Ok so I have tons of trouble coming up with character concepts, if you ask me to write a back story it takes me weeks to get a few paragraphs, and it is almost impossible for me to act in character as I often don't know how they should act. The only time I can manage to act in chacter is when I play very over the top characters and often times my party is annoyed by such characters and in all fairness these characters can be bad for the game.
I am looking for any tips or tricks on how to RP more effectivly, and how to add more depth to my character.
For first time roleplayers I honestly suggest you simply rip off an existing character. You know exactly how Jack Sparrow, Han Solo, or Masterchief will act in a given situation. Play them with a name change.
People will bitch at you for it but ignore them.
For your second or third game, make adjustments. This time you are Jessie Sparrow, Hannah Solo, or Mistress Chief. Or Maybe its Han Solo with a moustache. Or Han solo, but he is a shoot first ask questions later kind of guy 
Basically make small changes to existing characters and spread from there. At this point you are spider man, but he is a fox not a spider, and he is an old guy instead of young, and also he is the strong silent type.
Obviously don't play the same character for each of these. One time its Han Solo, next game its Jessie Sparrow, and the third is Jessie Sparrow but instead of a pirate she is a British Captain.
I cannot act, I am not an actor. Closest I come to it is putting on a silly voice. I have loads of fun playing D&D.
As for backgrounds, don't try to hard to be original, just go with something simple.
Play a character who is out to right some wrong. In order to do so, your character must get more powerful, both by seeking out powerful allies with similar goals, training onself to be stronger and gathering up powerful items. Hence you are an adventurer. Your character is not in it for money, but does recognize it's value. Your character is stronger than most people, so realizes he must protect the weak and help those in need. Your character is looking for allies, so he recognizes the value of being a team player, finding trustworthy NPCs and following local customs.
There you go, you've made a character that is not a dick. Which is the first step towards making your character not annoying. Next step:
What wrong are you trying to right? Once that's decided, you can look at any situation from the point of view of 'what actions help my goal and what actions hinder my goal', and act accordingly. BAMMO you are roleplaying!
Now for a little more advanced tactics:
Develop some quirks that have no mechanical value. My Goliath barbarian doesn't really understand coinage that well, so keeps all of his money in gems when he can. He sometimes will pick up a stone from the ground and suck on it, to see how the earth 'tastes'. Other ideas include having a catch phrase or sayings. Write these down so you can remember them. What things do you collect from dead bodies? My barbarian will take claws and fangs of wild beasts, as well as sometimes the beast itself, if he thinks it's good eatin'. Which gods does your character worship and how do they worship them (ask about temples whenever you enter a city or town)? What is your character's morning routine? My goliath gets up and does exercises in the morning (hand stand push ups). A wizard might review their spell book while magically brewing a cup of coffee. The little things count here.
Develop some preferences. Decide on your character's favorite bar drink and order it whenever you are at an inn. How does your character handle race relations? My goliath likes other primal/wild peoples but isn't so trustworthy of civilized folk except for dwarves. When given a choice does your character sleep outside or inside? Expensive room or common room? Which position do you take on night watch?
This should be enough to get you started but a potentially more difficult roleplay area is how to handle roleplay in combat. Most of the time, just playing smart tactically is a good idea, but eventually you will want to go beyond that. Here are some examples(from games I've played or DMed):
Sel the warlock usually is dodging around blasting things, but if there is something magical or mechanical out of the ordinary going on, he will spend rounds of combat messing with that, and will usually need some sort of cover or protection from his allies. His curiousity sometimes gets him into lots of trouble, but other times it ends up helping his team immensely.
When presented with the option to assault the enemy or protect an ally, Bannon the fighter will protect his ally, Bolvik the fighter will assault the enemy.
Udil the dwarven runepriest will heal dying NPCs with his rune of healing, even if they might be better saved for PCs.
Althir the evil paladin would much rather convert people to his cause than kill them. If diplomacy initially fails he will still offer enemy leaders an ultimatum before he kills them. He's also quite greedy and will command the rest of his party to avoid damaging enemy constructs and objects if he thinks they might be valuable.
Loki, a doppelganger warlock is concerned mostly for his own skin in combat. He will not betray the party, but he'll run or teleport away from the thick of things, preferring unfair fights when they don't know he's coming.
The Gardener, a homebrew plant race with fire vulnerability is deathly afraid of fire and panics when exposed to fire without protection.
Mav Rahi, my barbarian, prefers to throw himself into harms way like a defender. He has a habit of charging first and asking questions later
thanks this looks like a good place to start.
I think a good way to start is being yourself+. ( Let me explain the + )
In real life, I know I'm funny but can be annoying when I go too far. So I played my character annoying+ ! A little more annoying than I am in real life. ALWAYS going a little too far. Asking too much question, explaining things too much, again and again!
The running gag in this game became : "Shut Up Winston!"
Krusk suggests, "Take a known character, but make some small changes"
thespaceinvader suggests, "Build your personality around explaining the mechanics of your character."
One of the things that I think about when crafting a character is, "what makes this character different from others of the same class/race/role?" Bring out those aspects in playing your character.
For example, I have a rogue character. A couple of mechanical things that make her unusual are:
- She fights with a rapier. Most rogues seem to favor either daggers or ranged weapons that allow them to hide, jump out and shoot, hide, repeat.
- She has the "flash of the blade" feat, which allows her to do sneak attack damage if she can get a monster one on one, with no other creatures around.
- She is trained in athletics (from her background) which is not typically a rogue skill, and has a feat that adds charisma to athletics rolls.
- She has a lot of attitude, and is willing to get in people's faces instead of sneaking around.
- She doesn't always want people helping her fight a monster. "Are you coming over to help me because I'm a girl? You don't think I can handle this?"
- If there's a chance to jump, climb or perform some kind of stunt, she is all over it.
As soon as people find out you are playing a certain class, they will start to fill in their preconceptions about what that character is like. You don't need to sell people on the fact that your wizard is really smart, or your fighter likes to wade into the middle of the battle. Think about how your character is distinctive and focus on that in your role-playing.
The initiative was dragon, Bard, Paladin, Hell Lock. After the dragon's first turn the paladin was bloodied and near death. The bard's turn came up and went like this:
OOC: I use my minor action to use Majestic Word on him. (points to paladin)
IC: Akros! Duck under his arm and suck it up you pansy!
OOC: Now I'll use my daily. (Stirring shout)
IC: Now, Akros! Press the advantage for the glory of Bael Turath!! Everyone, forward!!
OOC: I'm going to move over here and spend an action point to use Vicious Mockery.
IC: Come on you overgrown handbag! Is that all you've got?!
It set the tone of the entire encounter and everyone was on their feet acting out the fluff to their powers and I think it will get the others into more RP since they rarely RP with the world outside the party.
As for my characters...
One character, asked in the first game session what he does, flipped his pack open to reveal two sword-hilts and said "I dance." That was the beginning of the character concept: he's a dancer. From there I decided that he was trained as a temple dancer, which in his culture meant he had to be nobility, which had certain other implications. I flipped those implications to give him a lover, realized the lover is also male, and killed the lover in a way that caused the character to exile himself. Things developed further from there, with the character tithing regularly to a religious order that is not welcome in his homeland, and wanting to redeem himself sufficiently that he is fit to die. A fair amount of this was a surprise to me when I first thought of it. Oh, I also had to pick a class that would fit a dancer...
Then there's the dog. How a PC can be a dog is easy. Why is a lot more involved. It's because when he was growing up dogs treated him better than most people. That's because he's of a much-disliked (monster) race. After his merchant parents were murdered a local ranger took him in and raised him, and he gravitated toward caring for the ranger's dogs. He also listened (sometimes through not-quite-closed doors) to the ranger's visitors, a good many of whom were druids, and quite accidentally picked up druid training. Then one day, while he was out exercising the dogs, something attacked. His best friend, the top dog of the pack, died defending him (later becoming his spirit companion - multiclass shaman), and he suddenly transformed into exactly the same dog form and finished off the attacking beast. That's his backstory and why he is almost never seen out of beastform. When not adventuring, he earns a bowl of stew every day by hanging around in a tavern - and fights don't last long when he's there, in fact pretty soon angry drunks start sitting down when they notice the dog staring at them.
Another character, the initial concept was "pacifist wizard". I had to build the character and see how much of a pacifist he could be, then write a backstory to explain why. I think I'll just give you the first few paragraphs of the backstory:
Every race, every profession, every school has its failures.The entire population of the monastery stood with their backs turned as the human villagers, hired for this task alone, took the seven-times-disgraced Zeryaltiss from her cell and escorted her to the road that led out of the Icetop Mountains. They could, however, hear the stagger in her steps, and wondered how she managed to still be intoxicated after thirteen days of captivity, trial, and deliberation.
She was no longer their concern. The gates closed behind her for the last time. She would die soon, or be slain, and cease to stain the name of the Githzerai.
Most likely the child she didn't yet realize she carried would die with her; if she did survive long enough to give birth, she would send it to a monastery or settlement for proper care and upbringing.
Surely even Zeryaltiss would have that much honor.
That isn't the character; that's the character's mother. The next paragraph is about 16 years later, and Paz, the brains of a slum street gang, doesn't know his mother's name or the name of his race.
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