general roleplaying questions [Archive] - Wizards Community

general roleplaying questions [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Gildnao
01-08-07, 05:20 PM how do you all in your games handle someone trying to roleplay something they truely are not? what i mean is, if someone in your group is playing a Wizard, but they themselves arent the brightest how does this affect your game?
how do you handle the diplomacy skill, do you have the character and DM actually debate or just say what they generally want to acomplish and then leave it to dice?
how does someone who doesnt have the best social skills roleplay someone with a high charisma?
how do you deal with metagamers? people who have read all the books and know everything particularly the weaknesses of creatures or the intrigue of areas and deities (Forgotten Realms in particular here)
what do you do if someone just isnt very good at roleplaying?
ericSHINRA
01-08-07, 05:54 PM Firstly, and this pretty much applies to all your questions, if a player isn't a terrific roleplayer, talk with him/her and see what you can do to overcome this problem. I was hardly an excelent roleplayer when I started but I quickly managed to improve my skills once my DM sat me down and talked with me about it.

In regards to diplomacy, if a character's use of dimplomacy will alter the plot or have a signifigant influence I will ask them to play out the conversation/debate. In general, however, I do allow the dice to determine the outcome for most diplomacy checks.

Metagamers. Ah, yes. Well, I've never encountered a cronic metagamer in my games but remind them that even if they know the politics of Drow society or the interworkins of a secret thieves guild in Waterdeep, their character will not. If the player continues to use his OOC knowledge to his advantage, however, I'd warn him/her that shis kind of activity should stop if they want to remain in my game.

Hope that helped, somewhat.

-ericSHINRA
TrashCrap
01-10-07, 02:50 PM I play in a game where there is a main campaign that all the characters adventure on but all the characters have their own little thing goin on in the side. sometimes the side stories collide, sometimes not. we sometimes talk about our side games ooc, but we try to keep our knowledge of it in character.

Other things to think about is how your character would react. not how you would. Bluff and Intimidate for example. No1 likes it when an npc uses these on them, but if they succeed, you should play your character accordingly. It takes maturity and a willingness for your character to fail. After all, if you never fail, whats the challenge? And with no challenge, DnD gets boring fast.
BlackZed
01-10-07, 03:15 PM I've had groups that have had the same problems, and in most cases, it depends on that person. Are they willing to accept a little criticism? We had someone playing an elven bard with a high charisma when his was anything but. He could offend a rock. And he wouldn't admit that his roleplaying was affected by his own low charisma, believing that he was doing very well even when the vampire wanted to knock his head in. Long story about that game anyway, but point being that if they're not willing to admit that they're deficient, then you're going to have trouble. Luckily you only have to worry about the mental stats, yeah? :rofl:

If they're willing to have a sit-down discussion about it, then I'd say keep it between DM and player or one-on-one between players. In my experience, even with the most understanding people, it can end up seeming like an attack if everyone in the group is involved in the talk about it.

My DM instigates wisdom and intelligence checks when someone says they do something exceptionally boneheaded, leaving it to the dice to determine whether or not they realize in character that it's a really flipping stupid thing to do. DC being lower the more out of character it would be for the attribute involved.

For diplomacy, we adopt the same approach as ericSHINRA, but the player always has the option to debate it if they wish, even if it's probably a bad idea.

Thankfully, I haven't run into any metagamers. If someone is a good roleplayer, but continually uses out of character info, I think I'd start with warnings of XP penalties, then back it up if they won't back down. They won't like it, and will probably get a bit huffy about it, but as ericSHINRA said, simply explain that even though they might know it themselves, if their character doesn't know it, their character doesn't get to use it.
Tjuk
01-11-07, 03:47 AM Well what me and a few mates have done, we were always kind of powerplayers just killing everything on our way hardly making conversation.

So we decided to do a politics campaign, one in a major town, we picked Waterdeep.
We did decide to play a evil campaign but since if you read the books there are quiet alot of rules in waterdeep and a awful lot of guards to actually make it hard breaking rules and not getting busted, so obviously we had to roleplay becaus as a level 1 character,walking around in a town filled with level 20/epic level characters you can hardly affort to screw up. or kill someone.

Obviously my mates all picked rogues, with a rather high int score, so they got alot of roleplaying skills, for example bluff, diplomacy, intimidate you name it, i for one was the only one chosing for a wizard.
And untill now even the people that normally were powerplayers (one really busy all the time constantly getting distracted with real life stuff) are actually really excited by the way it goes, and with other campaigns we play in we really try to change our looks on the game on making it alot more fun to play.
And you can also learn to use the rules of a town to put them like you want them to be.
Making it a really special experience :)

the key to solving problems here, is to improvice with words, rather then grabbing your sword and hacking and slashing :)

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Gildnao 01-08-07, 05:20 PM	how do you all in your games handle someone trying to roleplay something they truely are not? what i mean is, if someone in your group is playing a Wizard, but they themselves arent the brightest how does this affect your game? how do you handle the diplomacy skill, do you have the character and DM actually debate or just say what they generally want to acomplish and then leave it to dice? how does someone who doesnt have the best social skills roleplay someone with a high charisma? how do you deal with metagamers? people who have read all the books and know everything particularly the weaknesses of creatures or the intrigue of areas and deities (Forgotten Realms in particular here) what do you do if someone just isnt very good at roleplaying?
ericSHINRA 01-08-07, 05:54 PM	Firstly, and this pretty much applies to all your questions, if a player isn't a terrific roleplayer, talk with him/her and see what you can do to overcome this problem. I was hardly an excelent roleplayer when I started but I quickly managed to improve my skills once my DM sat me down and talked with me about it. In regards to diplomacy, if a character's use of dimplomacy will alter the plot or have a signifigant influence I will ask them to play out the conversation/debate. In general, however, I do allow the dice to determine the outcome for most diplomacy checks. Metagamers. Ah, yes. Well, I've never encountered a cronic metagamer in my games but remind them that even if they know the politics of Drow society or the interworkins of a secret thieves guild in Waterdeep, their character will not. If the player continues to use his OOC knowledge to his advantage, however, I'd warn him/her that shis kind of activity should stop if they want to remain in my game. Hope that helped, somewhat. -ericSHINRA
TrashCrap 01-10-07, 02:50 PM	I play in a game where there is a main campaign that all the characters adventure on but all the characters have their own little thing goin on in the side. sometimes the side stories collide, sometimes not. we sometimes talk about our side games ooc, but we try to keep our knowledge of it in character. Other things to think about is how your character would react. not how you would. Bluff and Intimidate for example. No1 likes it when an npc uses these on them, but if they succeed, you should play your character accordingly. It takes maturity and a willingness for your character to fail. After all, if you never fail, whats the challenge? And with no challenge, DnD gets boring fast.
BlackZed 01-10-07, 03:15 PM	I've had groups that have had the same problems, and in most cases, it depends on that person. Are they willing to accept a little criticism? We had someone playing an elven bard with a high charisma when his was anything but. He could offend a rock. And he wouldn't admit that his roleplaying was affected by his own low charisma, believing that he was doing very well even when the vampire wanted to knock his head in. Long story about that game anyway, but point being that if they're not willing to admit that they're deficient, then you're going to have trouble. Luckily you only have to worry about the mental stats, yeah? :rofl: If they're willing to have a sit-down discussion about it, then I'd say keep it between DM and player or one-on-one between players. In my experience, even with the most understanding people, it can end up seeming like an attack if everyone in the group is involved in the talk about it. My DM instigates wisdom and intelligence checks when someone says they do something exceptionally boneheaded, leaving it to the dice to determine whether or not they realize in character that it's a really flipping stupid thing to do. DC being lower the more out of character it would be for the attribute involved. For diplomacy, we adopt the same approach as ericSHINRA, but the player always has the option to debate it if they wish, even if it's probably a bad idea. Thankfully, I haven't run into any metagamers. If someone is a good roleplayer, but continually uses out of character info, I think I'd start with warnings of XP penalties, then back it up if they won't back down. They won't like it, and will probably get a bit huffy about it, but as ericSHINRA said, simply explain that even though they might know it themselves, if their character doesn't know it, their character doesn't get to use it.
Tjuk 01-11-07, 03:47 AM	Well what me and a few mates have done, we were always kind of powerplayers just killing everything on our way hardly making conversation. So we decided to do a politics campaign, one in a major town, we picked Waterdeep. We did decide to play a evil campaign but since if you read the books there are quiet alot of rules in waterdeep and a awful lot of guards to actually make it hard breaking rules and not getting busted, so obviously we had to roleplay becaus as a level 1 character,walking around in a town filled with level 20/epic level characters you can hardly affort to screw up. or kill someone. Obviously my mates all picked rogues, with a rather high int score, so they got alot of roleplaying skills, for example bluff, diplomacy, intimidate you name it, i for one was the only one chosing for a wizard. And untill now even the people that normally were powerplayers (one really busy all the time constantly getting distracted with real life stuff) are actually really excited by the way it goes, and with other campaigns we play in we really try to change our looks on the game on making it alot more fun to play. And you can also learn to use the rules of a town to put them like you want them to be. Making it a really special experience :) the key to solving problems here, is to improvice with words, rather then grabbing your sword and hacking and slashing :)