Hot answers tagged roleplaying
38
Play more. Read more. Watch more. Expand your library of tropes. Once you have dozens of different innkeepers bouncing around in your head, your next innkeeper will probably be a collage of these tropes.
Another idea is to take a page from creative writing exercises. Take a bunch of adjectives - tall, fat, jolly, glum, one-eyed, nervous, red-haired, ...
33
I've used several techniques to make my improv a bit more random; these are:
Preparation names always get me so I always make several pages of names with personalities, brief schick or quirk, basically a whole page of one line NPCs, the names are randomly generated along with the description, I just add in the quirks onto the page.
Cross the streams ...
22
This is a system transition issue, not a creativity issue.
4e is a very different system and that's okay, but it's not for everyone. There's a gap between the player and the system and your job as GM is to help facilitate bridging that gap. Your goal in this should not be to make the player conform to the system, but to help the player understand the ...
21
How do you roleplay a first exposure to killing?
As an acting technique, you have three major choices.
Go with the obvious- Loud: Freak out, run around, wail, wave your arms, cry, scream, etc. You've just be exposed to a horror beyond horrors: death. It's grip over your own mortality is frightening and disparaging. It twists at your very soul and ...
21
The Players May Not Want To
Part of fantasy role playing for a lot of people is being able to be larger than life for a bit. They may not want their characters to feel fear at all.
Now, in a novel this may be a bad thing, since a character that isn't believable can disrupt the suspension of disbelief. But in an RPG its not necessarily a bad thing to ...
20
Differences that arise from different ways of perceiving and interacting with their environment are the easiest things to draw on for alien mindsets. (Harder are psychological, history-influenced sociological differences.) In this case you have an easy point of differences: they have no eyes, and sense their environment entirely via the Force.
Consider what ...
19
The problem with in-game solutions to out-of-game problems is that the players can as easily catch the whiff of metagaming as the GM can (and there are more of them to "roll Sense Motive"), whether it's actually metagaming or not. If it is an out-of-game problem, them detecting subterfuge by the GM to bring them back in line can make them resentful of the ...
18
You are having two separate but related problems.
Personally getting embarrassed while trying to roleplay immersively and thus breaking character
Having a group that doesn't comfortably play immersively and instead cuts up and thus breaking character
Immersion is difficult in that it only takes one participant to break the mood for everyone. So how do ...
17
Warn them in-game.
Have the PCs overhear chilling stories in a bar about what happened to those who made fun of the sheriff. Have them encounter a man with half of his face badly burnt, and have this burnt man tell them he should never have made that joke about that wizard. Reinforce these stories by showing these unfunny people take a joke very, very ...
17
The Ugly Truth
It's entirely possible that your players simply want to charge heroically into danger and death. Since they have seen their characters die and they know you won't "pull your punches" and they're still charging to their doom, it's likely that the story of the hero who laughs into the face of danger – and sometimes dies for it – is ...
16
Background and Legacies
Outside the dungeons, pits, castles and sewers there is the chance to explore what the characters are more than just damage dealing machines, what they want to be their legacies, who they know, what they want to be; encourage players to expand on their backstories - or examine their backgrounds and see what can come out of the ...
16
Yes, red and black dragons can talk.
Their monster stat block has the Language entry.
Languages Common, Draconic
This line, unless otherwise stated, indicates which languages the creature can speak. (see reference).
Languages: The languages most commonly spoken by the creature are listed here. For unusual creatures, you can swap out the languages ...
16
As someone who has been GMing primarily since 2001, the answer is "Yes, but not disasterously so." The skill sets for being a player and being a GM in a game such as Pathfinder/D&D/White Wolf are entirely different, which means if you spend a lot of time doing one set of those skills (GMing), then the other set will get rusty, like any set of skills you ...
15
I've made some use of accents when DMing, so here's some things I've figured out.
The main tip is to try to avoid having to produce more than one accent in a given amount of time (1 per session is ideal, while 1 per 30 minutes or so is pushing it). That lets you concentrate on which accent(s) will be used, so they don't get all mixed up in your head.
You ...
15
If I understand the problem correctly, it boils down to you presenting overwhelming, life-threatening encounters to them, and them refusing to show fear?
I say the reason for them not being afraid of death and dismemberment may be as simple as the one that death is not scary in D&D 3.5. You're dealing with mid-level PCs that can resurrect one another if ...
14
I empathise! You're not alone or weird for feeling like this: I'm also the kind of GM and player who enjoys deeply engaging with the game, and I find freewheeling silliness to interfere with my enjoyment of the game. Few people understand why they're incompatible for me, but I've learned that I'm not alone and I can share that knowledge.
The good news, ...
14
Meta: Do the grown up thing: Ask them up front that you perceive them losing their enthusiasm for the game and that you would like to know if it's true (or just your perception) and if so, why this is happening? Then, you can resolve things so that everyone is happy.
In game: If the problem is one of distraction, then set aside time to drink coffee and ...
13
Ask them if it is what their characters would actually do.
You don't have to be heavy handed with this, or warn them of the consequences out of game, but it can often clarify things. Players love to make jokes, and presumably you don't want to take that way from them. By reminding them of the line between player and character, you might help restrict ...
13
Hmm, I was going to recommend As a GM, how can I create and role-play diverse NPCs better? and its two linked questions but upon review our previous advice for making NPCs is pretty weak.
I do two things to mitigate this.
Draw from real life. It's funny that this is so stunningly hard for people, but the most celebrated artists, cartoonists, and authors ...
13
Creating slang and dialect is an art, not a science, and there are two basic strategies: invent it, or steal it.
If you invent dialect, don't invent words
Berk, from Berkeley Hunt or a rhyming insult.
Cutter, definition 11.
Barmy, Etymology 2, from balmy.
and chant is just a description of oral news services.
You can see that the slang used in ...
12
I've had some experience with this, but generally, this is what I would do. If they are not experienced gamers, then don't worry about the system or rules, and don't let them worry about them. From what you're describing, you shouldn't be trying to find a system to fit the gamers, you need to train the gamers to the experience of Role Play and imagination. ...
12
From my own GMing experience I can conclude, that the seriousness of a gaming session is directly proportional to how much the players like, identify with and have emotions with their characters, other characters, NPCs and the world. This eases getting in the character's mindset and staying there.
What it means that not only the characters have to have a ...
12
I do have plenty of experience with this.
I ran a 3-years campaign which was basically modern-day Call of Cthulhu, set in my own country (Italy). Actually we used mostly the rules and the world was more like Dresden Files (even if 25 years before Dresden's novels) than Lovecraft.
This was quite popular and inspired some spin-offs among fellow players, so I ...
12
Look for an Existing Solution, and Respec/Educate
Here's the example Xivort power discussed in the question:
Net (weapon) At-Will DDI
Attack: Area burst 1 within 5 (creatures in the burst); +5 vs. Reflex
Hit: The target is restrained (save ends).
Here is a abridged similar feat (there are several):
Net SnareDDI
You catch an enemy in ...
12
I wouldn't say GMing detracts from player experience. I will try to use a parallel example.
Do you know TV tropes site? They dissect every piece of fiction into tropes that are like boulders that are used again and again in other works, like "Lonely hero", "Redemption of the bad guy" or "Holy villain" (those aren't the actual names, but they're clearer for ...
11
The problem you’re facing is not really “your” problem so much as a problem with the system: no matter what you, or anyone else, think Chaos and Law mean, I guarantee you that there is no one in the world who shares exactly the same definition of it. Ultimately, Law and Chaos are very poorly defined – Wizards’ definitions of ...
10
First Roleplay, System Later.
I would say: don't worry so much about your players & system.
What I mean is that most role-playing systems aren't as hard and difficult to comprehend as quantum physics. If they are adults with ability to count what they see on a dice, they will probably prevail. Math isn't the hard part. With that in mind, you shouldn't ...
10
Just eliminate it entirely as a really poor design decision in the first place. It’s totally not necessary.
The effects of the template should be role-played. So the character should have to struggle with primal urges and the like, and the player should try to make this interesting and part of his character’s story. But his alignment should not ...
10
In one short phrase: Twist them.
When you notice you've been using a cliché, take a quick but thorough glance at it, see how you could give it a twist, an extra layer to the character or the situation, that, when revealed (when and if convenient), would turn it into a surprise, or give it a depth that the original cliché lacks. And when you've got the first ...
10
There are several things you can try:
Reflavor to hide obvious clues
I GM in homebrew worlds, so I will often reflavor monsters, spell effects, etc to fit my needs. This has the handy side effect of meaning players who can recite the stat sheet of a typical troll are unlikely to realize that the shambling swamp beast they've encountered is, in fact, a ...
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