Why D&D Roleplay Feels Awkward at First - And How to Fix It! (Dungeons and Dragons | GM Tips)

[@onetruetroy]

This video brings up an excellent topic of discussion. Players have different definitions of roleplay and all other social interactions. An important observation I made as a young child playing other games is that some of my friends wanted to be the banker in Monopoly, to go first, to have the chipped die in Aggravation, to be the hero, play the villain, to keep score in scrabble, etc. To me, those are roles. Roles are chosen by the gamers involved and how they want to contribute. - That applies to TTRPGs when players, regardless of the character, want to have certain responsibilities, or wind up with assigned duties, like being the GM. Those don’t require acting, funny voices, specific vocabulary, or expected dialog. Not surprisingly, those same roles can be seen in books, movies, and non-RPG games, and we look for them. The tank, healer, leader, point, support, comedian, scout, communicator, driver, professor, face, sneak, and so on. Those are roles. A ranger, cleric, etc. are not roles. I brought this to my game when I GMed DarkSun because the players just didn’t know what to do or know what motivates them. I used the A-Team as an example, along with the team in Predator, and it started making sense to them. We even replayed a scenario twice because they were completely confused as to what their goals were. Characters start at 3rd level in DarkSun, have a wild talent, and the world is deadly. There are healers, spies, assassins, emancipators, investigators, conspirators, servants, gladiators and roles that are different than in other world settings. GMing in DarkSun is very different than in Mystara. I introduce players new to RPG with a list of roles, to know what the player wants to get out of it. We talk about the setting and what people do and how they live. I give examples of famous heroes and notorious villains have done. I tell them what I want to get out of it, too. I’m a gamer and I like both sides of the screen. Behind the screen, my role changes with the players and their preferred roles.

[@craigwilliams1707]

Great video! Strange it’s not discussed more when it’s something every table deals with. I like your suggestion because it’d make the party feel like a unit against the elves too.

[@GMJosh-sw9hp]

Boom. I think it's not something that's talked about more because I think most GMs just blame themselves without realizing that it's a natural thing. Thank you for the comment!

[@BeardedDevil-cn9tw]

Okay...your homie kept trying to "speak with animals" with the displacer beasts...except a displacer beast is a _large monstrosity_ not an animal....so....why didn't the DM let him know that it wouldn't work?

[@Dungeons20s]

It's a grey area for me and I let it go. Basically going with a catch all for monstrosity ideas similar to the DnD movie with the owlbear. One of those gray areas I decided to swing more to having the ability to work with the speak with animals spell.

[@BeardedDevil-cn9tw]

@Dungeons20s what makes you say it's a "grey area"?

[@Dungeons20s]

@@BeardedDevil-cn9tw In the movie honor among thieves, the druid wild shapes into an owlbear which is considered a monstrosity, but even before then something like the displacer beast were considered magical beasts. So they could be a beast in the Fey Wild, but in the prime material realm they could be considered a monster. For the sake of not letting druids be able to gain certain abilites like a rust monster has, I get the idea of the catagorization, but for a displacer beast for that scenario nothing to crazy is happening so I figured it interesting to see him try to speak to it and not take away. So in that sense it just falls back on the DM for a rule of cool sense. But just how like the movie Honor Among Thieves let the druide wild shape into an owlbear, there are a few games I've been in that allow certain spells like speak with animales to work with a monstrosity.

[@BeardedDevil-cn9tw]

@Dungeons20s yeah, I don't really care about the movie. They effed it up. A magical beast from the Fey Wild is still a magical beast in the Fey Wild, same for a nonmagical beast as far as what the spell affects. That's why it isn't left ambitiously as "creature" like the suggestion spell. Medusae, minotaurs, and centaurs are "monstrosities" that the spell would equally fail to work. Oh, and don't try to use the "but they can talk" shtick. Minotaurs have the same INT as displacer beasts, and I'll bet dollars to donuts you wouldn't let homie try that spell on one. Just because a displacer beast looks like a cat, that doesn't mean it _is_ a cat.

[@HLGJammer]

​@@BeardedDevil-cn9tw One can now play as centaurs and minotaurs, so it's definitely a DM decision. I liked the movie, helped get my buddy to actually try playing

[@gavinruneblade]

That's very similar to what I do and my players seem to enjoy it. I don't necessarily use difficult moral challenges, and I have opened a campaign with a battle that had been ongoing such that everyone started down a few HP, but I do always (even in the combat start) use heavy roleplaying scenes early on. This is something I get buyin for during the session zero as part of the core premise of the campaign we're about to start. Also, I make sure early on to be very blunt about spotlight time, calling each PC to do things solo and giving everyone a chance to try out their character before the group acts. I've noticed that people don't like interrupting each other, so I take that out of the equation at first. So my current Mystara campaign opened with me having told all the players that their characters would be offered way too little as a reward for a highly dangerous quest and the player needed to be the one to come up with the reason why their player would be willing to say yes at that time on that day. Then I narrated a scene with three sisters making an offer to a party of CR 16 NPCs offering 4 GP to each of them and the NPCs refuse rudely. Then I let each player bring their character onto the scene. One was thrown out the window of a bar being unable to pay; one was caught trying to stow away on a merchant's wagon; and the third was just walking by on the way to go drinking. The sisters then each approached one and made their very lowball offer and each one had their own solo scene before all of them realized they weren't going to be alone and they met each other. Then they had several scenes of investigating the problem and dealing with neighbors before setting out to get to the dangerous part of the adventure. By that time they had started to get a feel for things.

[@Zenith292]

I find it really helpful for the players to discuss the broad-strokes of their character's personality a bit with the group, before the session. I pair this with the characters mostly knowing each other, or at least one other character, prior to the adventure. Since they already know each other, they already know each others' basic personality, and characters can pair off to complement each other or foil each other. The brooding cynic with a hidden heart of gold, who is a longtime friend of the bubbly social butterfly optimist. The "good cop, bad cop" dynamic. A debutante and their will-they-wont-they relationship with a stolid paladin tempted away from their divine duties. We all know these tropes in media and we can use them to build up a little relationship before a die is ever rolled, and learn to grow and change our characters from there rather than spend three sessions figuring out what their basic personality is like.

[@BeardedDevil-cn9tw]

What level were y'all supposed to be?

[@GMJosh-sw9hp]

@@BeardedDevil-cn9tw level 4.

[@BeardedDevil-cn9tw]

@GMJosh-sw9hp good to know

[@SmokeADig]

Great vid dude! I’ve been having this issue with my long time group. We all know each other really well, everyone really enjoys the games I run, but it always seems like they’ll RP with me (npcs) just fine, while never really RPing with each other. It almost feels like DMing for 5 separate people instead of a group/team. Maybe it’s just their play style and I shouldn’t over think it?

[@BeardedDevil-cn9tw]

Well...since you asked...im listening to your buddies game. I have a question. When your character entered the areana...why did you ask to roll perception, as opposed to asking the dm what your character sees...then allow him to call for a roll _if_ he thought it was necessary?

[@GMJosh-sw9hp]

@@BeardedDevil-cn9tw I just wanted to roll a perception check I guess!

[@BeardedDevil-cn9tw]

@GMJosh-sw9hp I noticed that you did that frequently. Ask to roll, as opposed to simply announcing what your character was going to do. Was the DM new at this?

[@pegususblondboi]

what's a mine-atour?

[@garrickstangle5996]

You emailed the email version of this yesterday afternoon. Did something get accidentally sent out-of-order?

[@GMJosh-sw9hp]

Not necessarily. It was kind of just me being like, "this is fresh on the mind, so I'm writing this email too," lol.

[@BLynn]

I have character in one game that is a minotaur 1 level Life Cleric/ X levels Valor Bard, he great fun.

[@GMJosh-sw9hp]

I personally love Minotaurs. I ran a Minotaur barbarian one time as well. super cool!

[@darknessdarkrai4549]

Guys what is the ai intro saying

[@hasseo195]

I think, im having the problem with the role playing part. Specific, the dialog. I dont have much of a problem, when im doing text based roleplay behind the screen. Where i can take my time and can go into my chara very good (as long as they are not to differently to myself, if they are completly differently have i problem to feel the chara). But the few times, where i was able to play DnD with others? That is a differently story. There, do i have a lot of inhibition. That begins alone, what gender the chara has. I like it to play the opposite sex. But, it feels wrong to me to do that, if other players can see or her me. Esspecialy, when im not good with changing my voice. And than am im i feeled embraced, to say the words, my chara would say, with my own mouth. Maybe, even move my body at the same time. It feels better for me in that situation, to take the role of a narrator of the chara. And not be the chara herself ("She try to talk her way out of the situation, and try to use her body to seduce the opponent" vs "Please, can you not ignoring me this time. It would be very nice and maybe, whe could meet a other time private. -or similary to that-").

[@Krdragon6]

I'm in a similar situation where I'm far more capable at 'in character roleplay' over text then I am super into it and it's super easy, but when I'm in person I rarely talk in the voice of a character, an always only if another person talks to my character while they are in character. This is especially challenging as I am the DM, and thus am playing, basically, many characters. For me I think it's a social anxiety or comfort thing. I only feel social anxiety or discomfort when I'm face to face and to a lesser extent over the phone. I don't feel it at all over something like the text chat of Discord.

[@sleepinggiant4062]

Having fun playing D&D does not require roleplaying. Please don't feel like you have to convince your plyers that they must roleplay. It is perfectly acceptable for a player to describe what they have their character say rather than act it out.

[@GMJosh-sw9hp]

This is very true!

[@bigbadrpg]

BOORING!

[@sleepinggiant4062]

@@bigbadrpg - fun is subjective.