I have no idea if this type of thing already exists or not and I'm not sure what to even search for to find out, so my apologies if these already exist and have a name. So, us DM's do a lot of work, but what about players doing more of that work? Like when the party goes traveling, urban exploring, or resting - Instead of the DM rolling on a random encounter table, what if the players rolled first?
Here's how it could work. You write or print all of these on separate slips of paper. You tell a player to roll a d12. They roll and get a slip, but they don't tell anyone what they got, they just role play it. Maybe what they do triggers an event or a whole chain of events, who knows. Maybe nothing happens but it just gives them a chance to explore their characters and build relationships with the other PC's.
TRAVELING:
You start whistling.
You see a bird of an unusual color and it's an omen or a good sign where you grew up.
You start collecting flowers for a bouquet.
You see a bird's nest up in a tree (or a hole in the ground or snow, etc.) and feel compelled to look inside of it.
That cloud above you looks like something to you. Maybe a funny animal, or maybe a sign or an omen.
As you walk behind one of your party members, you notice something sticking out of his or her pocket or backpack and you feel compelled to test your pickpocketing skills. You don't intend to steal it, just to see if you can snatch it without getting noticed.
Start a game of tag.
Make a bet with someone.
Get ahead of the group, enough to get out of sight. Hide until they go past and try to scare them.
Tell a really, really long joke with a terrible pun for a punchline.
Try to find a walking stick.
Have a one-on-one conversation with a PC about one of the other PC's.
URBAN EXPLORING:
Someone on the street looks like someone from your past: someone you lost, someone you left behind, someone you loved, someone you've killed, etc...
Something you see in a window reminds you of home and makes you homesick.
Something an NPC on the street is wearing or carrying is extremely attractive to you and you have to ask him or her where he or she got it.
You trip in a pot hole and land face first in a puddle, or dung.
You notice that something important to you is missing from your person. You have to go back to the last tavern, inn, store, etc. you visited to find it.
You feel compelled to give out compliments to everyone who walks by you.
You push another PC playfully into someone else on the street.
You don't want to spend any money at the moment because you feel compelled to save up for something big.
You feel compelled to spend more money than usual the next place that you can.
You have a hankering for a strange kind of food or drink. Owlbear meat, a toad slime ale, etc.
You're unusually untrusting of the next NPC you encounter.
The next time you meet an NPC, you swear you've seen him or her before. He or she looks super familiar to you.
RESTING:
You feel compelled to tell everyone else in the party a dark secret about your past.
You feel compelled to tell everyone else in the party the most embarrassing moment of your life.
The food tasted awful but you don't want to tell anyone because you don't want to make the cook feel bad. If you're the cook, the food didn't agree with your stomach and you need to run into the woods to expel the food (front end or back end).
Something another party member did or said recently really bothered you and you feel compelled to call them out in front of everyone right now.
You could really use a hug.
You offer shoulder massages to anyone who needs one.
Try to trade weapons with someone else.
Try to play a prank on one or all of the party.
You suddenly get a bad feeling about tomorrow.
You've had a recurring nightmare that you finally want to tell everyone about.
Challenge someone to a friendly competition, such as knife throwing or arm wrestling or most creative use of a cantrip.
Tell someone else: "Call it; heads or tails." If it's heads, give them the coin. If it's tails, do or say nothing. If they ask, just say, "You'll see."
Just spitballing. Might be helpful, might not be. What do you think?
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“Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.” ~St. Augustine
In like what you're trying to do and appreciate the post. I'm not going to force my players to role play something cause they are not that type.
What you have will work with certain players which is great. I don't have a random encounter table. We skip travel unless I wrote something for it that comes from something on the story line.
Only issue is that your forcing players to roll on a list of things that they have no control over. If I was a player and had to roll for what my player was going to do at that moment I don't think I'd be up to it. Could be fun. Not sure.
Maybe the group could write up a list of 20 random things that their character could do. Kind of like wild magic. Then in a conversation they fail a skill check and then roll on a table to see what they do knowing they failed the check.
Example. Player is trying to persuade a npc to get a letter price. They fail it by 5pts. They roll on their table as an awkward try to get out of it. Like "they start whistling and walks away".
I think it's a good idea, especially the Resting ones because players can sometimes get bogged down with moving from fight to fight. Be careful not to do it too much, however, because if you structure the roleplay it's hard for players to really get engaged with what they're doing. In my campaign, the way I dealt with this was the addition of a personality quirk to each of the characters and slowly working it into the story. It's hard to find the fine line between too much and not enough structure so maybe give this a try and see how your players like it, as it definitely varies per group.
I appreciate the feedback so far. To give a little context: I am a high school theatre teacher and I run a lot of improv games. Improv games always have a 'prompt' to get the players going. These are just little 'prompts' to jumpstart or kickstart more RP. It's also part of the fun in an improv game for challenges to get introduced to the game as it goes along and you have to just deal with them and make them work. I know this type of thing won't work for all games.
But I really like the idea that Avohel had about the players creating their own kind of chart based on their characters.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.” ~St. Augustine
I appreciate the feedback so far. To give a little context: I am a high school theatre teacher and I run a lot of improv games. Improv games always have a 'prompt' to get the players going. These are just little 'prompts' to jumpstart or kickstart more RP. It's also part of the fun in an improv game for challenges to get introduced to the game as it goes along and you have to just deal with them and make them work. I know this type of thing won't work for all games.
But I really like the idea that Avohel had about the players creating their own kind of chart based on their characters.
See this info changes things. If your doing improv like that it's perfect cause they are in theatre mode and have to come up with something that was thrown at them. That's the whole point of improv. You are put into something and have to make the best of it. It's great for opening up the eyes of actors and getting them outside of the box that they might be in. So great idea s when it comes to people that are leaning to be actors in the future.
As others have said, I appreciate what you’re going for, but you shouldn’t force a player do something. Like, Try to play a prank, but what if you’re character isn’t a prankster. Start gathering flowers, but what if your character thinks nothing of flowers.
I think the better way is describe what characters see, smell, hear, etc. Don’t force upon them the way they react to the stimulus. That’s where you cross a line. It’s fair to ask them how they react; it’s not fair to tell them how they react.
I have no idea if this type of thing already exists or not and I'm not sure what to even search for to find out, so my apologies if these already exist and have a name. So, us DM's do a lot of work, but what about players doing more of that work? Like when the party goes traveling, urban exploring, or resting - Instead of the DM rolling on a random encounter table, what if the players rolled first?
Here's how it could work. You write or print all of these on separate slips of paper. You tell a player to roll a d12. They roll and get a slip, but they don't tell anyone what they got, they just role play it. Maybe what they do triggers an event or a whole chain of events, who knows. Maybe nothing happens but it just gives them a chance to explore their characters and build relationships with the other PC's.
TRAVELING:
URBAN EXPLORING:
RESTING:
Just spitballing. Might be helpful, might not be. What do you think?
“Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.” ~St. Augustine
roll play?
In like what you're trying to do and appreciate the post. I'm not going to force my players to role play something cause they are not that type.
What you have will work with certain players which is great. I don't have a random encounter table. We skip travel unless I wrote something for it that comes from something on the story line.
Only issue is that your forcing players to roll on a list of things that they have no control over. If I was a player and had to roll for what my player was going to do at that moment I don't think I'd be up to it. Could be fun. Not sure.
Maybe the group could write up a list of 20 random things that their character could do. Kind of like wild magic. Then in a conversation they fail a skill check and then roll on a table to see what they do knowing they failed the check.
Example. Player is trying to persuade a npc to get a letter price. They fail it by 5pts. They roll on their table as an awkward try to get out of it. Like "they start whistling and walks away".
Lot you can do with it long as it's not forced.
I think it's a good idea, especially the Resting ones because players can sometimes get bogged down with moving from fight to fight. Be careful not to do it too much, however, because if you structure the roleplay it's hard for players to really get engaged with what they're doing. In my campaign, the way I dealt with this was the addition of a personality quirk to each of the characters and slowly working it into the story. It's hard to find the fine line between too much and not enough structure so maybe give this a try and see how your players like it, as it definitely varies per group.
I appreciate the feedback so far. To give a little context: I am a high school theatre teacher and I run a lot of improv games. Improv games always have a 'prompt' to get the players going. These are just little 'prompts' to jumpstart or kickstart more RP. It's also part of the fun in an improv game for challenges to get introduced to the game as it goes along and you have to just deal with them and make them work. I know this type of thing won't work for all games.
But I really like the idea that Avohel had about the players creating their own kind of chart based on their characters.
“Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.” ~St. Augustine
See this info changes things. If your doing improv like that it's perfect cause they are in theatre mode and have to come up with something that was thrown at them. That's the whole point of improv. You are put into something and have to make the best of it. It's great for opening up the eyes of actors and getting them outside of the box that they might be in. So great idea s when it comes to people that are leaning to be actors in the future.
As others have said, I appreciate what you’re going for, but you shouldn’t force a player do something. Like, Try to play a prank, but what if you’re character isn’t a prankster. Start gathering flowers, but what if your character thinks nothing of flowers.
I think the better way is describe what characters see, smell, hear, etc. Don’t force upon them the way they react to the stimulus. That’s where you cross a line. It’s fair to ask them how they react; it’s not fair to tell them how they react.
It really would not be secret because when you tell the player to roll a d12 the others will know to expect something.
Now if the encounter thing was set up so that your players could get live text messages from you that may work better.
But it really may not work to try and force them to role play.