Roleplay Tips your D D group will love feat Ed Greenwood

you see mate the thing about role playing in Dy and other RPGs is that you don't need speak in different accent or have any skills related to actual performance role playing in games like Dungeons and Dragons is all about knowing yourself and knowing what your fellow players including the GM really want out of the experience so I'm going to share six little tips and tricks to help you and hopefully your whole group have more fun at the table because I'm Bob this is where we learn how to have more fun playing RPGs together and I'm just going to give you the bullet points up front then we will dissect each role playing tip and talk about how you actually apply them during your game and I'm sure you've heard or even applied some of these ideas before so please share your own role playing tips down in the comments number one highlight the game world two know thyself and thy character three secret tip from special guest Ed Greenwood hi I'm Ed greenw wood original creator of the Forgotten Realms 55 years ago created the Realms still work on the Realms every day thanks Bob happy to be here what yeah four stand with the party 99% of the time five talk to the game world and six remember it's just game so starting at the top number one highlight The Game World you know it know it we've all done it you're reading book or watching video and suddenly you get an amazing idea for DND character but unless that happens when you're hanging out with your and group any connections this character has to their party or even to the entire world where they were born and grew up all those connections are technically an afterthought or to be fair dramatic character backstory might be the first thing you come up with but then you may have no idea how it's actually going to fit into the campaign setting the game master is working with so the first way to apply this advice of highlighting the world as player is to follow the game Master's lead if you have the benefit of playing in published campaign setting like the Forgotten Realms where most and 5e modules take place or in wellestablished Homebrew setting that's where you should be looking for inspiration when making new character and if you already have this isolated character concept just ask your game master about which local evil faction could have destroyed your character's Village or killed your character's family or captured or your char family member and that should cover about 80% of heroic character backstories promise your GM will appreciate you for asking questions about the world because if it's their own world they probably want to talk about it and for any game World those questions tell your game master what you're interested in and that helps them know what they need to focus on during their game prep then to truly highlight the game world as GM or player all you need to do is come up with some simple in world touchstones what is one unique thing about the fashion in this part of the game world or local turn of phrase or swear word have no need for Aid or one popular food from this culture and if you're GM like me decide why that popular food is type of pizza because it's these highlights these discret pieces of pizza pieces of culture that express your game world and make it feel real and when player character makes point of dressing to that local fashion for example reward them NPCs automatically trust them as neighbor or at least ask this Adventurer about how they learn the local Customs so quickly and this expression and learning is tied to step two know yourself and your character paradoxically the first part of this tip might sound like the opposite of role-playing advice but it's perfectly fine for your character to think speak and behave exactly like you do in fact this anti-roll playing strategy completely avoids the age-old problematic Mantra of it's what my character would do so besides the fact that it would be kind of silly if every NPC and monster acted exactly like your GM there's no real pressure to perform at the table but it can be fun and ultimately this is fantasy game and your characters are going to find themselves in situations that you cannot so easily relate to and when that happens here's all you have to do for example your party sees basilisk up ahead wandering toward field of sheep or later your party is faced with farmer who's Furious that you knocked out his domesticated sheep hering basilisk just pause take note of your gut reaction what would you do then think would this character based on their lived experience do something different that's it the more you do it the easier it gets to be immersed in the character and make those decisions automatically and it should go without saying but part of knowing what your character would do comes from knowing your character abilities and the basic rules of the game yes the game Master's job is to be referee and keep the game moving but they shouldn't have to look up rules for you when it's something you could have done while preparing for your turn anyway there's another critical part to understanding what your character would do and for that it's my pleasure to turn it over to Ed Greenwood thanks Bob one of the things to bear in mind when you're creating characters is what do these characters want immediately out of this situation some of us live in the moment and some of us if we don't live in the moment we won't live to see any other moments so it's what we do right now it's not what we're aiming for yeah we want to retire Rich we want to retire when we're 200 years old we want to retire when we're running whole Kingdom no no no it's what can do to stay alive right now so it's what do we want right now immediate character goals and of course when you're role playing players at the table can do anything you need these guidelines so if just want to stay alive through it I'm not going to do or say anything to provoke the player characters I'm I'm going to be really helpful or really quiet or try and get away or try not to be noticed but if I'm on the spot and perhaps the player characters are very angry with me I'm going to desperately do something so as not to get weapon through me or or can can somehow take advantage of the situation by manipulating the player characters and doing something for me that wouldn't dare do myself and of course that's all up to what is the character like would they do that think about that beforehand in any situation everybody who's present whether it's guard or the shopkeeper or an onlooker looking down from the balcony what do they want out of this situation huge thanks to Ed for sharing his wisdom on this topic we have few more points to cover here but after this video make sure you check out Ed's video link below where got to be guest offering ing one extra tip for making great characters now tied to the idea of establishing character's individual goals we got to consider tip number four stand with the party this tip seems pretty self-explanatory right share the spotlight support each other's goals and each other's fun make sure everyone gets to feel like hero and share the treasure and you know Thief characters might take few gold off the top but at the end of the day the party is always working toward common goal however after came up with this list ran wild session where one of the player characters basically betrayed the rest of the party and had to rethink this whole idea here's what happened tomb of annihilation my party is being guided to an ancient lost city by an NPC that they captured Queen zore delusional Immortal Medusa who once ruled over the same ancient city that the player characters are trying to find the party initially promised to release her once they got to the city but after realizing just how diluted this Medusa is thinking the party were her own guards escorting her back to her City the PC's worried that she might flip out and try to petrify them once they reach the city and she sees it in Ruins and the players were especially on edge that night because earlier in the same Session One PC died full stop no Resurrection in this module so the party changed their minds and decided it would be safer and perhaps the right thing to do to put this tragically deluded Medusa out of her misery once and for all but one player character in the party wanted to uphold their promise so on the outskirts of the city when the rest of the party attacked the Medusa queen that one PC cut her bonds to help her escape the Medusa put up short fight fortunately did not petrify anyone and then they escaped into the jungle promising great reward to the character who saved her life and the rest of the party decided they could no longer trust this one player character who almost just got them all turned to stone so that character left the party and the player had to make new character because of it but they told me it was one of the most memorable sessions they ever had so with some extremely rare exceptions you should always align your character's goals with the rest of the party can easily imagine that exact scenario being posted on RPG horror stories but thankfully my group group understands the final tip on our list and our campaign is going as strong as ever but before we get to that Sixth and final tip know that this epic situation never would have happened if my party ignored tip number five talk to the game World this is literally how you create opportunities for role playay to happen just once or twice per session take the initiative to start dialogue with another character even if your character doesn't necessarily have something to gain from it my party certainly did not expect to get themselves guide right to the lost city when they decided to talk to Medusa but humanoid monsters or any monsters with high intelligence should almost always be trying to bargain with the adventurers rather than outright attacking them negotiation has many more potential outcomes than the average DND combat and as long as you stay true to the dice letting them decide whether or not monsters can be persuaded or deceived you might find it more exciting too also when the player characters have an in-game conversation amongst themselves about anything at all it gives your game master short but well-deserved break during the session and on that note do your GM favor don't overdo it by asking NPCs for tons of specific information on the spot cuz chances are that random NPC in the tavern doesn't even have name but on that note game Masters you should feel comfortable calling upon your players to make up names once in while yes you might end up with some silly names but those NPCs will instantly become the party's favorite and this takes us to the most important point when you're struggling to recall specific fact about pizza in the game World Pizza time or when you suddenly need to role play as an NPC named bardy McFly with or without putting on different accent remember that it's just game it's important to take the game seriously by learning your character's features respecting the tone and the themes and not giving every NPC silly game but the only way to win during role playing game is when everyone at the table is having fun if you agree please like this video share it with your game group and consider joining my patreon to directly support this kind of content and get new 5e resources every month then check out this video where Ed Greenwood creator of the Forgotten Realms gives you his best tips for making memorable characters thank you for your support and keep building and thanks to Anto from Icarus games for having cool accent