"Player: That's not what my character would do" DM: Well, it's just as well *that* character's not coming on this adventure then. So, who did you want to play?
At least, if you play with your DM for the first time (for example online through pandemic), please do not do this. The DM work is not simple, go adventerous party characters. You do not need to go necessairly the totally adventerous type, but help the DM here.
@@pompoz1202 I don't think you even have to have an adventurer to be part of the party. They could have a goal that they are after (ex. child was kidnapped, family needs money, wife is sick and needs a rare herb to be healed, seeking a powerful wizard to cast Wish for them and bring a loved one back from the dead) or something driving them to join the party (their god told them to help and they don't know why, their patron wants them to spy on the party). It's about how you look at the motivation as the player. Almost any motivation can be tweaked to have the characters party up.
My son's Barbarian has a default response to an uncertain situation: "I throw a rock at it." My daughter's Bard wrote a song about sleeping with her head in a bell. They are learning to have fun with their characters.
My barbarian, a fat little gnome with 8 Charisma and 4 Wisdom, was teased by the kids at the wizard college, before she ran away to become a barbarian. They made up a song and sang it whenever she passed by. It's "Roly Poly" from Doris Day's movie "Pillow Talk," with the pronouns changed to be about a woman, instead of a man, and the way THEY sang it at her, it was not about "With my Roly Poly Baby, I'm satisfied," but more a lot of fat jokes and taunting. But Parsnip, with her 4 Wisdom, thought they were her friends, and wrote it to please her, and she embraced the song, completely. She did "change a few of the words they wrote, because they just didn't make any sense. Some of those things they wrote are just impossible!" and now it is the jolly love song of the movie, but applied to a woman, instead of a man. This is her theme song, to sing while traveling, or to cheer her up while she is sad, or to bolster her courage, when she is afraid.
I’m very glad that you two addressed the idea that you don’t have to actually yell, act or talk in accents to roleplay a character. I’ve seen dungeon masters at public events make new players yell ridiculously, to activate their barbarian’s rage. I’ve had dungeon masters insist I figure out puzzles and technical problems that I have no real world knowledge of, even remotely, while the DM ignored that my character was designed to have that skill and solve it. I am not my character. I should not have to be able to disable a bomb in real life, to play a character that can. That’s as ridiculous as expecting me to cast real lightning bolts to play a wizard.
As a DM, I bought a few puzzles to give to the players, just for some hands-on fun, but if they can't solve it within a few minutes, they can roll for it. I'll encourage the bard to sing, but by no means is it required. I also won't require anyone to dance, if they say, "I dance." As for rage, my barbarian, with the 16 Intelligence, would say, "Tactically speaking, this seems like a logical time to rage. Rawr." But when she's REALLY angry, and actually enraged, she will yell and scream, and completely forget to take the Rage bonus action. Because she's too enraged to think clearly.
I think it depends on the type of game you are playing. Honestly, as a DM, I think the way it goes with skills in DnD what actually ends up happening is just creating extra work for the GM. Who will often also have to sort of play the game for the players.
This is fantastic. I don't consider myself good at acting or voices etc but if the mood hits on a certain character I like to attempt it and push my comfort level. But more then anything I try to get into my characters personality and make decisions accordingly. It was also a nice reminder to hear them say don't judge others and try to be supportive and have a positive attitude. Out if all the things they said that in my opinion was the most important. That is what will lead to having the most fun at the table.
@@CeruleanMirage Thank you. She is also a librarian, a Lore bard with plans to dip into Knowledge cleric. She also got stoned by a cockatrice one time and was a statue fixed in a dramatic faint, which at one point I said "if you look at matilda's statue at the right angle, it looks like she is giving a dainty, polite wave".
A great quirk, I might borrow that. After like 17 years, I'm looking forward to finally playing a Kobold Bard inspired by Deekin Scalesinger from Neverwinter Nights with that new UA release. Writing an epic tale on our exploits while being a charming weird little dragon guy for the sake of pioneering a change to the public perception on Kobolds sounds like a lot of fun.
As a DM, I often give my important NPCs the personalities of people I know, but that my players do not. Old friends, family members, people from current or former jobs, etc. This way, I find it easier to know how these NPCs will respond to what the players do or say, because I have first hand knowledge of their personalities.
Oh, wow. Great idea! I now have to make one of the NPC's begin every sentence with "Again," as if he's repeating himself, even though it's the first time he's said that thing. ESPECIALLY if it's the first time he's said that thing, and he's giving you instructions on a thing he knows you've never encountered before. He's a good guy, but that particular quirk made him very annoying, when he was training one on a new technique for work.
Right? As much as I do put on a voice for my characters, as soon as another player says they weren't "expecting" that, I assure them there's nothing wrong with not doing that. I currently play in a small group where each of us just roleplays completely differently.
I’m playing a tortle in one of my games. I put on a deep, slow, Eeyore-like voice when we first started. While I do think it added something to the character, and other players seemed to like it, it got old for me pretty quick.
If you're going to create a character, have the foresight to create something you can really invest in and delve deep into for months to years. You're roleplaying. Play the role.
@@kev_whatev I've already decided to give my barbarian a lisp, but since it's a mannerism, and not a physical lisp, she may, over time, learn to let it go. Yay, character growth, while making my role-playing easier.
It definitely isn't necessary, but it can really add flavour. As an example, I played a Geonosian in a Star Wars campaign that lasted over a year. In addition to a raspy, creaky voice, I made a lot of clicking noises in between words. It really set the character apart.
The whole "mash up existing characters you like" is totally something I do. I'm currently playing an Oathbreaker paladin and I described her to my DM as "What if Brienne of Tarth gave up and became The Lich King"
Agree 100%. My teenage Goliath barbarian is a mash-up of 2 anime characters, Inosuke and Goblin Slayer. No need to reinvent the wheel if I can have fun playing within a set framework, is how I see it.
I play a half elf cleric princess named Zelda Alagondar in my group’s Curse of Strahd campaign. This character was inspired by princess Zelda from the Legend of Zelda game series as well as Sansa Stark from Game of Thrones and the Royal Priesthood spoken of in the Bible. I also subconsciously incorporated aspects of the Bride of Christ in there. Over time she became her own character. During the campaign Strahd killed most of her family, endangered her kingdom (Neverwinter), toyed with the party, etc. We are almost done with the campaign now and my character is not the naive princess she was before. She has learned to be more active even if that means doing something dangerous or stupid. She has learned to not be so trusting and much more. One PC even taught my character how to follow her heart instead of duty or logic and it led to the two (Zelda Alagondar and Alexander Von Roeyen-Zarovich) having a wholesome forbidden romance in the story. Additionally I taught a few party members things as well. Overall, our party has become friends as a result of this horrific adventure.
With regards to motivation to join the adventure, one example of a reluctant adventurer was my very first character, who was a bartender. The party met in the tavern and got the story hook there, left without paying their tab, so my character tagged along to make sure they succeeded so they could pay their tab (and he made some friends along the way).
Well, you _could_ say, "I learned so much from this! It's given me a lot to think about." _Or_ you could drop the passive part and just say, "You all need to watch this and learn. I mean, damn."
@@DurandalsFate haha both valid strategies. Our first session was rough on the role play but. Like, damn guys could you just "yes, and" and make this less painful for everyone?
@@DurandalsFate that's what I did. I watched it for myself because I am a player as well, but more of a DM. I shared it to our discord chat and said, "this was a great watch for me, and I feel it made me a better player!" 'Nuff said.
"The most interesting thing in a characters life shouldn't be in in backstory" is something I have said for years. THANK YOU This video and the one on bonds and flaws also put into words ideas I've been trying to express for years. Frankly these two videos are compulsary viewing
@@benjoffe948 agreed. I haven't watched all of their vids, but I've consumed a lot of them. I give them props for consistently having quality content week after week. They've easily become my go-to channel to watch over the past year.
I like to have something in my backstory that leads to a flaw in my personality *to be overcome*. Overcoming the flaw is the important part. I recently made an eladrin rogue who was cast out of fey society for her greed and materialism. She feels she can’t trust people, and looks out for herself above all else. But she’s about to be thrust into a great adventure with a group of people she’ll have to come to trust. It’s a shortcut to character development that leads to satisfying arcs.
Familiars are great. During one campaign our DM would place random low level items and potions in the pack of our wizard. It took a while for someone in the party to figure out that the wizards imp, the little bastard, was pilfering from strangers and shop owners. This created a very interesting "situation" for the wizard. Say nothing and get free stuff or verbally repremand the imp to avoid trouble with NPCs. This was a great roleplay moment.
I once played a one-shot with a guy who rolled a Samurai who started the game avoiding the first combat, instead choosing to meditate upon how awesome he was. At every fork in the road he would insist on going down the opposite path to the rest of us. It was torture.
Could be cool if the Samurai's initial opening to the campaign is him getting his delusions of grandeur absolutely shattered, and now his arc is picking up the pieces of his esteem while simultaneously earning the skills that match his prior ego.
As a DM, my players are free to not follow the rest of the party to the adventure. If they don't want to adventure, they're free to stay behind. Just don't be surprised when your character doesn't have anything to do. It happened once that the party was walking to the town's village center to do combat with the BBEG. The druid decided that with the combat going down, it would be the perfect time to steal some loot. In this small fishing village. With a population of less than 200. Anyways, they ended up exploring empty houses while the rest of the party had a badass encounter and fought/defeated the boss. So imagine my surprise later when this player later told me they were upset with me because I didn't let them participate in the combat encounter. The combat encounter lasted maybe 8 rounds? They argued that it was plenty enough time to hear the combat and run to the town center, which was decidedly far away from her position at the outskirts. Certainly more than the 640 ft of movement her maximum movement+dash would have gotten her, assuming she immediately knew what was happening the second it started. Which she wouldn't have. Because obviously. But I digress. That player is not at my table any longer.
One quirk of my Inquisitive rogue is something she shares with the party artificer. Whenever they find something unusual, they experiment with it in silly ways, saying "For science!"
One of our players has a thing to remind him, when he as a player has doubts how his character would react in a situation he thinks to himself: "What Would Captain Flint Do? ". as in, Flint from the show Black Sails. It usually ends up as mayhem. But it always works and is always fun!
My mother is playing for the first time, and she just created a D&D version of Mrs. Polifax, from the novels that she loves so much. She just has to remember that she's "an adventurer" and not "a spy with the CIA," but other than that, she can just ask herself, "What would Mrs. Polifax do?" and go from there. She even named the character Emily Polifax, and I worked with her to write a D&D version of Emily Polifax' backstory.
I love roleplaying, but only with my most recent character did I realize how powerful a tool making them less expressive than yourself is. I have a fairly monotone voice, but when I made my rogue even more monotone, it worked so well at conveying who she is
I once knew a man, who upon being told he was hired for the job he really wanted, said in the most monotone voice, "I know it doesn't seem that way, but I'm really quite excited." He had a problem with his thyroid, and just could NOT get actively excited about anything, apparently.
I have a character that is the child of powerful magicians, and the parents cast greater sending at odd times. “No, Mom, I am always careful. No... N... Every day... No, I am not attacking any dragons today, I am always careful, I gotta go.... Ye.. Y.. No, but I gotta go. LoveYouBye.”
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Having resumed D&D after a several decade break the whole "be your character" thing was quite a shock. Back in the day, it never occurred to us to speak in the 1st person but that didn't make my characters any less real or beloved. It's nice to get past that niggling "oh, I guess we were doing it wrong" feeling.
I play with someone who is from the Ad&d era. most of us enjoy acting and speaking in first person (theater nerds...) He doesn't, but he has some of the best characters out of all of us and is a better role-played than most everyone at the table (~30 years of experience helps with that 🙂)
Great advise. I've seen so many players (including me) focus so much of their time and effort on their backstories that they forget that the thing they should really be focusing on is who their characters are right now, and not who they were in the past. The backstory should be seen as a decision-making and roleplaying tool and not as your character's story, because their story is gonna come out when you play the game.
My small dip into trying to roleplay was playing my Illusionist who would talk to his mirror images. The party found him in a tavern having a deep conversation with himself, but he thought his images were real. Tried to use a bit of my Psychology education to bring him to life.
While not exactly this, I had a character concept for a Sorcerer who would have conversations with themselves using something like Major Image, where the conjured copy vocalizes concept in the subconscious, while the actual person voices their immediate thoughts. The Image would speak and make proper mannerisms, mildly mirroring the caster. Never got around to doing it yet, though. Neat to see someone else has something like that in their mind.
I have a “Tome” prop that I use for my Pact of the Tome Warlock. I’ve written down all the spells and cantrips in my tome. It’s a fun way for me to immediately become my character when I open my tome at the table.
@@zinnylinnie00 As a wizard, draw a picture on one side of an index card and write the spell effect on the other side. Once you get enough cards together, glue the edges to a strip of duck tape, and you have a little pocket book of spell. Or just have a home made deck of many spell. Some of my artwork from high school has been floating around for thirty years.
Love that you guys say that it’s perfectly fine to take inspiration from favorite characters. Some of the best characters in our games had surprising base inspirations. In our current campaign, a quasi-Kingmaker maker campaign where we’re defending and expanding a remote village into a great city, my wife is playing a Goliath bard who is functionally Leslie Knope. Disarmingly positive, super energetic, and willing to anything to make her city great- but in the surprising package of an 8 foot tall burly Goliath who looks like she’ll grind you into the dirt while actually bringing rice krispy treats town council meeting.
The bit about voice acting is important, and also true even in a streaming setting. Just look at the Oxventure, with all the players keeping their normal voices and strange senses of humor.
This is now mandatory viewing in my session 0 prep when I DM. Just sent links to a group starting beginning of May. Thank you guys so much for the great content and having such a variety of content types.
I played a character with bad anxiety once, the poor thing was afraid of everything and everyone. But he also believed really strongly in protecting other people and he didn't really value his own safety. So I never had a problem getting him to follow quest hooks. I think a lot of it is about coming up with a character that fits the kind of game everyone wants to play.
I have a character like that, too! She's very shy and timid, but she's also basically decided that the only way she can justify taking up space in the world is by helping people and making herself useful to others however she can, so that's what spurs her to act in spite of her nerves. Still waiting for a chance to play her, so I don't know for sure how her story will play out, but I think it'll be fun~.
@@elsie8757 I definitely had a lot of fun playing Glory. Party interactions were always a blast. Even arguments, he really got off on the wrong foot with one of the other party members and the way they gradually came to understand each other was wonderful. It was really nice having him build up friendships as well. The downside, compared to more optimistic characters I've played, was that I often felt much more anxious after a session getting into his head. Took a while to calm down afterwards.
@@jeffreyfinney251 Lol yeah I kinda did. We all had fun and that was the important thing. My current character is also a little anime-ish in that his main motivation is wanting to be the best at what he does. It works so long as you don't try to become the main character of the game and consistently support the other player characters.
Thanks for this video. Reminds me a lot of Matt Colville’s video on role playing. Luke the reluctant hero, so what does George Lucas do to get our hero going? Barbecues his aunt and uncle and shows him their smoking corpses.
“If they don’t trust each other and don’t like each other, it’s going to put a lot of pressure on Dungeon Master to figure out why all these people would be working together.” - whoah whoah whoah. Hold up. How is this DMs responsibility. It’s the issue of entire table. As the DM I literally say “You picked those characters. You figure out why would they work together. If they don’t, make new ones.” The DM can’t allow players full agency of making their characters without players also fixing what they have done.
That's the exact point they were making in the video. Their point was that if the players don't do this, it makes life difficult for the DM, so the players need to consider how their characters will mesh with other characters in the party.
This is why I'm so happy to have Party Patrons in Rising and Tasha's. At session zero, I have the table agree on a Party Patron and that helps inform how they know each other and what specialized characters to make. It really helps to form a more coherent party in my opinion. It also helps me fine tune the campaign outline I make based on the Patron.
Can't imagine a scenario where the rogue gets caught stealing for being shifty and goes "How do i get out of this DM?" Bitch, you got yourself into this, it's not my problem. Want advice? roll a new character Also, people that do stupid shit and go "it's why my character would do" aren't just being toxic, but also wrong. If a character is an experienced thief, it isn't going to pick pocket any rando in a tavern like a dumbass, an evil character that has feigned to be an ally for various sessions won't suddenly throw all away because they want a shiny from another player, etc
That depends. I think the real issue is bad plot and hooks from DM. When I am going to DM I will be building a rather elaborate world with multiple plots that they can choose to follow. Most of which are rather open to the players. For example the first one is how they all plan to meet is through recruitment to sail to “the new world” to find out what’s missing with the colony they sent out and haven’t heard from. One character just wants a bigger swamp for his people, one wishes to flee the government and sneaks on, etc. Then when they get there a good chunk will be rp and survive (we’re doing hyper realism). So it depends on what type of campaign, if you’re doing one you plan to be longer you’re gonna need more options. And honestly I do not find it troublesome to make a scenario to help fit all the characters. Just takes a bit of creativity. And honesty after making continents, history of the world, etc… the start is hardly the biggest bear I’ve had to tackle.
Did you even listen to that section? They're saying that if bad players are doing that, it's unfairly forcing the DM to try rationalise the situation. They aren't saying that the DM *should* be responsible for that. They are saying that when bad players act like this, it negatively affects the DM and increases their workload.
Going back and watching this video, one of the favorite parts about my group is we all try to do different funny voices for different characters even though we all suck at it. Every time somebody starts a new voice the whole table gets a good laugh because we love it so much and it helps everybody be more comfortable with the idea when you get to laugh at yourself every once in a while.
A cool idea for creating a character is to go against what is considered common. For example, I've thought of a Barbarian who is very empathetic, which ties into how she enters her rage, as she can feel the aggressive emotions of everyone, and she doesn't like fighting, even though she's very good at it.
Yep, that's a good idea, but A: Don't make that the only character trait of your character, and B: Make sure to not go a COMPLETE 180 to the common thing, otherwise it might loose some of it's charm. But in general, yeah, that's a great idea for how to make a character feel unique! Barbarian Rages, for example are one of the most flexible mechanics flavor-wise, if you think about it, as long as you ignore the name.
What I’ve found is that many people have opted to do the whole “turn common tropes on their head” character creation idea, to the point where these ‘atypical’ characters end up becoming tropes of their own. Sometimes they can be just as predictable as the thing they were trying to deviate from. Not bashing on your character ideas. If it’s cool for you, have a blast with it. I’m just sharing my experiences with these sorts of characters.
I am sharing this to my players very new to D&D. They worry so much about not roleplaying "right" or "enough" and this video organizes the general things I say to them to assure them not to worry so much. Thanks for the great video (as always)!
This video actually helped me realized that 1) my favorite character that I've made, Arseris, is based on a cliché (chaotic neutral pickpocket rogue™) and I don't care because I love them, and 2) I subconsciously based them off of the main character of my favorite book series to an extent. Honestly this video just made me love them even more.
The slight mispronunciation of "mannerisms" implies a scarring past experience of when they witnessed a player strain their brain just a little too hard trying to get into character.
I have DM'd sessions with players who were not about wanting to adventure. I've decided to thank them for coming, and proceed the campaign for the players that actually do want to play D&D.
I mean, there are campaigns about just RP on the spot and not much adventuring, specially political campaigns ("that thing... it scares me") But this kind of shit has to be communicated properly
When someone else is having their moment in the spotlight, do not try to steal their scene. Also do not make constant meow noises in the background when someone else is having a conversation with either a NPC or another character as it is annoying and disruptive, even if you are a Tabaxi.
Something adjacent to the Tabaxi issue--if you are playing a Minotaur, you need not remind everyone else of this by mooing incessantly...even during Stealth checks. "My character can't control the mooing" is not an excuse.
A note on the body language section: Changing your position can actually change your voice a little bit. Partly through how your throat is sitting. It can be pretty subtle, but it can help. A good part of it is subconscious too lol. You'll note that singers do it all the time when their trying to hit a particularly difficult note. (Its a bad habit, btw. Don't do it when you sing it strains you lol) Try tipping your head back and forth as you talk to see for yourself. if you don't hear it try doing it more extremely, you can kind of self correct when you're conscious about it lol
Thanks for this video dudes! I have been Dming for almost a year and take a lot of my knowledge of DND from your campaigns as well as Critical Role. I have been hopeing that my players would start "role-playing" better, and, after watching this video, I realize they already are! My players are not great actors, but they are playing their characters really well. So, thanks for helping me to realize that my players are awesome, and to shift my ideals on how a game should be role-played.
I'm playing a Echo Knight currently and the quirk that I have with him is, when he is by himself or really at a lost, he will look off to the side and start talking to his echo.
Their suggestion of drawing inspiration from characters in books, movies, TV, whatever is sound advice. A few years ago, I played an elf Ranger whose personality I based on Nancy from The Craft (before she went psycho). I played a Druid who was loosely based on Fluttershy from My Little Pony:Friendship is Magic. In another game, my warlock is modeled after Serena, Samantha's cousin from Bewitched. All have easy quirks I can fall back on in a pinch because I know those characters so well.
Not everyone is a professional writer after all, taking ideas that have been proven to work can help a lot for the same reason UA gets play tested before being made official
Re: character voicing I found that my initial discomfort in D&D during my first major and long-running campaign unintentionally gave my character one of his hallmark key and quirky personality feats. Early on I would always preface my interactions with my character name (insert action or response). It just stuck and now he speaks in the third person and is his own fully realized character filled with quirks and energy. Letting go of this self consciousness because I didn't otherwise have a voice or other identifiable trait, combined with my group encouraging me and coming to like the third person quirk, gave me space to grow into a more comfortable player. Now he has his own voice (later added because I felt ready and wanted to give him one), a defined peronsonality, and more. I feel more prepared to now create fully realized characters with whatever inclusions I want, free of consciousness. Letting go of my high expectations of myself and being part of a welcoming group was probably the most influential element to me growing into D&D more and roleplaying better. I find the rest is just about excitement, research, and a DM collaborative discussion of possibilities.
"[...] there are a lot of sources out there that are excellently roleplayed live-stream campaigns". Seems like a good time to remind everyone to watch the Drakkenheim campaigns!
I just discovered your channel and wanted to let you a positive word. I would even have read "How to easily play well in any Roleplaying Game" as a more appropriate title, since you give positive advices, easy to apply suggestions, while underlining good values among players. Your content is well prepared, well delivered, affordable for all and instructive. You presentation, background, lighting and overall quality is noticeable. Wishing you the best in your current and future projects.
I play with someone who almost exclusively speaks in the third person and he very well may be the best role-player at the table. I enjoy the first person acting/voice acting, but I learn a ton from him on how to create, embody and play out an interesting character.
Was watching a campaign online with my friend and they couldn’t believe how well the players/dungeon master did playing the game. Ironically.. it was actually You Guys, with Jill and Joe. I was actually watching Shadows of Drakenheim..
My step son (21) has been playing for a few years now, and I had limited prior experience when i was a teen (49 now). He came to us (his Mom, myself, and his 9 year old brother) asking if we would be interested in playing as he learns to DM, and we have been having a blast! His Aunt even plays with us now and our table ranges in age from 9 to 60, each of us having very unique role playing styles. I say all of this to say that your videos have helped so much in the evolution of our game play. I appreciate you guys so much. Thank you.
I am going to make a warlock kenku, who made a pact with Demogorgon, just because he wants magic powers to fly. He always wastes his few spell slots to cast the Fly spell on himself.
honestly the best video on roleplaying i've seen so far. two things i personally like for my characters is to 1 make sure to have a core memory to draw from and 2 imagine what activities my characters take part of in their spare time.
I'm only half way through the video but the section on seeking adventure helped me crack a huge block I'd been having in connecting with my character concept!!! I've finally figured out the change I needed to make to her recent backstory so that she really resonates with me
Feel like the title of this could also be “understanding different types of roleplayers and learning to accept them” This vid really helped me, thanks dudes
I usually have a round about idea of what kind of person my character would be but only when I sit down and play through his experiences do I truly know who that character is
Hello, just got into DnD and your guides have been so helpful to me, they were informative and useful, thanks so much for doing what you do Dungeon Dudes!
Great advice! One of my favorite characters to play is actually a really simple oned. Sometimes a simpler character can be more fun cus it's easier to know what they would do. Loud, confident/boisterous Triton Eldritch Knight that comes from a family of heroes. He was 15 when he started the campaign and was very naive, wanting to be the hero that could save everyone and just get strong. He went through a depression when he realized this wasn't possible in this setting, seeing a dragon and wizard destroy entire cities before his eyes. Now he's prepared to accept losses more easily, retreat, see the bigger picture when it comes to saving as many lives as possible, but he hasn't lost heart and seeks to become strong enough to never need to make those sacrifices again and to really achieve a level of power where he really can be that hero he always dreamed of, but he's aware that he's no where near that yet.
Tip: If you don’t have a moral reason, have a price. A character who might not care about defeating the BBEG or is too scared to go on the quest, have them be in it for the fame and fortune that generally comes with adventuring.
Yeah. Voice acting/acting can be a ton of fun, but it doesn't necessarily make you good at playing a character. And you can play a great character without voice acting/acting or even speaking in the first person! I'm in a game where most of us really enjoy the voicing and first person speaking, but one player just doesn't enjoy that personally. But his character is one of the most in-depth and interesting characters in the party!
It's so hard to get roleplay going with the group I play with simply because I'll start trying but everyone else is very okay just playing as if it's them not their character. Sorry if I worded that poorly, hope my point gets across lol
Larp, live action role play, I am a home body that prefer not to leave the house, so anytime I went out to a gaming shop .. I was In Character. I normally play multi-class rogue/wizard with proficiency/ skills in preform( acting), bluff, and disguise. It is my protective wall with dealing with people and keep my personal boundry safety zone. Unless I', playing White Wolf/ World of Darkness: Changleling the Lost where every character has some type of mental disorder. At that point everyone is really playing themselves. I found from playing D&D over the years, you get these people who write down on their PC sheets that they are neutral good end up playing chaotic stupid or just drift strait into neutral evil. Play Vampire the Masquerade/ Sabbat gave some good insight of the people I was dealing with. You have .. posers .. and then you have smug azz holes in self denial. As I pointed out to people who don't RPG, People who sit down to a gaming group .. know .. the whole thing is a bull zhit story, .. On the other hand people who get drunk at bars and house parties end up believing their own bull zhit. I like gaming shops over house games cause the lack of public drinking and public/ personal boundry are maintain. Also dinning rooms get really small once you get around a dozen people in them.
Yeah, I had the same thing, all of my players play themselves. With arcane powers and oversized axes. But thats fine, even if they dont invent a deep backstory and stick to their characters imaginary traumas its ok. As long as they engage with the story and the world I dont really care if its JoeBob the depresed call center Wizard or Molaghar Dragonthorn the dragonborn paladin sworn to protect and uphold the tenants of bla bla bla... Being your boring old self with the ability to crack some skulls while stuff is on fire is enough for some people. Offer them an alternative but dont be mad if they have fun as is, some people just like playing a powered version of themselves.
One of your best Videos! Under the topic of roleplaying advice, it covers so much more.. From Session 0 over motivation to politeness at the table. Thank you, guys!
This was definitely a worthwhile watch, in one campaign I'm playing a tiefling light domain cleric. With her backstory it's a little difficult for myself, a single man in his early 20's, to relate to a 40 year old widowed woman. So far what I've been doing is I switch between talking in 1st and 3rd person, really only busting out the 3rd person if a moment happens where I simply can't accurately portray what Kindle is feeling in 1st person (Whether that being my confidence or my vocal range). When I talk in character all I really do is talk in my head voice in a soft but stern way. I really need to think realistically as to what fictional characters I can use as a fall back for her as inspiration and also think about how she's grown (considering we're about to hit level 9). Great video!
Thank you for this video. I have struggled quite a bit RPing in a DnD setting for my first campaign. I'm an experienced roleplayer, but I'd never done tabletops before. All my previous experience was in collaborative storytelling, forum RPs, and a few multiplayer games. DnD took me way out of my comfort zone -- more than I expected. Watching this video has helped, but also made me second-guess myself.
I typically rely on the trope of a parent, child or loved one is sick or missing for the reason that they are adventuring. It gives the dm plenty to work with and I usually throw in a childhood friend or rival for them to use. Obviously Sir Zur Gideon the Magnificent is the exception with his 17 page epic backstory that is 100% bull crap and lies.
I assume the DM knows the REAL backstory he doesn't want anyone else to know, that will come and bite him in the butt, someday when everything seems peaceful.
@@jacobyspurnger8488 That's the best way to play a liar. And then, everyone can feel the joy of watching the lies unravel, while their characters respond, and maybe even have to deal with some real anger issues because of it, all while the players are high-fiving and having a blast.
As a new roleplayer this was very reassuring, thanks guys! A general question to anyone out there. I'm playing a half orc barbarian with an 8 int and 13 wisdom. I think I'm starting to get a handle on how those are played differently, but I struggle with contributing to group decisions. I have ideas about what the party might do but I don't think my character would. So I guess what I'm asking is what are some things I can do other than remaining silent?
8 Int means he can't read, but could probably do math, and maybe he's really good with money. I used to babysit for a kid who couldn't recognize the numbers in a math book, but give him money, and he could make change faster than you could blink. Good thing his parents owned a store, and he was being trained to work it. 13 wisdom means he's just a little above average common sense. My barbarian is the opposite. She has 16 intelligence (was training to become a wizard, before she ran away to become a barbarian) but a 4 Wisdom. In battle, she will say, "Tactically speaking, this appears to be a logical time to rage. Rawr." But, if you touch her Issue #69 of Barbarian Weekly, she will be so ENRAGED that she will yell and scream and use her bonus action to climb up your body (she's a gnome), specifically so that she can bite your nose off, but she'll clean forget to actually use a bonus action to rage. She's too angry to think straight. She's book smart and street dumb. Your barbarian would be more street smart and book dumb. At 8 Int, he probably knows letters and numbers, but now how they go together to form words, and would be stuck with basic arithmetic, like "Apples cost 2 copper apiece. How much do you have to pay for 4 apples," he could probably figure out, because that's copper pieces, and he uses them all the time. He can count to ten, easy! "Eight copper pieces." But, write out "2 x 4 = " and he wouldn't have a clue what that meant, except that there's a 2 and a 4. But, if you want to ask him for relationship advice, he'd probably be pretty good at it, if not a complete expert. He'd give advice like, "Treat women the same way you'd treat men," but then not be surprised when you start arm-wrestling your crush.
Thank you so much for sharing your good advice here. Indeed, we all play with different role-playing styles, and positive encouragement can go a long way! Additionally, I like how you distinguish between the "backstory" and the "personality traits".
it's only crigny if you tell yourself it is. and if you want to give your charatcer a voice while keeping it simple, you can simply just talk either a little softer or harsher than you normally do. that can be enough for a voice.
@@MythicMachina My friend created a Paladin with a gruff voice and I created a Dragonborn Cleric, and as a result, we both talk to each other in-character sounding like same-y bad Geralt impressions and it was kinda fun. It's really hard to add that extra depth to the dragonborn voice to make it sound more unnatural and reptilian without hurting my throat, so that's how we end up sounding so similar.
I love that this is about working very well with others who are very different than you. I don’t think they’re trying to, but I think they’re succeeding, at giving guidelines for functional and sustainable teaming. I could see something like this being useful at a corporate level. As humans one of our most primal mechanisms is the story. A masters degree or a doctorate is really being verbally tutored and mentored by the “elders“. It’s the soul of human communication.
Can someone in the corporate world please put together a "team building exercise," where instead of doing trust falls with your team-mates, you spend an afternoon doing a one shot (similar to Adventurer's League, where you all do the same story, but at different tables, in smaller groups)?
@@AuntLoopy123 That is so brilliant!! Now if only there were a way to share comments, like yours, with some bright folks who might do it. I would share yours because it is your idea, and I believe in meritocracy, one of the old-school Intel Semiconductor values.
Fantastic video! I find that a lot of people confuse "accents" with "voices." As you noted, changing the pitch or speed at which you talk makes a huge difference -- and prevents the stupidity of all dwarves being scottish. You can also change the rhythm or melody of your voice. In fact, when learning a foreign language, learning the "music" of the language is an exceptionally strong tool. Making one up is just as viable. The same goes for picking up expressions or rhythms in an British accent, for example. That said, I find both accents and voices quite difficult to maintain. While I could just give up on it, I'd rather learn how to get into character (will be googling it right after this). Yet even before knowing how to get into character, I can see how important it is to do so. If you know how your character would be feeling, or what they might be thinking about in the back of their minds, it's much easier to decide what they might say or do in response to events around them. I also like what you said about tropes and cliches. But it's also fun to subvert them -- which is a cliche in itself. As a player, I think it's good to flip some aspects of a cliche, at least part of the way. I've also found, though, that 5e gives you so many more tools than earlier editions, when creating your character. Even just reading the description of a race or subclass can provide inspiration. Then tying that in with their origin, ideals, etc can be incredibly rewarding. Interestingly, I feel the DM may not want to know all the detail of your backstory. Better to give them just a few hooks. In fact, some DMs will ask players to answer a number of questions out of a list. Asking, "what's your favourite drink?" led to me concocting a story of bullying at my monastery that led to a dare to enter a forbidden forest to gather berries for my favourite wine -- which ended up awakening my Shadar-kai heritage! Now for that Google search... ;)
Really great ideas and points here. When i first started d and d i did not really understand the role playing aspect and strangly the class i fell most in love with for rp tended to be the religous or monklike attitudes for exacltey the reasons given in this video i could come up with mini stories based on deity or belief in either plain langauge or metaphor and could add little rituals, actions/mannerisms or phrases to express belief and this was a really quick way of estbalishing a charcter. This is something i think the 5th edtion version of the roles has done very well for new players with the idea of backgrounds, bonds, flaws, ideals and to a lesser extent personalty traits...but this is also so universal you could apply it to any other game as well
Improv courses can do wonders for both players and DMs. They teach numerous skills that translate extremely well into TTRPGs. It can help DMs can come up with interesting NPCs on the fly, or help players with their own characterisations. It teaches the importance of listening and finding the interest in any scenario.
Great episode. Before the great 5th edition personality tools I used to take a small part of my own personality and blow it up to make it the biggest thing about the personality of a character I was making.
Your character, Sebastian Crow reminded me of a Warlock I played, Grant Bishop. I based him on Constantine and Harry Dresden. Great Video Guys, thanks a lot.
I made a High Int, Low Wis character but rather than making him like super airheady, he's got gifted and talented burn out and ADHD (Based on my own personal experiences with them). So he's intelligent but his brain processes things differently. And since i really dont know how my ADHD will affect me in real life...i roll a D20 and refer to an "ADHD table" based what ive done in the past. The irony of playing myself in game with more control of their life is just...astounding.
So helpful! I created some parts of my character that I really liked, then got discouraged and stopped having fun when I felt like I didn't use the right vernacular or voice for what I created. So then I just ignored my character's backstory altogether and am now a little bland. This is so helpful and I'm way excited to have a lot more fun in my campaign! Thank you!
In our Starter Set game, we're playing pre-made characters that came with the game, so players could "plug and play" the same day they get it. My wizard is supposed to be all about long-winded multi-syllabic words to make her seem smarter than everyone else, but I frequently forget any of that. However, I made her an absolute loot hound. "You see some barrels." "What's in the barrels?" "Various supplies." "What kind of supplies?" "One barrel of oats, one of wheat, one of potatoes, one of salt..." "OK, I make a note to come back with a cart and get the barrels of trade goods." ... "You see a room full of planks of wood, hammers, crowbars, boxes of nails." "I grab two handfuls of nails, three hammers, and a couple of crowbars, and stick them in my pack." "OK." "I also make a note to come back with a cart and get the rest of this stuff, for trade goods." That said, she cares about GETTING the loot. She's not that fussed about actually keeping it. Meanwhile, the fighter (I had to play 2 characters, due to not having enough players. My niece is doubled-up, too), who has a noble background, "Sir Loin of Beefly," is supposed to be all about the gold, but the way I play him, he hired the other people to join him on his quest, and promised them 5 gp at the end of it, to which they all agreed (for a measly five gold? But they all have their own reasons to go), and he has already begun paying them "in installments" of 3 gp, after each little adventure, and giving away money to the family of people the bad guys killed, and adopting a goblin and cutting him in for a share, and paying for the goblin's room, board and bath... Yeah, he's not the way he was written, at all. It just came out during game play. And the "noblesse oblige" nobleman, who has completely lost track of how much he's paying his companions, organized with the loot hound to go back to the manor and get ALL the trade goods, and then donate them to the families of the people who had been hit hardest by the bad guys. They're not going to get rich, any time soon.
I'm someone who finds typical heroism corny and who generally leans into reluctant, flawed heroes. But, as you said, that can be really frustrating for DMs. It's the responsibility of players to give their PCs sufficient motivation to go on the quest and be invested in their team.
A good way around this is to pinch a bit of the Acquisitions Inc idea and make the characters start the adventure life as part of their job description. So maybe they've been hired by a franchise (or from a patron - my personal favouriteis Morgrave University or Dezina Museum as they both have the same goal to find artifacts, though the university is more in it to sell anything and everything on the black market but any place like those would do if you don't want to start at an adventure guild..or the newspapers that come with Eberron can be reflavored for other settings..journalists looking for the next story where they shouldn't be is another way to give motivation with a job description) to do the dirty work of investigating monster sightings, strange ruins ect. The characters then to start with need no more motivation that this is just so they can earn coin to put food on the table.... once they're comfortable you can start drawing them into the main story hooks (especially if it's around a mcguffin) and those ordinary coin seekers suddenly realise they're in for more than they bargind for and hopefully by that point they're more willing to go further and do some adventures outside the comfort bubble. I always have one player at the table who's character is only motivated by getting enough coin to go drinking or something like that, so I make alot of stuff happen at these places where that character can not just only visit in downtime, but get into all sorts of trouble like bar fights ect that lead into other adventures. A good DM should be able to play on those things, but eventually the character has to let the others at the table find the adventure too
'Maneurisms' gave me aneurisms. I'm just kidding guys, the video is great. I honestly passed this one over a few times because of the title and I don't really play 5e, but this is a super valuable reminder/introduction for role-playing in ttrpgs.
I am going to send this to my players. All my players listen-watch DnD games with voice actors and a much higher production value than I can afford. I really appreciate the tips&tricks offered here!
I love the idea of combining different pop culture characters. I use that a lot. My current Hexblade is a combination of Giladaroy Lockhart and Shaggy from Scooby Doo. He is super boastful when he isn't in battle but goes full Shaggy when anything threatens him. His Hexspear is sentient and attacks for him while he gets rag dolled around. If anything startles him, he automatically eldritch blasts it. It's been super fun, especially since we are exploring a haunted house right now.
I would love to do a barbarian braggart who's done amazing things like wrestling the God of the Sea, but have him as a sort of unreliable narrator for his own backstory. Sure, that's what he thinks happened, but he really traded body shots the Dwarven barmaid of their house brew, and the dock master furious at him for breaking the new hoist
My DnD group also LARPS so we have a bunch of random clothes, costumes, and armors in a bin. Usually, during session 0, we use it to help either inspire our characters or find a token to connect to them (just like they said in the vid). I find it helps me get into the right mindset and helps me keep different characters separate in my mind when we have multiple campaigns running at the same time.
"The Dudes try their hardest not to name-drop Critical Role" My favourite character I've ever played was a paladin whose voice was a cross between Brian Blessed and Matt Berry, with a list of titles that grew and grew over time. Hector brought an energy to the table and encouraged others to come out of their shells too!
Dm: create a character that would join a party and participate
Player: That's not what my character would do
Ahh the ol’ classic WANG ROD defense. 😂
"Player: That's not what my character would do"
DM: Well, it's just as well *that* character's not coming on this adventure then. So, who did you want to play?
You retire from the adventuring life and do whatever you do. Roll an adventuring character.
At least, if you play with your DM for the first time (for example online through pandemic), please do not do this. The DM work is not simple, go adventerous party characters.
You do not need to go necessairly the totally adventerous type, but help the DM here.
@@pompoz1202 I don't think you even have to have an adventurer to be part of the party. They could have a goal that they are after (ex. child was kidnapped, family needs money, wife is sick and needs a rare herb to be healed, seeking a powerful wizard to cast Wish for them and bring a loved one back from the dead) or something driving them to join the party (their god told them to help and they don't know why, their patron wants them to spy on the party). It's about how you look at the motivation as the player. Almost any motivation can be tweaked to have the characters party up.
My son's Barbarian has a default response to an uncertain situation: "I throw a rock at it." My daughter's Bard wrote a song about sleeping with her head in a bell. They are learning to have fun with their characters.
Thats amazing. Also, stealing the idea of a default respons eto be a rock.
Our half- orc monk has something like that, only her default is to eat it/taste it. She's immune to poison and disease, soooo...
My barbarian, a fat little gnome with 8 Charisma and 4 Wisdom, was teased by the kids at the wizard college, before she ran away to become a barbarian. They made up a song and sang it whenever she passed by. It's "Roly Poly" from Doris Day's movie "Pillow Talk," with the pronouns changed to be about a woman, instead of a man, and the way THEY sang it at her, it was not about "With my Roly Poly Baby, I'm satisfied," but more a lot of fat jokes and taunting. But Parsnip, with her 4 Wisdom, thought they were her friends, and wrote it to please her, and she embraced the song, completely. She did "change a few of the words they wrote, because they just didn't make any sense. Some of those things they wrote are just impossible!" and now it is the jolly love song of the movie, but applied to a woman, instead of a man.
This is her theme song, to sing while traveling, or to cheer her up while she is sad, or to bolster her courage, when she is afraid.
We had a barbarian who had a default response of: "I lick it." He licked a mimic once. :D
Man, I want to be a parent like you some day.
I’m very glad that you two addressed the idea that you don’t have to actually yell, act or talk in accents to roleplay a character. I’ve seen dungeon masters at public events make new players yell ridiculously, to activate their barbarian’s rage.
I’ve had dungeon masters insist I figure out puzzles and technical problems that I have no real world knowledge of, even remotely, while the DM ignored that my character was designed to have that skill and solve it.
I am not my character.
I should not have to be able to disable a bomb in real life, to play a character that can. That’s as ridiculous as expecting me to cast real lightning bolts to play a wizard.
You mean you can't cast lightning bolts? The trick is carpet, wool socks, and low humidity.
Yea - I had a DM who wouldnt allow investigation rolls, because he thought we need to figure out stuff for ourselves.
As a DM, I bought a few puzzles to give to the players, just for some hands-on fun, but if they can't solve it within a few minutes, they can roll for it. I'll encourage the bard to sing, but by no means is it required. I also won't require anyone to dance, if they say, "I dance."
As for rage, my barbarian, with the 16 Intelligence, would say, "Tactically speaking, this seems like a logical time to rage. Rawr." But when she's REALLY angry, and actually enraged, she will yell and scream, and completely forget to take the Rage bonus action. Because she's too enraged to think clearly.
If I could actually disable a bomb I wouldn't be role-playing a character to do it
I think it depends on the type of game you are playing. Honestly, as a DM, I think the way it goes with skills in DnD what actually ends up happening is just creating extra work for the GM. Who will often also have to sort of play the game for the players.
Came for the self-doubt, stayed for the self-awareness
Thanks Dudes!
This is fantastic. I don't consider myself good at acting or voices etc but if the mood hits on a certain character I like to attempt it and push my comfort level. But more then anything I try to get into my characters personality and make decisions accordingly.
It was also a nice reminder to hear them say don't judge others and try to be supportive and have a positive attitude. Out if all the things they said that in my opinion was the most important. That is what will lead to having the most fun at the table.
That's the mindset we need!
You look like Doctor Strange
My kobold has a go to that if anyone stares at her, she simply waves politely.
I LOVE HER
@@CeruleanMirage Thank you. She is also a librarian, a Lore bard with plans to dip into Knowledge cleric. She also got stoned by a cockatrice one time and was a statue fixed in a dramatic faint, which at one point I said "if you look at matilda's statue at the right angle, it looks like she is giving a dainty, polite wave".
Simple but awesome!
My human rogue has started doing this and it wasn’t even something I planned.
A great quirk, I might borrow that. After like 17 years, I'm looking forward to finally playing a Kobold Bard inspired by Deekin Scalesinger from Neverwinter Nights with that new UA release. Writing an epic tale on our exploits while being a charming weird little dragon guy for the sake of pioneering a change to the public perception on Kobolds sounds like a lot of fun.
As a DM, I often give my important NPCs the personalities of people I know, but that my players do not. Old friends, family members, people from current or former jobs, etc.
This way, I find it easier to know how these NPCs will respond to what the players do or say, because I have first hand knowledge of their personalities.
Oh, wow. Great idea! I now have to make one of the NPC's begin every sentence with "Again," as if he's repeating himself, even though it's the first time he's said that thing. ESPECIALLY if it's the first time he's said that thing, and he's giving you instructions on a thing he knows you've never encountered before.
He's a good guy, but that particular quirk made him very annoying, when he was training one on a new technique for work.
THAT IS FUCKING AMAZING
Solid
I wish I could do that. Curse my less-than-average social experiences, lack of human observations and bad memory allocations.
thank you so much for touching on the "roleplay isnt just doing a funny voice" thing. oh my god ive dealt with this so much
Right? As much as I do put on a voice for my characters, as soon as another player says they weren't "expecting" that, I assure them there's nothing wrong with not doing that. I currently play in a small group where each of us just roleplays completely differently.
I’m playing a tortle in one of my games. I put on a deep, slow, Eeyore-like voice when we first started. While I do think it added something to the character, and other players seemed to like it, it got old for me pretty quick.
If you're going to create a character, have the foresight to create something you can really invest in and delve deep into for months to years. You're roleplaying. Play the role.
@@kev_whatev I've already decided to give my barbarian a lisp, but since it's a mannerism, and not a physical lisp, she may, over time, learn to let it go. Yay, character growth, while making my role-playing easier.
It definitely isn't necessary, but it can really add flavour. As an example, I played a Geonosian in a Star Wars campaign that lasted over a year. In addition to a raspy, creaky voice, I made a lot of clicking noises in between words. It really set the character apart.
The whole "mash up existing characters you like" is totally something I do. I'm currently playing an Oathbreaker paladin and I described her to my DM as "What if Brienne of Tarth gave up and became The Lich King"
I do the same thing! Those are a fun and wild extreme pair to bring together.
I hate when someone says a character idea that is so interesting that I am mad that I don't get to see it play out!
Agree 100%. My teenage Goliath barbarian is a mash-up of 2 anime characters, Inosuke and Goblin Slayer. No need to reinvent the wheel if I can have fun playing within a set framework, is how I see it.
I play a half elf cleric princess named Zelda Alagondar in my group’s Curse of Strahd campaign. This character was inspired by princess Zelda from the Legend of Zelda game series as well as Sansa Stark from Game of Thrones and the Royal Priesthood spoken of in the Bible. I also subconsciously incorporated aspects of the Bride of Christ in there. Over time she became her own character. During the campaign Strahd killed most of her family, endangered her kingdom (Neverwinter), toyed with the party, etc. We are almost done with the campaign now and my character is not the naive princess she was before. She has learned to be more active even if that means doing something dangerous or stupid. She has learned to not be so trusting and much more. One PC even taught my character how to follow her heart instead of duty or logic and it led to the two (Zelda Alagondar and Alexander Von Roeyen-Zarovich) having a wholesome forbidden romance in the story. Additionally I taught a few party members things as well. Overall, our party has become friends as a result of this horrific adventure.
My warforged is a combination of Data from star trek, and inspector gadget.
With regards to motivation to join the adventure, one example of a reluctant adventurer was my very first character, who was a bartender. The party met in the tavern and got the story hook there, left without paying their tab, so my character tagged along to make sure they succeeded so they could pay their tab (and he made some friends along the way).
That's amazing! If i wasn't a forever DM i'd totally steal that idea!
Or go the George Lucas route: Your character is a bartender. The Bad Guys burns down your Tavern. Now what?
You left the tavern for one tab? Hope you have someone running the bar. Probably steal it. Hope you trust them.
@@kyleanderson449 they drank a LOT of booze. Lol
@@shreddedyeet you should never let a tab get that big
Now if only I could find a way to share this to my group without coming off as passive aggressive
Well, you _could_ say, "I learned so much from this! It's given me a lot to think about."
_Or_ you could drop the passive part and just say, "You all need to watch this and learn. I mean, damn."
@@DurandalsFate haha both valid strategies. Our first session was rough on the role play but. Like, damn guys could you just "yes, and" and make this less painful for everyone?
@@DurandalsFate that's what I did. I watched it for myself because I am a player as well, but more of a DM. I shared it to our discord chat and said, "this was a great watch for me, and I feel it made me a better player!" 'Nuff said.
be aggressive-aggressive. "y'all suck at roleplay, watch this, it's homework"
"Hey, check out this channel! They have great advice about D&D, and I've improved a lot thanks to them." And link to this video.
Me: Damn, I'm out of things to watch that is longer than two minutes.
Dungeon Dudes 44 seconds later: We got you.
Lol, that’s EXACTLY what happened to me.
same
Straight up
My life
"The most interesting thing in a characters life shouldn't be in in backstory" is something I have said for years. THANK YOU
This video and the one on bonds and flaws also put into words ideas I've been trying to express for years. Frankly these two videos are compulsary viewing
Frankly, these guys' entire video outputs are compulsory if you wanna hear my opinion!
@@benjoffe948 agreed. I haven't watched all of their vids, but I've consumed a lot of them. I give them props for consistently having quality content week after week. They've easily become my go-to channel to watch over the past year.
@@Chefrabbitfoot Yep, agreed. And I haven't watched all their vids either, just wanted to make a strong point :P
I like to have something in my backstory that leads to a flaw in my personality *to be overcome*. Overcoming the flaw is the important part. I recently made an eladrin rogue who was cast out of fey society for her greed and materialism. She feels she can’t trust people, and looks out for herself above all else. But she’s about to be thrust into a great adventure with a group of people she’ll have to come to trust. It’s a shortcut to character development that leads to satisfying arcs.
@@kev_whatev Good idea!
Familiars are great. During one campaign our DM would place random low level items and potions in the pack of our wizard. It took a while for someone in the party to figure out that the wizards imp, the little bastard, was pilfering from strangers and shop owners.
This created a very interesting "situation" for the wizard. Say nothing and get free stuff or verbally repremand the imp to avoid trouble with NPCs. This was a great roleplay moment.
'That's roleplaying, baby' is by far the best part of this video :D
I once played a one-shot with a guy who rolled a Samurai who started the game avoiding the first combat, instead choosing to meditate upon how awesome he was. At every fork in the road he would insist on going down the opposite path to the rest of us. It was torture.
Oof. That type of character is the worst type of character.
Why didn’t you just let him go down that lonely road alone? While you headed toward to encounter? And if he wanted, he could come running to help?
Could be cool if the Samurai's initial opening to the campaign is him getting his delusions of grandeur absolutely shattered, and now his arc is picking up the pieces of his esteem while simultaneously earning the skills that match his prior ego.
@@genghisgalahad8465 "You go left. We'll be right behind you." Well, right, at any rate.
As a DM, my players are free to not follow the rest of the party to the adventure. If they don't want to adventure, they're free to stay behind. Just don't be surprised when your character doesn't have anything to do.
It happened once that the party was walking to the town's village center to do combat with the BBEG. The druid decided that with the combat going down, it would be the perfect time to steal some loot. In this small fishing village. With a population of less than 200. Anyways, they ended up exploring empty houses while the rest of the party had a badass encounter and fought/defeated the boss. So imagine my surprise later when this player later told me they were upset with me because I didn't let them participate in the combat encounter. The combat encounter lasted maybe 8 rounds? They argued that it was plenty enough time to hear the combat and run to the town center, which was decidedly far away from her position at the outskirts. Certainly more than the 640 ft of movement her maximum movement+dash would have gotten her, assuming she immediately knew what was happening the second it started. Which she wouldn't have. Because obviously.
But I digress. That player is not at my table any longer.
One quirk of my Inquisitive rogue is something she shares with the party artificer. Whenever they find something unusual, they experiment with it in silly ways, saying "For science!"
"This jewelry is fascinating!"
"Yes, that is a very fascinating necklace of fireballs. Do not heat it up or poke the red bits too hard."
Define silly
One of our players has a thing to remind him, when he as a player has doubts how his character would react in a situation he thinks to himself: "What Would Captain Flint Do? ". as in, Flint from the show Black Sails. It usually ends up as mayhem. But it always works and is always fun!
This is the way
My mother is playing for the first time, and she just created a D&D version of Mrs. Polifax, from the novels that she loves so much. She just has to remember that she's "an adventurer" and not "a spy with the CIA," but other than that, she can just ask herself, "What would Mrs. Polifax do?" and go from there.
She even named the character Emily Polifax, and I worked with her to write a D&D version of Emily Polifax' backstory.
I love the show Black Sails. People don't talk about it enough!
I love roleplaying, but only with my most recent character did I realize how powerful a tool making them less expressive than yourself is. I have a fairly monotone voice, but when I made my rogue even more monotone, it worked so well at conveying who she is
I once knew a man, who upon being told he was hired for the job he really wanted, said in the most monotone voice, "I know it doesn't seem that way, but I'm really quite excited."
He had a problem with his thyroid, and just could NOT get actively excited about anything, apparently.
@@AuntLoopy123 That sounds like a comedy skit honestly. Love it.
I have a character that is the child of powerful magicians, and the parents cast greater sending at odd times.
“No, Mom, I am always careful.
No...
N...
Every day...
No, I am not attacking any dragons today,
I am always careful,
I gotta go....
Ye.. Y.. No, but I gotta go. LoveYouBye.”
That is honestly genius.
@@benjoffe948 Thank you!!
Ya I’m definitely stealing that if I make a wizard
@@omwnoobs1513 Lel. Just make sure to not make it their ONLY character trait, just use it as a spice to their uniqueness.
Wow, awesome idea! I have a character that has parents and a wizard mentor, so I'm gonna use it at some point
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Having resumed D&D after a several decade break the whole "be your character" thing was quite a shock. Back in the day, it never occurred to us to speak in the 1st person but that didn't make my characters any less real or beloved. It's nice to get past that niggling "oh, I guess we were doing it wrong" feeling.
I play with someone who is from the Ad&d era. most of us enjoy acting and speaking in first person (theater nerds...) He doesn't, but he has some of the best characters out of all of us and is a better role-played than most everyone at the table (~30 years of experience helps with that 🙂)
Great advise. I've seen so many players (including me) focus so much of their time and effort on their backstories that they forget that the thing they should really be focusing on is who their characters are right now, and not who they were in the past. The backstory should be seen as a decision-making and roleplaying tool and not as your character's story, because their story is gonna come out when you play the game.
Indeed, a good backstory is, "This is why my character is desperate enough for money that they are willing to fight monsters for it." ;)
My small dip into trying to roleplay was playing my Illusionist who would talk to his mirror images. The party found him in a tavern having a deep conversation with himself, but he thought his images were real. Tried to use a bit of my Psychology education to bring him to life.
While not exactly this, I had a character concept for a Sorcerer who would have conversations with themselves using something like Major Image, where the conjured copy vocalizes concept in the subconscious, while the actual person voices their immediate thoughts. The Image would speak and make proper mannerisms, mildly mirroring the caster. Never got around to doing it yet, though. Neat to see someone else has something like that in their mind.
That’s actually pretty neat
That's a really cool idea, but would the others want to team up with someone who comes across as mentally unstable?
@@VinceValentine when does any member of any party not come across as a LITTLE mentally unstable?
@@josiebianchi3481 What kind of people do you play with?
I love being so early that there isn’t even a thumbnail, i feel special
I noticed that and I agree, I feel quite special
same, we are special
I have a “Tome” prop that I use for my Pact of the Tome Warlock. I’ve written down all the spells and cantrips in my tome. It’s a fun way for me to immediately become my character when I open my tome at the table.
That is pretty cool
I’m stealing this idea!!
@@zinnylinnie00 As a wizard, draw a picture on one side of an index card and write the spell effect on the other side.
Once you get enough cards together, glue the edges to a strip of duck tape, and you have a little pocket book of spell.
Or just have a home made deck of many spell.
Some of my artwork from high school has been floating around for thirty years.
Love that you guys say that it’s perfectly fine to take inspiration from favorite characters. Some of the best characters in our games had surprising base inspirations. In our current campaign, a quasi-Kingmaker maker campaign where we’re defending and expanding a remote village into a great city, my wife is playing a Goliath bard who is functionally Leslie Knope. Disarmingly positive, super energetic, and willing to anything to make her city great- but in the surprising package of an 8 foot tall burly Goliath who looks like she’ll grind you into the dirt while actually bringing rice krispy treats town council meeting.
The bit about voice acting is important, and also true even in a streaming setting. Just look at the Oxventure, with all the players keeping their normal voices and strange senses of humor.
This is now mandatory viewing in my session 0 prep when I DM. Just sent links to a group starting beginning of May. Thank you guys so much for the great content and having such a variety of content types.
I love how this whole video is based on basically just being a decent human being.
I played a character with bad anxiety once, the poor thing was afraid of everything and everyone. But he also believed really strongly in protecting other people and he didn't really value his own safety. So I never had a problem getting him to follow quest hooks. I think a lot of it is about coming up with a character that fits the kind of game everyone wants to play.
I have a character like that, too! She's very shy and timid, but she's also basically decided that the only way she can justify taking up space in the world is by helping people and making herself useful to others however she can, so that's what spurs her to act in spite of her nerves. Still waiting for a chance to play her, so I don't know for sure how her story will play out, but I think it'll be fun~.
@@elsie8757 I definitely had a lot of fun playing Glory. Party interactions were always a blast. Even arguments, he really got off on the wrong foot with one of the other party members and the way they gradually came to understand each other was wonderful. It was really nice having him build up friendships as well.
The downside, compared to more optimistic characters I've played, was that I often felt much more anxious after a session getting into his head. Took a while to calm down afterwards.
So you played an anime main character 😝
@@jeffreyfinney251 Lol yeah I kinda did. We all had fun and that was the important thing. My current character is also a little anime-ish in that his main motivation is wanting to be the best at what he does. It works so long as you don't try to become the main character of the game and consistently support the other player characters.
@@lkriticos7619 it sounds fun. im just giving you a hard time . :)
Thanks for this video. Reminds me a lot of Matt Colville’s video on role playing.
Luke the reluctant hero, so what does George Lucas do to get our hero going? Barbecues his aunt and uncle and shows him their smoking corpses.
“If they don’t trust each other and don’t like each other, it’s going to put a lot of pressure on Dungeon Master to figure out why all these people would be working together.” - whoah whoah whoah. Hold up. How is this DMs responsibility. It’s the issue of entire table. As the DM I literally say “You picked those characters. You figure out why would they work together. If they don’t, make new ones.”
The DM can’t allow players full agency of making their characters without players also fixing what they have done.
That's the exact point they were making in the video. Their point was that if the players don't do this, it makes life difficult for the DM, so the players need to consider how their characters will mesh with other characters in the party.
This is why I'm so happy to have Party Patrons in Rising and Tasha's. At session zero, I have the table agree on a Party Patron and that helps inform how they know each other and what specialized characters to make. It really helps to form a more coherent party in my opinion.
It also helps me fine tune the campaign outline I make based on the Patron.
Can't imagine a scenario where the rogue gets caught stealing for being shifty and goes "How do i get out of this DM?"
Bitch, you got yourself into this, it's not my problem. Want advice? roll a new character
Also, people that do stupid shit and go "it's why my character would do" aren't just being toxic, but also wrong. If a character is an experienced thief, it isn't going to pick pocket any rando in a tavern like a dumbass, an evil character that has feigned to be an ally for various sessions won't suddenly throw all away because they want a shiny from another player, etc
That depends. I think the real issue is bad plot and hooks from DM. When I am going to DM I will be building a rather elaborate world with multiple plots that they can choose to follow. Most of which are rather open to the players. For example the first one is how they all plan to meet is through recruitment to sail to “the new world” to find out what’s missing with the colony they sent out and haven’t heard from. One character just wants a bigger swamp for his people, one wishes to flee the government and sneaks on, etc.
Then when they get there a good chunk will be rp and survive (we’re doing hyper realism).
So it depends on what type of campaign, if you’re doing one you plan to be longer you’re gonna need more options.
And honestly I do not find it troublesome to make a scenario to help fit all the characters. Just takes a bit of creativity. And honesty after making continents, history of the world, etc… the start is hardly the biggest bear I’ve had to tackle.
Did you even listen to that section? They're saying that if bad players are doing that, it's unfairly forcing the DM to try rationalise the situation. They aren't saying that the DM *should* be responsible for that. They are saying that when bad players act like this, it negatively affects the DM and increases their workload.
Going back and watching this video, one of the favorite parts about my group is we all try to do different funny voices for different characters even though we all suck at it. Every time somebody starts a new voice the whole table gets a good laugh because we love it so much and it helps everybody be more comfortable with the idea when you get to laugh at yourself every once in a while.
A cool idea for creating a character is to go against what is considered common. For example, I've thought of a Barbarian who is very empathetic, which ties into how she enters her rage, as she can feel the aggressive emotions of everyone, and she doesn't like fighting, even though she's very good at it.
Yep, that's a good idea, but A: Don't make that the only character trait of your character, and B: Make sure to not go a COMPLETE 180 to the common thing, otherwise it might loose some of it's charm.
But in general, yeah, that's a great idea for how to make a character feel unique! Barbarian Rages, for example are one of the most flexible mechanics flavor-wise, if you think about it, as long as you ignore the name.
Bro that’s an awesome idea and I’m totally going to steal it lol
I had a barbarian who was pretty much an idiot, and when he entered his rage he went into playtime mode with the monsters
@@evilsquirrel0573 HAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH! I can imagine that'd be very entertaining to describe!
What I’ve found is that many people have opted to do the whole “turn common tropes on their head” character creation idea, to the point where these ‘atypical’ characters end up becoming tropes of their own. Sometimes they can be just as predictable as the thing they were trying to deviate from.
Not bashing on your character ideas. If it’s cool for you, have a blast with it. I’m just sharing my experiences with these sorts of characters.
This video, particularly the section on Voices & Acting, is a freaking gem. Good job dudes.
I am sharing this to my players very new to D&D. They worry so much about not roleplaying "right" or "enough" and this video organizes the general things I say to them to assure them not to worry so much. Thanks for the great video (as always)!
This video actually helped me realized that 1) my favorite character that I've made, Arseris, is based on a cliché (chaotic neutral pickpocket rogue™) and I don't care because I love them, and 2) I subconsciously based them off of the main character of my favorite book series to an extent. Honestly this video just made me love them even more.
The slight mispronunciation of "mannerisms" implies a scarring past experience of when they witnessed a player strain their brain just a little too hard trying to get into character.
Im sorry for going off topic but the back of Monty's hair was living it's own life throughout this video. I was hypnotized.
I have DM'd sessions with players who were not about wanting to adventure. I've decided to thank them for coming, and proceed the campaign for the players that actually do want to play D&D.
I mean, there are campaigns about just RP on the spot and not much adventuring, specially political campaigns ("that thing... it scares me")
But this kind of shit has to be communicated properly
pov: you watch all of their videos and cry about not having a dnd party
When someone else is having their moment in the spotlight, do not try to steal their scene. Also do not make constant meow noises in the background when someone else is having a conversation with either a NPC or another character as it is annoying and disruptive, even if you are a Tabaxi.
Something adjacent to the Tabaxi issue--if you are playing a Minotaur, you need not remind everyone else of this by mooing incessantly...even during Stealth checks. "My character can't control the mooing" is not an excuse.
As a smol kittens I take that pewsonawwy
If they think its fun and arent being obnoxious like interrupting others let them moo
A note on the body language section:
Changing your position can actually change your voice a little bit. Partly through how your throat is sitting.
It can be pretty subtle, but it can help.
A good part of it is subconscious too lol.
You'll note that singers do it all the time when their trying to hit a particularly difficult note. (Its a bad habit, btw. Don't do it when you sing it strains you lol)
Try tipping your head back and forth as you talk to see for yourself. if you don't hear it try doing it more extremely, you can kind of self correct when you're conscious about it lol
Thanks for this video dudes! I have been Dming for almost a year and take a lot of my knowledge of DND from your campaigns as well as Critical Role. I have been hopeing that my players would start "role-playing" better, and, after watching this video, I realize they already are! My players are not great actors, but they are playing their characters really well. So, thanks for helping me to realize that my players are awesome, and to shift my ideals on how a game should be role-played.
This is a commonly asked question glad you guys also addressed it. The first 2 parts are incredibly important.
I'm playing a Echo Knight currently and the quirk that I have with him is, when he is by himself or really at a lost, he will look off to the side and start talking to his echo.
How to avoid terrible RP and 75% of the video is about how to have great RP. I really enjoy this one good job !
They got to Tropes and Cliches and my first thought immediately went to "go for the eyes, Boo!"
A miniature giant space hamster is the best cliche
Minsc is why I gave the bard a pet mouse.
Their suggestion of drawing inspiration from characters in books, movies, TV, whatever is sound advice. A few years ago, I played an elf Ranger whose personality I based on Nancy from The Craft (before she went psycho). I played a Druid who was loosely based on Fluttershy from My Little Pony:Friendship is Magic. In another game, my warlock is modeled after Serena, Samantha's cousin from Bewitched. All have easy quirks I can fall back on in a pinch because I know those characters so well.
Not everyone is a professional writer after all, taking ideas that have been proven to work can help a lot for the same reason UA gets play tested before being made official
Re: character voicing I found that my initial discomfort in D&D during my first major and long-running campaign unintentionally gave my character one of his hallmark key and quirky personality feats.
Early on I would always preface my interactions with my character name (insert action or response). It just stuck and now he speaks in the third person and is his own fully realized character filled with quirks and energy. Letting go of this self consciousness because I didn't otherwise have a voice or other identifiable trait, combined with my group encouraging me and coming to like the third person quirk, gave me space to grow into a more comfortable player. Now he has his own voice (later added because I felt ready and wanted to give him one), a defined peronsonality, and more. I feel more prepared to now create fully realized characters with whatever inclusions I want, free of consciousness.
Letting go of my high expectations of myself and being part of a welcoming group was probably the most influential element to me growing into D&D more and roleplaying better. I find the rest is just about excitement, research, and a DM collaborative discussion of possibilities.
"[...] there are a lot of sources out there that are excellently roleplayed live-stream campaigns". Seems like a good time to remind everyone to watch the Drakkenheim campaigns!
I'm a big fan of those.
I just discovered your channel and wanted to let you a positive word.
I would even have read "How to easily play well in any Roleplaying Game" as a more appropriate title,
since you give positive advices, easy to apply suggestions, while underlining good values among players.
Your content is well prepared, well delivered, affordable for all and instructive.
You presentation, background, lighting and overall quality is noticeable.
Wishing you the best in your current and future projects.
I love the recommendations about voice acting and mannerisms. Kelly and Monty are so good at it, it's amazing!
This video is worthy of a must watch. Shared it with my party.
I got teary eyed through watching the video. Especially when you mentioned the third person roleplaying. :)
I play with someone who almost exclusively speaks in the third person and he very well may be the best role-player at the table. I enjoy the first person acting/voice acting, but I learn a ton from him on how to create, embody and play out an interesting character.
Was watching a campaign online with my friend and they couldn’t believe how well the players/dungeon master did playing the game. Ironically.. it was actually You Guys, with Jill and Joe. I was actually watching Shadows of Drakenheim..
My step son (21) has been playing for a few years now, and I had limited prior experience when i was a teen (49 now). He came to us (his Mom, myself, and his 9 year old brother) asking if we would be interested in playing as he learns to DM, and we have been having a blast! His Aunt even plays with us now and our table ranges in age from 9 to 60, each of us having very unique role playing styles. I say all of this to say that your videos have helped so much in the evolution of our game play. I appreciate you guys so much. Thank you.
You guys really know how to keep your videos the perfect length, it's always a perfect deep dive without ever being boring. Amazing work dudes!
I am going to make a warlock kenku, who made a pact with Demogorgon, just because he wants magic powers to fly. He always wastes his few spell slots to cast the Fly spell on himself.
honestly the best video on roleplaying i've seen so far. two things i personally like for my characters is to 1 make sure to have a core memory to draw from and 2 imagine what activities my characters take part of in their spare time.
I'm only half way through the video but the section on seeking adventure helped me crack a huge block I'd been having in connecting with my character concept!!! I've finally figured out the change I needed to make to her recent backstory so that she really resonates with me
Finally video regarding Mercer effect and other Critical Role related problems in DnD community.
You do a great job Dudes. Keep it up!
dude, there have been hunderds of videos talking about this problem in detail for years now.
@@MythicMachina that's true. Yet haven't seen one from DDudes.
Feel like the title of this could also be “understanding different types of roleplayers and learning to accept them”
This vid really helped me, thanks dudes
I usually have a round about idea of what kind of person my character would be but only when I sit down and play through his experiences do I truly know who that character is
Hello, just got into DnD and your guides have been so helpful to me, they were informative and useful, thanks so much for doing what you do Dungeon Dudes!
Great advice! One of my favorite characters to play is actually a really simple oned. Sometimes a simpler character can be more fun cus it's easier to know what they would do. Loud, confident/boisterous Triton Eldritch Knight that comes from a family of heroes. He was 15 when he started the campaign and was very naive, wanting to be the hero that could save everyone and just get strong. He went through a depression when he realized this wasn't possible in this setting, seeing a dragon and wizard destroy entire cities before his eyes. Now he's prepared to accept losses more easily, retreat, see the bigger picture when it comes to saving as many lives as possible, but he hasn't lost heart and seeks to become strong enough to never need to make those sacrifices again and to really achieve a level of power where he really can be that hero he always dreamed of, but he's aware that he's no where near that yet.
Tip: If you don’t have a moral reason, have a price. A character who might not care about defeating the BBEG or is too scared to go on the quest, have them be in it for the fame and fortune that generally comes with adventuring.
I like how this is essentially a fight against the matt mercer effect lol
Yeah. Voice acting/acting can be a ton of fun, but it doesn't necessarily make you good at playing a character. And you can play a great character without voice acting/acting or even speaking in the first person! I'm in a game where most of us really enjoy the voicing and first person speaking, but one player just doesn't enjoy that personally. But his character is one of the most in-depth and interesting characters in the party!
Thank you guys this video has enlightened me on how i can roleplaying my characters.
It's so hard to get roleplay going with the group I play with simply because I'll start trying but everyone else is very okay just playing as if it's them not their character. Sorry if I worded that poorly, hope my point gets across lol
Been there. Sucks.
Larp, live action role play, I am a home body that prefer not to leave the house, so anytime I went out to a gaming shop .. I was In Character.
I normally play multi-class rogue/wizard with proficiency/ skills in preform( acting), bluff, and disguise. It is my protective wall with dealing with people and keep my personal boundry safety zone.
Unless I', playing White Wolf/ World of Darkness: Changleling the Lost where every character has some type of mental disorder. At that point everyone is really playing themselves. I found from playing D&D over the years, you get these people who write down on their PC sheets that they are neutral good end up playing chaotic stupid or just drift strait into neutral evil. Play Vampire the Masquerade/ Sabbat gave some good insight of the people I was dealing with. You have .. posers .. and then you have smug azz holes in self denial.
As I pointed out to people who don't RPG,
People who sit down to a gaming group .. know .. the whole thing is a bull zhit story, ..
On the other hand people who get drunk at bars and house parties end up believing their own bull zhit.
I like gaming shops over house games cause the lack of public drinking and public/ personal boundry are maintain.
Also dinning rooms get really small once you get around a dozen people in them.
Yeah, I had the same thing, all of my players play themselves. With arcane powers and oversized axes. But thats fine, even if they dont invent a deep backstory and stick to their characters imaginary traumas its ok. As long as they engage with the story and the world I dont really care if its JoeBob the depresed call center Wizard or Molaghar Dragonthorn the dragonborn paladin sworn to protect and uphold the tenants of bla bla bla... Being your boring old self with the ability to crack some skulls while stuff is on fire is enough for some people.
Offer them an alternative but dont be mad if they have fun as is, some people just like playing a powered version of themselves.
One of your best Videos! Under the topic of roleplaying advice, it covers so much more.. From Session 0 over motivation to politeness at the table. Thank you, guys!
Love this video 💖 as someone who's favourite part of d&d is the roleplaying, these tips are excellent!
"stay home to smoke pipe weed and eat cheese all day" what a champion :D
This was definitely a worthwhile watch, in one campaign I'm playing a tiefling light domain cleric. With her backstory it's a little difficult for myself, a single man in his early 20's, to relate to a 40 year old widowed woman.
So far what I've been doing is I switch between talking in 1st and 3rd person, really only busting out the 3rd person if a moment happens where I simply can't accurately portray what Kindle is feeling in 1st person (Whether that being my confidence or my vocal range). When I talk in character all I really do is talk in my head voice in a soft but stern way.
I really need to think realistically as to what fictional characters I can use as a fall back for her as inspiration and also think about how she's grown (considering we're about to hit level 9).
Great video!
monty, your hair is wild today
Thought the same. That beard always on point though.
Monty Fashion Watch is about to become a thing
Havent seen it yet, still on the ad....
Monty's hair was roleplaying a nuisance today.
Very John Belushi...I dig it !
Thank you for this video. I have struggled quite a bit RPing in a DnD setting for my first campaign. I'm an experienced roleplayer, but I'd never done tabletops before. All my previous experience was in collaborative storytelling, forum RPs, and a few multiplayer games. DnD took me way out of my comfort zone -- more than I expected.
Watching this video has helped, but also made me second-guess myself.
I typically rely on the trope of a parent, child or loved one is sick or missing for the reason that they are adventuring. It gives the dm plenty to work with and I usually throw in a childhood friend or rival for them to use.
Obviously Sir Zur Gideon the Magnificent is the exception with his 17 page epic backstory that is 100% bull crap and lies.
I assume the DM knows the REAL backstory he doesn't want anyone else to know, that will come and bite him in the butt, someday when everything seems peaceful.
@@AuntLoopy123 oh the players know he's full of crap too. Their characters don't.
@@jacobyspurnger8488 That's the best way to play a liar. And then, everyone can feel the joy of watching the lies unravel, while their characters respond, and maybe even have to deal with some real anger issues because of it, all while the players are high-fiving and having a blast.
@@AuntLoopy123 best way to "it's what my character would do" without being a jerk.
I'm fully convinced IRL that Sir Zur Gideon the Magnificent is the greatest character ever, maybe his enchantment magic has worked on me 🤔
As a new roleplayer this was very reassuring, thanks guys!
A general question to anyone out there. I'm playing a half orc barbarian with an 8 int and 13 wisdom. I think I'm starting to get a handle on how those are played differently, but I struggle with contributing to group decisions. I have ideas about what the party might do but I don't think my character would. So I guess what I'm asking is what are some things I can do other than remaining silent?
8 Int means he can't read, but could probably do math, and maybe he's really good with money. I used to babysit for a kid who couldn't recognize the numbers in a math book, but give him money, and he could make change faster than you could blink. Good thing his parents owned a store, and he was being trained to work it.
13 wisdom means he's just a little above average common sense.
My barbarian is the opposite. She has 16 intelligence (was training to become a wizard, before she ran away to become a barbarian) but a 4 Wisdom.
In battle, she will say, "Tactically speaking, this appears to be a logical time to rage. Rawr." But, if you touch her Issue #69 of Barbarian Weekly, she will be so ENRAGED that she will yell and scream and use her bonus action to climb up your body (she's a gnome), specifically so that she can bite your nose off, but she'll clean forget to actually use a bonus action to rage. She's too angry to think straight.
She's book smart and street dumb. Your barbarian would be more street smart and book dumb.
At 8 Int, he probably knows letters and numbers, but now how they go together to form words, and would be stuck with basic arithmetic, like "Apples cost 2 copper apiece. How much do you have to pay for 4 apples," he could probably figure out, because that's copper pieces, and he uses them all the time. He can count to ten, easy! "Eight copper pieces." But, write out "2 x 4 = " and he wouldn't have a clue what that meant, except that there's a 2 and a 4. But, if you want to ask him for relationship advice, he'd probably be pretty good at it, if not a complete expert. He'd give advice like, "Treat women the same way you'd treat men," but then not be surprised when you start arm-wrestling your crush.
Thank you so much for sharing your good advice here. Indeed, we all play with different role-playing styles, and positive encouragement can go a long way! Additionally, I like how you distinguish between the "backstory" and the "personality traits".
Its a bit cringy but i like HAVE to put on a voice to get into character, it just helps me mentally
Hey, if it helps it helps, if I don't do a voice I just end up thinking like me
it's only crigny if you tell yourself it is. and if you want to give your charatcer a voice while keeping it simple, you can simply just talk either a little softer or harsher than you normally do. that can be enough for a voice.
@@MythicMachina My friend created a Paladin with a gruff voice and I created a Dragonborn Cleric, and as a result, we both talk to each other in-character sounding like same-y bad Geralt impressions and it was kinda fun. It's really hard to add that extra depth to the dragonborn voice to make it sound more unnatural and reptilian without hurting my throat, so that's how we end up sounding so similar.
@@AnaseSkyrider if you guys know who is who, then it's not really a problem. plus, plenty of people sound similar irl
@@MythicMachina Absolutely, but it was still funny to have the two grim growling grumbly men grimly growling and grumbling at each other.
I love that this is about working very well with others who are very different than you. I don’t think they’re trying to, but I think they’re succeeding, at giving guidelines for functional and sustainable teaming. I could see something like this being useful at a corporate level. As humans one of our most primal mechanisms is the story. A masters degree or a doctorate is really being verbally tutored and mentored by the “elders“. It’s the soul of human communication.
Can someone in the corporate world please put together a "team building exercise," where instead of doing trust falls with your team-mates, you spend an afternoon doing a one shot (similar to Adventurer's League, where you all do the same story, but at different tables, in smaller groups)?
@@AuntLoopy123 That is so brilliant!! Now if only there were a way to share comments, like yours, with some bright folks who might do it. I would share yours because it is your idea, and I believe in meritocracy, one of the old-school Intel Semiconductor values.
Fantastic video!
I find that a lot of people confuse "accents" with "voices." As you noted, changing the pitch or speed at which you talk makes a huge difference -- and prevents the stupidity of all dwarves being scottish. You can also change the rhythm or melody of your voice. In fact, when learning a foreign language, learning the "music" of the language is an exceptionally strong tool. Making one up is just as viable. The same goes for picking up expressions or rhythms in an British accent, for example.
That said, I find both accents and voices quite difficult to maintain. While I could just give up on it, I'd rather learn how to get into character (will be googling it right after this). Yet even before knowing how to get into character, I can see how important it is to do so. If you know how your character would be feeling, or what they might be thinking about in the back of their minds, it's much easier to decide what they might say or do in response to events around them.
I also like what you said about tropes and cliches. But it's also fun to subvert them -- which is a cliche in itself. As a player, I think it's good to flip some aspects of a cliche, at least part of the way. I've also found, though, that 5e gives you so many more tools than earlier editions, when creating your character. Even just reading the description of a race or subclass can provide inspiration. Then tying that in with their origin, ideals, etc can be incredibly rewarding. Interestingly, I feel the DM may not want to know all the detail of your backstory. Better to give them just a few hooks. In fact, some DMs will ask players to answer a number of questions out of a list. Asking, "what's your favourite drink?" led to me concocting a story of bullying at my monastery that led to a dare to enter a forbidden forest to gather berries for my favourite wine -- which ended up awakening my Shadar-kai heritage!
Now for that Google search... ;)
Really great ideas and points here.
When i first started d and d i did not really understand the role playing aspect and strangly the class i fell most in love with for rp tended to be the religous or monklike attitudes for exacltey the reasons given in this video i could come up with mini stories based on deity or belief in either plain langauge or metaphor and could add little rituals, actions/mannerisms or phrases to express belief and this was a really quick way of estbalishing a charcter.
This is something i think the 5th edtion version of the roles has done very well for new players with the idea of backgrounds, bonds, flaws, ideals and to a lesser extent personalty traits...but this is also so universal you could apply it to any other game as well
Improv courses can do wonders for both players and DMs. They teach numerous skills that translate extremely well into TTRPGs. It can help DMs can come up with interesting NPCs on the fly, or help players with their own characterisations. It teaches the importance of listening and finding the interest in any scenario.
Just wanted to say I love your guys content. Please keep being awesome!
Great episode. Before the great 5th edition personality tools I used to take a small part of my own personality and blow it up to make it the biggest thing about the personality of a character I was making.
Your character, Sebastian Crow reminded me of a Warlock I played, Grant Bishop. I based him on Constantine and Harry Dresden.
Great Video Guys, thanks a lot.
Hey, Dudes! I've been watching your channel for almost two years and I love all your advice videos, but I must say this was the best one by far!
I made a High Int, Low Wis character but rather than making him like super airheady, he's got gifted and talented burn out and ADHD (Based on my own personal experiences with them). So he's intelligent but his brain processes things differently. And since i really dont know how my ADHD will affect me in real life...i roll a D20 and refer to an "ADHD table" based what ive done in the past. The irony of playing myself in game with more control of their life is just...astounding.
So helpful! I created some parts of my character that I really liked, then got discouraged and stopped having fun when I felt like I didn't use the right vernacular or voice for what I created. So then I just ignored my character's backstory altogether and am now a little bland. This is so helpful and I'm way excited to have a lot more fun in my campaign! Thank you!
In our Starter Set game, we're playing pre-made characters that came with the game, so players could "plug and play" the same day they get it.
My wizard is supposed to be all about long-winded multi-syllabic words to make her seem smarter than everyone else, but I frequently forget any of that. However, I made her an absolute loot hound.
"You see some barrels."
"What's in the barrels?"
"Various supplies."
"What kind of supplies?"
"One barrel of oats, one of wheat, one of potatoes, one of salt..."
"OK, I make a note to come back with a cart and get the barrels of trade goods."
...
"You see a room full of planks of wood, hammers, crowbars, boxes of nails."
"I grab two handfuls of nails, three hammers, and a couple of crowbars, and stick them in my pack."
"OK."
"I also make a note to come back with a cart and get the rest of this stuff, for trade goods."
That said, she cares about GETTING the loot. She's not that fussed about actually keeping it.
Meanwhile, the fighter (I had to play 2 characters, due to not having enough players. My niece is doubled-up, too), who has a noble background, "Sir Loin of Beefly," is supposed to be all about the gold, but the way I play him, he hired the other people to join him on his quest, and promised them 5 gp at the end of it, to which they all agreed (for a measly five gold? But they all have their own reasons to go), and he has already begun paying them "in installments" of 3 gp, after each little adventure, and giving away money to the family of people the bad guys killed, and adopting a goblin and cutting him in for a share, and paying for the goblin's room, board and bath... Yeah, he's not the way he was written, at all. It just came out during game play.
And the "noblesse oblige" nobleman, who has completely lost track of how much he's paying his companions, organized with the loot hound to go back to the manor and get ALL the trade goods, and then donate them to the families of the people who had been hit hardest by the bad guys.
They're not going to get rich, any time soon.
Starting from a celebrity or preexisting character impression is great advice. I've played a grave cleric who is basically the Medic from TF2.
I'm someone who finds typical heroism corny and who generally leans into reluctant, flawed heroes. But, as you said, that can be really frustrating for DMs. It's the responsibility of players to give their PCs sufficient motivation to go on the quest and be invested in their team.
A good way around this is to pinch a bit of the Acquisitions Inc idea and make the characters start the adventure life as part of their job description. So maybe they've been hired by a franchise (or from a patron - my personal favouriteis Morgrave University or Dezina Museum as they both have the same goal to find artifacts, though the university is more in it to sell anything and everything on the black market but any place like those would do if you don't want to start at an adventure guild..or the newspapers that come with Eberron can be reflavored for other settings..journalists looking for the next story where they shouldn't be is another way to give motivation with a job description) to do the dirty work of investigating monster sightings, strange ruins ect. The characters then to start with need no more motivation that this is just so they can earn coin to put food on the table.... once they're comfortable you can start drawing them into the main story hooks (especially if it's around a mcguffin) and those ordinary coin seekers suddenly realise they're in for more than they bargind for and hopefully by that point they're more willing to go further and do some adventures outside the comfort bubble.
I always have one player at the table who's character is only motivated by getting enough coin to go drinking or something like that, so I make alot of stuff happen at these places where that character can not just only visit in downtime, but get into all sorts of trouble like bar fights ect that lead into other adventures. A good DM should be able to play on those things, but eventually the character has to let the others at the table find the adventure too
Really appreciate you guys putting awesome and helpful content up so consistently! Much love
'Maneurisms' gave me aneurisms.
I'm just kidding guys, the video is great. I honestly passed this one over a few times because of the title and I don't really play 5e, but this is a super valuable reminder/introduction for role-playing in ttrpgs.
This is one of your most useful videos yet. Very great advice on role-playing. Love it!
I am going to send this to my players. All my players listen-watch DnD games with voice actors and a much higher production value than I can afford. I really appreciate the tips&tricks offered here!
I love the idea of combining different pop culture characters. I use that a lot. My current Hexblade is a combination of Giladaroy Lockhart and Shaggy from Scooby Doo. He is super boastful when he isn't in battle but goes full Shaggy when anything threatens him. His Hexspear is sentient and attacks for him while he gets rag dolled around. If anything startles him, he automatically eldritch blasts it. It's been super fun, especially since we are exploring a haunted house right now.
I would love to do a barbarian braggart who's done amazing things like wrestling the God of the Sea, but have him as a sort of unreliable narrator for his own backstory. Sure, that's what he thinks happened, but he really traded body shots the Dwarven barmaid of their house brew, and the dock master furious at him for breaking the new hoist
My DnD group also LARPS so we have a bunch of random clothes, costumes, and armors in a bin. Usually, during session 0, we use it to help either inspire our characters or find a token to connect to them (just like they said in the vid). I find it helps me get into the right mindset and helps me keep different characters separate in my mind when we have multiple campaigns running at the same time.
"The Dudes try their hardest not to name-drop Critical Role"
My favourite character I've ever played was a paladin whose voice was a cross between Brian Blessed and Matt Berry, with a list of titles that grew and grew over time. Hector brought an energy to the table and encouraged others to come out of their shells too!
7:28 Hey kids, let’s rap. That’s right. I’m the cool teacher.