Roleplaying

Forums please help TvT

Do you guys have any tips for how to get better at roleplaying characters/NPCs? Whenever I try, I always roleplay them like myself, or I just fumble.

For NPCs:

• First of all, most NPCs don't need much of a personality. The players are interacting with them once or twice, with a specific end in mind. Give them a current attitude (grumpy, obsequious, etc) and maybe a verbal tic (talks fast, hems and haws, etc) and you're good.
• For those that do, they're still mostly there to move the plot forward. Focus on what they want and what they think of the PCs, along with the above. 
• There's the occasional NPC who interacts with the PCs over the long term, or in a free-form manner. They're still mostly handled by the above, but you want to track how their desires and opinions change.

In general, strong personalities, even if they're one-note, are what you want. An NPC that my players loathe could pretty much be summed up as:

• academic wizard, connected to a PC's backstory in an antagonistic but not actively hostile way
• higher level (at the start)
• 49th in line for the elven throne, and don't you forget it (one of those High Elves)

They loathe him. He's not even all that important, but they remembered him for ages (real-world time)

I have the same problem, but it often gets solved by my players when they kill/drive off/latch on to one aspect of the NPC and don't care about anything else.

Could you give an example of where you think you may have fumbled?

Jl8e posted about exactly what I would have said.

That said, if you do want to develop a character further (maybe your PC), one technique is to "interview" them. You get out a blank document and write down a question, and then answer as if you were the character. Ask them not just about their goals and dreams, but their friends, their hobbies, what gets on their nerves, those weird "what kind of pasta would you be" type questions, anything that gets your creativity flowing.

In terms of actual roleplaying, you want to remember not just their goal, but how they're going to get to their goal. Maybe you're a polite person and your instinct is to always ask nicely when you want something, but if you're playing a reckless character, they might demand rather than ask. Don't think "how would I achieve X" or "what's the best way to achieve X", think "how would this character achieve X".

I think the minimum you really need for a unique NPC is:

1. A goal that they have for their conversation with the players.  That could be as simple as “just get through their day job at the gate” or as complex as “lead the party astray to betray them later.”  But you should know what they want so you can interact accordingly.

2. What their present mood is, so you can act accordingly.

And that is really it.  As long as you have have those two things and you mix them up with each NPC, you’re in a pretty good place.

Everything else is just window dressing. Quirks, accents (though, I will say, doing different accents tricks both your and your player’s mind into seeing a character as different), or crazy long amounts of lore (guilty here) are all just window dressings that improve the experience and can substantially increase roleplay efficacy, but they are not really required for the minimum viable product.

Oh the interview idea sounds cool.

The easiest way to get better at it, is to base your character off of a character you love from some other media. Then once you get good at that, take a character you love and give them one twist. Then add two twists, then three or four and once you get to 5 twists you'll have a whole new character never seen before.

Here's an example of this evolution:

Base Character: Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story.
First Description: He's confident, outgoing, optimistic. He's fearless and is ready to do any plan someone comes up with. He's an interstellar explorer & who loves adventure and defeating bad guys for the sake of it. He's also naive and idealistic.

Twist 1: He's not from outer space, he's from a faraway land similar to Viking era-Scandinavia.
Twist 2: He's afraid of small furry animals.
Twist 3: He's very gullible and falls for any lie or trick someone tries on him.
Twist 4: He's gets tongue tied around women.
Twist 5: He's in it for wealth & treasure rather than exploration for its own sake.

I write down what I want the person to be, and then I add a few details based on that. I want him to be despised? Make him irritating and loud. Having little note cards with names and little details can really help keep you on track.

Quote from Penke >>

Jl8e posted about exactly what I would have said.

That said, if you do want to develop a character further (maybe your PC), one technique is to "interview" them. You get out a blank document and write down a question, and then answer as if you were the character. Ask them not just about their goals and dreams, but their friends, their hobbies, what gets on their nerves, those weird "what kind of pasta would you be" type questions, anything that gets your creativity flowing.

In terms of actual roleplaying, you want to remember not just their goal, but how they're going to get to their goal. Maybe you're a polite person and your instinct is to always ask nicely when you want something, but if you're playing a reckless character, they might demand rather than ask. Don't think "how would I achieve X" or "what's the best way to achieve X", think "how would this character achieve X".

 The interviews are a great idea. If anyone wanted help Ginny Di did a series of videos a few years back where she would play one of her characters in a conversation if you, she asks the questions to the screen and you just need to think of in character answers. It was aimed at player characters but would work for NPCs too.

Otherwise I agree with the previous comments. Most NPCs only need the vaguest outline, they’re there to serve a purpose in a single scene so don’t over prep when you don’t have to. Even for reoccurring NPCs you can get away with a goal, a quirk, and maybe an accent and your players will think that’s enough. Also go for the tropes, the gruff city guard, the flirty bar maid, the kleptomaniac thief etc. they’re all recognisable from a million films, tv and books so you can wheel one out easily and your players will fill in most of their personality from memory without you needing to do it 

In addition to some of the great ideas here:

Don't be afraid of negative interactions. You can have NPCs that are complete jerks, or that get into conflicts with the players. That will make your world feel much more alive and real, because not everybody is nice and agreeable. 

As others have said, an easy option is to give any given NPC a goal and just have them pursue it. Often you can make this a "what are they doing with their hands" goal. Innkeeper? They're trying to actively serve beers. Town guard? They're actively on patrol, or filling out reports in the guard house. Urchin? They're trying to lift the player's coins. (Again, conflict isn't bad!) Basically, ask yourself two questions: What is this person's job? And what are they physically, actively doing right now about that? This alone can give any given NPC a ton of character.

And don't worry too much about acting the part. Lots of DMs try to do all the voices or physical gestures or all sorts of verbal tics and the like. It's certainly not bad if you want to get into it, but acting isn't necessary... well, at all. Your story will take care of the NPCs reality. You're the narrator here, it's okay for the NPC to appear in your voice.