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View Full Version : Pointers on how to be a better roleplayer



Neko Toast
2008-11-20, 10:34 AM
Just wondering if anyone had any advice or ideas that could help improve my roleplaying. I still consider myself to be an 'okay' roleplayer, but I feel I could be better.

Tempest Fennac
2008-11-20, 10:42 AM
You could join the Town or one of the other freeform groups (you wouldn't need to worry about mechanics in that scenario). Alternatively, playing a character who's close to your own personality while branching out later could help.

Eldariel
2008-11-20, 10:54 AM
Really, much of it goes to the planning of the character. Ask yourself how the character would deal with any number of sitiuations, what he believes in, how he thinks of other characters, what's his relationship with the world, etc. If you know what the character would do in any given sitiuation and why he'd do it, and are capable of acting in that fashion, you're what I'd consider a good roleplayer.

But yea, getting into tune with the character is important. Perhaps things like doing thought exercises "in character" before the actual game and maybe speaking in a different tone help. Forget about what you'd do and what you think is right or wrong and if needed, take time to think what the character considers right or wrong. Oh, and if alignment distracts you from the more important considerations, just throw it out of the window. It's a mere guideline anyways.


In short though: Know your character (that includes creating those reasons in the first place) and get in character.

Vacavriach
2008-11-20, 10:55 AM
While you may feel silly doing it at first, I find using an accent when your character speaks helps when getting into character - it also helps the DM and other players know when you're speaking in character or just joking around.

Other ideas are to think of how the character would react to certain cliché situations. For example: The villain says, "If you don't tell me where the Orb of Uberness is hidden I will kill this innocent little girl!" how would your character react? Would you try to bluff him and act like you didn't care, would you agonize over the decision to reveal the secret location, or would you tell them without hesitation?

When I'm serious about roleplaying a character I try to think of their past, their family, and what would drive them to start adventuring in the first place. Are you searching for something? Trying to attain great fame or wealth? Have you just been swept up in a series of events and found that you really like (or even love) the people you travel with?

It also helps to get with your DM to toss them ideas or plot hooks. Having a DM that's willing to work with you and incorporate your backstory into the campaign world can make the game much more immersive and easier to get into character and stay in character. Rescuing the townspeople is good, but rescuing your niece and nephew makes the stakes that much higher and gets you more invested in their safe return.

Neko Toast
2008-11-20, 11:24 AM
I've got a character that has plenty of opportunities to be interesting - has a cursed mask that won't come off of her face, it can only move up past her lips for eating purposes. At times, when my character is under great stress (ie. Very angry, very fearful, etc.), the mask talks to her. However, no one else can hear the mask talk, so if she talks back to it, she looks like a schizophrenic to the random passerby. Also, if an opportunity to be mischievous or deceitful appears before her, she has to make a Will Save. DC 15 to resist the urge to act on said opportunity.

The powers of the mask were just introduced yesterday at our latest session, but I couldn't do a whole lot with it, since my character was, until much later in the game, pretty mellow. When she did first hear it talk, however, she basically had a panic attack, trying to yank the mask off of her face. Eventually, she calmed herself down, and the voice went away.

I feel like I could make this a lot more interesting than it is so far, just with character actions.

Any ideas?

Totally Guy
2008-11-20, 11:48 AM
I have an NPC that wears a permanent mask.

The mask is used to surpress an illness he has, he travels from place to place curing the sick trying to find someone with his own illness. If he could find someone with that sickness he could attempt to find the cause and cure.

My advice to Roleplaying Better is to try out DMing as essentially you're roleplaying a wider variety of people is quick succession. They range from retired heroes to the most malevolent of villains.

Also remember to make it awesome. If you ask what your character would do and you come up with "stay at home and bake a pie" it's probably not good to roleplay that character in a game.

Neko Toast
2008-11-20, 12:25 PM
I have an NPC that wears a permanent mask.

The mask is used to surpress an illness he has, he travels from place to place curing the sick trying to find someone with his own illness. If he could find someone with that sickness he could attempt to find the cause and cure.

My advice to Roleplaying Better is to try out DMing as essentially you're roleplaying a wider variety of people is quick succession. They range from retired heroes to the most malevolent of villains.

Also remember to make it awesome. If you ask what your character would do and you come up with "stay at home and bake a pie" it's probably not good to roleplay that character in a game.

DMing... The thought of DMing scares me. *whimper* I don't think I would be able to handle something like that.

Tellah
2008-11-20, 12:28 PM
The Stanislavski Method of acting does wonders to help people take on a role. In extremely short shorthand, "don't act, do." Think of what your character wants from someone else in the scene, and have the character try to get what she wants.

In every scene, try to determine the character's objective. Root the objective in another person or group of people--this keeps your character interacting with other people in the scene. Here are some examples of objectives rooted in the other person:

Sandra wants the other mages to respect her.
Regdar wants the Orc to give him the pie.
Ender wants the Hive Queen to explain her plans.

Sometimes your character may not know, on an intellectual level, what he wants from another person, but you need to. Your character may not be aware that he wants the other people in the group to love him, or that he wants to drive people away so that he won't end up being hurt. In order to portray the character well, though, you need to know those things.

Next, think of the tactics your character would use. Tactics are not emotions. No one enters a conversation and thinks, "I'm going to be angry now!" Instead, usually without directly thinking about it, people pick a tactic to obtain their objective. A tactic should be active and interesting. In drama classes, you'd usually learn to express your tactic in an infinitive form, like so:

To wheedle
To boast
To threaten
To pander

You can start to define things about your character by figuring out what kinds of tactics she would naturally fall back on. Is your character the kind of person who would act meek and garner pity in order to bring someone closer? If your character wants someone to tell her something, would she pester, threaten, beg, or reason with that someone? Don't just look at your character sheet and pick the highest number; have your choice of tactics express something about your character.

The Stanislavski Method is, above all, a way to get actors to think like their characters, rather than try to act like their characters. Nothing is more obvious to an audience than someone who is trying to look angry, or pouty, or kind. Characters can be angry, pouty, and kind, but it's an expression of the tactics they use to get what they want, and the difference in approaches is what separates an Al Pacino from those kids on the Disney Channel (amusing as "Boy Meets World" can be).

Don't try to portray your character. Do what your character would want to do, the way she would go about doing it.

Totally Guy
2008-11-20, 12:34 PM
DMing... The thought of DMing scares me. *whimper* I don't think I would be able to handle something like that.

I was the same way, mainly due to my lack of interest in the mechanics of DnD 3.5. My secret was to just suggest things to do or spells to cast without worrying about what the sheet said. I just let the DM handle it.

But then, with an open mind, unburdened by experience or suitability for the role, I started to DM. It was a different system, one I'd managed to read before the players. Then I set up the campaign and we're having a ball.:smallbiggrin:

Neko Toast
2008-11-20, 12:35 PM
Tellah: Believe it or not, I know very well of the Stanislavski Method. I'm taking a theatre class right now, and he is mentioned several times in our lectures. Though, I had never considered using those methods for roleplaying before. Then again, roleplaying is a lot like acting, only the character is your creation, there's no audience, and it's mostly based on imagination.

I'll start using the Method and see where it takes me. It could be fun. :smalltongue: Thanks for the advice.

Archpaladin Zousha
2008-11-20, 12:51 PM
Characters can be angry, pouty, and kind, but it's an expression of the tactics they use to get what they want, and the difference in approaches is what separates an Al Pacino from those kids on the Disney Channel (amusing as "Boy Meets World" can be).

Are you sure Al Pacino's the best example? I have a film professor who's actually met him, and one thing she said about him is that he tends to chew the scenery in any movie he's in.

LibraryOgre
2008-11-20, 01:01 PM
My method is to get into the character's head. Think about what he would do, and what motivates him. Does he have any specific quirks? Why?

For instance, I'm currently playing a Minotaur Paladin of Bahamut (4e). How does he think of one typically thought of as a "dragon god"? How does he view the religion's goals... which are really important to him? Minotaurs like labyrinths... what does he think of them? Since he's intelligent, wise, and charismatic, how does that play into his personality?

In fact, I've got several characters who I've expanded via a technique known as "bluebooking". Basically, you write a short story or the like about your character... an element from his past, some tiny little thing that didn't need to be shown in-game, or even a case of "this is what I was thinking of when this happened."

A few examples:

Cormac (http://www.editors-wastebasket.org/nexx/tsr/cormac.html). I wanted to explain why he was a druid/bard, and part of why he was so tempted to stay in Undermountain.
Zeren (http://www.editors-wastebasket.org/nexx/tsr/zeren.html). Zeren's mind kinda broke; I wanted to explain to the DM the new direction I was taking him.
Morgan/Morrigan (http://www.editors-wastebasket.org/nexx/palladium/MORGAN.html). Morgan's mind was always kind of broken, but being declared a traitor pushed her into BPD.
Harakhamis Arimi Acheran (http://www.editors-wastebasket.org/nexx/palladium/hara.html). The wizard who became a warlock (to put it in D&D terms), then an archivist... basically a fall from grace, rise from darkness story. What made him do that.

You unfortunately won't be able to see my favorite. Hank Reynolds was a Shadowrun gang member, but the PBP game fell apart, so I continued his life for a while in the form of slice-of-life vignettes as he started working for the Yakuza.

valadil
2008-11-20, 01:18 PM
Some people like to take on attributes and where them like charicatures. Others like to wrap their mind around their character's mind and hope that traits and personality grows from there. I prefer the latter method but I'm working on learning the former.

Make sure your character has motivation. He shouldn't be waiting for adventure to happen. When the GM says "you arrive in town, what do you do?" you should have an answer ready. Give the character goals and make him work toward those goals whenever you have a chance.

Getting into your character's head becomes easier the more you do it. Practice your character outside of game. Figure out what he'd say in certain situations. Maybe the situation will come up, maybe not. I find this especially helpful when putting on a new character.

Finally, pick a character that's an arm's length away from you. What I mean by this is that if I play a character who is just like me I get bored. If I play a character who is too different, I find the character hard to relate to. You have to find that distance around you where characters are interesting but not too dissimilar from you. If this is tricky, start with one or too aspects at a time. I've played characters who were me but without a sense of humor, or me but more jerkish. It works great.

Jack_of_Spades
2008-11-21, 10:42 AM
Start simple.

First, get a basic personality for your character. Is he happy, sad, whiny, angry, neutral. And, keep that in mind when imagining what your character would say.

Second, try adding a neat quirk. I have a fighter now who loves to read. Anytime they get to town he races the wizard to the local library to learn something new, and also criticizes the wizard for not reading anything new. "Always you can that damned black book! We've been together for a year now, finish reading it already it doesn't take that long!" He also loves fighting wizards because they always carry awesome books!

Third, if you have to, steal a character. Sometimes a campaign gets going and you haven't had time to think of your next character so just rip one off and change it over time. Sure, the world doesn't need another scimitar-wielding drow, or asthmatic gold-skinned wizard, or angry guy with a big sword and shady past. But, it's easier to borrow someone else's charater for awhile than to make your own right out the gate.

Lemur
2008-11-21, 01:15 PM
I have a comment on the nature of your mask. There may be problems with conveying the fact your mask whispers to you in a way that the other players can really catch on to. Even if you explain what's going on out of character, the spirit of the thing is never quite the same if your character is the only one who knows what's happening to her. Conveying the effects of a whispering item is easy in writing, but not so much when you can't easily describe the complex internal workings of a person. From my perspective, you want the other players to be able to experience what's going on as well.

I'd suggest changing what the mask does from whispering in your head to briefly taking over- not long enough to make you do anything, but let it get a word in edgewise every now and then. So instead of having your character react to a voice that only she can hear, have her burst out with a seemingly out-of-character statement (but one that's in character for the mask). It's up to you to decide how your character would react to such uncontrolled outbursts, or whether or not she's even aware of what's happening to her. But it would really let the other players get the feel of your character better.

The mask hasn't been active for very long, so you shouldn't need to rationalize this change in it's behavior- for all your party knows, it's always been this way, or it's just a new development which makes sense in the context of things.

Devils_Advocate
2008-11-21, 03:23 PM
Obvious questions: Does she decide to tell anyone that the mask is talking to her? Why or why not?

I'm not asking you to answer here, just saying that the answers to those questions are pertinent to the roleplaying of your character.

Tellah
2008-11-21, 04:08 PM
Are you sure Al Pacino's the best example? I have a film professor who's actually met him, and one thing she said about him is that he tends to chew the scenery in any movie he's in.

The Godfather, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Scent of a Woman, Carlito's Way and a naked gold man would like a word with your film professor. Granted, he was also in Gigli...:smalltongue: