Encouraging my DM to RP? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Encouraging my DM to RP? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
xvthreetwoonevx
08-23-05, 01:45 AM Hi all, I've been in a campaign for a while and i'm getting a tad bored. It was fun at first, but lately i've been noticing that it's mostly been, "You wake up. Something attacks the caravan. Defend it.". There was even a day where the DM said, "Nothing attacks you today, you can fast forward till you sleep if you want.". It's been getting progressively more hack-n-slash-ey, but most of the other players seem not to mind. I know it's a little selfish, but I personally am losing interest, and I was wondering if you guys have ever had a game that didn't have much in the way of RP'ing, and if you ever did anything to encourage that sort of thing? I think it could be that we have such a massive amount of players, and each of them is playing three characters, I can understand how RP'ing would be really difficult, but is there anything you would do in my situation to encourage it? Thanks y'all.
vezina
08-23-05, 02:21 AM Three characters per player? Whoa. That's a major problem to RP. If you really want your DM to RP, I think that's one thing that really needs to change. It's hard to get in character when there's so many characters to deal with!

Anyways, I'm in a group much like yours right now. I've never actually roleplayed before, simply because of the fact that my group pretty much discourages it. I've always tried to convey my character's wishes above my own; however, that's about as far as I can really go, because the players that switch the DM'ing pretty much aren't flexible enough to come up with dialogue that isn't put in a pre-made module.

I'd love to actually RP for once as well. Perhaps you should start conversations with other players or members of the caravan (I realize that you're not perpetually in a caravan. I'm just using your example.)? Start testing the DM and start making him think of names for the NPC's. When you look for someone to talk to, keep referring back to those NPC's that he's named, and see how well he can develop them over time. I'd take notes about them, and bring up those notes in future conversations so that at least one of you has a background for the guy or girl!

Hey, if you really felt up to it, you could have a three-way conversation between your own characters. That'd be slightly amusing. :D
Ut-Napishtim
08-23-05, 09:08 AM Yeah, I'm with vezina on this one. At first I though: Well that just sounds like the DM is getting burned out and needs a break. Three characters a piece though? That's just crazy. If you guys each go down to one character, maybe it will be easier for the DM to identify you with your character and thus offer more interesting roleplay options. If that doesn't work, give him a break and show him how it's done.
Thesen
08-23-05, 09:42 AM There's only one person who should be playing more than one character at a time and that's the DM. If a player is "roleplaying" two+ guys, there's no way he's putting his heart into it and unfortunately, Rping one character is hard enough. I know there's some "brilliant" - and I use the word in sarcasm - person reading this right now saying, "I DO IT ALL THE TIME AND I RP AWESOME!!!!" Yeah...... ----that's all I have to say about that.

As Vezina said, though. You might want to get the game going yourself. I have had players turn an ordinary town / village / room / mundane NPC into an improvised adventure because of their suspicions, suggestions, and lack of faith - I guess I have spooked them out once or twice. ;)

If you play a ranger, interact with the wild. If you play a rogue, sneak somewhere you KNOW you're not supposed to be. If you're a sorcerer, begin "researching" a new spell. Take the ball in your court and then throw it at your DMs eye. If he doesn't duck... <shrugs> Shouldn't-a-been standin' there!

If this doesn't work. Fire his lazy butt! He has no place sitting behind that screen if all he does is throw encounters - and mundane ones it sounds like - at his players.
Cherry
08-23-05, 09:42 AM Hey, if you really felt up to it, you could have a three-way conversation between your own characters. That'd be slightly amusing. :D

HA HA HA HA HA! That would be AWESOME! :rofl:

Once again this falls into the "talk with your group and try to work it out internally" cartergory. But the three PC's per player is a bit much, I sometimes have problems keeping up with what my one PC is thinking and doing. I would talk to the group and see if they would mind cutting the PC's down to one (or MAYBE two) per player. That will really help the DM and the players begin to identify with their characters. Perhaps this could be done by killing off two out of three PC's (sad I know) or having them captured or go off on their own and later show up as NPC's, (yay pre-made character sheets for your DM). If all else fails...ummm...cry. I dunno. Talk to people, they're usually not as scary as you think.

Hmm...maybe you should start three way conversations with yourself... Would that make you crazy or just really, really smart??? Hmm.... :thinks:
xvthreetwoonevx
08-23-05, 02:07 PM Methinks a three-way conversation with myself would be kinda tough...INT 7, 9, and 20. Druids rock. :) The DM actually recommended that we play three characters, and there's easily ten people that we play with, give or take a few, so there's a massive amount of characters running around. I'll try seeing if we can get it down to one apeice. I'm also gonna try and see if I can interact with the NPC's a bit more, too. Thanks for your help all.
Cherry
08-24-05, 06:51 AM The DM actually recommended that we play three characters, and there's easily ten people that we play with, give or take a few, so there's a massive amount of characters running around.

:shocked: :OMG! THIRTY PC'S?!?!?! YOU ARE PLAYING A GAME WITH THIRTY PC'S????? Can you even keep up with their names or are they just numbered???

:mymy:THIRTY PC'S???? :mymy:

Okay...my little fit aside, there's NO WAY you can get into any sort of RP with thirty of you running around. what you're doing is playing in a massive imagination videogame a'la DOOM. (All kill, no brain involved) It sorta worries me too that your DM suggested the three PC's per player. That suggests to me that he doesn't want to put much thought into the campaign, he justs wants to adjucate battles with monsters and little evil things.

No offense intended, but how old is the DM and other players? It really sounds like he's rather young and/or a really inexperienced gamer.
JStegmaier
08-24-05, 07:01 AM No offense intended, but how old is the DM and other players? It really sounds like he's rather young and/or a really inexperienced gamer.

Or maybe he/they just like a different type of game than you do? Playing something differently than how you and many others believe it should be played doesn't many immaturity or inexperience. In assuming that, you show you're own immaturity.
Thesen
08-24-05, 08:05 AM I can't stand it when someone purposefully says, "No offense..." and then someone gets offended and starts pointing fingers. You are certainly showing your own level of maturity by getting butt-hurt about it. ;)
Jagyr Ebonwood
08-24-05, 07:26 PM Woah. :mymy: 30 PCs. Your DM is either a doomed soul, a masochist, or a god.

One PC per player would definately help things.

And I wouldn't be bothered by "Nothing happenes today, you can fast forward to bedtime." On a long journey, no one wants to hear the little mundane contents of every single day..."Today's journey is uneventful" is enough for one day of a week long trip, I believe...
vezina
08-25-05, 01:35 AM I can't stand it when someone purposefully says, "No offense..." and then someone gets offended and starts pointing fingers. You are certainly showing your own level of maturity by getting butt-hurt about it. ;)

Ack. There should be a rule that two or more people with the same avatar shouldn't argue.

Thesen, Jstegmaier, you are in violation of said unwritten law, and are hereby sentenced to playing your next campaign with 30 PC's each. :D
gilljora
08-25-05, 09:29 AM I know how you feel! Usually I'm the DM but my friend has been giving me a break. Besides completely railroading us, he actually goes out of his way to disencourage roleplaying. I'm a sorcerer and I usually try to stay out of the combat/hide/surrender. He just makes fun of me like the other players (all new players and fighting classes). He responds to anything I want to do in the game with either:

"Well, if you really want to you can do it, but it won't help, and you might die."
or
"Yeah, you're not allowed to do that."

Well anyway, I have been trying my best to roleplay anyway. I always suggest different approaches and I try to speak with everyone I can (even though they have no names). Also, I try to think of what my character would do if he were real. So far, I'm failing miserably. My DM doesn't even describe our opponents if I ask him to. "He's just a guy, okay. You can't make out his features." Good luck and just know that you're not alone!
JStegmaier
08-25-05, 09:44 AM I can't stand it when someone purposefully says, "No offense..." and then someone gets offended and starts pointing fingers. You are certainly showing your own level of maturity by getting butt-hurt about it. ;)

Prefacing an insult with "No offense, but" hardly makes what follows any less offensive. If you gave someone a gift and they said, "No offense, but this is the worst ****ing present I've ever received; you've just ruined my entire God-damned life; I wish you were dead, you son of a *****," would those three apparently magic words at the beginning of the sentence actually make the rest of it less of an insult? I think not.
Brashnir
08-25-05, 11:47 AM I've just got to throw an echo in on the "THIRTY PCs?!?!?"

I mean, at that point, you may as well just play Warhammer.
ridiculous
08-25-05, 02:59 PM Your situation is hopeless.

Trying to roleplay with 10 people is hard.

Trying to roleplay with a DM who does not is hard.

Trying to make a DM role-play against his will is near-impossible.

Trying to role-play with 3 characters is near-impossible.

Trying to roleplay with 10 people with 3 characters each with a DM who does not roleplay and is not interrested in doing so... Ugh, rather hard...

Find a different group, or 4-5 people in that group who are interrested in role-playing and go play with them...
SodaGuy
08-25-05, 03:08 PM 30 PC!?!?!?!?!?!?!

I think that might be the problem.
Hugin
08-25-05, 04:02 PM 30 PCs is more than just a problem, it's a DM's Armageddon! Role-playing in this type of game can only be accomplished by excluding combat. The combination of 10 players times 3 characters each is inherently anti-role-playing; not immpossible, but highly difficult. Instead of 3-5 characters sharing a good spotlight, there are 30 characters being illuminated by candle-light. They don't have the time to develop or even display a personality.

However, with that all said, a player can play multiple characters once experienced enough, has an aptitude for characterization, and the game dynamics can support it. My campaign has only had between 2 and 4 players. Due to circumstances, it is at 2 players currently; one player controls 3 PCs and the other controls 5! (one of which is not active in adventuring).

It is also best if the player can develop and introduce each character seperately in a given campaign. This allows time for the first PC to develop in-game and become established.

Anyhow, these are just some thoughts from my experience that may help. If you really like the role-playing aspect of D&D (which is the heart of the game, IMHO) than I suggest a second, smaller group of players interested in the same style of game.
Platinu Kismet
08-25-05, 04:36 PM Man... I thought the group I played with was too large and sometimes I feel that the group I'm running is too large. But the group I play with has 9 players and 1 DM. The group I DM for has 6 players and 1 DM.

30. I can't imagine. I mean, I've often considered DMing a 'Black Company the Campaign' type game and this would do it... You guys are NOT a PC group, you're a Mercenary Company.

Your DM is a sick, sick man. I'm awed by his magnificence. And my lack of ability to spell that word. Though it could be spelled right just be coincidence.
xvthreetwoonevx
08-25-05, 06:22 PM Mmm. Yeah, i'm not sure why he wanted us to play three characters, but I do have a hunch. In a prior campaign in which all of us played, well not so much campaign as adventure. (Heart of Nightfang Spire) In the event that our characters died/we wanted to have new characters introduced, it generally boiled down to, "You wake up unconcious in a pile of corpses.". It may be that, since our current DM was a player in the campaign, but is now the DM, he didn't want to have to introduce new PC's. However, tomorrow the campaign will be continuing, and i'll see if I can talk with him to have everybody go down to 1 PC.

The DM is also...well, i'm not exactly sure how old he is, but he's one of my friend's dads, and has been playing for a very long time. Not sure how long it's been since he's DM'ed, since i'm seeing a lot of mistakes happening (Handing out treasure like candy, a rather odd interest in "Realism" which involved making mithril super-powerful, etc.), and a real focus on combat. 30 PC's is now definitely confirmed as being too many, and i'll see if we can get it down to just one apeice, and start actually conversing with NPC's, and, since there's barely any players in the group that talk IC, not "My cleric heals him.", i'm gonna try that to. Thanks for all your input, everyone.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
xvthreetwoonevx 08-23-05, 01:45 AM	Hi all, I've been in a campaign for a while and i'm getting a tad bored. It was fun at first, but lately i've been noticing that it's mostly been, "You wake up. Something attacks the caravan. Defend it.". There was even a day where the DM said, "Nothing attacks you today, you can fast forward till you sleep if you want.". It's been getting progressively more hack-n-slash-ey, but most of the other players seem not to mind. I know it's a little selfish, but I personally am losing interest, and I was wondering if you guys have ever had a game that didn't have much in the way of RP'ing, and if you ever did anything to encourage that sort of thing? I think it could be that we have such a massive amount of players, and each of them is playing three characters, I can understand how RP'ing would be really difficult, but is there anything you would do in my situation to encourage it? Thanks y'all.
vezina 08-23-05, 02:21 AM	Three characters per player? Whoa. That's a major problem to RP. If you really want your DM to RP, I think that's one thing that really needs to change. It's hard to get in character when there's so many characters to deal with! Anyways, I'm in a group much like yours right now. I've never actually roleplayed before, simply because of the fact that my group pretty much discourages it. I've always tried to convey my character's wishes above my own; however, that's about as far as I can really go, because the players that switch the DM'ing pretty much aren't flexible enough to come up with dialogue that isn't put in a pre-made module. I'd love to actually RP for once as well. Perhaps you should start conversations with other players or members of the caravan (I realize that you're not perpetually in a caravan. I'm just using your example.)? Start testing the DM and start making him think of names for the NPC's. When you look for someone to talk to, keep referring back to those NPC's that he's named, and see how well he can develop them over time. I'd take notes about them, and bring up those notes in future conversations so that at least one of you has a background for the guy or girl! Hey, if you really felt up to it, you could have a three-way conversation between your own characters. That'd be slightly amusing. :D
Ut-Napishtim 08-23-05, 09:08 AM	Yeah, I'm with vezina on this one. At first I though: Well that just sounds like the DM is getting burned out and needs a break. Three characters a piece though? That's just crazy. If you guys each go down to one character, maybe it will be easier for the DM to identify you with your character and thus offer more interesting roleplay options. If that doesn't work, give him a break and show him how it's done.
Thesen 08-23-05, 09:42 AM	There's only one person who should be playing more than one character at a time and that's the DM. If a player is "roleplaying" two+ guys, there's no way he's putting his heart into it and unfortunately, Rping one character is hard enough. I know there's some "brilliant" - and I use the word in sarcasm - person reading this right now saying, "I DO IT ALL THE TIME AND I RP AWESOME!!!!" Yeah...... ----that's all I have to say about that. As Vezina said, though. You might want to get the game going yourself. I have had players turn an ordinary town / village / room / mundane NPC into an improvised adventure because of their suspicions, suggestions, and lack of faith - I guess I have spooked them out once or twice. ;) If you play a ranger, interact with the wild. If you play a rogue, sneak somewhere you KNOW you're not supposed to be. If you're a sorcerer, begin "researching" a new spell. Take the ball in your court and then throw it at your DMs eye. If he doesn't duck... <shrugs> Shouldn't-a-been standin' there! If this doesn't work. Fire his lazy butt! He has no place sitting behind that screen if all he does is throw encounters - and mundane ones it sounds like - at his players.
Cherry 08-23-05, 09:42 AM	Hey, if you really felt up to it, you could have a three-way conversation between your own characters. That'd be slightly amusing. :D HA HA HA HA HA! That would be AWESOME! :rofl: Once again this falls into the "talk with your group and try to work it out internally" cartergory. But the three PC's per player is a bit much, I sometimes have problems keeping up with what my one PC is thinking and doing. I would talk to the group and see if they would mind cutting the PC's down to one (or MAYBE two) per player. That will really help the DM and the players begin to identify with their characters. Perhaps this could be done by killing off two out of three PC's (sad I know) or having them captured or go off on their own and later show up as NPC's, (yay pre-made character sheets for your DM). If all else fails...ummm...cry. I dunno. Talk to people, they're usually not as scary as you think. Hmm...maybe you should start three way conversations with yourself... Would that make you crazy or just really, really smart??? Hmm.... :thinks:
xvthreetwoonevx 08-23-05, 02:07 PM	Methinks a three-way conversation with myself would be kinda tough...INT 7, 9, and 20. Druids rock. :) The DM actually recommended that we play three characters, and there's easily ten people that we play with, give or take a few, so there's a massive amount of characters running around. I'll try seeing if we can get it down to one apeice. I'm also gonna try and see if I can interact with the NPC's a bit more, too. Thanks for your help all.
Cherry 08-24-05, 06:51 AM	The DM actually recommended that we play three characters, and there's easily ten people that we play with, give or take a few, so there's a massive amount of characters running around. :shocked: :OMG! THIRTY PC'S?!?!?! YOU ARE PLAYING A GAME WITH THIRTY PC'S????? Can you even keep up with their names or are they just numbered??? :mymy:THIRTY PC'S???? :mymy: Okay...my little fit aside, there's NO WAY you can get into any sort of RP with thirty of you running around. what you're doing is playing in a massive imagination videogame a'la DOOM. (All kill, no brain involved) It sorta worries me too that your DM suggested the three PC's per player. That suggests to me that he doesn't want to put much thought into the campaign, he justs wants to adjucate battles with monsters and little evil things. No offense intended, but how old is the DM and other players? It really sounds like he's rather young and/or a really inexperienced gamer.
JStegmaier 08-24-05, 07:01 AM	No offense intended, but how old is the DM and other players? It really sounds like he's rather young and/or a really inexperienced gamer. Or maybe he/they just like a different type of game than you do? Playing something differently than how you and many others believe it should be played doesn't many immaturity or inexperience. In assuming that, you show you're own immaturity.
Thesen 08-24-05, 08:05 AM	I can't stand it when someone purposefully says, "No offense..." and then someone gets offended and starts pointing fingers. You are certainly showing your own level of maturity by getting butt-hurt about it. ;)
Jagyr Ebonwood 08-24-05, 07:26 PM	Woah. :mymy: 30 PCs. Your DM is either a doomed soul, a masochist, or a god. One PC per player would definately help things. And I wouldn't be bothered by "Nothing happenes today, you can fast forward to bedtime." On a long journey, no one wants to hear the little mundane contents of every single day..."Today's journey is uneventful" is enough for one day of a week long trip, I believe...
vezina 08-25-05, 01:35 AM	I can't stand it when someone purposefully says, "No offense..." and then someone gets offended and starts pointing fingers. You are certainly showing your own level of maturity by getting butt-hurt about it. ;) Ack. There should be a rule that two or more people with the same avatar shouldn't argue. Thesen, Jstegmaier, you are in violation of said unwritten law, and are hereby sentenced to playing your next campaign with 30 PC's each. :D
gilljora 08-25-05, 09:29 AM	I know how you feel! Usually I'm the DM but my friend has been giving me a break. Besides completely railroading us, he actually goes out of his way to disencourage roleplaying. I'm a sorcerer and I usually try to stay out of the combat/hide/surrender. He just makes fun of me like the other players (all new players and fighting classes). He responds to anything I want to do in the game with either: "Well, if you really want to you can do it, but it won't help, and you might die." or "Yeah, you're not allowed to do that." Well anyway, I have been trying my best to roleplay anyway. I always suggest different approaches and I try to speak with everyone I can (even though they have no names). Also, I try to think of what my character would do if he were real. So far, I'm failing miserably. My DM doesn't even describe our opponents if I ask him to. "He's just a guy, okay. You can't make out his features." Good luck and just know that you're not alone!
JStegmaier 08-25-05, 09:44 AM	I can't stand it when someone purposefully says, "No offense..." and then someone gets offended and starts pointing fingers. You are certainly showing your own level of maturity by getting butt-hurt about it. ;) Prefacing an insult with "No offense, but" hardly makes what follows any less offensive. If you gave someone a gift and they said, "No offense, but this is the worst **ing present I've ever received; you've just ruined my entire God-damned life; I wish you were dead, you son of a ***," would those three apparently magic words at the beginning of the sentence actually make the rest of it less of an insult? I think not.
Brashnir 08-25-05, 11:47 AM	I've just got to throw an echo in on the "THIRTY PCs?!?!?" I mean, at that point, you may as well just play Warhammer.
ridiculous 08-25-05, 02:59 PM	Your situation is hopeless. Trying to roleplay with 10 people is hard. Trying to roleplay with a DM who does not is hard. Trying to make a DM role-play against his will is near-impossible. Trying to role-play with 3 characters is near-impossible. Trying to roleplay with 10 people with 3 characters each with a DM who does not roleplay and is not interrested in doing so... Ugh, rather hard... Find a different group, or 4-5 people in that group who are interrested in role-playing and go play with them...
SodaGuy 08-25-05, 03:08 PM	30 PC!?!?!?!?!?!?! I think that might be the problem.
Hugin 08-25-05, 04:02 PM	30 PCs is more than just a problem, it's a DM's Armageddon! Role-playing in this type of game can only be accomplished by excluding combat. The combination of 10 players times 3 characters each is inherently anti-role-playing; not immpossible, but highly difficult. Instead of 3-5 characters sharing a good spotlight, there are 30 characters being illuminated by candle-light. They don't have the time to develop or even display a personality. However, with that all said, a player can play multiple characters once experienced enough, has an aptitude for characterization, and the game dynamics can support it. My campaign has only had between 2 and 4 players. Due to circumstances, it is at 2 players currently; one player controls 3 PCs and the other controls 5! (one of which is not active in adventuring). It is also best if the player can develop and introduce each character seperately in a given campaign. This allows time for the first PC to develop in-game and become established. Anyhow, these are just some thoughts from my experience that may help. If you really like the role-playing aspect of D&D (which is the heart of the game, IMHO) than I suggest a second, smaller group of players interested in the same style of game.
Platinu Kismet 08-25-05, 04:36 PM	Man... I thought the group I played with was too large and sometimes I feel that the group I'm running is too large. But the group I play with has 9 players and 1 DM. The group I DM for has 6 players and 1 DM. 30. I can't imagine. I mean, I've often considered DMing a 'Black Company the Campaign' type game and this would do it... You guys are NOT a PC group, you're a Mercenary Company. Your DM is a sick, sick man. I'm awed by his magnificence. And my lack of ability to spell that word. Though it could be spelled right just be coincidence.
xvthreetwoonevx 08-25-05, 06:22 PM	Mmm. Yeah, i'm not sure why he wanted us to play three characters, but I do have a hunch. In a prior campaign in which all of us played, well not so much campaign as adventure. (Heart of Nightfang Spire) In the event that our characters died/we wanted to have new characters introduced, it generally boiled down to, "You wake up unconcious in a pile of corpses.". It may be that, since our current DM was a player in the campaign, but is now the DM, he didn't want to have to introduce new PC's. However, tomorrow the campaign will be continuing, and i'll see if I can talk with him to have everybody go down to 1 PC. The DM is also...well, i'm not exactly sure how old he is, but he's one of my friend's dads, and has been playing for a very long time. Not sure how long it's been since he's DM'ed, since i'm seeing a lot of mistakes happening (Handing out treasure like candy, a rather odd interest in "Realism" which involved making mithril super-powerful, etc.), and a real focus on combat. 30 PC's is now definitely confirmed as being too many, and i'll see if we can get it down to just one apeice, and start actually conversing with NPC's, and, since there's barely any players in the group that talk IC, not "My cleric heals him.", i'm gonna try that to. Thanks for all your input, everyone.