I have been told that roleplaying is great fun. I've looked and looked and it all seems so complicated. Could anyone tell me a good place to start, and what sort of things you end up doing in roleplaying?
[RPG] role-playing, and where do I start
new-gmnew-playersroleplaying
Related Solutions
Assuming everyone's interested in doing this, it will be difficult to break existing 15 year habits, so you have some work cut out for you.
- Get everyone's buy-in. Explicitly say that you want to go heavier RP and make sure you all have a common understanding of what that means. That's not a panacea - I did the same thing, a group agreed they wanted to go more RP heavy, but after we started a couple people clearly didn't want to (or, more likely, misunderstood what that meant to me). We had a large enough group we just split it - serious RPers played Sundays and casual kick-in-the-door types played Wednesdays.
- Consider whether you want to create tangible rewards for RP. "XP for roleplay" sounds good but often falls down in various ways - creates concerns over favortism, ends up promoting the wrong behaviors, etc. I've worked with variant mechanics like "players vote for best RPer of the session and they get XP" or handing out temporary bonuses/bennies that don't permanently augment your character for roleplay. Nowadays, I never give XP for RP (not only because I've given up on XP as a lame antiquated notion) and only sometimes/seldom give bennies, I think that maybe has its place but has a lot of downside - and isn't really necessary (see point 5 below).
- Get practice. Here's the deal - if you have a 15 year group that doesn't RP but wants to, they don't know how. There's no shame in that. Like when you start anything else new, some training and/or practice can be good to get you on track. Try some one shots of very rules light pure-RP games, things where there's practically no combat and everything's "downtime." Then people will take techniques they learned from that back into their usual game.
- Don't punish RP. One of the classic errors I see people make is say "I want roleplaying" but then using any non-by-the-book things characters bring up during RP as ways to get at the characters - in their mind "interesting developments," but in the players' minds "I better keep my mouth shut around NPCs because it always comes back to haunt me." Or when they choose suboptimal tactical options/gear/etc. for roleplay reasons, try to respect that and not punish them for not just min-maxing without regard to RP.
- Reward RP. Not with XP or tangible rewards, but with increased understanding of the game world and relationships with its NPCs that benefit them. Taking the time to understand who's who in a city and to forge relationships with them gets you favors, they tell you rumors, they cut you discounts... You know, all the benefits you get in real life from not being a sociopath. (The average "tactical" PC is a clinical sociopath from the point of view of the game world's inhabitants.) If a player can get just as good results through unremitting murder - why wouldn't they?
- Give them RP opportunities. This is challenging to you as a GM - it's where the burden of a RP heavy game lies, but if you step up then the players will respond. @wraith808's answer is a good example - you always have to be opening the door, having people around, reaching out to the PCs, opportunities to do something interesting-but-not-tactical. Players just trying to figure out RP may be passive and you may need to push the opportunities on them more aggressively - instead of "oh maybe that chick needs help with her wagon" it could be "man this lady is sweating me for orphanage donations like every single day, and won't stop talking about it!"
How can I encourage...?
First, though not tagged D&D5e, the answers to these questions contain much valuable advice. I suggest you peruse them:
- How can I encourage role playing in a custom setting?
- How to introduce and encourage role playing in non-roleplayers?
- How do I encourage new players to be more descriptive in their actions and intents?
- As a GM, how do I encourage a party to interact with each other?
However...
There are many different games we play.
WARNING: AngryGM liberally salts his excellent advice and analysis with rude and vulgar language.
It sounds like you want to play the game where "we throw ourselves into someone else's shoes and talk like them."
It doesn't particularly sound like this player wants to play that game.
That's okay.
At any D&D table of \$N\$ players there tend to be at least \$2N+1\$ games being played, in my estimation.* Not every player equally enjoys each of those games.
The key steps for you to take are to discuss the following with that player, possibly with the entire group participating:
- I don't see you engaging much in "acting" scenes--do you enjoy that time? (The player may just enjoy watching the show play out.)
- Do you want to be more active during those scenes?
- Are there parts of the game you wish we'd be spending more/less time on? (This is a good question to ask all your players, every session.)
And then use the answers to these questions.
Coda: System Matters
I feel I'd be remiss in not adding this: recognize that you're also playing in a system that's not really optimized for that game. Sure, D&D handles it, but it's not built around the sort of roleplay you're describing.
If your player really does want to expand their acting-game, and the things you can try within D&D don't work out, then you may want to consider fantasy-adventure roleplaying games that are built around play-acting.
* - note that number snuggles somewhere in between "more games than players" and "not as many games as pair-interactions" for \$N>3\$. \$N=2\$ and \$N=3\$ are special cases.
Best Answer
Welcome to roleplaying! I know it can be daunting; there are literally thousands of RPGs on the market as well as out of print ones that people still play.
What is roleplaying?
Many a roleplaying game has a "What is roleplaying?" section in the front, and they all have different takes on it, but the most common summary is that it's a formalized version of the kids' game of "cops and robbers." Though trying to generalize how role-playing games work is kinda like trying to generalize how board games work (there are many exceptions to every statement you could make), most commonly you create a "character" that represents someone in the fictional world - a wizard or cowboy or space trucker or whatnot. Their attributes - what they look like, how strong and fast and smart they are - is written down on a "character sheet." You are part of a group of other players who also have characters, this is usually referred to as a "party." There is a Game Master who doesn't usually play a character of their own, instead they depict the whole world and all the people in it who aren't player-controlled characters (NPCs - non-player characters).
The game has rules, and usually dice, which are used to determine if you succeed or fail at difficult tasks. If you are Legolas trying to shoot an orc with your bow, you would roll a die and consult your character's skill and the result would determine if you hit him or not, for example.
As a player, you run a character (like in World of Warcraft or the like) and go about on adventures of whatever type is appropriate to the game's genre. So in this way, using both game rules and the participant's imagination, you can all participate in an exciting story.
Some games don't use dice, don't have a game master, don't have you play one specific character you identify with, etc., but mostly they do.
Game Genres
What kind of story? Well, that's one reason why there's 1000 RPGs on the market. There's everything from stock fantasy (Dungeons & Dragons) to stock science fiction (Traveller) to games that are specifically licensed properties from TV shows or movies (Serenity, Dresden Files, Ghostbusters) to really unusual concepts, like Mormon cowboys keeping the peace (Dogs in the Vineyard). For any genre - superheroes, pulp, horror - there are many games on the market.
Game Complexity
Some RPGs are quite complex and require loads of rules and multiple books to play. Some people like this approach, and it can be more like miniatures gaming or complex wargaming. Some games are very small and have extremely light rules and focus more on the story and imagination aspect, and verge towards being collaborative storytelling games.
Recommendations
The most played game is Dungeons & Dragons, in its various incarnations. Because you need a group to play (though you can play online, and there are games tuned towards just two people - some are even for one person, though these are more just choose-your-own-adventure books) it can help to choose a popular game. D&D, especially in its modern incarnations, definitely is one of those multi-book complicated rules heavy games, though, so it can be an intimidating starting point. They usually have a starter set with simplified rules that you might consider using to kick the tires on the concept.
Though if you are willing to start a group of your own, maybe just by corralling a couple friends to play, you really can choose whatever game you want. Then, a less rules-intensive game might be a good choice. Pick a genre you like and there's probably a good starter game in there - ICONS for super-heroes, for example. Or Call of Cthulhu for horror. A game that has a good amount of published adventures a GM can run for their players is a good place to start because creating your own adventures can be hard when you're just getting started, and it'll help you get the feel for how others do it. There are gaming stores in most major cities (often comboed with comics or board game stores) and you can go browse at your leisure.
Find Other Roleplayers
In the end, the best way to get started is to find someone who roleplays already - you probably have a friend that does and you don't know it. See Where can I find other RPG players? on how to find other gamers. You can try it out with them and learn more and see if you like it.
Next Steps
As a more in-depth primer to pick up where this leaves off, there is an excellent pair of short PDFs called How to Play Roleplaying Games and How to Run Roleplaying Games. They provide a very nice "what does it actually look like and how do I make it happen?" primer for new players and new game masters.
It's a fun hobby, many of us have been doing it for 20+ years. Check it out, it can be a blast!