I've been playing D&D for only a few years off and on now. Love it. I have a good grasp of the rules and am pretty decent with tactics and the combat parts. It's my bread and butter. However, I am terrible at the role play side of things. I'm naturally reserved, little on the shy side. Most of the people I play with are natural extroverts, and have no problems with role playing their characters. I can't even get the simple stuff right, like playing up to the bonds and flaws of my characters. It just seems like I'm not smart enough in the moment, or quick witted enough, to do it in the moment so I stay quiet.
I play in two groups. Here are my characters and backstories. Please tell me what I can do to introduce better depth and to get better role play out of them.
Character: Millie Moonwhisper
Age: 24
Class: Dragon Sorceress
Race: Half Elf
Level: 6
backstory: Orphaned at birth. Adopted by well to do family. Raised in affluent area. City girl from metropolis area in Sword Coast. Loves astronomy. Started teaching astrology. Got booted after mishap with spell. Family kicked her out for making them look bad. Started performing magic shows to get by and was doing that until she came across a crew going to Port Nanzaru of Chult (we are playing the Tomb of Annihilation). Heard about globs of lost treasures there and sought to get rich, so she tagged along. Crew got accosted and Captured by pirates. That's how she met the actual adventuring group she is in. They we all captured by same group of pirates. Helped group break out. Escaped. Spent time in Port before getting outfitted and sent out to Camp Vengeance to see if it is still there at the urging of a person paying us very well for our troubles.
Group make up: Me ( Millie - gold draconic sorceress), Wizard, Druid, Bard, Paladin.
Chaotic good alignment.
Recent happenings - A few sessions ago they searched a ruined camp of knights of a order that belongs to an NPC Paladin that is tagging along with us to get to her post of Camp Vengeance. Millie found a holy symbol of her god worth lots of money. Millie asked if she could keep it. Pally asked why. Millie said she had been thinking about becoming a knight ever since she saw how bravely the Pally fought. Rolled deception. Passed with flying colors. In hindsight I should not have done that but it was spur of the moment and my DM seemed to be edging me to keep it since Millie is all about getting rich quick and living the rest of her life in ease lol. I might flip it on him and legit multi class into Pally or Cleric. Not sure how to role play any of that either way.
Last session one of our NPC's did a sacred flame on a tiny dino that was attached to Millie and biting her. It was a bad to hit roll and wound up hitting MIllie instead. Burned her hair. So I'm thinking about using that as a means to have her be self conscious about her looks now because she has a bald spot on top of her head lol. She is really pretty so yeah it'd knocked her confidence down a peg or two. She has asked the Druid if he could make her a hat out of a critter he hunts down or something.
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Character #2
Name: Darth Lightmagic
Race: High Elf
Class: Eldritch Knight
Age: 238
Level: 8
Backstory: (rolled random for all his stuff). Upper middle class. Dad was a captain in city guard. Mom is unknown. He was a sage/researcher who also worked as a leathermaker before being gifted a spot on a adventuring team tasked with going to a ghost tower to retrieve a soul gem on behalf of the Seer and the Duke. He is supposed to be foppish and reckless. His random rolled height is 5'1", and weight is 110 pounds LOL. I paid some extra coin to get boots of springing and striding for him, and made them into platform boots that make his height 5'7" now. Not sure how to RP a foppish character. They found the soul gem but got double crossed by the Seer who turned out to be evil. Now they are chasing him down to collect the soul gem again.
Party make up: Me (Darth - high elf Eldritch Knight), Bard/Warlock, Rouge, Barbarian/rouge, Paladin, NPC Cleric.
Recent happenings --- Uses boots to jump around the battle field like Mario from Super Mario Bros. I am going to start using the Street Fighter Hadoken routine when using Burning Hands (same with Millie). Carries a cool magically bonded spear that he throws and recalls back to him like Thor's hammer.
Basically, what are some things you'd do with these characters to open up lanes for role play? I feel like I'm letting down my fellow role players at the table by not being able to keep up with the role playing aspect.
It might help if you base your characters personality off a book, movie, or tv character. Your character would not act exactly as the actor, but it would be the inspiration. I am also shy and had a hard time getting into role playing. I think the first time I play with a new group is always awkward. Spend some time just thinking about your character, how they act, what they believe in, and where their morals point them. Maybe do a mental exercise where you take your character grocery shopping. Would they pick creamy or crunchy peanut butter? Apple or grape jelly? White or wheat bread? We can all picture the grocery store so it may be interesting to determine how your character reacts to people randomly stopping in the aisle, and kids running around with no parental supervision, and the abandoned carts in the parking lots. Mentally playing out a mundane task like that can tell you a lot about your character. After that, just remember that everyone is there to have fun, and no one is going to judge you. We love role play, even when it's bad. :-D
Take your backgrounds for characters and give them very simple motivations based off of those backgrounds. Is Millie adventuring to make her family proud of her? Does she want to prove her worth to somebody? What is she trying to *achieve* by adventuring, besides “getting good loot”?
Similarly, what is Darth after? You’ve written down a backstory, sure, but you haven’t written down a character, so to speak. I find that the bonds, flaws, etc are nice, but they don’t quite get the job done. Maybe Darth simply wants to be fabulous in everything he does (seems semi likely for a foppish character). With that being said, just play him up to be seeing beauty in everything, looking for beautiful items to wear, etc.
I find that if you give your characters one simple trait hat you go back to, then you’ll spawn more traits as you bounce back and forth off of your party and off of the world that your DM has made.
My final piece of advice would be: relax, and remember you’re among friends. It’s okay to be more quiet than open, even in a roleplaying game. Focus on changing little things about how you’d respond to a joke or a comment. Take it one step at a time, and remember the golden rule: DnD is about fun! If roleplaying isn’t as fun to you, that’s totally okay too.
What helps me the most when creating/playing a character is to pick some aspect of my real personality, dial it up to 11, and then base my DnD character off of that. So, for example, one of my characters may embody my tendency to be arrogant/overconfident, but turned up to 11; another may be an exaggerated portrayal of my reluctance to "break the rules." A third may be a representation of my love of classic gothic literature.
If you can pick that one trait of yours to hang your character on, that gives you a solid grounding point. The rest of the character can flow from there. And because you're working with an aspect of your real personality, it's easier to stay in character - because in character is, at least partially, your character.
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"We're the perfect combination of expendable and unkillable!"
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I've been playing D&D for only a few years off and on now. Love it. I have a good grasp of the rules and am pretty decent with tactics and the combat parts. It's my bread and butter. However, I am terrible at the role play side of things. I'm naturally reserved, little on the shy side. Most of the people I play with are natural extroverts, and have no problems with role playing their characters. I can't even get the simple stuff right, like playing up to the bonds and flaws of my characters. It just seems like I'm not smart enough in the moment, or quick witted enough, to do it in the moment so I stay quiet.
I play in two groups. Here are my characters and backstories. Please tell me what I can do to introduce better depth and to get better role play out of them.
Character: Millie Moonwhisper
Age: 24
Class: Dragon Sorceress
Race: Half Elf
Level: 6
backstory: Orphaned at birth. Adopted by well to do family. Raised in affluent area. City girl from metropolis area in Sword Coast. Loves astronomy. Started teaching astrology. Got booted after mishap with spell. Family kicked her out for making them look bad. Started performing magic shows to get by and was doing that until she came across a crew going to Port Nanzaru of Chult (we are playing the Tomb of Annihilation). Heard about globs of lost treasures there and sought to get rich, so she tagged along. Crew got accosted and Captured by pirates. That's how she met the actual adventuring group she is in. They we all captured by same group of pirates. Helped group break out. Escaped. Spent time in Port before getting outfitted and sent out to Camp Vengeance to see if it is still there at the urging of a person paying us very well for our troubles.
Group make up: Me ( Millie - gold draconic sorceress), Wizard, Druid, Bard, Paladin.
Chaotic good alignment.
Recent happenings - A few sessions ago they searched a ruined camp of knights of a order that belongs to an NPC Paladin that is tagging along with us to get to her post of Camp Vengeance. Millie found a holy symbol of her god worth lots of money. Millie asked if she could keep it. Pally asked why. Millie said she had been thinking about becoming a knight ever since she saw how bravely the Pally fought. Rolled deception. Passed with flying colors. In hindsight I should not have done that but it was spur of the moment and my DM seemed to be edging me to keep it since Millie is all about getting rich quick and living the rest of her life in ease lol. I might flip it on him and legit multi class into Pally or Cleric. Not sure how to role play any of that either way.
Last session one of our NPC's did a sacred flame on a tiny dino that was attached to Millie and biting her. It was a bad to hit roll and wound up hitting MIllie instead. Burned her hair. So I'm thinking about using that as a means to have her be self conscious about her looks now because she has a bald spot on top of her head lol. She is really pretty so yeah it'd knocked her confidence down a peg or two. She has asked the Druid if he could make her a hat out of a critter he hunts down or something.
------------------------------------------------
Character #2
Name: Darth Lightmagic
Race: High Elf
Class: Eldritch Knight
Age: 238
Level: 8
Backstory: (rolled random for all his stuff). Upper middle class. Dad was a captain in city guard. Mom is unknown. He was a sage/researcher who also worked as a leathermaker before being gifted a spot on a adventuring team tasked with going to a ghost tower to retrieve a soul gem on behalf of the Seer and the Duke. He is supposed to be foppish and reckless. His random rolled height is 5'1", and weight is 110 pounds LOL. I paid some extra coin to get boots of springing and striding for him, and made them into platform boots that make his height 5'7" now. Not sure how to RP a foppish character. They found the soul gem but got double crossed by the Seer who turned out to be evil. Now they are chasing him down to collect the soul gem again.
Party make up: Me (Darth - high elf Eldritch Knight), Bard/Warlock, Rouge, Barbarian/rouge, Paladin, NPC Cleric.
Recent happenings --- Uses boots to jump around the battle field like Mario from Super Mario Bros. I am going to start using the Street Fighter Hadoken routine when using Burning Hands (same with Millie). Carries a cool magically bonded spear that he throws and recalls back to him like Thor's hammer.
Basically, what are some things you'd do with these characters to open up lanes for role play? I feel like I'm letting down my fellow role players at the table by not being able to keep up with the role playing aspect.
Thanks.
It might help if you base your characters personality off a book, movie, or tv character. Your character would not act exactly as the actor, but it would be the inspiration. I am also shy and had a hard time getting into role playing. I think the first time I play with a new group is always awkward. Spend some time just thinking about your character, how they act, what they believe in, and where their morals point them. Maybe do a mental exercise where you take your character grocery shopping. Would they pick creamy or crunchy peanut butter? Apple or grape jelly? White or wheat bread? We can all picture the grocery store so it may be interesting to determine how your character reacts to people randomly stopping in the aisle, and kids running around with no parental supervision, and the abandoned carts in the parking lots. Mentally playing out a mundane task like that can tell you a lot about your character. After that, just remember that everyone is there to have fun, and no one is going to judge you. We love role play, even when it's bad. :-D
Take your backgrounds for characters and give them very simple motivations based off of those backgrounds. Is Millie adventuring to make her family proud of her? Does she want to prove her worth to somebody? What is she trying to *achieve* by adventuring, besides “getting good loot”?
Similarly, what is Darth after? You’ve written down a backstory, sure, but you haven’t written down a character, so to speak. I find that the bonds, flaws, etc are nice, but they don’t quite get the job done. Maybe Darth simply wants to be fabulous in everything he does (seems semi likely for a foppish character). With that being said, just play him up to be seeing beauty in everything, looking for beautiful items to wear, etc.
I find that if you give your characters one simple trait hat you go back to, then you’ll spawn more traits as you bounce back and forth off of your party and off of the world that your DM has made.
My final piece of advice would be: relax, and remember you’re among friends. It’s okay to be more quiet than open, even in a roleplaying game. Focus on changing little things about how you’d respond to a joke or a comment. Take it one step at a time, and remember the golden rule: DnD is about fun! If roleplaying isn’t as fun to you, that’s totally okay too.
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
What helps me the most when creating/playing a character is to pick some aspect of my real personality, dial it up to 11, and then base my DnD character off of that. So, for example, one of my characters may embody my tendency to be arrogant/overconfident, but turned up to 11; another may be an exaggerated portrayal of my reluctance to "break the rules." A third may be a representation of my love of classic gothic literature.
If you can pick that one trait of yours to hang your character on, that gives you a solid grounding point. The rest of the character can flow from there. And because you're working with an aspect of your real personality, it's easier to stay in character - because in character is, at least partially, your character.
"We're the perfect combination of expendable and unkillable!"