Encouraging Roleplay

[Matt James]

This post was influenced by this one on EN World. A guy is asking how he can influence and encourage roleplaying. So what say you? What do you do to influence and encourage roleplaying?

[gaming tonic]

First of all we must keep in mind that some people are just not interested in RPG's for the role-play but for the roll play. If they don't mind sitting back while others who are interested in the role-play part do their thing then that is a great starting point. We must accept what is first and foremost. Then if you want to try to lure them in creating something that is specific to their character is a great starting point. If they have not given you anything to work with then why do they have a background selected in 4th Edition, or why do they have certain skills, traits, etc., in other systems? I would not personally design any part of my adventure that hinged on that players' participation because i have wisdom from doing just that in the past and my game falling flat. Gaming groups are going to be mixed and with styles from each player, as long as nobody is complaining and everyone seems to be having fun, let it be. Assuming you have a few players that like to roll up their sleeves and role-play. A few questions asked before the campaign/game begins might help crack their shell as well. If it is 4th Edition you are playing encourage them to stick to races that that are easier to bring to life, humans (shouldn't be too hard) and dwarves come to mind immediately. Warforged and shifter seem to be along the same lines. Stay away from elves and eladrin because without role-playing these are just a clever collection of abilities. It is ok to come up with a couple of simple quirks for your character even if you don't receive some gaming reward for it. I insist on it in my campaigns. If you can't picture what your character looks, sounds, moves, and acts like then nobody else will either and then it is once again just a series of numbers and powers. Give a tangible reward and people will speak up. Extra XP is a sure fire winner.

[D'karr]

This post was influenced by this one on EN World. A guy is asking how he can influence and encourage roleplaying. So what say you? What do you do to influence and encourage roleplaying?

I find that the best way to encourage roleplay is to play to the goals/desires of the player characters. When a campaign starts or shortly after the characters have had a chance to settle a bit, I try to find out what are the character motivations for adventuring. This can be as part of any type of background they have created for themselves or as part of pointed questions I ask such as, "what 3 things would your character like to achieve/see in the campaign?"

With that information I find that it is easier to "tweak" those buttons that encourage roleplay. I try not to screw players over based on that information. If a player has information about his family in his character background it's an easy temptation to use that to propel the story forward by "threatening" that family in some way. The problem I find with that is that it becomes a cheap trick, and has the opposite effect. Instead of having fleshed out backgrounds it encourages most players to simply have no connections to the world. They are all orphans, raised by wolves, or somesuch.

I also try to keep a balance for the game between the exploration (dungeon crawling) and the NPC interaction. I find that some players get lost in the dungeon crawl and forget that there is a whole world outside of that to explore and interact with.

I think immersion in the setting helps a ton when it comes to roleplay. The more invested the characters become in the game world, the easier it is to motivate them to interact with that game world. I prefer a semi-serious game setting. I already know that when we get together we are going to bull**** for about half of the time we are there. So, I want to prevent the game world from adding to that silly interaction. I want my world to make some sense so that it is easier for the players to let the characters immerse themselves in it. The less things that break that immersion the better. So for example, I prefer serious names for NPCs and characters, I prefer not to have a bunch of metagame situations, even in combat, which I particularly enjoy. If I mark every spot around the combat map with areas that have mechanical effects, it simplifies combat, but it also detracts from the immersion, IMO.

I find that players explaining how their combat powers "look/feel" in combat is a very simple first step. When they attack the monsters I also describe how the monster reacts/behaves. An attack that missed by a very small amount can be described as the monster deflecting the blow with his shield, or weapon. A miss that is way off mark can be described as not even coming close to the creature as he sidesteps. A hit that does little damage can be described as a fatiguing effect, like hitting the shield and seeing the monster wince from the blow. A hit that does a lot of damage can be described as raking across a body part and drawing blood. A DM has to be careful about the description to maintain immersion, particularly as hit point damage does not necessarily always have to reflect actual "physical" damage.

When portraying NPCs always have a name for them, even if they are nobodies. You never know when a player might decide to strike a conversation with that "nobody" over by the market stall. Nothing breaks immersion faster than having to refer to an NPC as redshirt #4. One of the things in my DM arsenal is a list of names for people and places and a list of personality traits. When a player catches me off guard about a particular NPC I can easily pull a name and a simple personality trait to depict that NPC to the players. The same thing happens when they ask about a particular place. If have a ready made name, the immersion is maintained. What I always have to remember later is to note down what name/trait I used, so that I can have continuity if the players return to the same area. Some of the most memorable NPCs started life just like that.

Use props. Coins, parchment paper, gems, maps, 3D terrain for combat etc. All these things can serve to keep the players more connected/immersed in the roleplay. I remember once using the crinkling of a plastic bag as the background noise for the conversation with a fire elemental. It created a very cool effect and kept the players in the moment.

EDIT:
Oh, almost forgot. Experience Points.

Use the Skill Challenges guidelines for XP to determine appropriate XP rewards for a specific challenge. I break the roleplay interaction as easy, moderate, or hard based on my opinion of the result. So if a player is trying to get a street urchin to give him some information the challenge might start out as moderate. If he bribes the NPC that might be easy or hard, depending on the NPC. At the end I know if the result was easy or hard for the PC to get what he wanted. I use that to determine what type of challenge they encountered using the Skill Challenge guidelines as a baseline. Then I modify based on the actual roleplay. Someone that was really in the moment might get a slight bonus (never big) for that interaction. If you make sure that everyone knows that player X got more XP for a particular interaction you might start seeing others doing the same.

Always reward what you want to see more of.