I have been playing Dungeons and Dragons for about half a year now and I thought I would share some of the better tips I have heard for improving your role play skills.
Stay engaged no matter what, you are pretending to be someone else and just because you wouldn't find something interesting doesn't mean your character wouldn't. Make sure you interact with your fellow party members, talk to npcs, and make note of all the little things your character would actually be doing. As an example don't just say you set up camp, actually go through the motions involved in doing so you don't have to do it every time but try it at least once for the experience.
Take a psych test in character, not the ones that are multiple choice but the moral and ethical question ones like "You see a shop keeper being intimidated by the city guard?" You will find thinking about these kind of scenarios in character outside of play sessions will help you react quicker and more in character when such moral quandaries show up in the game.
Give what your character says context don't just "How are you today." smile as you say it add an excited tone of voice reveal the kind of person your character is by showing us the kind of emotion they put behind their words.
The DM doesn't need to be there for you to role play, when the DM isn't around take the opportunity to talk in character. Share back story, discuss recent events, or better yet just try shooting the shit in character.
Remember it is and isn't a game. We play to have fun but at the same time you're not. The best role playing is done when for brief amount of time you become another person, who is really going through these experiences and you will start taking what happens very seriously because what happens matters a lot to the person you are trying to be.
Hopefully this helps you as much as it has helped me.
Here's one that I've sort of run into that's partially mechanical to the game...
Fill out your character's Personality section on the Character sheet. Whether you pick from the suggested characteristics from your chosen background, or if you build your own custom characteristics, filling it out helps you to solidify who this character is in your mind and it gives you a reference point to look to if you find yourself in a moral quandary and need to decide how your character would react. This is much more reliable, I feel, than just using a character's alignment, which is famously hard to fully quantify and has had many debates on exactly what each different alignment means. Even just making the choices at one point early in character creation can help guide you with other things going forward... I would definitely recommend filling out that part of your character sheet before taking on a psych test to really figure out exactly how they tick... and don't be afraid to change some of your answers if they shift over time.
I mostly bring it up because, as a DM, I know that a few of my players never do fill out that part of their sheet, and they tend to be the players who RP less frequently and openly compared to the others. I feel like, because that section doesn't have any direct, mechanical impact on the game that it's easy to overlook it.
In general, I have seen D&D (basic through 5th) played in many ways and while your thoughts are good they may not apply to all games. I found your points to be geared more toward acting games vs the video game side or try and use the rules as presented in a realistic way. So in your acting game how often do you wash yourself, cloths and other basic things, where as in the video game game you heal up and move on and the in the more realistic game you might cast mending to repair items, walk slowly due to wounds and pain, etc.
Also be prepared for people to not be at their best at times, ie the best RPer of the group has an off night and rolls poorly so it dramatically effects the game and negative things happen to everyone. Or the GM produces a lot of handouts and 1 or more people do not read them that week due to being busy (ie life). Or any number of other things.
Also remember that the player is not the PC and the PC is not the player.
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I have been playing Dungeons and Dragons for about half a year now and I thought I would share some of the better tips I have heard for improving your role play skills.
Stay engaged no matter what, you are pretending to be someone else and just because you wouldn't find something interesting doesn't mean your character wouldn't. Make sure you interact with your fellow party members, talk to npcs, and make note of all the little things your character would actually be doing. As an example don't just say you set up camp, actually go through the motions involved in doing so you don't have to do it every time but try it at least once for the experience.
Take a psych test in character, not the ones that are multiple choice but the moral and ethical question ones like "You see a shop keeper being intimidated by the city guard?" You will find thinking about these kind of scenarios in character outside of play sessions will help you react quicker and more in character when such moral quandaries show up in the game.
Give what your character says context don't just "How are you today." smile as you say it add an excited tone of voice reveal the kind of person your character is by showing us the kind of emotion they put behind their words.
The DM doesn't need to be there for you to role play, when the DM isn't around take the opportunity to talk in character. Share back story, discuss recent events, or better yet just try shooting the shit in character.
Remember it is and isn't a game. We play to have fun but at the same time you're not. The best role playing is done when for brief amount of time you become another person, who is really going through these experiences and you will start taking what happens very seriously because what happens matters a lot to the person you are trying to be.
Hopefully this helps you as much as it has helped me.
Here's one that I've sort of run into that's partially mechanical to the game...
Fill out your character's Personality section on the Character sheet. Whether you pick from the suggested characteristics from your chosen background, or if you build your own custom characteristics, filling it out helps you to solidify who this character is in your mind and it gives you a reference point to look to if you find yourself in a moral quandary and need to decide how your character would react. This is much more reliable, I feel, than just using a character's alignment, which is famously hard to fully quantify and has had many debates on exactly what each different alignment means. Even just making the choices at one point early in character creation can help guide you with other things going forward... I would definitely recommend filling out that part of your character sheet before taking on a psych test to really figure out exactly how they tick... and don't be afraid to change some of your answers if they shift over time.
I mostly bring it up because, as a DM, I know that a few of my players never do fill out that part of their sheet, and they tend to be the players who RP less frequently and openly compared to the others. I feel like, because that section doesn't have any direct, mechanical impact on the game that it's easy to overlook it.
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In general, I have seen D&D (basic through 5th) played in many ways and while your thoughts are good they may not apply to all games. I found your points to be geared more toward acting games vs the video game side or try and use the rules as presented in a realistic way. So in your acting game how often do you wash yourself, cloths and other basic things, where as in the video game game you heal up and move on and the in the more realistic game you might cast mending to repair items, walk slowly due to wounds and pain, etc.
Also be prepared for people to not be at their best at times, ie the best RPer of the group has an off night and rolls poorly so it dramatically effects the game and negative things happen to everyone. Or the GM produces a lot of handouts and 1 or more people do not read them that week due to being busy (ie life). Or any number of other things.
Also remember that the player is not the PC and the PC is not the player.