Matthew Mercer teaches us how to get your group to roleplay, because sometimes it doesn’t come naturally. Character background stories, engaging conversation comfortably, and leaving your comfort zone are just a few ways to get started.
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You dont want ROLEPLAYERS you want p0s actors. You are really runing rpgs.
The stuff in the books are just p0s.
Something that gave me confidence in RP was a thought from Tomb of Lime Gaming; in all the systems and mechanics of table top games, role play is the oldest and most human of them. Weve been roleplaying for a long long time as a species , having a bit of comfort in that helps me let loose and make mistakes
The players need some meta to anchor themselves, but there's a balance there, in that too much meta leads to "character telepathy". But yes, that said, all these tips are very useful.
I am starting to bring little things that my character would actually own, and physically manipulate them as I play her character. Think of some physical habits, they have, like playing with their hair, or spinning a knife or a razor, or just adopting a heroic stance, and use that when you are emoting as your character. If you put your physicality into your play, you will find it easier to inhabit the sensibilities of a different person.
Sound advice 🙂
I used to run TMNT back in the 90s and early 2000s. I'm planning to run a campaign with my 3 kids, after not having played in two decades. Loved this video. Thank you for this excellent, clear advice.
I wish I had a group of friends to play DnD with. Since I've discovered Critical Role a couple of months ago I got into it more and more. Shame I don't have any friends who are into stuff like this. My only escpace to a somewhat similar experience is Baldur's Gate 3…
Doing this over voice chat is harder, but not impossible. I try to make a very distinct personality for all the characters I play, and embrace that personality through everything I do – whether that be as a DM playing an NPC, or a player.
This makes me still miss my roleplay heavy game. The beast “schedule conflicts” defeated us and the game got iced for it. I’d take the character elsewhere to get some closer but the issue is that I designed him to be the type of person who tries to present themselves and adjust themselves to the group around them (people pleaser? probably) so who he was for this original campaign is entirely different from who he would be with a different one. So there really would be no closure. Ah well. I have been trying to roleplay more in other groups but none of these are as deeply roleplay heavy nor have nearly the same amount of intrigue going on. A pity but understandable. It’s just not the same people and isn’t fair to ask them to be. But yeah, this video made me miss that table a lot. Hopefully, even if it’s not the same campaign, maybe one day we can all get together to play again.
This Short video is a Magna Summa of dungeonmastering. Thanks a lot!
This is where DMing for kids is great – playing pretend is more natural for them. In my last session, a 9 year old dragonborn barbarian gave an NPC a full dramatic recounting of their recent battle, unprompted. It was glorious.
Alright, heres a little story about my current DnD campaign. So i have been DM’ing a small group (only two other players), and its their first long campaign, so i was excited to see them really play dnd for the first time. And so one of my players immediately caught on with the role-play. His character was a Selfish 15 year old Artificer Goblin whos simply on this adventure to get out of debt (therapy bills). And it was a fun idea. I love when characters go on it for reasons that aren’t as simple as, im a good guy. Sometimes its more interesting. I personally find that more fun to play. And throughout our sessions, you can see his character really start to change and grow, as he meets an NPC who becomes a beloved character of the party, My friends character starts to care about some of the people around him, and develop a reason to fight the BBEG. Unfortunately, the other player wasnt as great with roleplay. She plays a Dhampir Monk (even though in character shes technically not. Just like a really strong half-vampire.) who is the daughter of Strahd Van Zarovich (We have been in a ravenloft setting) and she has asked me to give her more roleplay opportunity because she wants to roleplay, but every time (and i mean every time) she doesnt engage with the roleplay. For example: another royalty of ravenloft wants her to consider joining her for dinner. Doesnt go along with it or even try and use it to help them escape. She just says no and ends up fighting her. She also asked for more puzzles and immediately died on the first one and luckily we were in a place where she could be revived but ive tried so hard to make the campaign fun for her and she wont interact with any of it.
I’m a theater major in college studying to be a drama therapist and teacher and I really want to bring D&D into my work – this is really helpful stuff!!
I know I'm six years late to the party, but I've found that there's a correlation between the amount of backstory players write about their character and the amount of stupid behavior they display ingame.
The more backstory, the less stupid behavior is displayed. Investing time and effort into a character, players are less likely to risk their death.
this moment also so happens to be Mat's audition for a lucky charms commercial 3:22
I just DM'd my first session ever and it was for all new players. Nobody has played before, and after tonight's session, they started buying things for me and the campaign to make it better. They are hooked. One at the beginning even said "I don't like roleplaying." And by the end she was doing more rp than the group. Group is still lvl 2, but I ended them with a sick cliffhanger. They investigated an abandoned manor, she (our elf druid) noticed the rug was of elven make unlike the rest and looked under it. As she lifted it, a banshee rose partly through and let out a Wail practically nose to nose. She dropped to zero HP (failed save) and the rest took a heavy chunk of dmg.
Ended the session there. Turns out I love being a DM and watching the players interact.
Cha'alt!
The hardest part about roleplaying for me, is my native language. I feel akward and super limited in what voices and accents I can do, to make my characters unique. In english however, I can do so many accents and creative voices.
Thank you Matt
"Hold eye contact to engage your players", "think about your characters body language" cries in online game without cameras
im going to DM my first dnd game soon.
Everyone in my family hates d and d. They don’t understand how much fun it is!
I wanna play this game but im a nervous wreck and i fear i would very well just end up being the "Diablo" type player and ruin the fun
I think the biggest piece of advice is just to remember that you're playing a game for a couple of your friends, not performing at a blackbox theater. Even if you accidentally did everything the complete opposite of what this video says, the right group will still have an alright time because everyone is happy to hang out and play anything. It's super easy to get into the mindset that the GM has to be perfect but, in reality, everyone still understands that we're all just making it up as we go along.
i have never been a voice actor nor rp'r not in 1e 2e 15 yrs of eq and eq2 …. i shine in battle ! i like to listen to othres … im not shy. im in it for the fight.
for my group i recognized its the best to talk directly to them, say the characters name and ask them a direct question so they cant talk around and have to answer as character ;D
Im playing a bard who spreads the word of his courage and passion and strength leading his group when in reality he contracted with a group of adventurers to write songs of their journeys and is terrified every moment he rolls a d20 every encounter if its 10 or lower he suffers the frightened effect.
Here's my tip for RPing in DnD: Play a Bard
KILL SHIT, TAKE LOOT
As a new dm I find that thinking about the character I wish to portray is an easy way to improvise speech. I base these characters that I see in the media I consume. For example, I have the taskmaster of my town, who I act like Tywin Lanister, for a little bit of authority. My acting is bad so my players don't know it's based on him which makes it a completely unique experience for them and therefore a fun and memorable person.
Занятно. Подобные ролики я слушаю в дороге, но как же приятно видеть игру актёра на камеру. Раньше не задумывался об этом