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I'm having such a hard time following what you're saying now days with all the sudden turns when you suddenly switch subject and start to talk about a sponsor or lair magazine or something. My brain listens up to the first commercial break then it switches off, and after a while i realize you're talking about the video subject again and i've missed a great deal, just for you to go off on another tangent about something else. I'm no longer drawn to watch your content anymore. Which is sad because it used to be really good and engaging. Only one of my players can process your videos anymore, the others have also lost interest cause they can't keep up with the sudden breaks either. Put the sponsor in the beginning and lair magazine at the end or vice versa, please. I do love bacon though.
Empty, "meaningless" social interactions are the foundation to believable, relatable characters. The banter, idle chatter, and small talk are the things that make us connect with characters as people. We used to see it a lot in movies, but not anymore.
Those interactions serve the purpose of fleshing out characters and making them more fun to play, therefore aren’t empty and meaningless, I recently had a player ask a random farmer about what the weather was like last week for no reason, it was… pretty nice?? Everybody at the table was confused by that interaction
@@trckstr2888 Then I would ask what is the point of claiming some interactions COULD be meaningless? Personally, I don't think it's possible to have a meaningless conversation, but 'don't have meaningless conversations' is literally point 1 of the video. So how does each person define 'meaningless'? I think Luke should have specified this video is for DMs as I started this video thinking it was advice for players and that massively changes the way you interpret the points. So the advice that 'if your PCs start talking to an NPC, reward them with some added info about the world/plot' is very different from 'when your players are hanging around town, everything they say has to be deep and carefully crafted to forward the plot or directly share backstory'
Besides plot there's also another main reason to have social interaction: exposition, teach the players about your campaign setting. Ideally you can do both, but sometimes players strike up a conversation with an npc who isn't plot relevant and then this is a perfect opportunity to give world lore that may help them immerse in the game
I like what you said about “talkie-talkie” needing a purpose and progressing the story. Now substitute “stabby-stabby” for “talkie-talkie”. Is the planned combat expanding the story, or just lazily filling game time. Is rolling dice and grunting really more important than discussions and funny voices?
Honestly I find a lot more fulfillment from unprogressive talky talky than the same sort of stabby stabby lol. To quote Luke, these are real people in a real world. They're going to have real conversations that don't necessarily drive a plot (although they could very well be hooks to potential plots untaken, hints for the GM for future developments)
I will say though BULLET POINTS are completely underrated. Good on you for using bullet points in your publications. I've been in multimedia and bullet points trump scripts, teleprompters, memorization, everything.
I slightly disagree with one of your assumptions. It’s much harder for me to run the “talky talky” parts of D&D than it is to run combat. I ran a session on Sunday that turned into a session that was almost all social interactions. My players drove the session, I didn’t and they chose options in every encounter where they avoided combat. It was a fun session, but it was hard for me to run! Running combat in the middle would have been much easier!!
Yeah, gaining levels from story progression is popular because some dms want their players to be able to rp and get out of combat or just do the combat. It’s all about choices.
@@crazy36069 Winning an encounter doesn’t require combat. Talking your way through an encounter and accomplishing your goals is still winning. Even when the party isn’t all bards!
Thank you! I was literally about to post the same thing. I mean absolutely no disrespect to Luke (I love this channel), but I feel like there is a humongous difference between "talky talky" (wasting time in a shop or a tavern for no reason) and meaningful dialogues. The latter, as you pointed out, is tenfold more difficult for me to prepare and run than combat. The long campaign I run requires the party to do some serious RP/dialogue legwork for them to succeed. They need to investigate, inquire, make friends, be diplomatic at times and strict other times. I think we average 1 combat per session (if that), and everybody seems to be fine with that. =)
I've always LOVED social encounters, talkey talkey, voices, etc but this past year or so DND UA-camrs have suddenly started doublind down on the idea that players only love it because of DND shows like Critical Role. No - I've never seen the damn thing. That's just something I like doing. I like learning new accents and dramatic narration of actions. I do that when I read bedtime stories to my kids, when I'm talking about what happened last week to my friends. If that doesn't fit into your version of the game - I'll find somebody else to play with. All of a sudden I feel likee everybody has a stick up their butts over players who are drawn to DND for the more freeform social encounters. It's not an invalid way of playing and lots of people like it. 5E specifically is a very very very character heavy game with a TON of social elements and interactions and rules for how to aquire and manage meaningful contacts and everything. It's the nature of this edition (mixed with the decreased stigmatism of the hobby in general) that is drawing new people into the hobby. The rise of DND shows is a side effect of this - not the other way around.
I've been watching a lot to streams lately and I personally find a tiny percent are like CR. We are careful to frame our games as regular players playing regular dnd. Some of us do try to characterise when we play and we love roleplay moments. We aren't CR and never will be but shouldn't stop us trying to make it more immersive. One of my npcs has a ridiculous voice, speaks in third person and they literally get genuinely angry when they talk about him. I know I could do that "voice" and get a great reaction. Emotional moments in dnd are my favourite times. I have players who treat dnd like a war game and others who love the character moments. There isn't a wrong way as long as your party are all happy. You're spot on if you don't fit it's ok to find a group that align with your idea of a good game.
Some good stuff in here. I shared this with a friend that is reluctant to run a game for her daughter. She has two well seasoned DMs telling her she will do fine. She is shy and reluctant to rp npcs and monsters.
😊 In the recent session i had a player that tried to persuade a Bugbear king to trade a person for the loot the party stole from the Bugbear kings minions & armory . Then a player was confused by the fact the bugbear king wanted to fight. My response is you literally told a very big , old & strong bugbear that you where going to give him his stuff for a person he had.
I don’t find social interactions meaningless to be honest. I play in several campaigns under a dm whose style of play, and his tables too, lean heavily into roleplay and storytelling. This isn’t to say he neglects encounters or puzzles or anything like that. But he does give us the space to roleplay. Some of our silliest moments were the ones that created inside jokes and allowed our characters to bond and form unique relationships (platonic) with each other. This enhanced the narrative of the story we were playing. We loved it and still do. This time gave us the room to invest in each other’s character and those arcs too so, even if the spotlight isn’t on us that session, we still have a good time seeing another’s moment to shine. Of course, how meaningful a conversation is will depend entirely on the players themselves. My tables with this dm are all very into this style of play so we tend to be compatible and bounce off each other pretty well and can pinpoint what storybeats we want to mutually hit. It’s an intuitive thing, I’ll give you that. But it’s more of a literacy with storytelling that develops that instinct and allows for even the mundane moments to carry weight down the road of the narrative. We aren’t overly reliant on the dm making those moments, just him giving us the room to make them and then him capitalizing on them to make them feel special in the narrative down the line, by taking the moment and chatter as inspiration. For an example. One character I play is a scholar of linguistics and anthropology. Another player is also a scholar of the same faction but is an inventor and “scientist” (magic science included). The two have had a few debates on various subjects and how to conduct the research and note taking of the party’s discoveries quite a few times. We call them “nerd fights” basically and it’s a lot of fun. Honestly these conversations are just silly. The dm makes these meaningful by leaning our adventure and encounters into being research based. I can’t tell you the number of times the dm has had us find an ancient library or museum lol. We explore a lot of ancient ruins. He also drops little things like my character being able to find a translation dictionary for a language they don’t know yet (this character’s catnip) and even a broken translator device that has both my scholar and the inventor scholar puzzling over it and determined to fix it. These things aren’t even really magical! Lol. But the dm leans into it. He gives our scholars some time to debate and discuss our findings. He lets the group weigh in and ask questions. We even, because of the way this group functions, take some of the long rest downtime to spend that time teaching each other (dm rules this can be done during long rest and is considered “light activity” due to the nature of our party). I think another fun moment we did was with a bonfire spell, a floating disk, and a warm comforter. Why is this fun? Because we nerds made a kotatsu. You know, that heated table you see in anime? That. The party tends to sit around during downtime using this to keep warm and also casually chat. We had a hotpot party, sat and had tea, and even made sushi one time (magic fishing pole so super fresh fish). It’s part of the fun really. I personally don’t think we would have thought to do that if we hadn’t had the space to be social and have casual, silly, conversations. It has been fun to draw too. As an artist I love moments like this to draw. It feels like it really shows the personality of each character. So yeah, I think it’s important, even if this comment was pretty rambling.
My current online game that I DM seems to have a lot of social interaction but it's quite a story-heavy sandbox-y game set in and around a large city and the players like their characters to do a lot of investigation/carousing to get the lay of the land before embarking on a course of action (or try and convince someone else to pursue it). So an Exploration aspect of the game is, in some ways, being included in the Social Interaction aspect too. It's not a style that I usually run that much in my F2F games but, for this group, they seem to enjoy that sort of thing and their characters seem to have become more "real", as do the regular NPCs that they interact with. There are a couple of players that are more used to "roll-playing" social interactions and they initially got a little upset that a high skill roll doesn't work like magic mind tricks in their interactions though - "heh, I optimised my character for Social Interactions and now you're nerfing me."
The problem with social interactions in game is that it is easy for players to forget that they are playing a character if there is no “purpose” to the conversation. I’ve never been a DM, but even as a player I try to add meaning to simple interactions. Recently our party had to sign some paperwork, and I described my character’s handwriting, making sure to highlight why his handwriting looked like that given his background (he was formerly a cave rescuer and has had to sign thousands of pages of similar paperwork, so his handwriting was very compact with all capital letters to prevent confusion). It encouraged the other players to describe how their own handwriting related to their backgrounds as well. This gave everyone, including the DM, a glimpse into the other PC’s experiences and personalities. Simple things like that make it much more immersive and enjoyable for everyone when boring stuff is happening
the point about "don't do long monologues" hits close to home :D. Had to learn this one the hard way - not because I'm an attention seeker or a control freak, but rather because I sometimes wanted to properly foreshadow and world-build through an NPC explaining something or telling a story. I honest to god winced when you said "nobody wants to listen to you talk for 5 minutes", because I have at times done more like 10-15 :D. Luckily, I think I've learned my lesson, and found different, much more engaging ways to world-build and lore-dump.
Starting attitudes is a great tip! So is the concept of “failing forward”. For example, “you rolled a 1 on your sleight of hand? Okay, the prison mocks you and offers to pick the lock for you during the 10 MINUTES it takes you to pick the lock”. From then on the corner prison teases the rogue when the chance arises. 😛 Also, always call on the quiet players! There input is SO valuable! (They are usually my favorites) Fun video! I’m looking forward to the next skit! They have been ON POINT lately 😁
There was a point my players did go in under cover to a meeting where the leader did give a speech, but every half a paragraph I did stop and ask if anyone wanted to interject, complete some task, search people’s pockets, etc. And although it was a lengthy speech (about 3 minutes if I had just went on without interruption) I didn’t want my players to just sit there. Through perception or investigation checks they could pinpoint how certain people in the crowd were reacting, people who stood out, items in the room to gather or straight up steal. All of course while trying to remain undercover so plenty of high stakes stealth rolls to increase risk. I wanted them to interact with parts of it, to present skill checks and deeper interaction while the bad guy prattled on. By going to this meeting not only were they able to learn important details, but what they did while this went on had impact through the rest of the quest.
Good seeing roleplaying advice that admits up front the fact that not all talky talky has any value to the game beyond letting one Pc talk just to talk
Appreciate these tips! Didn't think about alot of these. Especially the first part. Alot our game is talking with no pay off. Having meaningful interactions. Excited for future sessions!
Thanks Luke. I've always thought I liked to, but recently I realized what I liked was different than other players. To me rp has always been mostly rping with a purpose, whether it be convincing someone to help out, distracting guards so a team mate can sneak by, convincing the enemy not to fight etc. I now realize what I like is social encounters
Dwarves are not Scottish in my games Lord of the Rings set that standard and I'm clearly ancient. Mine have a northern English accent just fits so well for me. May be more to do with what I can do well or less bad 😂
I'm still new to making my own adventures, but I enjoy the creativity, setting up the bosses and plot twists. I like critical role, but I don't want 3 hours of talking and neither do my players, so I do try to give social interactions however small, some sense of furthering the plot. And I like combat too much to not have at least 1 lengthy one per session if not a couple smaller ones.
I ended up in a campaign where the group did hardly any RPing naturally. All they wanted to do was battle. I do like RPing once in a while, so I was kind of disappointed. My Barbarian had high Charisma, but I didn't get to show it off. When I introduced him, I knew my group hadn't received a reward for slaying a dragon. My Barbarian was also a lawyer (why not?), so he put up a sign that said: "Do you deserve compensation?" Due to a social interaction, our Bard hired him as a bodyguard. I never would have thought that relationship would have come up if I hadn't done a bit of role playing.
Hi. I'm (I think) a terrible roleplayer. We started dnd with a group of my friends for a year now. I'm the DM, they are the players. But as a person, i have a personality trait that says 'I can't improvise, I always need plans to follow'. Trying to roleplay my npc-s to make it better but mostly, after a few sentences i just narrate what would they say.. improvising is a hard think for me.. I'm watching videos like yours to be better in it, learning things i can use to improve.
I'm a new DM terrible at voices but my players say my improve is great still trying to figure it out myself. I try to use real life people as Inspiration but I don't make it that's how how a character must act. I recently had a Gome NPC Tina I gave her the same energy of tiny Tina from borderlands without the boom players loved it and all I did was follow what would tiny Tina do. I'm also following a model I've found they don't give much on NPC and lot's of improve is required. Over the model I got repeating characters cause I'm terrible at voices, but I've changed there view or attitude a bit, as in later the party gonna fight a tiny Tina bad orc later, take orders from a tiny Tina elf later same kind of personality, it's just auto approach different by the PC'S, wich is a great phenomenon to witness.
That last one, where one or two players dominate social interactions, pushed me towards giving up on D&D entirely. It wasn’t until I joined a convention one shot that my interest reignited. I haven’t really played since, beyond a few oneshots I’ve ran, but I’m looking for an opportunity with my new group instead of the ones that dominated, unfortunately schedules and them having other games makes it hard to join one but it’ll happen eventually… I hope
Love your stuff! I really appreciate your years of experience and the fact that you don't curse. I can watch your videos when my toddlers are around. 😀
Dude: It's a ROLE-PLAYING GAME. Playing the role of one's character is the purpose of the game, and the story outcome depends upon characters' speech & actions (or lack of action...). The ONLY point is that the DM has control over everything except the player-characters. Now, do what you have control over, and leave the rest... Before I play, I develop my character's very detailed background to prepare me for excellent role playing. I could wing it, but I respect our game time & want to have myself organized & controlled (by me - so no one else has to redirect me). Get over it! BTW, I've played D&D since 1985, and I was the DM of a two-decade campaign with my best friend & later my son. Now I love just playing my character - but I do it my way - and my DM experience helps me have empathy with my current DM (my son's friend who played with us for years). He knows my style & I know his, so maybe we aren't at all who you're talking about... lol
I predict a lot of people are gonna take issue with this for even suggesting that having mostly "roleplay" isnt exactly the best way to play DnD in the first point, but I completely agree, down to trying to emulate Critical Role. Too many people just do that and call it DnD, despite ignoring nearly 100% of the system and wasting the same amount of potential. Generally agree with most of these
I mean, what is the system to you? Is interacting with the system the reason you sit down at the table (be it physical or virtual)? If so, then yeah you're going get frustrated in a highly conversational game. For me, the system is a means of conflict resolution. A framework to define who has what abilities and how they work when the need to use them arises. I'm there to experience the world through that character's eyes and heart, rather than explicitly to play d&d
Another thing that I see a loot in these groups that play 90% social games is that each player play two different characters; like, their characters have a personality while they are talking and then when combat or exploration breaks out they assume a second personality.
Thanks a lot, great tips. Had some issues about getting out of my comfort zone, but I might be willing to take the risks and see how it goes. Wish me luck 🤞
As a Spanish speaking person l...didn't realized you where saying "bacon" at the end of the video until you said "me encanta el tocino" and I realized it was Spanish hahaha
I love the imagery of that guard example. Guard: "I'm not letting you in there [GM uses hand to visualize helm lowering and muffle his voice] Now go away."
My poor DM tries to get us to go on adventures that he's planned but there was a big stretch of time where we just filled sessions up with social interactions because we players were actively trying to stall progress! My character was scared to lose another one of her friends on another adventure so she would just do everything she could to NOT go!
One of my Pet Peeves with "Playing in Character" is when a play starts with "I say..." the point of playing in character is that you're actually talk... do you go to a bar and look at the bar tender and say, "I say, 'What kinds of ale have you got?".... Ugh! I've considered talking to my D&D friends like that... "I say, 'Does you character want to talk?'"
I definitely don't think players should be forced or pressured into talking in silly D&D character voices, but I do appreciate it as a player or as a DM when fellow players do something to differentiate between their out of character comments, and their in-character comments. I don't think I should use my character voice to ask the DM a clarifying question about his description of a room, for instance, but I don't want to use my regular voice to mock an enemy mid-battle. Even just a small affectation to distinguish those two individuals (player and PC), like a slightly higher or slightly lower pitch, does wonders to help people know who's talking, in my opinion. And some players go a step further and narrate what their characters do, like saying, "Grembeldin the Dwarf says, "I would like some mead."" I also find this helpful.
I think the amount and purposelessness of social interactions is a group prefrence. A lot of my friends prefer talking and roleplaying out of combat than the actual combat.
I often say some kind of weird stuff to NPCs and other PC's, often referring to another campaigns I have played (like asking tiefling PC if she is a fay or describing how one of my PCs stole skeleton from another; I mean, it was archeological artefact, not his own skeleton). I don't think it gives something to the story, but I like it and others are at least OK with it. Yes, when game consists of social interaction for social interaction, it becomes super old super fast. But I guess a bit is OK. People aren't always have purpose when they talk to each other.
I have a low level Gypsy bard. She goes on dungeon crawls with her group. As a player these are not my preferred role play, I am not the only player in the group. So, I go. Recently, we returned from a crawl and one of my characters female friends (a single mother) had her toddler child kidnapped by a street gang group.. My character likes to cultivate information sources. My character did some hunting and found where the child was being kept. I had a short conversation with a paladin and a barbarian in my group. They went and had a short and to the point discussion with the kidnaper and his henchmen. They retrieved the child, It turned out the kidnaper was an succubus.. It got away. No one actually died in the encounter. I returned the child to the mother who is now a grateful and useful informant and the two street thugs were horrified by the creature they were working for. They have also become useful sources of information to my character. And we now have an succubus at large in the city to investigate. A new enemy and plot hook. Who says social interaction is not fun.
I disagree but also see your point. I find that sometimes social interactions just flow within the game, and whenever I feel like my PC's are having fun while investigating or going after every loose thread, I don't feel the need to stop them. I feel as a DM you don't have to enforce any structure, but always keep in mind the best practices surrounding a good game session. My goal is to have my players have fun with me; and introducing a too rigid a structure, games tend to be very Adventurer's League-ish, that there is a formula to every adventure. And sometimes that gets kind of boring to run and even to play.
Fun is certainly subjective. I find roleplaying for three sessions in a row frustrating. I much prefer a healthy mix of social interactions, combat, and exploration.
15:15 That happened when I combined my group... WITH YOUR ADVENTURE! I let them solve it by talking to enough dungeon inhabitants who they sometimes had to defeat.
The "our streamed campaign descends into 5 hours of talky talky" is almost universally the fault of the players at my table, not the DM we have. Primary offender being "they decide to over think something. In character" and the entire party slowly devolves into in character conspiracy mode. Or 4 hours of planning travel or an anticipated event. The "How are we going to break into this big bad strong hold??" took longer than the entire break in and escape actually took. And we only very barely stuck to the plan.
I don’t reaaaallly agree with the first take. 80 percent agree but “talkie talkie” is a good break from combat. Also I have players that like the political intrigue and they constantly break out into non-plot related banter because it helps them understand the world.
I do agree with most of the points but not the first one. It’s a playstyle issue but personally I do like to play out my character regardless of whether it advances the plot or not.
He means don't have in character conversations that derail the game and take away the spotlight from other players for excessive amount of time. Important conversations should be roleplayed out. Short conversations can also be played out. Everyone's table is different, so you have to temper your roleplaying with the others as well.
I would add create some cases were players need to interact with each other. I dont really like talking to NPCs but when it comes to player banter I am a little more forth coming
Yeah, I was thinking along the same lines. Both plot and character are important to storytelling, and talky-talk bits that don't necessarily advance the plot still have a place. I suspect this can be overdone, though.
Hey Luke, love the content and always find it at least somewhat insightful. Something about bacon, the algorithm and that you don't suck. Don't quit your day job 😁
12:50 I have always been under the impresion that as a DM if the PC asks for something if it is going to be a guaranteed success or fail to not ask for the roll in the first place. This goes with all ability checks. Unless the guard could have been persuaded in others as you mentined earlier, but you are saying never.
I'm playing in my first campaign I'm a barbarian that follows cthulhul I'm right now trying to make a agreement with cthulhul and strhad to take the mindflars technology to travel to others planets for galactic domination
i've run sessions that were all talking cause that's where they players went i've never planned to not have combat. i have a diplomatic out for every possible combat encounter that has sentience, some harder than others but it's always an option. Sometimes the players want to shop, drink and gamble for a night. BTW we don't stream either
When explaining "role playing" to a new player--many of whom are in fact (understandably) intimidated by the idea of speaking with a fake accent--I tell them that role playing is not wierd voices and accents (tho that can be fun to do for some people). Rather, role playing is: telling the game master "my character does this, my character says that", because the important part is not HOW THE CHARACTER SPEAKS, but rather WHAT DECISIONS THE CHARACTER MAKES.
That works... Although I go a layer deeper. "Roleplaying is stepping into the heart and soul of your character. To see the world from their perspective, to make the decisions they would make. It's an opportunity to step out of yourself and be someone else somewhere else, to have adventures impossible in the real world. It's a chance to be a kid again, and ride your imagination." Or something similar lol. Yes, I have gotten some awkward stares and been teased a bit. But it plants a seed that gets watered as they watch other players get immersed in their characters and the world.
I heard Luke talk about the stereotypical Dwarf accent. I was watching a D&D stream based in the U.K. Their dwarf spoke with a “Southern accent”. It was so weird to watch.
What Luke calls "Social Interaction" has been known as "Role Playing" by everyone (which is hundreds of people) I have ever gamed with in the last 41 years. Role Playing is the proper term. :P I don't mind role playing that doesn't further the plot. Now, I don't want my entire game session to be that - but having times where we can let characters' personalities show and learn about them are fun.
"You see, that last term there, social interactions, is the proper name for what most people refer to as "roleplaying." And now that THAT rant is done, how about we talk about how to improve roleplaying in your Dungeons & Dragons games?" Do you know how many idiots I find who don't grasp this? It's like they believe they're really fighting monsters and really exploring dungeons and only the social interactions are roleplay... but, when you tell them - they get all pissy. Damn
So I tried to get my cousin into dnd by inviting him to a session I run. He wasn't talking much so I'd ask him what he's doing and such and his answer would always be, "I don't know what can I do?" I explained to him that he can do anything and he said ok. About 3 minutes pass with my other players doing roleplay and he says, "so when do I get to play the game." When I explained that he is and he can do anything at any time he got upset and left. Did I do something wrong?
Sounds like your cousin was expecting to play a board game (limited rules/actions, combat only, etc.) He probably didn't understand the concept of role-playing outside of combat. Maybe right when you sit down, explain that you'll be acting as characters and improvising speech before and after fights to form a story. If that doesn't work, then dnd might just not be his jam, which is ok.
Give him examples. "Anything" is too many options, and you might as well be saying "figure it out." Say something (depending on the situation) like: "you could try searching for clues, or ask someone nearby if they saw anything, or bash that locked door down, or pick the lock, or this spell that you have might be useful..."
Another rookie player lost to decision paralysis. Next time throw an encounter at him. Asking someone to decide how to respond to a screaming orc with a battle axe is actually easier than asking him to choose to do literally anything at all.
Little context to go on here, but from what I can assume and judge, the answer is any or all of the following: -brought him in without context of what's happening and what the goal is -didn't explain the basic rules -said he can do "anything", which is the best way to choice-paralyze someone, especially if they don't know how the game actually works, because spoiler alert, you can't actually do anything, you are limited by rules and logic. -other players were just talking a lot without seemingly accomplishing anything, so you weren't driving the game forward -told him he's playing the game when from his perspective was that nothing was going on, making it seem like a really boring activity -repeated that he can do anything while still not actually saying what that is (and I reiterate, it's incorrect), which must have been incredibly frustrating for him because it felt like you were just giving him non-answers
I've been far too guilty of doing information dumps to my players. And given my current campaign is a group of all European people to which English is not their native language, I've actually created confusion in giving too much in one chunk.
I’d rather have you go over the top with your voices than stop doing them. Sometimes some of the voices can be a bit annoying, but considering you aren’t a professional voice actor, I enjoy listening to your characters and the effort you put in to them.
I don’t think I agree with your example for charisma only going so far. I think a charismatic character rolling a nat 20 probably *could* get into the King’s private chambers. It happens all the time in movies *and* in real life (or, at least, analogous situations do); looking like you belong is a superpower, among other strategies. Although the King might actually be paranoid enough to train the guards to be careful enough, I’d consider that to be a relevant character trait of the King or guard captain, not the default. (I wouldn’t be arguing if you were my DM, of course; still the DM’s call)
Our games are all about violence and combat, so i came here to learn how to do talkie talkie and develop character I would love to do meaningless stuff 😢
I like social interaction when it has a purpose some banter is cool I suppose but like yeah man even though I do enjoy critical roll it does get masturbatory at times
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Great vid, buuttt I hate bacon
@@dpstalesfrombeyondthescree9985 same, not a fan of bacon either
@@thegeekygamers5064 we found a traitor lol
I'm having such a hard time following what you're saying now days with all the sudden turns when you suddenly switch subject and start to talk about a sponsor or lair magazine or something. My brain listens up to the first commercial break then it switches off, and after a while i realize you're talking about the video subject again and i've missed a great deal, just for you to go off on another tangent about something else. I'm no longer drawn to watch your content anymore. Which is sad because it used to be really good and engaging. Only one of my players can process your videos anymore, the others have also lost interest cause they can't keep up with the sudden breaks either. Put the sponsor in the beginning and lair magazine at the end or vice versa, please.
I do love bacon though.
Empty, "meaningless" social interactions are the foundation to believable, relatable characters. The banter, idle chatter, and small talk are the things that make us connect with characters as people. We used to see it a lot in movies, but not anymore.
A royale with cheese.
Those interactions serve the purpose of fleshing out characters and making them more fun to play, therefore aren’t empty and meaningless, I recently had a player ask a random farmer about what the weather was like last week for no reason, it was… pretty nice?? Everybody at the table was confused by that interaction
@@trckstr2888 Then I would ask what is the point of claiming some interactions COULD be meaningless? Personally, I don't think it's possible to have a meaningless conversation, but 'don't have meaningless conversations' is literally point 1 of the video. So how does each person define 'meaningless'? I think Luke should have specified this video is for DMs as I started this video thinking it was advice for players and that massively changes the way you interpret the points.
So the advice that 'if your PCs start talking to an NPC, reward them with some added info about the world/plot' is very different from 'when your players are hanging around town, everything they say has to be deep and carefully crafted to forward the plot or directly share backstory'
Besides plot there's also another main reason to have social interaction: exposition, teach the players about your campaign setting.
Ideally you can do both, but sometimes players strike up a conversation with an npc who isn't plot relevant and then this is a perfect opportunity to give world lore that may help them immerse in the game
I personally like social interaction over fighting as a player. I enjoy the on the spot creativity.
I like what you said about “talkie-talkie” needing a purpose and progressing the story. Now substitute “stabby-stabby” for “talkie-talkie”. Is the planned combat expanding the story, or just lazily filling game time. Is rolling dice and grunting really more important than discussions and funny voices?
Honestly I find a lot more fulfillment from unprogressive talky talky than the same sort of stabby stabby lol.
To quote Luke, these are real people in a real world. They're going to have real conversations that don't necessarily drive a plot (although they could very well be hooks to potential plots untaken, hints for the GM for future developments)
The purpose could be to immerse yourself in these characters. Sometimes games are more character driven and less plot driven.
This is why I like the 5 room dungeon. Each room has a different kind of encounter that progress the story.
Gamestyle depends on the table. Some people enjoy non stop combat and have little to no rp in their games.
I will say though BULLET POINTS are completely underrated. Good on you for using bullet points in your publications. I've been in multimedia and bullet points trump scripts, teleprompters, memorization, everything.
I slightly disagree with one of your assumptions. It’s much harder for me to run the “talky talky” parts of D&D than it is to run combat.
I ran a session on Sunday that turned into a session that was almost all social interactions. My players drove the session, I didn’t and they chose options in every encounter where they avoided combat. It was a fun session, but it was hard for me to run! Running combat in the middle would have been much easier!!
Yeah, gaining levels from story progression is popular because some dms want their players to be able to rp and get out of combat or just do the combat. It’s all about choices.
@@crazy36069 Winning an encounter doesn’t require combat. Talking your way through an encounter and accomplishing your goals is still winning. Even when the party isn’t all bards!
@@tscoff Exactly!!!
Thank you! I was literally about to post the same thing. I mean absolutely no disrespect to Luke (I love this channel), but I feel like there is a humongous difference between "talky talky" (wasting time in a shop or a tavern for no reason) and meaningful dialogues. The latter, as you pointed out, is tenfold more difficult for me to prepare and run than combat. The long campaign I run requires the party to do some serious RP/dialogue legwork for them to succeed. They need to investigate, inquire, make friends, be diplomatic at times and strict other times. I think we average 1 combat per session (if that), and everybody seems to be fine with that. =)
I've always LOVED social encounters, talkey talkey, voices, etc but this past year or so DND UA-camrs have suddenly started doublind down on the idea that players only love it because of DND shows like Critical Role. No - I've never seen the damn thing. That's just something I like doing. I like learning new accents and dramatic narration of actions. I do that when I read bedtime stories to my kids, when I'm talking about what happened last week to my friends. If that doesn't fit into your version of the game - I'll find somebody else to play with.
All of a sudden I feel likee everybody has a stick up their butts over players who are drawn to DND for the more freeform social encounters. It's not an invalid way of playing and lots of people like it.
5E specifically is a very very very character heavy game with a TON of social elements and interactions and rules for how to aquire and manage meaningful contacts and everything.
It's the nature of this edition (mixed with the decreased stigmatism of the hobby in general) that is drawing new people into the hobby. The rise of DND shows is a side effect of this - not the other way around.
I've been watching a lot to streams lately and I personally find a tiny percent are like CR. We are careful to frame our games as regular players playing regular dnd. Some of us do try to characterise when we play and we love roleplay moments. We aren't CR and never will be but shouldn't stop us trying to make it more immersive.
One of my npcs has a ridiculous voice, speaks in third person and they literally get genuinely angry when they talk about him. I know I could do that "voice" and get a great reaction. Emotional moments in dnd are my favourite times.
I have players who treat dnd like a war game and others who love the character moments. There isn't a wrong way as long as your party are all happy. You're spot on if you don't fit it's ok to find a group that align with your idea of a good game.
Some good stuff in here. I shared this with a friend that is reluctant to run a game for her daughter. She has two well seasoned DMs telling her she will do fine. She is shy and reluctant to rp npcs and monsters.
😊
In the recent session i had a player that tried to persuade a Bugbear king to trade a person for the loot the party stole from the Bugbear kings minions & armory .
Then a player was confused by the fact the bugbear king wanted to fight.
My response is you literally told a very big , old & strong bugbear that you where going to give him his stuff for a person he had.
I mean... It's a good trade. Give up a captive and keep your life _and_ your treasure lol
I don’t find social interactions meaningless to be honest. I play in several campaigns under a dm whose style of play, and his tables too, lean heavily into roleplay and storytelling. This isn’t to say he neglects encounters or puzzles or anything like that. But he does give us the space to roleplay. Some of our silliest moments were the ones that created inside jokes and allowed our characters to bond and form unique relationships (platonic) with each other. This enhanced the narrative of the story we were playing. We loved it and still do. This time gave us the room to invest in each other’s character and those arcs too so, even if the spotlight isn’t on us that session, we still have a good time seeing another’s moment to shine.
Of course, how meaningful a conversation is will depend entirely on the players themselves. My tables with this dm are all very into this style of play so we tend to be compatible and bounce off each other pretty well and can pinpoint what storybeats we want to mutually hit. It’s an intuitive thing, I’ll give you that. But it’s more of a literacy with storytelling that develops that instinct and allows for even the mundane moments to carry weight down the road of the narrative. We aren’t overly reliant on the dm making those moments, just him giving us the room to make them and then him capitalizing on them to make them feel special in the narrative down the line, by taking the moment and chatter as inspiration.
For an example. One character I play is a scholar of linguistics and anthropology. Another player is also a scholar of the same faction but is an inventor and “scientist” (magic science included). The two have had a few debates on various subjects and how to conduct the research and note taking of the party’s discoveries quite a few times. We call them “nerd fights” basically and it’s a lot of fun. Honestly these conversations are just silly. The dm makes these meaningful by leaning our adventure and encounters into being research based. I can’t tell you the number of times the dm has had us find an ancient library or museum lol. We explore a lot of ancient ruins. He also drops little things like my character being able to find a translation dictionary for a language they don’t know yet (this character’s catnip) and even a broken translator device that has both my scholar and the inventor scholar puzzling over it and determined to fix it. These things aren’t even really magical! Lol. But the dm leans into it. He gives our scholars some time to debate and discuss our findings. He lets the group weigh in and ask questions. We even, because of the way this group functions, take some of the long rest downtime to spend that time teaching each other (dm rules this can be done during long rest and is considered “light activity” due to the nature of our party).
I think another fun moment we did was with a bonfire spell, a floating disk, and a warm comforter. Why is this fun? Because we nerds made a kotatsu. You know, that heated table you see in anime? That. The party tends to sit around during downtime using this to keep warm and also casually chat. We had a hotpot party, sat and had tea, and even made sushi one time (magic fishing pole so super fresh fish). It’s part of the fun really. I personally don’t think we would have thought to do that if we hadn’t had the space to be social and have casual, silly, conversations. It has been fun to draw too. As an artist I love moments like this to draw. It feels like it really shows the personality of each character. So yeah, I think it’s important, even if this comment was pretty rambling.
My current online game that I DM seems to have a lot of social interaction but it's quite a story-heavy sandbox-y game set in and around a large city and the players like their characters to do a lot of investigation/carousing to get the lay of the land before embarking on a course of action (or try and convince someone else to pursue it). So an Exploration aspect of the game is, in some ways, being included in the Social Interaction aspect too. It's not a style that I usually run that much in my F2F games but, for this group, they seem to enjoy that sort of thing and their characters seem to have become more "real", as do the regular NPCs that they interact with. There are a couple of players that are more used to "roll-playing" social interactions and they initially got a little upset that a high skill roll doesn't work like magic mind tricks in their interactions though - "heh, I optimised my character for Social Interactions and now you're nerfing me."
Practice! Roleplay as much as you are comfortable doing. Roleplaying doesn't stop once initiative is rolled.
The problem with social interactions in game is that it is easy for players to forget that they are playing a character if there is no “purpose” to the conversation. I’ve never been a DM, but even as a player I try to add meaning to simple interactions. Recently our party had to sign some paperwork, and I described my character’s handwriting, making sure to highlight why his handwriting looked like that given his background (he was formerly a cave rescuer and has had to sign thousands of pages of similar paperwork, so his handwriting was very compact with all capital letters to prevent confusion). It encouraged the other players to describe how their own handwriting related to their backgrounds as well. This gave everyone, including the DM, a glimpse into the other PC’s experiences and personalities. Simple things like that make it much more immersive and enjoyable for everyone when boring stuff is happening
the point about "don't do long monologues" hits close to home :D. Had to learn this one the hard way - not because I'm an attention seeker or a control freak, but rather because I sometimes wanted to properly foreshadow and world-build through an NPC explaining something or telling a story. I honest to god winced when you said "nobody wants to listen to you talk for 5 minutes", because I have at times done more like 10-15 :D. Luckily, I think I've learned my lesson, and found different, much more engaging ways to world-build and lore-dump.
Starting attitudes is a great tip!
So is the concept of “failing forward”. For example, “you rolled a 1 on your sleight of hand? Okay, the prison mocks you and offers to pick the lock for you during the 10 MINUTES it takes you to pick the lock”. From then on the corner prison teases the rogue when the chance arises. 😛
Also, always call on the quiet players! There input is SO valuable! (They are usually my favorites)
Fun video! I’m looking forward to the next skit! They have been ON POINT lately 😁
There was a point my players did go in under cover to a meeting where the leader did give a speech, but every half a paragraph I did stop and ask if anyone wanted to interject, complete some task, search people’s pockets, etc. And although it was a lengthy speech (about 3 minutes if I had just went on without interruption) I didn’t want my players to just sit there.
Through perception or investigation checks they could pinpoint how certain people in the crowd were reacting, people who stood out, items in the room to gather or straight up steal. All of course while trying to remain undercover so plenty of high stakes stealth rolls to increase risk.
I wanted them to interact with parts of it, to present skill checks and deeper interaction while the bad guy prattled on. By going to this meeting not only were they able to learn important details, but what they did while this went on had impact through the rest of the quest.
Good seeing roleplaying advice that admits up front the fact that not all talky talky has any value to the game beyond letting one Pc talk just to talk
Appreciate these tips! Didn't think about alot of these. Especially the first part. Alot our game is talking with no pay off. Having meaningful interactions. Excited for future sessions!
Thanks Luke. I've always thought I liked to, but recently I realized what I liked was different than other players. To me rp has always been mostly rping with a purpose, whether it be convincing someone to help out, distracting guards so a team mate can sneak by, convincing the enemy not to fight etc. I now realize what I like is social encounters
I don't mind that you take forever to get through these points, and you do not, objectively, suck.
Cheers!
Great Job with you content and enthusiasm for the game and what you are working to convey. Keep up the good work.
Dwarves are not Scottish in my games Lord of the Rings set that standard and I'm
clearly ancient. Mine have a northern English accent just fits so well for me. May be more to do with what I can do well or less bad 😂
I mean as you get really far North in England the accents start drifting towards Scottish lol
@@priestesslucy lol very true, my Scottish accent is a bit Mrs Doubtfire though, apologies to Scotland 😂
I'm still new to making my own adventures, but I enjoy the creativity, setting up the bosses and plot twists. I like critical role, but I don't want 3 hours of talking and neither do my players, so I do try to give social interactions however small, some sense of furthering the plot. And I like combat too much to not have at least 1 lengthy one per session if not a couple smaller ones.
I ended up in a campaign where the group did hardly any RPing naturally. All they wanted to do was battle. I do like RPing once in a while, so I was kind of disappointed. My Barbarian had high Charisma, but I didn't get to show it off.
When I introduced him, I knew my group hadn't received a reward for slaying a dragon. My Barbarian was also a lawyer (why not?), so he put up a sign that said: "Do you deserve compensation?"
Due to a social interaction, our Bard hired him as a bodyguard. I never would have thought that relationship would have come up if I hadn't done a bit of role playing.
5:38 I never knew I needed vaguely Slavish Dwarves in my life until now
Avoid pre-written monologues EXCEPT when the wording or details and is critical, then go right ahead. But still keep it short.
Hi. I'm (I think) a terrible roleplayer. We started dnd with a group of my friends for a year now. I'm the DM, they are the players.
But as a person, i have a personality trait that says 'I can't improvise, I always need plans to follow'. Trying to roleplay my npc-s to make it better but mostly, after a few sentences i just narrate what would they say.. improvising is a hard think for me..
I'm watching videos like yours to be better in it, learning things i can use to improve.
I'm a new DM terrible at voices but my players say my improve is great still trying to figure it out myself. I try to use real life people as Inspiration but I don't make it that's how how a character must act. I recently had a Gome NPC Tina I gave her the same energy of tiny Tina from borderlands without the boom players loved it and all I did was follow what would tiny Tina do. I'm also following a model I've found they don't give much on NPC and lot's of improve is required. Over the model I got repeating characters cause I'm terrible at voices, but I've changed there view or attitude a bit, as in later the party gonna fight a tiny Tina bad orc later, take orders from a tiny Tina elf later same kind of personality, it's just auto approach different by the PC'S, wich is a great phenomenon to witness.
That last one, where one or two players dominate social interactions, pushed me towards giving up on D&D entirely. It wasn’t until I joined a convention one shot that my interest reignited. I haven’t really played since, beyond a few oneshots I’ve ran, but I’m looking for an opportunity with my new group instead of the ones that dominated, unfortunately schedules and them having other games makes it hard to join one but it’ll happen eventually… I hope
I'll be sharing this video with my players! Thanks, my man!
I keep forgetting about that chat in the DM’s guide
Luke... I have played in one of your one shots and I loved your voices! Keep up the great work!
Love your stuff! I really appreciate your years of experience and the fact that you don't curse. I can watch your videos when my toddlers are around. 😀
Dude: It's a ROLE-PLAYING GAME. Playing the role of one's character is the purpose of the game, and the story outcome depends upon characters' speech & actions (or lack of action...). The ONLY point is that the DM has control over everything except the player-characters. Now, do what you have control over, and leave the rest...
Before I play, I develop my character's very detailed background to prepare me for excellent role playing. I could wing it, but I respect our game time & want to have myself organized & controlled (by me - so no one else has to redirect me). Get over it!
BTW, I've played D&D since 1985, and I was the DM of a two-decade campaign with my best friend & later my son. Now I love just playing my character - but I do it my way - and my DM experience helps me have empathy with my current DM (my son's friend who played with us for years). He knows my style & I know his, so maybe we aren't at all who you're talking about... lol
I predict a lot of people are gonna take issue with this for even suggesting that having mostly "roleplay" isnt exactly the best way to play DnD in the first point, but I completely agree, down to trying to emulate Critical Role. Too many people just do that and call it DnD, despite ignoring nearly 100% of the system and wasting the same amount of potential.
Generally agree with most of these
I mean, what is the system to you?
Is interacting with the system the reason you sit down at the table (be it physical or virtual)? If so, then yeah you're going get frustrated in a highly conversational game.
For me, the system is a means of conflict resolution. A framework to define who has what abilities and how they work when the need to use them arises. I'm there to experience the world through that character's eyes and heart, rather than explicitly to play d&d
Another thing that I see a loot in these groups that play 90% social games is that each player play two different characters; like, their characters have a personality while they are talking and then when combat or exploration breaks out they assume a second personality.
Thanks a lot, great tips. Had some issues about getting out of my comfort zone, but I might be willing to take the risks and see how it goes. Wish me luck 🤞
As a Spanish speaking person l...didn't realized you where saying "bacon" at the end of the video until you said "me encanta el tocino" and I realized it was Spanish hahaha
I love the imagery of that guard example.
Guard: "I'm not letting you in there [GM uses hand to visualize helm lowering and muffle his voice] Now go away."
My poor DM tries to get us to go on adventures that he's planned but there was a big stretch of time where we just filled sessions up with social interactions because we players were actively trying to stall progress! My character was scared to lose another one of her friends on another adventure so she would just do everything she could to NOT go!
At that point, you're not even an adventurer. Lol.......
One of my Pet Peeves with "Playing in Character" is when a play starts with "I say..." the point of playing in character is that you're actually talk... do you go to a bar and look at the bar tender and say, "I say, 'What kinds of ale have you got?".... Ugh! I've considered talking to my D&D friends like that... "I say, 'Does you character want to talk?'"
12:02
Luke: "Good mean high"
Me: "I'm good"
I definitely don't think players should be forced or pressured into talking in silly D&D character voices, but I do appreciate it as a player or as a DM when fellow players do something to differentiate between their out of character comments, and their in-character comments. I don't think I should use my character voice to ask the DM a clarifying question about his description of a room, for instance, but I don't want to use my regular voice to mock an enemy mid-battle. Even just a small affectation to distinguish those two individuals (player and PC), like a slightly higher or slightly lower pitch, does wonders to help people know who's talking, in my opinion. And some players go a step further and narrate what their characters do, like saying, "Grembeldin the Dwarf says, "I would like some mead."" I also find this helpful.
you do not suck - I love your accents! I wish this was my day job...
A comment for the Algorithm: Top 10 List | Tricks to Improve RPG | D&D 5e | Excellent and very useful information.
I think the amount and purposelessness of social interactions is a group prefrence. A lot of my friends prefer talking and roleplaying out of combat than the actual combat.
I often say some kind of weird stuff to NPCs and other PC's, often referring to another campaigns I have played (like asking tiefling PC if she is a fay or describing how one of my PCs stole skeleton from another; I mean, it was archeological artefact, not his own skeleton). I don't think it gives something to the story, but I like it and others are at least OK with it. Yes, when game consists of social interaction for social interaction, it becomes super old super fast. But I guess a bit is OK. People aren't always have purpose when they talk to each other.
really useful tips - ty m8! love from Serbia
I have a low level Gypsy bard. She goes on dungeon crawls with her group. As a player these are not my preferred role play, I am not the only player in the group. So, I go. Recently, we returned from a crawl and one of my characters female friends (a single mother) had her toddler child kidnapped by a street gang group.. My character likes to cultivate information sources. My character did some hunting and found where the child was being kept. I had a short conversation with a paladin and a barbarian in my group. They went and had a short and to the point discussion with the kidnaper and his henchmen. They retrieved the child, It turned out the kidnaper was an succubus.. It got away. No one actually died in the encounter. I returned the child to the mother who is now a grateful and useful informant and the two street thugs were horrified by the creature they were working for. They have also become useful sources of information to my character. And we now have an succubus at large in the city to investigate. A new enemy and plot hook. Who says social interaction is not fun.
I disagree but also see your point. I find that sometimes social interactions just flow within the game, and whenever I feel like my PC's are having fun while investigating or going after every loose thread, I don't feel the need to stop them. I feel as a DM you don't have to enforce any structure, but always keep in mind the best practices surrounding a good game session. My goal is to have my players have fun with me; and introducing a too rigid a structure, games tend to be very Adventurer's League-ish, that there is a formula to every adventure. And sometimes that gets kind of boring to run and even to play.
Fun is certainly subjective. I find roleplaying for three sessions in a row frustrating. I much prefer a healthy mix of social interactions, combat, and exploration.
I agree, if you talk to an NPC it should have a reason. I also try to get at least one combat per session too
This was helpful and inspiring- thanks!
6:30 but what about a deliberate genre invoking villainous monologue?
15:15 That happened when I combined my group... WITH YOUR ADVENTURE! I let them solve it by talking to enough dungeon inhabitants who they sometimes had to defeat.
The "our streamed campaign descends into 5 hours of talky talky" is almost universally the fault of the players at my table, not the DM we have. Primary offender being "they decide to over think something. In character" and the entire party slowly devolves into in character conspiracy mode. Or 4 hours of planning travel or an anticipated event. The "How are we going to break into this big bad strong hold??" took longer than the entire break in and escape actually took. And we only very barely stuck to the plan.
I don’t reaaaallly agree with the first take. 80 percent agree but “talkie talkie” is a good break from combat. Also I have players that like the political intrigue and they constantly break out into non-plot related banter because it helps them understand the world.
I do agree with most of the points but not the first one. It’s a playstyle issue but personally I do like to play out my character regardless of whether it advances the plot or not.
He means don't have in character conversations that derail the game and take away the spotlight from other players for excessive amount of time. Important conversations should be roleplayed out. Short conversations can also be played out. Everyone's table is different, so you have to temper your roleplaying with the others as well.
With my players I do if there are to many of them talking at one I do a speech initiative to give order to talking
I would add create some cases were players need to interact with each other. I dont really like talking to NPCs but when it comes to player banter I am a little more forth coming
Yeah, I was thinking along the same lines. Both plot and character are important to storytelling, and talky-talk bits that don't necessarily advance the plot still have a place.
I suspect this can be overdone, though.
Hey Luke, love the content and always find it at least somewhat insightful. Something about bacon, the algorithm and that you don't suck.
Don't quit your day job 😁
I don’t do a “voice” for my dwarf ranger, but if I did he would sound just like Tom Hardy’s Bane.
It would be fun to have the dwarves talk with a pirate accent and the pirates talk with a Scottish accent.
12:50 I have always been under the impresion that as a DM if the PC asks for something if it is going to be a guaranteed success or fail to not ask for the roll in the first place. This goes with all ability checks. Unless the guard could have been persuaded in others as you mentined earlier, but you are saying never.
Nice work on the video!
14:00 He said earlier that he didn't want people to use their voice...
I'm playing in my first campaign I'm a barbarian that follows cthulhul I'm right now trying to make a agreement with cthulhul and strhad to take the mindflars technology to travel to others planets for galactic domination
i've run sessions that were all talking cause that's where they players went i've never planned to not have combat. i have a diplomatic out for every possible combat encounter that has sentience, some harder than others but it's always an option. Sometimes the players want to shop, drink and gamble for a night. BTW we don't stream either
Full of good info, don't mind that it took a while. lol
Good info!
Comment because help
When explaining "role playing" to a new player--many of whom are in fact (understandably) intimidated by the idea of speaking with a fake accent--I tell them that role playing is not wierd voices and accents (tho that can be fun to do for some people). Rather, role playing is: telling the game master "my character does this, my character says that", because the important part is not HOW THE CHARACTER SPEAKS, but rather WHAT DECISIONS THE CHARACTER MAKES.
That works... Although I go a layer deeper.
"Roleplaying is stepping into the heart and soul of your character. To see the world from their perspective, to make the decisions they would make. It's an opportunity to step out of yourself and be someone else somewhere else, to have adventures impossible in the real world. It's a chance to be a kid again, and ride your imagination."
Or something similar lol.
Yes, I have gotten some awkward stares and been teased a bit. But it plants a seed that gets watered as they watch other players get immersed in their characters and the world.
Love this guy!!!
A good way to enrich the game is for the players to purchase more resource materials for the game master.
I'm here, writing a comment so UA-cam would know that you don't suck.
Also bacon is pretty good.
Great stuff friend 👏 👍
If Wizardry 6 taught me anything, it's don't trust the ghost of a dead lover, they lie.
I heard Luke talk about the stereotypical Dwarf accent. I was watching a D&D stream based in the U.K.
Their dwarf spoke with a “Southern accent”. It was so weird to watch.
Love this!
Hey, UA-cam… Luke doesn’t suck!
What Luke calls "Social Interaction" has been known as "Role Playing" by everyone (which is hundreds of people) I have ever gamed with in the last 41 years. Role Playing is the proper term. :P
I don't mind role playing that doesn't further the plot. Now, I don't want my entire game session to be that - but having times where we can let characters' personalities show and learn about them are fun.
Not sure SIPG rolls of the tongue :)
@@bonusactionheroes I am clueless...what does SIPG stand for?
@@erc1971erc1971 it doesn't I was just being tongue in check about replacing roleplay with " social interaction "
@@bonusactionheroes Explains why I was confused :P Thanks for the update.
When I want to communicate with another PC in the game I address the individual by their character name.
"You see, that last term there, social interactions, is the proper name for what most people refer to as "roleplaying." And now that THAT rant is done, how about we talk about how to improve roleplaying in your Dungeons & Dragons games?"
Do you know how many idiots I find who don't grasp this? It's like they believe they're really fighting monsters and really exploring dungeons and only the social interactions are roleplay...
but, when you tell them - they get all pissy.
Damn
So I tried to get my cousin into dnd by inviting him to a session I run.
He wasn't talking much so I'd ask him what he's doing and such and his answer would always be, "I don't know what can I do?"
I explained to him that he can do anything and he said ok.
About 3 minutes pass with my other players doing roleplay and he says, "so when do I get to play the game."
When I explained that he is and he can do anything at any time he got upset and left.
Did I do something wrong?
only thing i could think of is have him sit in games with other players, but sounds like D&D just might not be for him.
Sounds like your cousin was expecting to play a board game (limited rules/actions, combat only, etc.) He probably didn't understand the concept of role-playing outside of combat. Maybe right when you sit down, explain that you'll be acting as characters and improvising speech before and after fights to form a story. If that doesn't work, then dnd might just not be his jam, which is ok.
Give him examples. "Anything" is too many options, and you might as well be saying "figure it out." Say something (depending on the situation) like: "you could try searching for clues, or ask someone nearby if they saw anything, or bash that locked door down, or pick the lock, or this spell that you have might be useful..."
Another rookie player lost to decision paralysis. Next time throw an encounter at him.
Asking someone to decide how to respond to a screaming orc with a battle axe is actually easier than asking him to choose to do literally anything at all.
Little context to go on here, but from what I can assume and judge, the answer is any or all of the following:
-brought him in without context of what's happening and what the goal is
-didn't explain the basic rules
-said he can do "anything", which is the best way to choice-paralyze someone, especially if they don't know how the game actually works, because spoiler alert, you can't actually do anything, you are limited by rules and logic.
-other players were just talking a lot without seemingly accomplishing anything, so you weren't driving the game forward
-told him he's playing the game when from his perspective was that nothing was going on, making it seem like a really boring activity
-repeated that he can do anything while still not actually saying what that is (and I reiterate, it's incorrect), which must have been incredibly frustrating for him because it felt like you were just giving him non-answers
I suck at voice acting and should keep my day job
Am I the only person that voices dwarves as West Virginia miners?
I've been far too guilty of doing information dumps to my players. And given my current campaign is a group of all European people to which English is not their native language, I've actually created confusion in giving too much in one chunk.
11:31 conversation*
Great video and no, you definitely don't suck!
I’d rather have you go over the top with your voices than stop doing them. Sometimes some of the voices can be a bit annoying, but considering you aren’t a professional voice actor, I enjoy listening to your characters and the effort you put in to them.
I don’t think I agree with your example for charisma only going so far. I think a charismatic character rolling a nat 20 probably *could* get into the King’s private chambers. It happens all the time in movies *and* in real life (or, at least, analogous situations do); looking like you belong is a superpower, among other strategies. Although the King might actually be paranoid enough to train the guards to be careful enough, I’d consider that to be a relevant character trait of the King or guard captain, not the default.
(I wouldn’t be arguing if you were my DM, of course; still the DM’s call)
Let's talk about talking....A mi también me encanta el tocino, ¿a quien no?
I mock thee sir. MOCK MOCK MOCK!
"Good means high"
Wild magic sorcerers, rogues, and the FBI all disagree. That said, otherwise solid advice
Have a couple twisted new monster race ideas thanks to stranger things and the tauric template. Evil lol
Tocino tocino
Me encanta el tocino 🥓😍
UA-cam! HE DOESN'T SUCK!
Our games are all about violence and combat, so i came here to learn how to do talkie talkie and develop character
I would love to do meaningless stuff 😢
I like social interaction when it has a purpose some banter is cool I suppose but like yeah man even though I do enjoy critical roll it does get masturbatory at times
Pero el tocino ama tus arterias.
Leeerrroooooyyyyyy Jeeeennnnkkkiiiinnnnssssss!!!!!!!!!!!
(Oooh yeah I know what you mean in tip 3)