167
votes
Accepted
As a player, I am approaching a situation where "My Guy" syndrome seems inevitable and almost appropriate. What can I do to soften any problems?
First, you're off the hook for "My Guy" syndrome - this is clearly a conflict the GM orchestrated. "My Guy" happens when a player decides to use his character to justify derailing the plot, but ...
- 1,930
139
votes
Accepted
How can I convince players not to offload a seemingly useless weapon?
Let them sell it. Later, when they realize they needed it, let them troop back and buy it again. It can be a little mini quest: "figure out what happened to that sword we vendored".
I think your more ...
- 76.5k
124
votes
Accepted
As a girl, how can I voice male characters effectively?
As a DM, I've found that trying to distinguish characters solely by changing my voice doesn't work very well. It's not especially scalable, for one - if you have a full cast of NPCs, you're likely to ...
- 20.4k
119
votes
Accepted
How do I indicate to my players that an NPC is no longer useful and that they should move on?
Remember that NPCs are people, not info dumps.
Your players are following what I'd call the video game model of NPC interaction. In a lot of RPG video games, the NPCs are infinitely patient and let ...
- 62.4k
112
votes
Accepted
How to deal with a player who is a bad sport?
"We can't talk to this player. So I don't know what to do."
I think you just took away most people's #1 answer.
If you can't talk to someone about issues, and you can't remove them from the game, ...
- 6,996
112
votes
Accepted
Players Develop Backstories Too Much
I want to preface my answer by saying that I understand where your impulse is coming from, that I respect it at least in part, and that I share that impulse. But with that preface, I must in good ...
- 36.6k
104
votes
Accepted
Is there a way to ask in game (i.e. in a non-meta way) what a character's class is?
There is no non-metagaming way...
...because class is a metagame construct: from the characters' perspective, it doesn't exist. There is no good way to determine "class" as a hard fact for ...
- 47.4k
104
votes
Accepted
I deciphered the meaning of a cryptic language out-of-game: should my character know what the meaning is?
Ask your DM whether it's supposed to be viable to decipher it, or whether you were supposed to find the clues in game.
Given that they used a genuine (even if simple) cipher and a proper script ...
- 77.7k
97
votes
How to deal with a player who is a bad sport?
Like this
Life is too short to play games with poor sports.
If their leaving causes others to leave, don't worry, its a big wide world out there full of gamers who are not poor sports.
- 187k
93
votes
Accepted
How can I get people to remember my character's gender?
Generally this "problem" tends to appear at the start of the game, where all the characters are new. My fix was to always refer to characters by their names, not pronouns. Once characters are well ...
90
votes
How should I as a GM handle a player character who has a bad memory?
Your player is correct
Making a special mechanical representation of this is very likely to cause problems, and you should not do so. A trait like this simply shouldn’t be in the dice’s hands—it is ...
- 318k
87
votes
How to roleplay my character's ethics according to the DM when I don't understand those ethics?
Your GM needs to understand that if you can’t see what’s ‘common sense’ it’s because they failed to explain the situation
Sometimes GM’s forget that they are the player’s sole window on the world. In ...
- 187k
85
votes
Accepted
Our GM won't let us affect the story; the more I play the less fun I have. What do I do?
Talk to him, preferably as a group
This is really the only solution besides "Bail on the game." They key here is to be respectful, polite, and try to handle this like friends.
"Confront" is not the ...
- 60.5k
83
votes
Accepted
Why wouldn’t I just run away from the eldritch horror?
Powerful drama requires powerful motivations. When everyone at the table agrees that they want a Horror game, they must craft their characters around these motivations. If they don't buy in, then you ...
79
votes
As a player, I am approaching a situation where "My Guy" syndrome seems inevitable and almost appropriate. What can I do to soften any problems?
Roleplaying and roleplaying conflict are not My Guy Syndrome
"My Guy" syndrome is often misused as a term. It's when following your idea of your character's persona creates insurmountable ...
- 172k
79
votes
Accepted
As DM, how do I deal with PCs that expect everything in the game to be relevant to the story?
Your players are new to the game (and new to your game). Unless you've told them what to expect, how could they know what your game is like? Getting stuck investigating small details or trying to get ...
- 53.2k
78
votes
Accepted
A fellow player does not want me to roleplay, what do I do?
It sounds like your fellow roleplayer just wants you to be verbally clear about what exactly you're doing mechanically without just pointing to a thing on your character sheet. It doesn't sound like ...
- 36.9k
76
votes
Player Characters all picking on one other PC
Tell them to stop
The characters are not picking on Bob’s character: the players are picking on Bob.
That’s called “bullying” and it’s not acceptable in any social setting.
Blaming bad player ...
- 187k
73
votes
How to deal with a player who is a bad sport?
I'd encourage you to read the Five Geek Social Fallacies essay (honestly it should be mandatory reading for all RPGers). It discusses five beliefs that cause geeks a lot of grief:
Ostracisers Are ...
- 4,558
72
votes
Accepted
How to reward players that come prepared for non-combat, non-RP situations? I.e., real life
What you're experiencing is a mismatch in what you all expect the actual game to be. As such, a boon will likely not make up for the confusion — at best it will be inexplicably ineffective at altering ...
- 239k
72
votes
Accepted
Can a D&D campaign be successfully used as a Sunday school teaching instrument?
I'm trained in conducting faith-based lessons for children focused on morality and virtues, in facilitating spiritual empowerment programs for junior youth, and in tutoring youth engaged in service-...
- 52.7k
66
votes
Accepted
My DM asked me to stop roleplaying hostility toward another PC, but it fits my character
You may be encountering My Guy Syndrome.
There is a fine line between role playing in depth and falling into "My Guy Syndrome" where the cooperative fun at the table between players is influenced in ...
- 139k
65
votes
Accepted
Does a PC know the general strengths and weaknesses of their stats?
Honestly, it depends. If we're talking vague things like "he is/isn't charismatic", it would depend on his personality. For example, Johnny Bravo thinks he has high Charisma. He doesn't, but he was ...
- 2,278
63
votes
Accepted
Can a DM tell a player if/when they act or roleplay in a manner that isn't their alignment?
Don't tell him how to roleplay
Doing so would be a vast overstep in a social circle, as it would be telling someone how to play the game (taking control over the one thing they should have total ...
- 3,114
63
votes
Accepted
Handling a character who frequently pickpockets teammates
Metagame
First, have a metagaming session between the dwarf player and the rest of the players.
Within that session, determine whether his desire to be sneaky and steal from his friends is upsetting ...
- 5,013
63
votes
Accepted
Players get frustrated when they can't solve a hard diplomatic problem. How can I get them to think out of the box?
A: There are options for framing the person, bribing people, seeking dirt on this person to find their weakness, tarnishing their reputation, trying to prove their wrong doing by seeking out evidence, ...
- 187k
62
votes
Accepted
How do I play a quiet, lone wolf character but also engage my group?
When I've played (or joined in others playing) these quiet characters, the best way to run them is have an almost noir style internal monologue.
"I looked at the wall, and frowned. I wasn't certain, ...
60
votes
Accepted
Can a Ranger refuse to hate their favored enemy?
If that's the way they want to roleplay their character than why not let them? Why does it matter to you (or anyone else) if they don't "hate" their Favoured Enemy?
The PHB says:
you have ...
- 55.5k
60
votes
Accepted
Roleplay pacing in non-combat situations
Put a real-life time limit on the discussions.
Waiting to get in at the gate? Great, the party is Xth in line. Every few minutes, do something to indicate that the line has moved up, it's important ...
- 11.6k
59
votes
Accepted
Should my "average" PC be able to discern the potential of encountering a gelatinous cube from subtle clues?
It depends on what you find to be fun
The Alexandrian has an interesting article on Meta-Knowledge and Meta-Skill, in the context of determining whether your fresh faced level 1 adventurer knows that ...
- 2,911
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible