156]

Did you ever have a Session Zero, to be sure what everyone was playing for?

[Evoker]

Does it seem as though your players are having fun interacting with your world through the medium of persuasion, bluff, etc checks without further elaboration? Or are they just going through the motions of "I guess I'll roll persuasion on this guy", and can't seem to be motivated to put effort into the roleplay. The two are very different scenarios, with different answers.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Before you solve a problem, make sure it is a problem. Some people just aren't into heavy RP. If they seem to be having a good time, leave it be. If you really can't stand having too little RP, say something to your players and they may accomodate you.

[Rynjin]

Before you solve a problem, make sure it is a problem. Some people just aren't into heavy RP. If they seem to be having a good time, leave it be. If you really can't stand having too little RP, say something to your players and they may accommodate you.

Pretty much.

This is always a problem that's going to be solved on a case by case basis, if it even is a problem for your group at all. There's no real specific advice anybody can give until more about the situation is known, particularly WHY do your players not want to roleplay? Do they feel embarrassed? Unsure? Confused about what's going on in game, so it's harder to get invested? Do they just not want to because they'd prefer a beer-and-pretzels experience? Some other reason?

Figuring out the why among your group should help you go a long way in figuring out how, or whether to fix it.

[Zarrgon]

In a general sense if the players just want to roll play, then you should run a roll playing game for them.

I would also highly recommend making the game Old School style.


If the players what roll playing...and you want more...and leaving the game is not an option......there is still a twist you can do: Make a more Roll Playing Game World.

Dump the ''1100 AD farmers and city and king where everyone acts civilized", and go in a different style. A barbarian, viking, pirate, thug or Drow type game come to mind. So you want tons and tons of combat, with role playing only about the combat, so everything is about the combat.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Maybe they want to delve dungeons and don't want to bother with much that doesn't involve the physical side of adventuring?

Or maybe some of the other things mentioned above are the case. It might even be multiples.

Talk to your group, tell them that you wanted more roleplay with them, and ask if they have any problems preventing them from getting into the RP groove, or if maybe they just don't want to. It's fine if all they want is to explore ancient ruins, kick down doors, and slaughter the foes they find there. But if they have problems that need to be addressed, make sure you hash things out with them about it.

They might just not be comfortable play-acting. People get stagefright, or they're just naturally shy when it comes to that kind of thing. It's okay if that's the case, too. Maybe find ways to work in a little here and there. Work up from smaller set-pieces to help them get more accustomed to doing it. Stuff that only involves you and one other person at a time, so they don't have an audience. Maybe set aside an hour of time here and there to do one-on-ones with each of them, to get them into the headspace of their characters. Or maybe run an isekai adventure, like the old D&D cartoon, where they themselves are transported into a D&D world (or maybe a superhero world, or an alternate version of modern day Earth) and are given D&D powers. If they are playing themselves, they're a lot more likely to act in character.

Of course, several or none of these may be the case. Until you ask, you won't know. Make sure to get back to the boards here if you need advice. There are lots of people willing to help.

[Saintheart]

Hi, just looking for advise on what to do on this.

How do you get players to switch off the video game mentality and turn on role-play mode?


(1) Stop asking for dice rolls to determine outcomes where it doesn't matter. And unless the proposed action has a chance of success, a chance of failure, and some consequence that flows from either, it doesn't matter.

(2) Stop DMing, if it really bothers you. For this group, or for anyone. Plenty of other groups, plenty of other people, plenty of other things to do other than sit there basically just acting as the equals sign on a pocket calculator if that's what you don't want to do.

[Gavinfoxx]

...you let them?

[False God]

Roll-playing can result from a number of things:
Over-use of role-playing: there's only so many ways you can creatively describe doing a thing before it becomes tedious.
-Solution: don't expect your players to role-play everything. Encourage them to role-play when its relevant to the scene. Sometimes singing a sword or picking a lock is just that.
Over-use of rolling: Similar to above, it's a matter of burnout. Needing to roleplay every interaction and having a lot of interactions can lead to burnout. After a while, you're tired but you still have more rolls to go.
-Solution: Figure out if something really needs to be rolled for or not. Jimmie has a 35 minimum hide check? Short of there being a serious reason why his check might fail, just let him hide.
Tedious interactions: Role-playing an interaction with every shopkeep can be tedious. I mean imagine if every time you went to a store IRL, the cashier wanted to have a conversation with you. Sometimes you just need a bag of rubies without any hassles. No offense to the shopkeep you may have meticulously detailed, but I'm just here for a ring of natural armor, got one? No? Okay have a nice day.
Incorrect interactions: Players latch on to the oddest of things. They'll take supreme interest in that one kobold they spared in the last fight. They'll become obsessed with the romantic entanglements of the farmers daughter. They'll not give two squids about the King or Archmage who is employing them and overwhelmed with intrigue and quests. If you push them to only interacting with the NPCs you detailed, and don't engage them when they find something interesting, they can feel like their attempts to role-play aren't valued and stop.
Role-play isn't valued: I play with one DM who I don't really enjoy his game much, but we're a rotating group of DMs and sometimes he's the man up. There's a lot of role-playing to be had in his game, but there's no reward for it. Killing monsters? That'll get you gold, adulation, XP, you name it! Spending a whole session engaging with the NPCs he's clearly put a lot of work into? Nothing. 100xp. It's worse that a lot of those NPCs are a royal pain in the patoot to deal with. It's a LOT of effort in-game, and it's a LOT of personal effort, and when you put in that time? Squat.
Die-rolls override role-play: Sometimes good role-play can win the day. Why mess that up with dice? The player just made a really good argument. Do we really need to see if he rolls poorly?
Burnout: Maybe it's not you, maybe it's just them. Life is tough, and right now, life is extra-tough. Sometimes people just want to sit down and throw some dice around. Give them a break, if none of the above applied before, they'll come around.
They're just not interested: For whatever reason, they're not into your game. Maybe it's little things, maybe something happened recently. You'll need to talk to them and see what's up. No easy answers here.

Ultimately, you're probably going to need to talk to your group, but I'd give them a couple sessions (if it hasn't been already) and see if they come around on their own. Be prepared to hear that they're just not having fun in your game though.

[The Insanity]

Depends on what your definitions of "roll-play" and "role-play" are.

[Elkad]

My default method of play (and that of everyone I played with) for decades was "combat simulator".

Nobody had a back story. Nobody had goals beyond "moar powah!" If an NPC was blocking progress, you killed it. Or at least charmed it.

And everyone was fine with that.

It's not the wrong way to play.


Even now, I'll never have a session without actual combat, even if I have to whip up a "random encounter" to fill the last hour. But a session without a social roll? Common.

[Gruftzwerg]

My default method of play (and that of everyone I played with) for decades was "combat simulator".

Nobody had a back story. Nobody had goals beyond "moar powah!" If an NPC was blocking progress, you killed it. Or at least charmed it.

And everyone was fine with that.

It's not the wrong way to play.


Even now, I'll never have a session without actual combat, even if I have to whip up a "random encounter" to fill the last hour. But a session without a social roll? Common.

^this is your starting point. If people are having fun rolling dices, it's ok to start there and progress from there step by step:

1. start with some minimal verbal RP conversation in-combat from your NPC side to involve your PCs into minimal RP (insulting each other, or talking about how you will claim victory over your enemies is always a good starting point here^^)
2. Have a returning enemy that escapes several times from the PCs. Make him a nuisance and give him a face for the PCs to remember. Give them a reason to hate him and track him down via small steps of social interaction between the combat parts. The important part here is "small steps". Don't expect more than 1-5min. per step at the beginning.
3. Give them a lil mascot to care and interact. Be it a just a (watch-)dog or an captured enemy (or rescued for some reason) kobold/goblin. Now you have a "party member" which can force some lil RP reactions as you see it fit. You can also abuse familiars and animal companions for this if your PCs should have any.
4. If nothing else works, you could try to pull out the "sex-sells-joker". While this seems like something that only works for teenagers imho this can work for all ages if you tailor it considering the age of your players. Sex and romance are always good hooks for some starting role play for newer players.

Just be creative try to be an example yourself. You are going to be initiating 95% of the RP interaction for the beginning until your players will get hooked up and get used to RPing themselves .

edit: another good option for some newbie RPing is to have a nice and decent tavern brawl when and than. Some RP to start the riot will lead to more RP after the fight (with the town guards or local clans/families).

[Quertus]

Yeah, I'm not seeing the problem.

As others have said, it is good to give them opportunities for roleplay - and even the couple seconds of spotlight time highlighting any combat actions that would make the Determinator cringe with asking things like, "why did you…", and responding with a simple "cool" to any RP-based reasons, can provide subtle incentives to slowly acclimate players towards role-playing.