Taking 20 Podcast - Ep 66 - Getting Into Character Roleplay

Episode Date: March 28, 2021

Hack and slash games are fun where you don't have to worry about the emotional state of the players or NPCs and you can just throw dice.  Suppose you are going to be part of a roleplay heavy campaign or want to learn to be a better role player?  Here are a lucky set of 13 tips and tricks you can use to help give your character some depth.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Taking20 Podcast, episode 66, Getting Into Character Roleplay. This week's sponsor is shoulder surgery. Pain? Annoying. Lack of mobility? Irritating. Physical therapy?

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buy me a coffee, reach out to me with questions, feedback, or sponsorship opportunities. It's been a while since I made an episode primarily for players, and it's way past time that I did so. I also fully realize that this episode is primarily for role-play heavy campaigns and players who want to introduce a little bit of role-playing into the bedroom. No, Jeremy. Bad. No. Try again. Want to introduce a bit more role-playing with their characters. No, try again. Want to introduce a bit more role-playing with their characters. So what makes good characters and NPCs?

Well, to start, let's talk about you. Yes, you. Driving in your car, sitting at the red light. The one who just picked your nose. It's okay. Everybody does it. Please don't wipe it on the dashboard, though. Just because you're mining for nose gold doesn't mean you should try to share it with other people. Wipe that crap off on a napkin and wash your hands when you get to your destination, please. You are a complex individual, product of circumstances derived from a million different decisions. You have dreams, hopes, plans, designs,

and they help guide your decisions on a day-to-day basis. Maybe you want to become a professional golfer so you spend much of your extra time at the driving range or golf course to the detriment of your other hobbies. Maybe you want to become a manager so you take on extra your extra time at the driving range or golf course to the detriment of your other hobbies. Maybe you want to become a manager so you take on extra work and you don't have a lot of time to spend with friends. Your character really is no different. Imagine the game world your character plays in is real. If so, your character makes the same types of decisions every day that you do, just in a different world with different context.

They have hopes, plans, and dreams just like you do. In games where roleplay doesn't matter, these complex motivations may not matter at the game table at all. Kobolds in front of me, I hit it with my scimitar. Lather, rinse, repeat until there's no more kobold. There's nothing wrong with gaming at that level. I'm not going to yuck your yum. But suppose you want to make a character two or maybe even three-dimensional. You want to make them feel more like a real person. You want to role-play your character. How do you give a character depth and make them multi-dimensional? There are a few secrets to what makes a character a good one to role-play, and frankly, they're not difficult concepts. But I want to start off with some warnings that I've learned from my years of gaming,

dungeon mastering, acting, and performing stand-up comedy and improv. 1. Becoming a better roleplayer requires work and commitment. 2. Roleplaying requires you to learn to feel comfortable being in the spotlight. 3. Roleplaying requires you to do things that your brain screams, This is stupid! Why are you doing this? 4. Roleplaying will, at at times make you show a vulnerable side, maybe even of yourself. It can take you to a very uncomfortable place.

But for those who want to work through these challenges, being a good role-player pays dividends in the long run. It opens up the types of campaigns that you can play in, the plain old hack and slash, as well as the ones that are deep character exploring narratives. There are a lot of tips incoming for role-playing your characters in a more realistic manner. If you're not yet comfortable acting or role-playing as characters, do not try to eat this elephant all at once. It's easy to get paralyzed by the sheer number of options and amount of recommendations. It's easy to forget aspects of your characters,

and these lead to frustration and giving up on roleplaying altogether. Eat this elephant one bite at a time. Learn the first tip. When you feel comfortable, incorporate the second one, and so on and so on down the line. Before long, you're roleplaying a complex, multifaceted character that your fellow players are dying to know more about. complex, multifaceted character that your fellow players are dying to know more about. So let's talk about giving characters depth. Understand that no real person is a one-note character. You may only experience them in one context, the kind grandmother, the indifferent neighbor, the dick boss. Everyone, and I mean everyone, has multiple facets to their life. That kind grandmother may be unabashedly racist. That indifferent neighbor might be sacrificing his dreams to take care of family members.

That dick boss might volunteer at the local animal shelter on the weekends. To help give your character depth and make them easier to roleplay, I have a baker's dozen of tips that will hopefully help. So let's start with the first one. Give your characters hobbies that either play with or against type. There's nothing wrong with playing a type. The barbarian who's always angry and spends his spare time honing his axe skills. The bard who wants to sleep with everything that moves, spends all of his time learning love ballad that make potential lovers swoon. No issue with that at all. Play that character to your heart's content. But don't be afraid to go the other way with it. What about a bard who set out on a two-year quest to make his

fortune so he can return home to marry the love of his life, Carolina McIntosh, the daughter of the local herbalist? He doesn't try to sleep with everyone. He uses his charisma for tips and donations at the taverns and loot dungeons to supplement his income. In one one of my campaigns, I'm roleplaying a Shoanti fighter whose tribe was displaced as groups from the neighboring nation of Cheliax expanded to take over tribal lands. This fighter is taking ranks in Profession Barrister every other level because he wants to become a lawyer after the campaign. He carries a couple of law books in his pack, and at night he studies Chalaxian and international law by the fire.

He's not just a badass who wields an oversized hammer and a bladed shield called a klar. He's intelligent, thoughtful, insightful, and eloquent. He's the face of the party with high ranks in diplomacy and intimidate. He can give a speech that will melt your heart or a threat that will make your blood run cold. a speech that will melt your heart or a threat that will make your blood run cold. If I were min-maxing though, all of those ranks and those skills would go to athletics, acrobatics, climb, and other martial skills. But the DM in this campaign allows room to role play and we don't have to play fully optimized characters to be a success in his campaign. So make a cleric who spends all evening in prayer, but also consider making one who's

learning to be a chef, or learning biological healing arts through dissection, or is willing to assist those in chronic pain with illegal remedies to their ailments. Second tip, know the answer to an important why question for your character. Why is your character an adventurer? It's an extremely dangerous job. Why do you go into these old ruins where the undead walk and monsters have moved in? Why do that not, I don't know, cost point accounting for a living? Have a reason for your character to have made the choices he or she did that led to this profession. The answer to this question will tell you about who they are. Why are you an adventurer? This dovetails well into tip number

three. Give your character a motivation or a goal. Does your character want to put herself in a position where she can financially provide for that serving girl she's in love with? Was he humiliated and wants to see his tormentors humiliated in turn? Does your character want to become a mayor, the guild leader, a king? Why plus motivation leads to character actions. It's easier to make consistent roleplay decisions, actions, and speech when you use the why do they adventure and the motivations of their character to understand why they would do or say such things. Tip number four, and I'm going to be honest, my favorite. Give your characters secrets. To gain the power that they have, they made a pact with a

dark god. Maybe they keep a diary of information about PCs and NPCs and they hope to use it for blackmail one day. Your character has an incurable illness and is dying. Your character murdered someone and assumed their identity. These are big secrets that your character doesn't want getting out and may even go to great lengths to protect. But for good roleplay, don't keep those secrets secret forever. Work with a DM. Figure out how to do a gradual reveal. Unrevealed secrets are of little roleplay benefit. Yes, it might give you an insight into how the character would act or react in a certain situation, but revealed secrets make for great stories. Imagine the role-play moment when

your character confesses to a party member who's a close friend that they made a pact with the devil and they're desperate to get out of it. Or the evidence that you've assumed someone's identity is secreted away in your pack or locker. You and your DM work out how this could be discovered by other players. The character may be scared how the rest of the party will react to their secrets. their players. The character may be scared how the rest of the party will react to their secrets. Which brings me to tip number five. Give your characters fears. Fears, by the way, are a subset of motivations and secrets. I mean, all of us are scared of something. Most of us are at least partially motivated by avoiding our fears. When given the choice, most of us don't jump at the chance to confront our greatest fears. When we think about fears or phobias, a lot of us think of things like heights or clowns or the open ocean or eye trauma or

thunder, public speaking, spiders, snakes, flying, whatever. These phobias are fine, but I would encourage you to consider deeper fears, emotional fears, things like fear of being alone, fear of being thought worthless, fear of being thought incompetent, losing control, fear of not being loved, fear of watching an innocent person die. DMs can use good fears like those to enhance tension in an adventure. And regardless of what your fears are, when confronted by your character's fears, think about how they would react and possibly grow from confronting them. Imagine your character lived in an orphanage that caught fire one night. They were saved by a wizard casting protection from energy as the building was being consumed in flames. Because of this, she studied to become a wizard, but still has that innate fear of fire. How could you roleplay this? Maybe your character refuses to cast fire spells.

Fireball, Wall of Fire, Burning Hands, Produce Flame, Firebolt, and other similar spells. The character just has a fear of even learning. When confronted with a creature that uses fire, maybe your character attacks the other baddies so she doesn't have to face this tremendous fear that she's been carrying around with her her entire life. You could work with a DM to have a moment where your character overcomes her fear, walks through the flames figuratively or literally to have a heroic moment. That could be that singular moment in your character's life where the fear is fully overcome. Give your character some fears and roleplay them as if they were your own.

Imagine how your character would react to those fears and roleplay it that way. Tip 6. Give your characters flaws. Giving your character a flaw and roleplaying them effectively requires true investment in the character. Flaws can drive conflict and they make for great stories. Your character is, I don't know, arrogant or racist against elves. They're gullible or selfish or judgmental, sadistic. This flaw could be hidden and revealed later in the adventure, or they could be worn on the character's sleeve. One of my favorite examples was from the original Dragonlance

trilogy of books. Raistlin becomes one of the most powerful wizards on Kryn, but he is also physically very frail and weak. He's wracked with coughs, and his physical malady is exacerbated by cold and moist conditions. This flaw was very obvious to everyone who observed him, but over the course of the first two trilogies of books, his internal flaws become more and more apparent even as his power grows. DMs should give their characters opportunities to confront their flaws. Either they overcome the flaws and grow, or the situation reinforces the character flaws. An example from the Marvel Cinematic Universe is Iron Man.

Iron Man was characterized as not being willing to make the sacrifice play, and always was first to look for a way out. Captain America even criticized Tony for that belief in Avengers, Avengers Age of Ultron, and Civil War just off the top of my head. As part of his character growth, he was given multiple opportunities across various movies to sacrifice himself and those he loves for the greater good. I have more I want to say, but it gets kind of spoilery, so if you haven't seen the Marvel movies all the way up through Endgame and you don't want them spoiled, skip ahead in this podcast about a minute. So let's go movie by movie. Tony makes the self-sacrificing choice in the original Avengers

to guide the nuclear missile through the portal and destroy the ship controlling the invading army, despite the fact that he didn't know if he would return. In Age of Ultron, Tony and Thor cook up a plan that can save the people on Earth by blowing up the flying city of Sokovia, even though his quote to Thor was, this works, maybe we don't walk away from this. He was willing to sacrifice himself to save the world around him.

And then finally in Endgame, Tony chooses to use the Infinity Stones to destroy the overwhelming invading army at the cost of his own life. This last sacrifice, by the way, was so much bigger than the others. He had a wife at that point, and a daughter, but he was still willing to give up his own life to save the entire universe and complete his character arc and growth as a person. Welcome back to those of you who didn't want the Marvel movie spoiled.

To give you one spoiler to take home, Rosebud is a sled. When characters face their flaws head-on and choose instead to do what's right, their choices become more deeply meaningful and powerful. Flawless characters, superheroes, Mary Sue type characters, they are so boring to play and so boring to DM. So if you want to roleplay, embrace flaws for your characters and put yourself in that character's place to make good roleplay choices based on the flaws that they have. Tip 7. Give your characters foibles and habits. Here I mean foibles like eccentricities. Give your character an unusual tick or an eccentricity or habit. You can explain it to everyone or not. After every battle, your holy character methodically rubs his skin with water.

Maybe the other party members think you're doing so to stay holy, but the reality is your character can't stand touching blood. Your character has a foible that they don't like eating in front of others, or they skip over logs rather than stepping on them. These aren't major flaws that are likely to cause the death of a character or anyone they love, but they do make them different. As an example, I'm currently roleplaying a druid who collects hair from those who die, whom she respects. She has a reason for doing so, but she isn't forthcoming when asked why. And I'm not saying why because I think some of my fellow players listen to this podcast. That's her foible. I'm sure the reason will come out

eventually, but the reason hasn't been broadcast to the rest of the party yet. So to make your characters interesting, give them a little eccentricities and it helps bring them to life. Tip number eight, come up with a good backstory. I know you came up with this character idea and you started playing them when they are 19 years old or 25 or 38 or 215, but they theoretically had a life before you dreamed them up. They grew up, developed personalities and flaws, hopes and dreams. For good character design, have an idea about their history. Are they married? Any living family? Who is their mentor? Come up with a skeleton of a backstory, but don't pack too much in. Don't answer every question that could possibly be asked. Leave gaps for the DM to work with so that he or she can leave hooks

and tie your character's backstory into the adventure theme. Tip number nine, give your character enemies and rivals. Oscar Wilde once said you can judge a man by the quality of his enemies. Enemies don't have to mean the big bad evil guy. As a matter of fact, I'd encourage your enemies not to be world-threatening entities. They could be a professional rival, a fellow hero who keeps stealing their glory, the school bully when they were growing up. But giving your character enemies establishes that they have lived in this world, which dovetails into tip number 10. Give your character connections to the world.

Have those love the character and the character loves. Connections to the other PCs, maybe they grew up together. Or connections to important and random NPCs. You can either begin with the bonds or have the bonds form over time. Love doesn't have to mean obsess over or romantic love. Just the PC has an affection for these people and takes delight when the people are happy. I mean, examples of connections could be

they were related, they were childhood friends, one was a servant of the other one or worked for the other one, one of them idolized the other one, they're drinking buddies, they have a family friend, or they dated, maybe they were romantically involved together. One of them saved the life of the other one. You don't have to use all of these, but giving your character some type of connections to other PCs and NPCs make them feel like they are a part of this world their whole life. Tip 11. Look for an opportunity for your character to grow or evolve. My favorite way is through interaction.

Even the gruff half-orc barbarian who doesn't talk much should interact with other players some. Hey Grock, why are you always sharpening your blades every night? Can't have dull blades when the time comes. Time for what? Now you're establishing connection, now you're establishing backstory. Opportunities for character growth make good role-playing opportunities, even if the character doesn't grow and reverts to fears and flaws instead of growing past them. Tip number 12.

To role-play your characters better, get to know them like they're your friends. How do you get to know people? You ask them questions about themselves. Do this with your characters in your head. Alright, stay with me here, and don't look at the podcast like I have multiple personalities. The best way to role play a character is to understand what he or she wants, needs, and how they would react to situations. So ask. Play out conversations with them and scenarios in your head. The more you do so, the more you're training your brain to think like the character and you will be able to respond

in character much easier to situations that come up in the game. And tip number 13 for players. If all else fails, base your character on a character you like from books, TVs, movies, etc. Harry Potter, Black Widow, John Wick, hell, Kermit the Frog, Will Ferrell in Talladega Nights. Keep those characters in mind when role-playing your character. I tried to have an entire episode without advice to DMs, but I have one piece of advice to the DMs out there. Give your players agency and give your characters time to roleplay with each other and the NPCs. Around the campfire, in the market, after combat. Encourage them to talk in character to each other and to the NPCs. This will encourage your players to roleplay as part of the adventure.

This will encourage your players to roleplay as part of the adventure. In summary, players, if you want to roleplay characters better, give them hobbies and secrets, fears and flaws, foibles and a backstory. It gives you a safety net to land in when you're trying to figure out how to respond in-character to other PCs and NPCs. Introduce these capabilities to your characters slowly, building that acting and roleplaying muscle until it becomes second nature. Most importantly, work with your DM and the other players to find the right level of role-play for your game and have fun doing it.

Thank you so much for listening. Please give us a rating, a like, subscribe, wherever you happen to be listening to this fine podcast. Once again, I want to thank our sponsor, Shoulder Surgery. Thank you for flying Deltoid Airlines this has been episode 66 getting into character roleplay my name is Jeremy Shelley

and I hope that your next game is your best game