User blog:Chrisisanangel/Lessons In Role-Play by Christopher Hood

For those who have played D&D at my table, they may have come to realize that I do things a very different way from other DM’s. My DM style is a bit old school and my rulings lean more toward the realism factor than the fantasy side of things. That comes from many years of playing that way and learning from other DMs on how to handle similar situations. I like a good dungeon crawl. I like making a player think about how to get out of a situation that could be potentially deadly. I like players who don’t let the dice determine how their character will respond, they do this themselves. So, I thought about this and decided I would sit down and write about what I see as “good roleplaying”. The things I would like to see at my table as I run through campaigns with others. These aren’t in any particular order of importance, just my views on the matter.

Ok, so you’ve rolled up your stats, you’ve chosen your class and your race, and you’ve picked a background that fits your character. This is a good start, but not the whole story. Next it’s time to choose an alignment, and based on what I’ve seen from my players so far, alignment is still a bit confusing. Even veteran players are stumped by what alignment means and how to roleplay that alignment.

The Player’s Handbook has the alignment explanations laid out, but roleplaying those alignments seem to be a struggle for some. The one key thing to remember about alignment is that you should’ve focus on just one side of the equation. Chaotic Good is a good example. Yes, you can be more random in your actions and deeds than most, but don’t focus only on that facet of the alignment. And don’t justify your borderline evil acts by saying that you’re Chaotic and that says it all. Good is the underlying theme here. If you’re going to follow one facet of alignment, the last one is the one you should focus the most on. The Law and Chaos side are just the personality of it, but the Good, Neutrality or Evil is the moral side. It is who you are as a character and the one that carries the most weight.

Ok, so now we have our alignment, what about our backstory? Well, I’m glad you asked. Too often, when someone writes out their backstory, they are thinking of a way to explain why they became what they became. “I grew up in an orphanage and loved the priests who took care of us, so I became a cleric of (insert god here).”   Ok, that’s fine for the why, but it tells the DM nothing about your character. What are their goals? What are their ambitions? Where were they born and how tied to their hometown are they? Do they still have family in that area? Do they like to go back and visit? What made them want to be an adventurer? This last one is huge to the DM. You have a home, a life, an education, so why did you pack up your stuff and leave to spend years on the road, eating bread and water, drinking from a stream, living in a tent, tramping through dungeons, risking your very life, just to be an adventurer? Not many players have answered that question for me in their backstory.

Backstories are a window into the character on the pages. This is where the DM can help bring that character to life, if you give them enough information to run with. In one campaign, only one player came up with enough of a backstory for me to give them a side quest just for them. The others were too vague or not detailed enough about this to give me anything to work with, so I didn’t. I want to, though. Backstory side quests are the best and it really gives the player a chance to shine and be the center of attention, but without an adequate backstory and some help, I can’t do that. Don’t focus on how sad your upbringing was, unless that’s the hook you want to throw out there, focus on what made you give up the simple life at home and go out in the world to right wrongs and save the world.

Now, we have a character with their stats, abilities, alignment and backstory, what comes next? Personality traits, Ideals, Bonds, and Flaws. This comes from your background you’ve chosen, but who’s to say that you must choose a particular background? Sure, you get some skills and some cool languages, but what if you could make up your own background and still get those things? Well, you can. What most people tend to forget about is, the DM is the one who makes all of the decisions about his/her land. This includes custom backgrounds. If you have an idea about a background that isn’t in any book, talk to the DM about it. Come up with those traits, bonds, ideals and flaws and couple that with your backstory and I’m sure the two of you can come up with something that would be beneficial. And just because the book says you can choose one of each of those, it doesn’t mean you can’t choose more. You can have multiple traits, multiple bonds, more than one ideal and more than one flaw. If it fits your vision of your character, you can add more, just not less.

And speaking of vision, here is where I discuss what I would like to see when it comes to your vision of your character. What I’ve seen far too much of is people focusing on stats and abilities and not on who their character is. Yay, I have a 20 Strength and 20 Constitution! Good for you! Now tell me WHO your character is. How will you bring them to life before my eyes? I don’t care about your stats, because stats don’t make you a hero. I care about their courage, their knowledge, their personality, why they do the things they do and what makes them a hero in the first place. THAT is what I want to see. I’m not one of those DMs who gives a damn if you make up a voice for your character. If you do, great, I like that kind of creativity and I can play along, no judgment here. But more important to me is thinking like your character. What would your character do in a particular situation? Maybe they have a quirk where they always sit with their backs to the wall and only drink a certain kind of ale. Maybe they don’t like people who brag on themselves and shout at them if they do. Maybe they have a soft spot for kids and will carry candy with them to give to kids they meet on the road. Those are much more creative and enjoyable then coming up with a funny voice for them.

Thinking like your character is the hardest part of roleplaying, because you have to put aside how you would react to something and come up with how they would react. I’ve known too many people who let the stats and abilities define their characters when just bringing them to life through good roleplay was far better. I understand that the game is stat driven to some degree, but nowhere in the genre of Dungeons & Dragons do they call it “the greatest stat based game in the world”. It is called “the greatest roleplaying game in the world”. When it comes to thinking like your character, keep this in mind…you have to step outside of you. You have to take all of those factors that you wrote on the pages of your character sheet and roll it up into one neat package. Stats, abilities, alignment, personality traits, backstory and history, and then become that character. I’ll give you an example.

<span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Bartholomew, my half-orc Barbarian. His life was about the great outdoors and being free of the bonds of city life. His only desire was to live in the wilds and enjoy nature. Until he met Clara, the 8 year old Sorcerer child he found on the side of the road whose parents were dead. He took her in and his life changed after this. So he went from just wanting to live in the wild to wanting to protect his innocent (yeah, not so much, but whatever) child. Then he was called upon to be a part of a group that would save the land from the evil king. Ok, so now his destiny has changed again, but he understood the need to rid the land of the tyrant, so he adjusted his beliefs yet again. But through it all, Barth was always Barth. He was gruff, blunt and sometimes rude, even with Clara, but it was who he was and that’s how I played him. I tried to make everyone picture the gruff half-orc with the big axe every time I spoke for him.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Let’s move from characters to the game now. When I sit down and try to come up with a good idea for a campaign, I try very hard to make it epic. I think on a grand scale for the ending, with more humble beginnings. For decades, this is how I’ve done it, not always with great success. The reason for that lack of success in some areas was that the players didn’t see my vision. I can’t do much about that without just handing them all of the clues to the bigger picture, which I won’t do, because that ruins it for everyone. But to help with that, I’ve tried to find a way to lead them to the clues they need to discover the bigger picture. But more than a couple of times, the bigger picture wasn’t what everyone focused on and the campaign took a nose dive for a time. I don’t like making things linear, where one task leads to the next task, which leads to the next task, which leads to the boss fight and bingo! Game over! That, to me, is boring. It doesn’t require much thought by anyone to get to those points.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">When you sit down to play in a new campaign, you should really try to figure out a few things before you start. First and foremost, what is my role? If you’re playing the healer, then you should focus on making certain you have the tools you need to accomplish that. If you’re the warrior type, figure out how you’ll step into that role when the time comes. But sometimes, roles aren’t easy to figure out and you should probably discuss this with the party. Ask them what they think your role should be. It’s a cooperative game, so others can have input into your character, too, just as you have input into theirs.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Secondly, you might want to think about the mission at hand. What are we supposed to do? How can I accomplish this and stay within my beliefs and my alignment? Recently, when faced with a moral conundrum, I had to insert a visit from the gods to certain players because they didn’t think to ask their gods for themselves. If I were playing a cleric or a paladin, that’s the FIRST thing I would’ve done. You’re asking me to do what?! I’m calling my god! That’s thinking like your character.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">And lastly, what is the overall goal? How can we achieve this goal? What is the best path to take to get there? The overall goal of the DM’s story might not be openly available to you at the early stages, but when it becomes available, never forget about it. When I write campaigns, I’m doing my best to turn all of your characters into Heroes of the Land. I want you to succeed, become famous, and rich. But you need to help me with that. We’re telling this story together, so jump in there and tell the story of your character. Make me believe they are the hero of the story. If you’ve read any fantasy novels (Lord of the Rings, Dragonlance or Forgotten Realms novels), you know that each character has a story, a personality and certain skills. Write your character into the campaign story the same way. I will never tell someone NOT to roleplay their character because it takes up time.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Every character comes with a set of skills on their sheet. Some skills they are proficient with and some they are not. But that doesn’t mean you can’t try to use skills you’re not proficient with. It also means that you should use the skills you are proficient with when the situation warrants it. For example. You enter a room and the DM describes what you see in the room. If you want to investigate the room in more detail, you have a skill that will help you with that. It’s a key word in every case. “I’m going to Investigate this bookcase”. Ok, so as the DM, I ask you to roll Investigation. You come across a monster and I describe it to you. You might say “what do I know about this monster?”   I ask you to roll Arcana or Nature (DM call). Rather than ask me if you can roll, tell me what you’re doing or thinking and I’ll assign the type of roll and DC. The one thing I will not do is ask you if you want to roll one of your skills. It’s not my place to tell you what your character is doing, it’s up to you to determine that through how you respond to the situation. Remember that.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">That said, don’t step on someone else’s skill set. If you have a rogue in the party, and they are checking for traps, unlocking doors, etc. let them do that. If you have someone with survival skills, let them be the one looking for footprints, checking the area for signs of monsters, etc. They picked that class because that’s what they wanted to do (or should be the reason, anyway.)   Let them shine. The only time anyone else should get involved, in my opinion, is if they fail and only if you know they fail. To me, someone without proficiency in Arcana rolling a 20 and knowing about some obscure monster that the person who has proficiency didn’t know about just because they rolled low doesn’t seem very realistic. If the one with proficiency didn’t know what it was, how in the world would you know?

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Something that drives a game right into the ground is over-the-table cross talk. It slows the game to a crawl and vital clues can be missed by the one player who is actually needing this information. For example, one of the characters goes to talk to an NPC about the situation. During the talk, to which only their character is present, someone at the table says something about this conversation, be it a joke or a comment about what was said. Your character is not there! You don’t know anything about this conversation and it’s rude, so don’t do it. Let the character gather the information and bring it back to the party, the way it should be. Otherwise, your swaying the conversation because now maybe the player who is there says “Oh yeah, what about that?” and it has completely changed the dynamic.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Talking out of character is another thing that can bring the game to a grinding halt and it happens too frequently. During my games, I get up and take a break every couple of hours, so if you have a question that requires me to respond, wait until break time and then come ask me. Don’t interrupt game play to ask then. The session flows much freer when we focus on the actual game and not other things that have nothing to do with it. Sometimes, we add some levity to the game with some witty remarks, which is ok to some degree, we all do it, but let’s keep those to a minimum. We can accomplish more by focusing than we can by taking sharp left turns for a joking remark.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">The bane of any game session is Prior Knowledge. I’ve seen so much of it in my time of playing and Dungeon Mastering that I find it frustrating. It’s one thing to know what’s about to happen, but it’s another to act like your character knows and react accordingly. Case in point: While adventuring in Besmer, we approached an elderly woman in a swamp. I KNEW it was hag, but my character didn’t, so I let it happen anyway. Yeah, I could’ve prepared myself for the battle by raging early and attacking while I had advantage, but then I would’ve been using prior knowledge and the DM could’ve rightfully told me no. Try very hard not to allow yourself to fall into the prior knowledge trap. If your character doesn’t know, then you don’t know and as the DM, I will call you on it if I see it. Allow the bad to come with the good, because in those bad times, you have some good stories to tell later, even if your character dies. Also, consistency is the key, which falls back into thinking like your character. Be consistent with how you react to certain situations.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Now I’d like to discuss choosing a character to play in a new campaign or adventure. I like to allow people to come up with their own ideas about what they want to run, but sometimes, the situation and campaign doesn’t allow you to be quite so creative. Imagine a dungeon crawl with nothing but Sorcerers, Warlocks or Wizards. Who is going to heal? Who is going to find and remove the traps? Who is going to go toe-to-toe with the bad guys? I can remember sitting down at a Session Zero and waiting until the last person rolled up their character and then choosing one that was omitted. Oh, didn’t make a healer? I’ll do it. Didn’t make a tank? I’ll roll a Fighter. Did I want to play a healer or a fighter? No, not really. But the party needed one and I sacrificed what I wanted to roll and rolled what the party needed. Sometimes, you have to make that sacrifice. Don’t get it in your head that this is what I’m going to play, no matter what we’re missing, because then your party isn’t going to be as successful and it could cause a complete wipe. Bring multiple character options to the table so that, one way another, you can play something you want to play.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">During Session Zero, it’s a good idea to talk to the other players about what they are wanting to play and what you had in mind. But when doing this, everyone needs to talk about more than race, class and alignment. Those are easy to figure out and put together. What really matters the most is party unity and personality quirks that might put someone’s character off. Yeah, you need the four main food groups (cleric, rogue, fighter, wizard) for the most part, but what if your character is an asshole and you have a more sensitive character? Then you have party conflict. What if your character has a dislike of elves and you have three elves in the party? Party conflict. What if your character is agnostic and one character is ultra-religious? Yeah, party conflict. So talk about all facets of your characters during Session Zero and get it out in the open. You can always find a work around or maybe change that dynamic so that there is less party conflict.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">I’ve been playing this game for 40 years. Yeah, I’m old, so sue me. But I’ve seen an awful lot in 40 years of playing and I can help with some of those things that you might be stumped about. Don’t be afraid to ask me questions about character creation, character development or even how I would interpret a particular rule. Send me an email, send me a text, ask me before a session or during a break, but don’t be afraid to ask. I don’t subscribe to the “dumb question” rule. If you have a question, ask. There are so many things that I feel that players should be asking me, but they aren’t. I can remember going into a city as an adventurer and instantly coming up with an idea on something I wanted made, or something I wanted to buy that would be something my character would use. I would go to my DM and tell them what I wanted to do and we would work out the details on how to accomplish it, if possible. And yes, sometimes it wasn’t possible, but I asked anyway. I’m ok with you doing that. A rogue with a hobby of collecting special daggers would be a cool side hobby (and possible side quest), so maybe they want to make a special leather harness that they wear under their cloak. They would need to find a leatherworker and describe it them to make for them. It might take some time, but in the end, that harness would be a special item for them. This is just one example of something a player could do.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">As I mentioned before, my half-orc Barbarian had his world turned upside-down more than once. He had a goal, it got changed. He had another goal, then that one also got changed. So it stands to reason that the original goals of your character might get changed along the way. If so, talk to me about it. It’s very important to keep me informed so that I can help you achieve those goals. But please remember that not all goals are reasonable or possible. It might be something to strive for, but don’t be upset if it can’t happen that way. Alter your goals. The most important part of this paragraph is…have goals and write them down. If not, they can’t happen.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">What I’m trying to accomplish with this is to make those who play at my table better role-players. I’m not throwing stones, I’m not criticizing anyone and I’m not making fun of them. When I began to DM again, I was asked to help others learn the game and to become better at roleplaying and this is what I’m trying to do. I’m in the unenviable position of being the most experienced person at the table, even though I’ve only been playing 5th Edition D&D for 3 years. I don’t know every rule, I can’t quote every spell and even I make mistakes at times. We all do. I try to learn from my mistakes and not make them again, and I expect others to do the same. I recently posted a YouTube video that talked about the Tiers of players. That was not done to point fingers at anyone, that’s for sure. But in watching that video myself, I realized that I wasn’t at the top of that list, either, as a player. And I’ve watched the video about DM Tiers and I’m not at the top of that one, either. But in watching them, I learned what I was and wasn’t doing that would put me in those top tiers. I’m learning, too.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">So please take this as a learning opportunity and I hope that I helped someone learn a little bit more about how to roleplay, at least in my game world. That was really what I hoped to do with this.