Developing Your Roleplaying
Dante & I received this tweet Monday from @jaredmcfarland:
@stupidranger @dalcher Hi [= @geeksgreamgirl says you can help hack’n’slash PCs into a bit more of a story driven RP game. Suggestions?
Dante will be sharing ideas to help DMs encourage more roleplaying from their players. Â Me, I’m taking a look from the player perspective. Â If you’re a player who is mostly hack-n-slash and you want to develop your roleplaying, here’s are a couple of suggestions to get you started.
Develop Your Quirky Side
A great way to ease into roleplaying is to develop a character quirk that you can exercise periodically. Â Think of something a little off-the-wall for your character. Â Maybe you’ve developed an intense fear of spiders. Â If you’re an archer, maybe you like to check the fletching on your arrows before you turn in for the night. Â If you’re a sword-swinger, maybe you check the edge of your blade.
A small quirk can give you something small to interject into your game that a) doesn’t take a lot of effort to roleplay and b) doesn’t take a lot of in-game time.
Develop an In-Character Connection
You can roleplay with other characters, familiars or NPCs in-game with a little creativity. Â This can be something you work into your backstory: you and the other fighter went through militia training together before moving on to something bigger, giving you something to chat about around the campfire. Â If you have a familiar or animal companion, you can spend some in-game time chatting with it.
It’s a little easier to work your way into roleplaying conversations if you have a reason to have a conversation!
Take Your Opportunities When They Arise
When you find a chance to roleplay, take the opportunity. Â Sitting around the campfire is a great time because you’re already out of the combat mode. Â Or wandering around a new town, as you meet new people or interact with shopkeepers. Â I know it’s a little intimidating to start speaking in-character, but remember, this is supposed to be fun. Â Take small steps and easy opportunities to flex your roleplaying, and enjoy yourself!
For the DMs out there, stay tuned for Dante’s DM-focused advice on how to help your players roleplay more.
Awesome advice! As a player I tend to talk a lot in character, as you guys experienced in full-force at GenCon ’08. 😀
However, I think these are great suggestions for a player to make the transition slowly and comfortably, hopefully we get to hear from some hack’n’slash players or DMs and how this advice works!
Hey,
Thanks for the feedback =D
I’m running a session this Sunday and will pass on these suggestions and let you guys know how they work out. I also pulled aside some of better RP’ers in the group and asked them to help ease the non-RP’ing players into more immersion in the story.
@Bartoneus – Thanks!
@Jared – Getting your RPers to help will make this a little easier too. It’s intimidating at first for some players to really get into roleplaying in character, and I hope these suggestions can help.
Great post!
One technique I’ve always suggested for my players who prefer the hack’n’slash is to write down a unique warcry for each “special move” they have. This works particularly well in 4e where each special attack is a different move. On my blog I built a paladin and made notes of both generic warcries and warcries for each of his individual prayers (linked the post below). Even throwing these out in battle can help a combat-heavy player start roleplaying.
http://beneaththescreen.blogspot.com/2008/08/my-first-4e-character-final-product.html
@Storyteller – That’s awesome! I love the combination of roleplaying and hack-n-slash the battle cries create. Thanks so much for sharing!