[RPG] How to introduce and encourage role playing in non-roleplayers

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I'm going to be hosting a game at the end of the month. Myself, I am a semi-experienced DM but I will be playing with those who know only the basic mechanics of the game or have never roleplayed before. The group will consist of my wife, myself and three friends. My friends don't really know my wife as well as I do, which makes me think things might be tricky if we're going to be playing a role playing game.

Is there anything I can do to provoke role playing in the PCs (Such as making loose rules about it)? How can you encourage improvisation and in-character actions for newbies?

Best Answer

I'm assuming your players already understand the basic concept of roleplaying.

The Ground Rules of Roleplaying

Tell your players that roleplaying is supposed to be fun. They should do what they think is fun, but they shouldn't ruin other people's fun. Forget not that the GM is also a people whose fun can be ruined.

Also explain to players that sometimes they can Decide To Act Differently.

Reasons For Roleplaying

Characters need reasons to do things. Ask your players to establish goals, and instead of (just?) rewarding them for killing monsters, reward them for accomplishing story goals.

Ask them up front what their goals are, and then tell them how much XP those goals are worth. Big rewards for big and hard to accomplish goals, small rewards for small goals. You can also allow them to divide big goals into smaller goals, because that's how you plan things.

If they need inspiration for goals, then I suggest looking at Fiasco play sets. They are a great way to give goals to characters. A bunch of them are free on DriveThruRPG, and they are largely self explanatory.

You should also require that characters have relationships to the world. Every character should have someone they want to see dead, someone they would do anything to save, and a reason for being in the party.

Reasons for being in the party can be nearly anything:

  • "The rogue knows my secret, and will reveal it if I don't go along"
  • "I must protect the wizard until I can repay the life debt I owe him"
  • "She's my twin sister! Why the hell wouldn't I be here?"

Enemies and friends are useful to the GM, because it gives you more story hooks.

Feel free to reward characters for having good goals: "So you're in love with the mayor's daughter, and you want to impress her enough that she'll not just jump in your bed, but actually marry you? Well, you may have the Codpiece of Smooth Talking that you inherited from your uncle Don Juan Casanova, which gives you +5 to Seduction rolls. That'll help you with the daughter, but it won't help you much with her father."

Techniques for Roleplaying

If they can't think of how to play their characters, then I suggest looking at the techniques of improv. Play Unsafe by Graham Walmsley explores how improv can be used to roleplay, or you can Google for improv techniques.

I also recently found an article with 11 ways to be a better roleplayer, which your players may be interested in.

The Reward Cycle

The system you use matters, because game systems are geared towards reinforcing certain behaviour.

Typically, DnD encourages murderhobo behaviour. You kill monsters, sell the loot, buy the shinies, and then go kill more monsters. If you don't want that, then don't reward them at all for killing things. Reward them for completing story goals.

Say they're hunting for treasure in a cave - the treasure is the monetary reward, but if they can figure out a way to not murder the goblins who live in the cave, then they should still get the XP for getting to the treasure and they don't run the risk of dying.

You can also explicitly reward players for good storytelling. You can ask them things like "Is this action cinematically appropriate?" and if so, give them circumstance bonuses. "Swinging on the chandelier? +15 Swashbuckling bonus!"

If you want to show your players that storytelling is fun too, then I suggest playing Fiasco for a session or two instead.

And in conclusion

Tell your players what you expect from them. Explain the principles, then give them concrete examples.

But don't forget the rule of fun - don't force them to do things they don't think are fun, because they always have the option of just leaving. If they really want to play murderhobos... then let them!

And don't worry about it too much. Humans are naturally geared to telling stories. After all, like Terry Pratchett said:

The anthropologists got it wrong when they named our species Homo sapiens ('wise man'). In any case it's an arrogant and bigheaded thing to say, wisdom being one of our least evident features. In reality, we are Pan narrans, the storytelling chimpanzee.

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