Players and DM’s alike have their own perspectives on roleplaying. We often find people discussing their gaming experience on forums, Reddit, and other outlets. Other topics discussed in tabletop RPGs are things like creating a game, keeping players engaged, what game is best, being a better DM, etc. This article is our philosophy of how to roleplay better.
First and foremost, a game session is a social gathering. The host, being the Dungeon, Game Master, or Storyteller, has put together the itinerary for the day or evening. Everyone has gathered with the purpose of socializing and gaming. Everyone has their own refreshments, or they’ve agreed upon pooling for food at a given time. In the past, if players knew they would be gathering for an entire day, everyone made a quick stop at the grocery store for supplies that could be shared. A frozen pizza, pizza pockets, soda pop or other drinks of choice, and snacks. A loaf of bread, cold cuts, cheese slices, and the cheapest mustard to make sandwiches. The idea is, to come prepared.
This is a collaboration between a group of people. Breaking bread with one another is a great way to optimize group dynamics. The host is likely to agree to let you use their microwave or oven to prepare a meal if everyone is to share in that meal. It’s amazing how a full stomach helps with how to roleplay better.
Dungeon Masters should allow a few minutes for their players to review their character sheets before beginning the game. Players should know their characters, their bonuses, stats, feats, skills, weapons/armor effects, and saves. Tying up a game searching for bonuses or stats can really drain the momentum.
At the same time, DM’s have to realize that players will vacillate between action options, doing what they think is right and what they believe will be their character’s action at the moment. DM’s should encourage players to play the character and not themselves. A player may know that what they are about to do will be ‘the wrong choice, but it would be what their character will do at that moment.
How to roleplay better by keeping players engaged
Dungeon Masters should have a list of ideas they can use as hints or clues in the game. Players come upon a corpse, the corpse has a key, or piece of a map or a picture of another person that fits the description of a person of interest to the players. Or some other form of physical evidence tying the players to the ongoing game. It can be an eyewitness or local sheriff’s report that’s been shared by a local crier. Regardless of the means of delivery, the players should be reminded of what they are doing and given signposts to keep them on the search. Once and a while, have the hint or clue lead to a dead-end but use this tactic scarcely. Use this opportunity for team building and story building.
Dealing with problem players.
Here is a controversial topic. The overwhelming opinion is to punish the problem player. At the end of the day, is that playing a personal friend, or are they someone who’s joined the game and no one has shown any inclination to advance the relationship with that person? Just showing you care is a great way to help others learn how to roleplay better. If you care, they will care.
Cut ties with toxic people. But rehabilitate problem players who are friends. Discuss with them how their antics are affecting the other players and the advancement of the game. But even more so, increase the challenge of the game. Not to the point of a team wipe, but maybe to the point where all players are feeling more challenged by the game and the puzzles.
A friend who’s acting out in a game is likely externalizing their own frustration and feels comfortable with the group to demonstrate their frustration. They may lack the tools to accurately communicate what they are feeling or going through. Though a role-playing game isn’t a therapy session, it is a venue to escape from ourselves, act out our fantasies as a villain or hero (or anti-hero), and be part of creative collaboration within a social environment.
Take a break from the game, throw on a movie or a video game for the others. Those who want to address the problem player can have the time to focus on their issues and help them work it out – at the very least, get to a point where they aren’t disrupting the game anymore.
Online vs in-person gaming
Online Gaming is a different monster. Players tend to be anonymous and entitled. They make promises they do not see through nor feel a compulsion to see through. As there is no recourse to them, they feel secure enough to repeat the process with other players and Dungeon Masters. If only one player shows up, honor the agreement and start the game with that one player.
Progress the player with the assistance of NPCs (Non-Player Characters) and try to make the game as interesting as possible. Rewarding loyal players is key. Find something to reward an active player with that is unique to the player’s character but isn’t something that will break the game. The show must go on, and honor the commitment. The worst that can happen is that the game does not progress past the first game, the best is that a new friend is made that will carry on the new tradition of creating new games and exploring new stories.
Role-Playing is an adventure, treat it as one. We will meet interesting people on the way and explore a diversity of thoughts, concepts, and philosophies. All of these could not only make our gaming experience richer but maybe perhaps our life as well. We have to be open to exploration.
How roleplaying is done most of the time
As far back as I can recall the most common way of role-playing has been done by a DM(DM and GM will be used interchangeably) making a game set complete with NPCs (good and bad), their reactions to players, and clues players could pick up to further the plot.
In order for players to get some of those clues or make progress through the game, they would have to use the proper skills, spells, or other ideas necessary to move things along. Often times the only way a DM made it possible to progress was through combat, defeating the bad guy or bad guys, and only with the RIGHT skill or spell.
When role-playing we have found this to be one of several drawbacks to the game as a whole but to the players in particular.
If you’d like to learn How to roleplay better try avoiding the following:
Pitfalls players and DM’s get into
- Only one right skill/spell/etc to figure things out
As we all know in life there are many ways to solve a problem. Instead of requiring a specific idea, reward the player with coming up with an idea. Just because you thought “this” was the way it should be done, doesn’t mean that the players will come up with that idea, but what if they come up with an equal or even better idea? Why can that work?
Too often I see dm’s get stuck in the idea that “this is the only way to progress and if they don’t come up with my idea then too bad”. If I picked just one idea on how to roleplay better this would be a top contender.
This is a really bad scenario to get into because the idea behind role-playing is to have fun. So ask yourself “Is getting stuck here fun? If you let the players succeed with the idea they have in mind be fun. If so then move the game forward.
Something I often say to myself is “The players won’t know any different unless I say something”. So just go with it if it’s a well-thought-out good plan, especially if it’s in character.
Regardless of how a GM handles a game, if you can teach players how to roleplay better by staying in character it will drastically increase the game experience.
- Only through combat
When is the last time you got in a fight in real life? Have you noticed that real combat almost never happens? Yes, there are wars around the world nearly every day of the year, but it’s a small percentage of people actually engage in warfare.
Commerce on the other hand happens all day, every day. We all want to buy stuff and we all want to sell stuff. So the truth in role-playing is that negotiation, commerce, politics, etc are the things that happen all the time. Does that mean you can’t have combat no way!. Making a game based around combat happening all the time is not really a game.. and I dare say wouldn’t you just have more fun playing a video game?
- Critical failures create fear of taking action
Back in the day with 1st and 2nd edition dungeons and dragons, it was a popular idea to make a natural 1 on a dice roll a critical failure. Over the years I’ve seen this get drawn into many, many other games even when the games don’t state that is a rule. For example in Rifts it doesn’t state that a 1 is a failure, it does say that a 20 is a crit, but for some reason, we just include the idea that a 1 has to be a failure if a 20 is critical.
Well sorry to say that isn’t the case. In my experience of playing Dnd, Rifts, and many other games having a critical failure component makes people dread rolling dice. Oftentimes because a DM will ask you to roll for a rather mundane skill and if you roll a 1 then you trip and break your skull when tying your shoe, or some other garbage nonsense.
What I’ve seen over time is that crit failures cause players to become scared to take an action. When things continually go against the players as if they will never succeed, never make progress, never get anywhere, then why even try? Like why am I role-playing if it’s always going to go like this? If you feel like you are always chasing your tail in a constant state of retreat, it’s high time you rethink the rules. You can help everyone roleplay better by removing this idea.
- Content never gets used
How often do you as a GM make a map that doesn’t get used? Do you plan combats designed to give the players fat loot that they just never get to or lose to?
If you are running into the above problems then I understand. I’ve been there and I am tired of wasting my time creating campaign information that just doesn’t get used. Here are a couple of ideas we have implemented to avoid this pitfall. As a GM you can learn how to roleplay better by strategically inputting material.
- Don’t make a problem out of things
Part of what I see DM’s do is get bogged down in the absolutely tiny details of things going on in a game. To the point that they start creating problems out of events and situations that are super tiny and inconsequential in the long run.
If a player slaps the king, it’s only a problem if you make it one. The player shot his friend on accident? Only a problem if you make it one.
- Its the DM’s responsibility to help others learn how to roleplay better
If your players are not having fun, then as the DM it’s your responsibility. That being said you don’t have to always ask if people are having fun or think they aren’t if they don’t always say something. No, instead look to see if players are trying to be engaged in the story. Do they keep showing up game after game? If they start behaving differently then ask them how you can make the game more fun. Ask for input without insulting them in return.
I’m not saying you should just give the characters everything they want, or make it all easy. I am saying ask how to create a fun enjoyable game again. They presumably had fun when you all started gaming together how did that change? What rules are getting in the way of having fun? How can we change up the rules so everyone can have fun, contribute, and be themselves and their characters?
Learn more about whats difficult about game mastering
Avoiding the pitfalls above will help create a better overall experience for both the player and the GM. The following are tips that can help with the flow of your games. These are more for the DM than the players but if everyone is on board then it’s just that much better.
- How to roleplay better: Player vs Dungeon Master
One of the worst experiences a player can have is when the GM starts to make the game a “them vs me”. Also, the worst thing a player can do is try to create such resentment in the GM that they resort to this.
I’m sure we have all had a player in a game that tries derailing the game. No matter which direction the party goes, or what clues they get, this one player just has to be the odd man out. Constantly going against everyone else, sometimes even trying to be violent towards other player characters.
This is a horrible experience made worse when the DM decides he’s going to do what he can snuff out the players. As a player, there is no winning here. No matter how strong or powerful you think you are… the DM has the final say. You are a party of maybe 4-6, while the DM controls every NPC there is: every demon, angel, monster, dragon, lich, and humanoid there is.
No amount of power you possess can win against those odds, but worse if you have devolved your game to this you’ve already lost.
- Scarcity mentality
It seems to be incredibly common to have a scarcity mentality when roleplaying. Constantly thinking there’s not enough of something, or “it has to be this way”, or “there’s no gold on the monster”. Always a state of lack and limitation. This state of mind may be carrying over from real life but let’s just focus on RPGs at the moment.
This mindset creates an environment where players feel like they never get rewarded, and where there’s always a state of poverty. This is the very opposite of how reality actually is. Think about how we say the universe is either infinite or so vast as to be nearly infinite. If the universe is infinite there is an infinite amount of resources, not the opposite.
Yet, in roleplaying games, we constantly are trying to limit the number of resources players are able to acquire or things they are allowed to do in order to earn some extra coin. This is a very limited way of thinking about roleplaying. How much more fun would your tabletop RPG be if you were open to creating means of gaining credits, coins, or gold for the players?
How to roleplay better online and in-person
I wrote an article on 17 tools DM’s and players can use for roleplaying– check it out also.
- use multiple rolls instead of just 1
Often times I have characters roll a skill(d100 in our current game) 3 to 5 times. The reason for this is not to see if they complete it that number of times but to get an idea of how long it takes them to do the skill. If for example, they have a 50% skill they are using and they roll 2 well over 50 and one around 30 then I’ll probably say they struggle to get it working but eventually do, barely.
- Go with character choices
There are 2 basic ways of roleplaying. The first is character-driven role-playing and the 2nd is story-driven role-playing. What you use will be determined by what you are more comfortable doing. I myself use a character-driven style because I like to go with the flow and am flexible with making decisions on the fly. Others I game with like to have a more structured game in mind.
In either case, you can let your characters make choices while not being rigid. If characters go off course, no big deal. Let them do so and then drop hints, or bring them back to the primary plot as it makes sense.
When structuring your game though instead of making it so they have to go from a to b to c, etc. Come up with scenarios you want to have them go through and then as they make decisions and go running through the forest add the next scenario.
It doesn’t have to only be strictly the campaign-style or dungeon crawl style where they must go through this area and do this skill or spell in order to get to the next area. That module style has its place but for a living breathing year-after-year gaming group it’s probably very old and antiquated.
- Add clues as it makes sense
Are characters off track? Not sure how to get them back in?
No problem. Let them run amuck and make up a new clue or clues that will give them another opportunity to get back into the plot you have created.
Some DMs may be shy about adding clues, or dming in general honestly (i was at first!), however, there’s something I found to be true: none of the characters are going to know how it “should” have gone. Your plans are going to change as your players progress. In addition, as you get better at gming you’ll change things. As players get better they will be more capable and do better, able to take on bigger challenges.
So don’t worry about changing the direction your game is going based on how it was “supposed to go”, at the end of the day it’s a game that by definition is “made up” so if you change the game it’s totally ok as long as YOU the gm and the players are having fun.
As with many things in life learning how to roleplay better comes with practice. The more you play the more comfortable you’ll be at it. The same goes for making games.
Check this article on tools for roleplaying to find ideas to make games easier to create, play, and enjoy.