How do you RP?

[jaappleton]

It's a broad question for a topic title, I know.

I've found the most fun I've had was when I played what the character would do, while being well aware it was not the best choice.

However.... I've been drifting away from that.

And I don't know how to get back to it.

I know I should be playing the character. But I don't know what character I want to play.

I am struggling to make characters that are fun to play in the moment.

I see so many resources online for helping DMs in so many ways, but nothing for players.

Is part of the problem that my table is currently in a dungeon crawl, with little NPC interaction? Probably part of it.

Yet there's still much decision making to be done outside of social, like puzzle solving.

And there's just.... Blank for me.

I stare at classes, subclasses and builds and nothing. Nothing. It's just gray, with nothing seeming to inspire me or anything that excites me.

I need a character, not a build. And nothing excites me.

Any advice? Resources or videos to point me to?

[BRC]

The best place to start is with the campaign.

It's hard to make a Character in a void. It's easy to make a Build, you just look at the books and mechanics, but Characters are defined by Situations, without knowing what sort of world/situation the character is going to be in, it's hard to make one.


Once you have a sense of the world/nature of the campaign, start thinking "Okay, what sort of person might interact with this world or situation in a way that I would enjoy playing through?"

Start thinking about a character's Purpose. If a generic Purpose for D&D is something like "Go kill the bad guys and save the day", start thinking about something that is perpendicular to that, something that won't get in the way of your fellow players achieving that goal, but it's JUST that generic goal. Don't play a spy for the BBEG who wants to sabotage the party, or the classic Chaotic Stupid character who ruins everybody else's fun by running off and causing problems.

For example, a character who, yes, wants to go defeat the Big Bad and save the day, but more than that wants to spread hope and joy among the people. It's not enough for the people to Survive and the Threat to be gone, it's vitally important for your character to let people know that there are Heroes out there trying to save the day.


Or, a character who, yes, wants to go defeat the big bad and save people, but also has some personal code that they have built their identity around. It's vitally important to them to live up to those principles.

Obviously, your character wants to Win. The trick is to give them something they want to do besides that? What are their goals for when the campaign is over and the villain lies defeated? Let that guide your decisions, not to the realm of frustrating stupidity, but beyond "What is the best tactical option"

[Ralanr]

Terribly. :smallcool:

It's difficult to separate out of what you as a player would have your character do, and what your character would do. But I have some examples of how I've done it in the past.

First was me playing a Paladin in Curse of Strahd. The DM changed up our encounter because our plan was too good, and we ended up fighting Strahd in a spiral stairway with a bunch of NPC companions (Strahd also drank a potion of invulnerability). Now, my paladin had the sunblade, and I figured I could use my actions to extend it so that it'd give Strahd disadvantage on his attacks to save people. But in the end, I never got the chance to do so, because my paladin was so dead set on keeping people alive, that he spent his turns using lay on hands as an action instead.

It was an intense fight, and when we won I was a little unsatisfied that I didn't hit Strahd, but I stayed true to my character. He saw his teammates and innocent people in danger, so he went to help them. And I made up for it later.

The second time I was playing a barbarian and self-proclaimed Bandit King. He had escaped prison to get back to the party, basically insighting a riot in his name. Trouble is, he told people to pass it on so no one knew he was the person who did it. And being the glory hound my barbarian was, he was livid. To get the guards to act, he ended up setting the prison on fire, and later throwing a politicians desk out of a window.

In both of these situations, I remembered what was important to the character in the moment and acted on them. I can't do this all the time because I'm both A)Somewhat tactical and B) I don't want to justify being a ****.

[pwykersotz]

Sometimes it's a slog, yeah.

Mechanically, I find it inspiring when I'm constrained in some way. Restrictions breed creativity. One of my early 5e characters was a monk who I generated by rolling 3d6, in order, no rerolls. The rest of the table got 4d6 drop lowest, and got 3 full attempts to get a solid array. His grossly underpowered statblock made me hardcore optimize for the most I could get out of him, and it was a thrilling experience. I always felt on the back foot, but pressed myself to be useful at all times. I mention this, because it also sounds like you are having some issues with not caring about the mechanics too.

With regards to roleplay, I find similar things hold true. I often bounce ideas off my fellow players to get a personality type that isn't so much what I choose, but what is thrust upon me. And as long as I don't hate it, I can rise to the occasion. For example, I'm just now rolling a Kenku cleric for a current campaign. I've never cared about Kenku, and the mimicry restriction will be a pain in the butt. I came up with the idea when I realized that as the most experienced gamer in that group, the party would sometimes just blindly go with me as opposed to making their own decisions. I suggested Kenku to my GM as a laugh, and he really liked the idea, so he challenged me to try. So now my mind is whirling to think of what I can do within the boundaries that me and my GM have set for me.

TL;DR - Maybe try setting yourself some seemingly unreasonable limits, and hopefully figuring out how to play around them will focus your creativity and get you back into the mindset of the character.

[Easy e]

I do the following few things, and the builds and stats do not really matter that much.

1. Draw a triangle and write three personality traits on each corner. When the character talks/acts, it should come from one of these three traits. Two sides should align, while the 3 should be an outlier.

2. Determine 1 to 3 quirks, eccentricities, and habits. Things like enthusiastic about the color red, smokes, prefers only fine wines, loves ballads by the bard Retavio, etc.

3. Create a character motivation, this is what they are trying to do. It maybe a character arc, an end goal, or something else. If the character was doing nothing else, this is what they would spend time doing.

4. Then, if I still need a bit more I try to come up with reasons why other players or an audience would root for this character to succeed. This maybe backstory, personality, or quirk related.

5. Play using these jotted down items as a guideline as I RP.

[Unoriginal]

Is part of the problem that my table is currently in a dungeon crawl, with little NPC interaction? Probably part of it.

Yet there's still much decision making to be done outside of social, like puzzle solving.

To me, puzzle solving is more reflection than decision-making. You think about it until it works, but you're seeking a solution more than making a choice.



I stare at classes, subclasses and builds and nothing. Nothing. It's just gray, with nothing seeming to inspire me or anything that excites me.

I need a character, not a build. And nothing excites me.

Any advice? Resources or videos to point me to?

Well, I may have some pieces of advice, but first let me answer your question by one of my own:

Do you have movies, books, shows, songs, etc, that make you feel something, anything more than "just gray"?

[jaappleton]

Do you have movies, books, shows, songs, etc, that make you feel something, anything more than "just gray"?

Pardon the pun on your username, but I myself am quite Unoriginal.

My favorite characters were shameless ripoffs of video game characters.

Grom the Barbarian was straight theft of Grom Hellscream from Warcraft III. His big motivation began as blaming Gruumsh (Mannaroth from WC) for his bloodlust, and he wanted to grow strong enough to kill Gruumsh. That was it. I stuck a post-it note to my laptop monitor that said "BARBARIAN", underlined twice, and that drove every action. Eventually after a few sessions, and that decision making, he came into his own. Eventually becoming a self-proclaimed "King".

My second favorite was a Life Theurge (sue me, it was a two person party, I had a lot of ground to cover) that was the sage Tellah from Final Fantasy IV. Tellah, in the game, was so old he'd forgotten most of his spells. So I made forgetfulness a core part of the character, and he perpetually had little idea as to what was going on. Named him Gilbert, and in regards to FFIV, if you know then you know.

I often circle back to my favorite games because I feel I *know* the characters, since I've played those games so many times. It's not an exaggeration when I say I've finished FFIV about.... Oh, at least nine times.

Every time I try to come up with something completely original, I fail right out the game. I have a concept and then it devolves into "most tactical decision" after two sessions.

If the solution ultimately is to steal and shamelessly ripoff until it becomes my own after the in-game circumstances shape and forge the character into that.... Well, I suppose there's worse things.

I like Easy_e's suggestions of having something simple to glance at when making decisions. I think I'll employ that.

[Matt_Aries]

I find when I RP I fashion a character I am creating after another person or being and play as how I think they would act in a situation. My current endeavor is a Tiefling Hexblade that will be fashioned after Mark Hamil version of the Joker.

Backstory don't care ... he's just going to be an instigating "jester" that lies to everyone even himself. The finest of cheap duds, where everyone is called Richard (get it) and think he is a rogue. He is not a max/min build but rather build around not fighting and when needed will teleport away or get others to fight for him. I do not really have back stories, as I let the adventure create who they are, I just need to know how they would react or why their actions would be X over Y.


I tend to find something that is new to me or a twist on the normal. Such as a mute Ranger. Yep, no spells that were using spoken word, instead of barbarian rage ask the GM for permission to have him have PTSD. Sometimes the 1 thing that changes the character from a trope is the most interesting for a RP aspect.

Some of my personal favorites I've done:
- John McClaine (DieHard) as a Fighter
- Winnie the Pooh's Eeyore as a Death obsessed Oath of the Crown Paladin
- Rolled bad making a Wizard so, I had a Wizard that stuttered. Failed often casting spells.
- child tabaxi with a pet wolf ... got the idea of my daughter watching Mickey Mouse with Pluto
- Multiple personality disorder female Goliath Bard. Hair metal music, Polynesian/Maori War chants, or dirty limericks.


Sometimes a character just doesn't work because of the party, the adventure, or even your own mood. Maybe you're just burnt out. What is your favorite character in a movie, book, or game? Why? Build around that? Hope this sparked an idea for you. Happy gaming.

[Bobthewizard]

I find that my favorite characters are the ones where I come up with the character and personality to fit the campaign and then find mechanics to fit. If I start with mechanics, I can struggle to find depth and color for the roleplaying.

One trick I use is to take a personality for a character I like, then place it in a completely different type of character. I made a goblin wizard that I played like Major Winters from Band of Brothers, or a female elf warlock that I played like Amos from the Expanse. I find that basing it off a character I like helps me with the roleplaying, then changing it makes it so others don't figure it out.

The other thing I do is play a character with a personality based off one of my friends or family members. I think, "What would they be like if they were a sorcerer."

Edit: It won't let me type Maj. Winters' first name. Funny.

[Catullus64]

I always think the best characters are ones which take some key aspect of your real-life self and dramatize it. Find something that you enjoy, that you believe strongly, even just an aspect of your bodily behavior or speech affect, and make it more central to the character than it is to you yourself. Stick it on a mechanical build that resonates decently with it and you're good to go; as long as you remember what the Important Thing is that tethers you emotionally to this character, everything else can flow from that.

[Gudrae]

It will depend on what you mean in particular by saying role play, If it is as you originally stated.


Jaappleton - I've found the most fun I've had was when I played what the character would do, while being well aware it was not the best choice.

Then finding non combat efficiency goals would probably be a start. Such as showing off the power of nature, making all witness to the presence of your god, out thinking the next smartest guy in the room, refusing to let the left flank collapse, hit the guy who thinks he's untouchable, etc.


Jaapleton - Is part of the problem that my table is currently in a dungeon crawl, with little NPC interaction? Probably part of it.

Yet there's still much decision making to be done outside of social, like puzzle solving.

And there's just.... Blank for me.

It could be apart of the problem. Its difficult to roleplay when you have seemingly no means of interaction. Its worth remembering that there is potential for roleplay in combat. how is a spell cast, what is required for it, how does it look, smell, taste, sound, feel. How does your training or lack thereof make you attack with your weapon. Do you shake as you thrust and retreat quickly or are you relaxed as you swipe at the joints. Do you swing a sword like a hammer crashing down on the enemy with spit and blood dribbling onto their person in an effort to make them cower into submission/make them realize their inevitable defeat, or do you prod them with questions wanting to know/remember why they chose this path that ends at your hand.

While you may be without NPCs, characters are rarely without anyone to interact with because you usually have the other players. I found that one of the more interesting ways to get players interested in your character was to ask about theirs. Take some time thinking about the characters that the other players have found interesting enough to want to play, write down two to three questions that you might want to ask them or say to them. In moments of down time, say during travel or as camp is being set, ask away. If their answers intrigue you expand the question from what you learned at a later time. I had a human carpenter's son character named Oswynn who learned that his best friend Url had been exiled as a means of attaining status of becoming an adult for around twenty years, and my character wanted to know if his best friend had any resentment toward his father for it. My character was told that 20 years is not as long for an elf and that it was not his (Url's) place to question tradition. This of course opened up opportunity for me to think about how I would make Url question his traditions for him. In another instance I questioned the nature of a warlocks secret pact with an entity even he didn't fully know. Oswynn wanted to know if his patron was someone that could be trusted. I was told that nothing bad had happened to him yet but that no promises could be made. Getting to know about that character and his relationship with his pact master led an innocently trusting Oswynn, a young man with druid ancestry, if the warlock's dark patron could help him control his shapeshifting/blackouts because he could find no one to teach him.

In a recent character I'm playing I have even taken to speaking my character's internal monologue followed up with facial expressions and mannerisims.

Its also a bit intresting to praise/question other characters on actions taken moments ago or on previous quests.

Puzzle solving is quite a bit more difficult to roleplay for me because we still need an answer. Just brainstorming it, how does your character approach the start of a puzzle? do you hit it and see if it changes, prod every inch with a stick, look at it for ten minutes not saying anything, or do you try to ignore it entirely and try to go through it with a pickaxe before the party can stop you. (the last one has been a thing I have witnessed.) Further, how does your character react when stumped (you feel a bit like giving up.) Do you slap your head repeatedly as in Curley from the three stooges, curse it repeatedly, or lament of a failed adventure because no one could solve what you could not.


Jaappleton - I stare at classes, subclasses and builds and nothing. Nothing. It's just gray, with nothing seeming to inspire me or anything that excites me.

I need a character, not a build. And nothing excites me.

Knowing something about the setting is a good start, I would follow it up with questions about who is your character, as in who shaped them into what they have become. Oswynn for instance was a child of carpenter and a midwife that had, before the birth of their child, abandoned their druidic ways and family in favor of civilization and choose to follow a god of commerce, but utilized the knowledge from the times before. Oswynn was kicked out of his hometown after losing his mind to the will of an animal instinct and disappearing into the forests nearby. When found by the town a dryad was caring for him and let the town know that Oswynn was the cause of both the fertile bounty, and famine that kept afflicting neighboring farms. Resulting in the aforementioned exile.

Finally, while this is a bit smaller of a thing. You have immediate goals in relation to the quest, but your character has desires of his own in the short term and long term. You can talk about it in quiet moments or complain to flavor a scene. Oswynn had a

- short term plan: find a warm bath and inn to take a break in because of his time in exile.

- little longer: get control of his shape shifting. Which he asked the party for help on.

- longer: meet extended family and learn his real history.

- longer still: get rid of the mercenaries that kicked him out of town so he can reconcile with his parents and extended family.

[kingcheesepants]

It's pretty basic but the personality, bonds, and flaws that they have listed out on the character sheet are a great place to start. Pick a race, class and background and then look at the suggested traits listed in your background I'm sure something will pop out to you. Then just look for opportunities while playing to actually act out some of those personality traits and flaws and such. As you do so the character will go from being a stat block to being an actual living being and your idea of who they are will begin to form.

Also don't forget that you and the DM aren't the only ones at the table. A lot of the best RP comes from your interaction with your fellow players. Even if you're in an NPC free dungeon crawl you're still taking rests and such, these are great chances to talk to the other characters. "So Thrognir what brings you down into this forsaken place instead of at your forge?" "Arrabel those were some cool powers you used in the last fight, where did you learn to do that?" Simple questions like these encourage everyone to think about their backstory and character motivations and do some actual role playing as opposed to just roll playing. When the group is made of a number of actual characters you'll be able to bounce off of them and make the whole place start to come alive.

[Chronic]

It's a broad question for a topic title, I know.

I've found the most fun I've had was when I played what the character would do, while being well aware it was not the best choice.

However.... I've been drifting away from that.

And I don't know how to get back to it.

I know I should be playing the character. But I don't know what character I want to play.

I am struggling to make characters that are fun to play in the moment.

I see so many resources online for helping DMs in so many ways, but nothing for players.

Is part of the problem that my table is currently in a dungeon crawl, with little NPC interaction? Probably part of it.

Yet there's still much decision making to be done outside of social, like puzzle solving.

And there's just.... Blank for me.

I stare at classes, subclasses and builds and nothing. Nothing. It's just gray, with nothing seeming to inspire me or anything that excites me.

I need a character, not a build. And nothing excites me.

Any advice? Resources or videos to point me to?

Dungeon crawl is the death of roleplay. You can have the best character ever, no social interaction, no roleplay.

[EggKookoo]

Are you in a position where you have to roll up a new PC? Or are you looking for ways to roleplay an existing one?

[JellyPooga]

Dungeon crawl is the death of roleplay. You can have the best character ever, no social interaction, no roleplay.

I disagree intensely with this statement.

Roleplaying is not just about social interactions. It's about how you act in all situations. Are you the intrepid explorer, always leading the careful search for traps and secrets? Are you the brave knight that protects his allies knowing it might cost his own life? Are you a curious scholar, always distracted by the small details and prone to lagging behind to study inscriptions or artefacts others have dismissed as irrelevant? Do you like to use the environment to your advantage, toppling furniture and buckling your swash or do you only trust in your fathers sword and the family armour to win you through the day? Do you trust magic and its users, or do you prefer to keep a torch lit despite everyone else insisting that magelight is just fine? What about your eating habits? Some more "savage" characters might be happy to dismember and consume the victims of the parties adventuring (cooked preferably!), others might balk at the idea of eating meat at all.

Then, unless you're on a solo adventure, there's always social interactions with other party members. Do you actually like your fellow adventurers? Are you close friends with any of them? Do they irritate you? Make you laugh? Do you share a sense of duty about your quest or are you a jaded cynic only in it for the money, looking down your nose at the more honour-bound members.

Some of this can be reflected in your character build, other aspects can be in opposition to your build (which can sometimes be more entertaining!), but you can always roleplay your character no matter the scenario. You can roleplay without your character saying a single word or interacting with another person at all; You can find traps by carefully searching every corridor and painstakingly disarming them, or by charging headlong down the same corridor and trusting your instincts and/or toughness to get you through. Or perhaps your character is enough of a callous self-serving bully that they push "weaker" party members down the corridor to get the job done in their stead. Whatever your choice, it's a roleplaying choice.

[Draconi Redfir]

my general advice is to try and design a character who is different from you in some ways. If you're a man, make a woman. if you're hyperfocused, make someone spaced out. If you never drink, make a heavy drinker, etc. This helps create a wall between "You" and "your character", and prevents situations of "i'm just playing myself at this point".

Things that can also help with character creation:

One thing they can do very well at no cost.

Two things they can do with some effort

One thing they can do but at a heavy cost

Two things they absolutely can NOT do under any circumstances

Two things they won't do unless absolutely needed.

One thing they just don't like doing

One thing that you know is true but they believe is false.

One thing you know is false, but they believe is true.


and other things like that.

If possible, try and find someone to practice with. See if another player with a more solid grip on their character (or any other character tbh) can put some time aside to have a conversation or one-on-one interaction with you in-character. Get them to agree on something, argue on something, get in a fight, find a way to make up, go out to a party, etc.

The goal is to build the wall between "You" and "Your character" so much that you can almost just hand the reigns over to your character and let them act as their own individual entity. Try and picture them as a living mini-consciousness inside your mind, don't think about what they want to do, let them tell you what they want to do.

[dafrca]

At times, I have found the demand to have a complete character personality and traits (not game mechanics but who they are) on day one, to be too much. In those times I have just picked a class, race, and generic background and started play. As the game has moved along I have found the character does start to speak to me. They start to exert their personality and essence into my play.

One of my more favorite characters was a vanilla fighter, I had a name and that was it. By the time she hit level 16 I had written several stories about her past and she morphed into something that was quite complex, personality wise, and very interesting.

I say give yourself a break once in a while and just float on the water and let the tide take you where it wants to go. Allow your character to find its own path to a degree.

In other words I go with what ever method gives me the greatest immersion in that particular game. :smallbiggrin:

[sethdmichaels]

Lots of good advice here - especially the advice to let it develop over time. (The Greek tragedians, for instance, didn't really think there was anything to "character" beyond just "what you do.") I also really like this piece (http://www.ashami.com/rpg/) that has some tables of potential character traits. But it can be fun to look at any sort of personality assessment - Myers Briggs, DiSC, astrology - for some different kinds of personality traits and how they might play out in practice.

My main game currently is pretty RP-heavy, and some sessions we end up doing not just very little combat but very little dice-rolling at all, so we get lots of opportunities to RP. One thought: when you find yourself disagreeing with another player's tactical choices, you can use that as a springboard: why might their PC be cautious where yours is assertive, or lighthearted where yours is dour, or vice versa?

[EggKookoo]

(The Greek tragedians, for instance, didn't really think there was anything to "character" beyond just "what you do.")

I'm a pretty big believer that character is communicated primarily through action. Kind of like "what do you do?" is the whole of the law.

[Mr. Wonderful]

Start with a flaw.

Heroic characters without flaws are boring. Those with flaws are intensely interesting. Take a look at the OoTS and you'll see great examples of this. They start off as deeply flawed and their hero's progress brings them to the point where those flaws are mostly overcome, though still present. And that is a very satisfying journey to take with them.

You can do the same thing with your characters too. The key is to find something with narrative focus that doesn't hamstring you during ordinary play - your flaw shouldn't prevent you from having a positive impact on gameplay.

So what could that be? Let's look at the OoTS characters for some clues:

Elan - Naive and mostly useless. He gains a lot, thanks to a montage with Julio Scoundrel, and that helps him win his girl as well as deal with his father
Belkar - Evil in a good party. His selfishness and friction with everyone else is mostly limited to snark. Massive character growth beginning with Lord Shojo
Roy - Restrictively Lawful. Unable to relax and forgive weakness, with his biggest sin against Elan. His character growth begins when he recognizes the flaws in Miko
Haley - Chained to her backstory. All her obvious flaws - like greed - have their root deep in her past, which she must struggle against mightily
Varsuvius - Selfish pride, both in their power and the power of their class. 'nuff said.
Durkon - I don't really see a deep flaw here (fear of trees really is just for laffs). But it could also be argued that he is the least interesting character

Now all these represent my opinion of course and you are welcome to disagree. But I hope you can see the direction I am heading. Also, note that (with the possible exception of Elan early on) none of these flaw impact the Order during their many combats. And Elan quickly grows to be a very useful member as well, much to the surprise of both his enemies and his friends.

Hopefully that gives you some ideas!

[Phhase]

Durkon - I don't really see a deep flaw here (fear of trees really is just for laffs). But it could also be argued that he is the least interesting character


Durkon's flaw is a combination of lack of assertiveness and, akin to Roy, restrictive lawfulness. Greg said it best: this mortal spent the better part of his life as the equivalent of a support beam. It's not a very visible flaw, but that's part of the reason it is one: it's hard to spot and harder to root out. You can't solve every problem by conforming.