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'No person is useless at everything regardless of what people might think. There is always something they are good at' I came here expecting another fantastic role-playing advice and, not only I got it, but you cheered me up
I had a Bard in a 3.5 game that was an absolute coward (funny because he was a halfling) and the best way to beat an encounter was to run from it. HOWEVER it was his roleplaying that saved the party more than one time. Best time: You open the door to decaying old man, he raises his fingers and speaks as dust billows from ever word. "How Dare you Enter my Chambers" Wow a Lich and we are what level 3... uhmmm Halfling steps up "Well Sir, I am Farwin a storyteller of some ability and you see, there are stories about you told be people that have never met you and really I dont like telling stories third person without confirming all the facts. So these fine people here I paid to get me to here so I could learn the truth from the one who knows it the best. Would you tell me your story so I can spread the truth among the elves?" DM stairs for a second... are not you the coward? his look on his face spoke. He rolls a dice and then facepalms after confirming my diplomacy modifier. "Those elves tell many lies, let me tell you the truth so you can set them strait...." Me setting the elves strait with the story is another anecdote for another time.
What if you want really don't want to rp. But you really do want to get into a group. It's not that i don't want play out what my character would do. What his motivations would be. His backstory and so forth. In fact character creation is one of.my favorite parts. However acting out in the kinda of way that I have classically see rp done. I'm sorry it just makes me cringe. I'm probably not your average player. You would never identify me as guy that played d&d and the first ad&d when I was young. I had little friends that played. So I would create characters, world's and dungeons. I loved it. Still have no friends that would play. Friends that go shooting and training dogs. But no d&d player type of friends. Thanks for any help.
I try to roleplay but it’s hard without making like a checklist of stuff that describes that character such as I have one that is •dumb •curious •loves sandwiches •friendly •very athletic His main trait is loving sandwiches heck is back story he got lost trying to find bread and he is also pretty terrible at making them and I love role playing that I’m a very simple person by nature so I see my self in this character because of that, But I also just started dnd like 4-5 sessions ago so I’m fairly new. My second character is boring I can’t figure out how to make her interesting she is snarky most of the time and bad mouths people but absolutely hates to think of people getting hurt and and will do anything she can to prevent such but life threatening or dangerous stuff does not come up very often outside of combat
@@rosewarrior706 a bit late ig but here are some basic ideas that could help! -her snarky and badmouthing attitude can be a front. Whether it had be on purepose as a shield for peoples to not get too close to her or viceversa, or just an attitude she picked up from an important person in her past, but deep down she do care about peoples. She can get easily attached or have a certain soft spot but for her own sake she tries to burry/hide her emotions and keep up said front. -she think/is trouble and would be some sort of bad luck for others, and thus try to paint herself in a bad light for peoples to avoid her, whilst she actually deeply care for others. -seeing peoples in such a bad state trigger something in her, it can be personal trauma or a fear she have, from loosing someone or something deer, to seeing herself in that state like a mirror, which make her have this unexplainable switch! I don't have any experience playing dnd but quite a lot with developing characters and story, so I'm not sure if it is helpful but I hope it at least gave you some ideas! Have a good day/night uvu
I've found relationship to food to be a great way of generating proactivity/sociability. One current character is a military type. Maxed out for capability. She is all about the "chow". She gets food for the others during missions; steals the biscuits during meetings; arranges evening meals with the crew; denies people snacks to punish them, whatever. Loads of roleplay around it: it's what everyone knows/loves about her. Without it, she really would be just the girl who is great with a rifle - and that's no fun.
Rolling up an Amazon/wizard back in AD&D. Rolled an amazing set of stats (rolling four d6 drop one die) except for a six. I put that in charisma. GM gave me a minus to diplomacy, but a huge plus to intimidate. Her catch phrase became “You know what your problem is?” She was a blast to play, she spoke her mind even if it really didn’t help out in the encounter. Party once scheduled a critical negotiation after they gave her gold to go on a shopping spree in the market. She spent it on expensive booze and had to be bailed out of jail after starting a cat fight with a group of dwarven girls on a wedding shopping trip.
In this regard I'm actually really proud of one character in particular. Rolled stats for a new game with my regular group and didn't get below a 14 in anything and started with a Nat 18 in hand. I could play anything I wanted as any race and still be fantastic at everything. So I made a Goliath Monk who's mute by choice and follows strict rules in regards to killing others. He only deals non-lethal damage in combat unless certain rules are broken. He can only communicate through his journal, some chalk on dungeon walls, or a signal whistle in combat. But so much of his personality shines through his actions as well as his words. It's lead to many a fun, tense, and even scary roleplaying moment with him as a result of him not saying a single world.
I have a friend at our table who has a character that's incredibly intriguing and likable... but only outside of the game. The friend tells us interesting aspects about their character, such as their personality and thoughts on events that happened during a session. They give us little tidbits of the character's backstory, and overall the character seems very unique and interesting. The way they describe the character is as a shy, empathetic person who's a little mistrusting because of past events in their life. I love the idea, but it just hasn't worked in practice at all. In game, the character barely talks to anyone. They do not trust almost all of the PC characters, and for a couple of the PC characters they actively dislike them (like my character, for example, which is frustrating because he dislikes her solely for being overly extroverted). The character is always following the party around without question, they're essentially the "loner who sits in the corner of the room type." So that crosses out the sociability and the proactivity aspects from this video. And it's bad enough that they don't have 2 out the 3 attributes you described, but honestly I feel the character doesn't even have capability either. They very frequently go down in combat because they're a wizard who decides to stay in the frontline, and even out of combat their skills have honestly only been used for one thing that happened last session. I love my friend, but their character just annoys me to no end. We talk about the character a lot, and the friend has even expressed that they want the character's arc to be about them opening up to other people. But when I tried to discuss how my character could help reach that goal, they essentially told me my character can't because their character doesn't like her. And that her trying to have any serious conversation with their character will make things worse between them? It's so confusing to me, and they've even mentioned that this character needs other characters to actually go through this development. They're solely dependent on the off chance that another player will be able to talk them into changing their personality somehow, which seems impossible to me because the character is very stubborn and set in their worldview. We're almost 40 sessions in at this point and the character still acts like this. I think they're starting to open up to a couple new PCs who joined recently, but I'm just at a point where I've given up on trying to interact with their character. I want to like them, but I just can't because they're so damn unlikable. Anyways, just wanted to vent about this. I love playing DnD with my friends, but this character can be incredibly frustrating to deal with sometimes.
Sometimes? Holy ... let's just say I think you are more than justified in feeling frustrated. This guy needs to take a step away from the fanfic he's writing in his head and start thinking about how that character is coming across to his audience (ie the GM and the other players). Fans of Futurama will know that, "You can't just have your characters announce how they feel!" but this guy isn't even doing that. He's explaining after the fact the things he was supposed to be RPing at the table. One thing I make a point of explaining to new players is that this hobby is a team sport and they are expected to create and play characters who want to adventure with the party and whom the other PCs would want to adventure with. Your friend's created a character who doesn't seem to like the other PCs, gives no reason why they should like him and sucks at his job.
I feel bad for you having to deal with a character like this. I know me personally has trouble role-playing sometimes, so I will keep a "journal" from the perspective of my characters where I write down our adventures and I will add some thoughts and comments that I might not have thought of in the moment. However, I do try and interact with every party member and I would never tell someone that my character hates theirs so talking to them is pointless. That's just bad role playing, especially if your goal is to have them open up
I have played a few sessions with the "loner" type as a PC. I've started GMing a couple of years ago, doing it more frequently now in social isolation, and I do not know how to handle that kind of character. I have had a player wanting to play the silent loner archetype and politely asked them to either have a confidant within the group to whom their character opens up or choose another concept altogether because I don't know how to make it a fun experience for everyone. Thankfully, they didn't take offense and decided to instead have a character who is distrustful of people outside of the PC group, which works for the group as a whole and the adventure. I feel that either your party as a whole or your DM should talk to this player because I don't think they realize how much frustration they are causing. It should be fun for everyone involved. If it's not fun, you're doing it wrong.
You should definitely have your DM talk to them about this. It sounds like they need some character development. I'd suggest either of the following. 1. A mini-arc, where they get "forced" to open up because their character has all the relevant info/skill/understanding of the relevant trade, thus leaving a lasting change. (A little direct, but very effective) 2. Or, they need to consciously make an effort each session. (Less direct, less straightforward, but more organic.)
Just be careful not to push the character too far in the other direction. In general, Introversion isn't a flaw, it's just a difference in kind. This character is introverted to an extreme extent and it's obviously effecting their life in a negative way. But, they shouldn't just become an instant extrovert.
My story: One of our players tries to be the most helpful he can be. Not a session goes by when he takes his turn and eventually asks "What do you want me to do?" Especially in combat. He loses his proactivity and disguises it as "being a team player". He gets way too distracted with personal drama outside the game, loses interest in whatever's going on if he's not forcibly involved by the GM, and is in complete denial about his recurring apathy. He is a wonderful friend. Very loyal and can bring a good time. But his marks are adding up and it's putting a strain on some of our other players. It's getting to a point where some of us a real quick to jump in and tell him what to do rather than let him make his own choices. My message to you people: Don't let people hide away easily when they have a chance to engage. MAKE them interact, even if you have to throw a random NPC to "accidentally" bump into them and strike up a conversation just to get them going. And CERTAINLY do not let other players tell them what to do as a habit. It's fine for moments like puzzles or honest group-discussions, but when they can't even decide to swing their sword before someone else tells them to do something else that's when it's a problem too late.
Well that explains why everyone liked my Dwarf Barbarian even though he had a Charisma of 2 and was rude, obnoxious, vulgar, and smelly. He had pretty high capability with his axe, and was proactive all the time. I loved playing that ridiculous stinky hairball.
Thank you for this. I literally just had this overall issue with my first character (along with that ever important "where's your family" bit). I'd like to mention that in the event that you've made the NPC-PC, especially when it comes to proactivity and sociability, you may be able to turn it around. My own character (Dragonborn shadow sorcerer-rogue), was more or less a fly on the wall PC who didn't really get involved too much. He cracked jokes and was halfway decent with magic, but he really wasn't part of the group like you'd expect out of a party member. After picking where his family was within the Sword Coast, I asked myself "He's already exhibited these negative behaviors, why are they there?" and started to integrate it into the roleplaying. Work with your GM on the details and start to explain in game why the character is starting to make the changes. Don't kill off the badly designed character because you screwed up on the initial build because, sadly, there are people like that in the world, but, thankfully, people like that can learn and grow.
I think the biggest one players struggle with is "the edgelord". At some point, most of us like the idea of playing a dark, brooding, edgy character. The concept seems fun. You're a lone wolf type. You're dark and mysterious. You're psychologically complex. (But are you, really?) But this often comes out as distant, boring, annoying, and often destructive to the game and scenarios. When one thinks to play an edgelord, they should look to existing mediums for examples of edgelord characters who work on groups. Comics are a great source. Batman, Punisher, Daredevil, Wolverine, and many others are totally edgelords who often work in teams. Follow their examples on how they work WITH others to further the story proactively, rather than using your edginess to drag the game down.
so i used to play a sorta edgelord style, but i used assassin in 4e, and still backed up the group, generally. i got away from it for a while, when i really figured out what playing a role was, as opposed to just using the mechanics to go through a storyline. more recently i played an edgelord who was intentionally made to be campy, and the DM helped me out with it. this character was a neutral evil drow using a form of paladin i built for the character (designed with "paladin of Lolth" in mind). the character was edgy, but i made a point of going overboard with it (her armor was made out of her shadow because darkness). as the three core points here go, she was very capable in a fight, being designed to fall somewhere between heavy damage output and heavy defense, and her moderate magic allowed for some flexibility as far as what she was able to do outside of fighting. The DM leaned into what she could do with her shadows, allowing conjuration tutoring in the cities academy to boost her capabilities. about the best she got was in dire straights, she had advantage on checks for out of the ordinary things, like Wings or Walls (walls at one point stopped a TPK, but she didn't survive.) she was proactive to a degree, seeking things to do within her wheelhouse that weren't really trying to create problems for the group. about the closest she got there was she and the barbarian got into a fight with the arena promoter, who was a centaur. socially, she tended to avoid staying around one person for too long, but as the group went, i looked for traits in each character that would make my character want to keep them around, and befriend them. for instance, the barbarian was one who she theorized could threaten her in a fight (OOC the barbarian probably would have steamrolled her, she was an arrogant character, and it got her into trouble several times). the rogue was good for getting her into places she wasn't supposed to be (she had great stealth, but didn't have the tools to get into places, so often the rogue would pick locks so she could sneak around). because her house had just been wiped out prior to the start of the campaign (surface assault, not another drow house) she tread lightly in social, and had a rage trigger surrounding people going on rips about drow (started several fights), but it wasn't utterly non-existant. when she died i came back with an asimir healer, who was pretty much the polar opposite of that drow. less proactive, but more sociable
The problem with the edgelord is simple: D&D requires player *and* character input and interaction to function. Edgelords think it's cool to be emo and silent.
A good way I found to make my characters more sociable is to include other PC's in my bad or mediocre skill check results. So for example I have a look at something or someone and roll for something like perception, investigation, history, arcana, etc. A lot of times there's atleast 1 other person who also gives the skill check a try. Now if I have a bad or mediocre roll gaining only vague or no information, but the other PC has a good roll then I'll address them and ask them in character, if they know anything about it or if they have seen or notice anything I haven't. They can then summarize their knowledge from the DM in character to me and afterwards (again in character) I either thank them for their help, acknowledge their skill or I'm impressed by their knowledge which also helps to build trust and friendship between the PC's :)
Only issue that can arise from that is that you are well, metagaming. You are specifically asking because you know a player rolled better then you, even if they said nothing.
@@TheArhive I think that the best way around that is to ask even if you got the better roll. If you do it often enough, the DM may make the vague information that the other party member got different, but still less than the information you got. Like a history check on a great war, someone rolls high and knows the entire campaign from the viewpoint of the victors, and the lower roll only knows the details of a specific battle from the point of view of the defeated army. Still could be helpful and may make the whole role-playing aspect more enjoyable. But then again I have only played D&D once, so I could be woefully wrong.
I've been watching you for a couple of years now, well, since I started playing d&d actually. I was really nervous and I wanted to actually know what I'm doing. You've made it so easy for me and you are such a cool guy! Thank you so much for all the help.
Hello, I really enjoy the fact you've started making quick 10-15 minute videos. It makes them more palatable. Your longer videos literally putme to sleep. Not out of boredom, your voice and cadence just lull me to sleep lol. Thanks for a good video.
What did you start with? I started Role-playing through Larp in my basement. I think that was around 1991. I also wrote a few short stories and a few not so short ones in the mid 90's and onward after that. I tried out online Role-playing in the mid 2000's. Currently, I just finished a SCP based D and D style Role-play making up the story as I went and using a notebook to write notes in. My current D and D style role-play is a RPG style one in a Zombie Apocalypse.
@@lanceknightmare I had a different experience. Strange how you can get into this from different angles. :) I started on some old MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons). Basically text based games where you'd roll up a Thief or whatever and stab text based orcs for a while. (Met my beautiful wife there.) It had an active RP community, and they got me into it. I went onto World of Darkness or D&D stuff from there, again in online chats or weekly games. Most of my RP experience has been entirely text based. I am playing in a Werewolf 20th Anniversary game and I am also running a group through Eberron as a DM.
My very first charachter for my very first long term campaign ended up being rather problematic, mostly because he was a super villian and i genuenly had difficulty playing him in terms of balancing out him working with the team and getting along with them and i guess part of me embraced the dislike everyone had of the charachter(i was fairly good with the roleplay aspect but i sent him in the not great direction ) but i didnt play him well and it led to a string of events that ended in him dying before i could do anything even remotely redeemable. I wanted to fix him mostly cause he was starting to sap some of the fun out of the game for others. So in terms of Proactivity i had that going for me .....sadly i feel that is ultimately what got him killed. Sociability was also fairly good but like said not in a super likeable direction And he was relatively Capable based on his powers but he (me ) was rather incapable at planning The GM tried helping me but ultimately i was the source of my own demise, but ive accepted it since then and ive made a new charachter that is at least somewhat better and in a better position to get along with them
Sounds like an experience you learned from and will remember forever. This is a successful character in my eyes. They don't all have to live forever, or save the world, as long as you walk away from the character with something.
Just passed this out to my table. Have 7 very passive people. My NPCs will ask a question and be greeted with crickets until they go down the line and pull teeth.
Oh gosh. I was in a game last year where I was that person too. I chose "Chaotic Good" for my alignment, thinking that I'd be the trickster/troublemaker of the party. What I hadn't counted on was the fact that I was the only one in the party who had 'Good' in my alignment. Most people were neutral and one was evil, so there were times where I had to say pretty much "Hey, radical idea, what if we DON'T burn down the farm of the guy who we're being hired to help?"
@@autisticlizard5468 I remember one time where I was playing a Lawful Evil character in a party of "good' heroes and wondering how the hell I became the "respectable" one. I had plans to acquire power but instead I spent most of my time being a responsible adult.
This is a great video, Guy. I think it really breaks down the key to great characters in general and understandable terms. The most-liked character I ever played was a thick-accented, simple southern gentleman beekeeper. The introductory scene with him, I cranked all of these traits and the party loved him almost instantly.
I never comment on videos, but I feel like this is a strong calling. If anyone is reading this and worried about whether or not you have a good character, ask yourself one question. Are you including the others? I tend to take point in my groups. I'm the boring one who's the good one and keeping the party together. Which means that I tend to do the most of the talking. I worry about it sometimes, and in those times, I say "I turn to X (or the entire party) and ask them how they feel about this." This let's you share the spotlight so amazingly well and gives another player an easy-in for role-playing. I do agree that the best characters have at least two of the three pillars, but I feel like sociability is probably the most important. It is a group game, after all
This video made me feel pride in recognising my own characters' strengths in these columns, and validated with my choices in balancing them. This was pleasant and uplifting, and I know some people who ought to see this...
"If you have only two of these things, then your character is just an npc. If you're fine to be an npc, then this video was a waste of your life, *but you're an npc so it doesn't matter* " I wasn't expecting to reflect on my actual life because of a dnd video, but I guess better late than never
If it makes you feel any better, everyone has at least some worth from their cababilities. This means that everyone has at least 1 by deafult. The only ways to be an npc is are either to have no proactivity at all (only does things when prompted), or to have no social contacts at all (complete isolation). There is no way to be an npc without either literally waiting to someone to press A near you, or being completely unknown to all.
So, as a GM, how do you encourage a person who is essentially an NPC to become a PC? Especially if the person is clearly not sure about some aspect - like new players not sure what is helpful in being proactive, or a person a little more scared of the sociability aspect for various reasons? Do you ever enlist other PCs to help draw out that one, or use NPCs to do it in game? At what point would you have an OOC convo with them?
Simple: if a person wants to play, they must come up with a concept of a character (envision that character) and needs to have aspirations, desires and preferably some hinderances that will cause that player to “act” out what their character would do, not what the player would do. Easier said then done, but anything a player can give to a DM about their character will help a DM delve and mould there campaign to suit the players hero’s. after all, a DM is really a dungeon masters Slave (slave to the players characters becoming hero’s, not a master to the characters. The later will cause players to loose interest in the game).
We must remember that some players want to be NPCs. We must respect that. If you don't like it, the only solution is to replace them with another player. On the other hand, players who try but fail, need to be guided at character creation. I sometimes - with younger players - give them the three ratings and ask them to tell me how their character fits on those ratings and how they will work together as a team. This channel is about education, and that is where it starts - what a video, spread the word, learn and adopt or look for alternatives.
As a new player, I desperately wanted to be helpful and didn't know how to be. As a DM, you might need to help them out with what their options are. Example: downtime activities. Once I found out I could research during downtime, I've had my character's nose in a book. I have a Tressym familiar, and I use her to do aerial scouting when we go somewhere new. My fantastic passive perception has been a Godsend in dungeons for finding traps. Especially for new players, we become fixated on learning about how to handle combat first because so much emphasis gets put on it, and often haven't had the capacity to ALSO become familiar and comfortable with what can be done outside of combat.
That's a pretty good system; I think you touched on something like this when you made a really good video about how to play an evil character, and put emphasis on why your character values/treasures the other player's characters. PRETTY sure that was a video of yours, good excuse to go look it up again!
Not inherently IMO. There are really interesting things about trauma and how characters may choose (or not choose) to deal with it. But there's nothing intriguing or propelling about it, in and of itself (indeed, often the very opposite), both in real life and in fiction. The real challenge about writing and portraying mental health is HOW to do that - how do you get other people to be interested in something they by definition cannot feel or experience. The most successful examples allow people to tap into that part of themselves that can empathize or at least understand a piece of that pain. But that is fantastically difficult. If you fail in doing that, what you end up with is a character that is less capable in several ways, is generally passive and downtrodden, and ultimately anti-social in important ways. SUPER not fun to be with. And so, you either have a character that overemphasizes the dark and brooding and becomes a meme - or you end up underplaying it, so you don't bog down every scene. But that's just my opinion.
Probably not as much as you think. Looking at people in the real world, if you actually want to die, you're going to make that happen - even if it's not directly in the form of killing yourself, you certainly wouldn't have the incentive to perform well in combat or try hard when it comes to continuing/solving the game's plot lines. And if someone wants to die and isn't performing in combat, they're more likely to get me killed as well...I wouldn't keep hanging around them.
If you push that concept to the edgy-extreme, you could get a hilarious and fun result. "Hey PC, would you like a donut?" "I WISH FOR NOTHING MORE THAN MY INEVITABLE DEATH. EVERYTHING THAT HAS A BEGINNING HAS AN END, THE UNIVERSE IS DYING AND LIFE IS PAIN." "Well, a donut will kill you. Eventually." "...I accept your donut."
Your character could want their death to mean something. Jumping into the jaws of a dragon doesn't help anybody, but if they fall while giving their all or staying behind to buy time for others, it doesn't feel like a waste.
@@dungeonsdierolls7617 Yeah, the only place that shines the most is that 'oh no' moment when that death-driven character realizes that the people they've come to be around are giving them the most terrifying and hard to deal with thing in their entire lives: A reason to actually keep living.
I have a couple of character ideas that I could've done better. This is in Pathfinder. I had this character her name is Kazma Goodwitch (She was a witch, shocker) and she was in a campaign where we were fighting demons and dealing with war etc. However, Kazma was a contentious objector. She didn't like the aspect of "war" in the slightest. She was a tiefling, who looked more like a catfolk. She would talk with you, and she worshipped Desna, so when people died or if she needed safe travel she'd ask Desna to help. This is because she had ran away from a coven of evil witches and (From her perspective) without Desna's help she would be dead. She was merciful asking to give surrendering enemies mercy. She helped out in weird ways. I never REALLY capitalized on this, but I hear you now: If she hated war? Why would she join adventurers? Hell, what would she be doing in combat? First, she joined everyone because safety. There's safety in numbers. If there's a war, I'll die if I'm all alone, BUT in a group? I'll survive longer! Which funny thing she was the longest surviving character of that group by luck and the magic of GTFO. In combat, she'd try to help out by making enemies sleepy, healing friends, greasing floors, ripping open flour, she couldn't kill a fly if you gave her RAID but she could was good at running away. I roleplayed her, by like pointing at a bad guy and then "cutely" pleading for it to sleep, while throwing my hands forward (Like she is shoeing the enemy away).
Wow, not only is this useful, but it's also super clean and simple. Some of my players definitely struggle when it comes to creating character personalities and this could be a great way to help steer them in the right direction. Definitely the kind of stuff I love to apply for my games. Thanks, Guy. :)
I’ve managed to make a character that has all of these attributes, in both good and bad ways. He’s very capable at hitting things and screaming. Also an expert at rushing into battle and refusing to give up. He’s very proactive, always going on little adventurers to cook meals, collect flowers or perhaps buy some candy. Somehow, he also always manages to end up in arguments and in worst case in jail. Lastly, he is very sociable. Constantly making jokes and pranks with the people around him, while also being very curious about what the others are like. Deep down, he’d sacrifice himself in a heartbeat to save any of the other characters. That said, he is terrible at taking criticism and expressing gratitude.
This makes me feel SO much better after I was passionately putting in all this progress and further personality into my character and hesitating (briefly) by thinking, "I'm the only one who cares about ANY of this in this campaign, aren't I?". The answer to that didn't even matter, since I left that game. What did matter is that I DID care! What I was doing was striving to build upon the 2nd and 3rd columns. And I still build upon it to make a fully 3-dimensional character. Numbers and statistics are cute and all, but the most impressive thing on a character sheet is character itself. It's the personality and imagination that brings the character to life, warts and all.
Really interesting. I might suggest one more semi-meta trait that I have found makes a big difference not just in D&D, but in almost all group endeavors - a splash of humility. I think this is self-explanatory in real-life. But at the table, it's less about your PC being meek or modest, and more about you the player deciding to use your character's capability, proactivity, and sociability to highlight OTHERS. Use your cunning and charm to set the stage for other PCs to shine. None of this has to be transparent, either. We should generally want everyone in the party to have a good time and sometimes the best way to do that is to know when to step back and let someone else shine every once in a while. And then being excited when the adventure goes off in an unexpected and crazy way! I've played with people who are great at making builds, always have a plan for what to do next, and just try to "help" everyone into doing the optimal path. And sometimes, that's great! But when at the end of a 2 hour debate about what to do next, we all are just resigned to following this person's plan because that's the only "right" path, it makes it hard to like that PC (or the player) over time.
This is actually the video i needed again... i got a character who is pretty good in itself in fighting/stats, but lacked in preparation and sociability. He's grumpy and doesn't trust people easily. But also doesn't prepare well because... money must be in his pocket. I did however realise this a few sessions ago, so i'm trying to swap his personality slowly to more prepare for the battles type of guy. The one running in first and standing last while protecting his allies at al cost.
I left my gaming group back in the 1980s to go to university in another part of the country. The last character I made was an elven fighter-cleric-ess that I just couldn't make sense of. I tried to create a well-defined and well-adjusted personality with a couple of flaws based on the class combination, but it just felt artificial. Then our GM decided to switch to another rule set, and fighter-clerics were no longer allowed. He asked me to choose one class, but I suggested that I split her up in twin sisters, one cleric and one fighter. When I wrote them up, I also split up the traits and flaws that I had tried to unite among them. The cleric became a no-nonsense, somewhat standoffish mother figure for the party, who made sure that the gear was in order, provisions were bought, fees and tolls were paid in cities. The fighter was slightly dim and fairly hedonistic, but very proficient (a bit like Jayne Cobb in Firefly, only less nasty and a decade early). Her naivete and easygoing lifestyle made it easy for her to mesh with the party. I had never heard about this capability, pro-activity, and sociability model before: it's kind of fun that the last character(s) I played became a demonstration of the transition from capability only to all three categories.
"Capability" is very underated in my playgroup. We are 5 people and only one knows how to hold a sword. The others are: A dancer, a merchant, a scallywag and a scholar. But our sessions are a blast. :D
I already started my campaign but I thought I’d watch this. Really proud of myself for meeting all of the points. Somehow my party likes me even though I’m a bard.
One drawback to doing all three of these is that if nobody else at the table does all three, you're automatically relegated to Main Character status. I've had this happen a lot because even when I try to play a character who lacks proactivity or sociability to a large degree, no one else will step up to the plate, and if that happens, we become listless and indecisive. This is more of an issue with my main group of friends than anything else, but I have another group I play with who are almost all go-getters, so that's where I can sit back and finally just be support.
Here's some ideas for awesome characters that'll leave a lasting impression in your group: - Savant wizard with debilitating autism but he's actually just possessed by a wright - What if Mr. Rogers was a lawful good rogue? - Artificer that uses 17th century chemistry as his gimmick (lyme, qick lime, pitch/tar, sulfur crystals, magnesium/phosphorus if your DM is generous). Also make him high int low wis so that he has the lots of ideas but no common sense to see which ones are good and which ones will singe his eyebrows (aka i pick that lock with a handfull of magnesium) - Palading Oath of Ultraviolence - Bard that runs a Ponzy scheme where villagers get to invest to profit from your groups adventure loot (bonus points if you get your groups barbarian to invest into said scheme)
Thanks a bunch for this video. I'm really good at making powerful characters but not making interesting characters. I'm going to take this stuff to heart 😁
One of the most fun games i have played was with a character that had to play a little telephone to relay information (most of the characters spoke english, and my character spoke german). While my character couldn't participate in the more social aspects of the party, he would go off and gather items for the adventure or move the plot along by mucking about with setting, and when it came time for combat just shrugged and got on with it. He was capable, and proactive but a language barrier made it difficult to be social.
I loved this video! I would also warn against bring too much of anything. Are you so productive others can't do things? Are you so sociable that no one else can talk to the NPCs without you jumping in? Weakness is the spice of D&D. Find the right balance of all three of these aspects.
Hey another great video! Have you heard of Beam Saber? It’s a tabletop game that uses the Blades In The Dark System but tells Mobile Suit Gundam themed stories. Yes rules for Mech combat as well as space conflict are both presented herein. However you don’t have to just use Mobile Suits, it comes with a fluid vehicle crafting system that lets you create just about anything! From boats to even robot versions of real animals!
Another great video in your continually improving format. One bit you touched on, but perhaps could make a new video for is how for these three, one not only compensates, but working on it will enhance aspects you are good at, and negecting can hurt. The strong fighter. If you neglect social? You may find rest of party ignores you in a fight, or even considers you a liability. I know I have had that in a fight. No, not going to use my big heal spell on you because you go and run off to be a solo warrior... ...because the social person now knows the other members and they know you which makes for a strong team. Teamwork gives you the advantage in a fight. Also the inverse is true. A well made character isnt just max stats. It is a theme designes to work with and in a role. It is why a bard, while low in stats can be powerful. But if you just meta it, then that limits personality you can do even if a very roleplay and social character. However if you consider your build for a role and theme? Well... now you have a brand new character trait to roleplay. Perhaps you are a fan of illusion magic? There may a numerically better spell or something some minmax how to play wizards video might say is a must, but if you consider the roleplay, you will find more opportunities to include that aspect in your character's story. Personally, that is where I always start my build. I try to get a mental image of my character, then choose abilities that enhance it so that my attributes make the social aspect much more engaging to everybody, including the DM.
I made a proactive character that, statistically, was also capable, though I rolled awfully bad for him, and he always tried befriend the other characters and include them on his plans. People found both his sociability and attempts to include others annoying and actively attempted to shut it down and deny it, leaving only by bad dice rolls, despite good statistcs to roleplay... of course, things were just one bad roll away from failure. The group tried to murder the character and I had to remove him from the group. This was a couple months ago, before the lockdown, but I was pretty much following the 3 pillars and yet the other players actively shut any attempt of generating good interactions with my character down and blew over the top the results of my bad dice rolls as if I had being activelly atempting to get in their way...
I just noticed that my favourite characters to play tend to be both sociable and capable, but I still need to work on proactivity (story of my life really). My favourites so far are my Elven Fighter Adran, my Drow Rogue Snowhead and my Half-orc Barbarian Jork. Adran has a dark past that he doesn't want to disclose, but any other topic is fair game. He really likes to talk, maybe a bit too much, and he's really good at cutting heads. He isn't all that proactive, but on occasion he can come up with plans to get out of sticky situations. Snowhead is a natural talker. His favorite weapon is his tongue, and he's used it multiple times to save himself. He is also really good at fighting, using his Swashbuckler archetype to great effect, dealing good damage and then getting the hell out of dodge. Jork made his money in pit fights, where he learned to entertain and hype up his matches to make himself more money. He is almost as strong as he is durable, but he isn't all that wise and lacks strategy, meaning he's the guy who falls most of the time (and he's been the only casualty of the party so far), not before smashing one or two heads though.
I find one of the best ways to do this is not to play to a character's strength, but their weaknesses. To whit, my character before the lockup: Manfred the Mutilated. A human fighter of humble origins who on his first campaign in an army took a filthy spear clean through the chest by a Sahuagin. This knocked him off the ship and he was swept away in the storm. He has spent the last two years scraping himself back together after the mercenary band he was signed up with wrote him off as a lost cause. So his dump stat is Con but he's got the Tough feat to make up for it. He's physically frail but so mentally tough he makes up for it. He's still a monster in a fight and tends to fight defensively (literally, he's got the defense fighting style), he talks to guards and patrolmen, he collects weapons and equipment and is trying to get a certain 'look' going. Why? He wants to start his own mercenary band, but he's going to need weapons, recruits, a place to train them. Other people to help train them and oh dear god there's so much! But he's still whacking at it. I find the best way to make a character is to ask a couple easy questions. How did this person get here? Why are they sticking around? Ignoring the plot of the story, what does this person want to do? For Manfred, he got here because he really needs the money and is taking odd jobs all over the place. He's sticking around because you might make a good captain and he still needs to get resources as well as exercise again to get in shape and such. Where's he going? He's going as hard as he can to a better tomorrow!
I’m not sure it was explicitly stated, but another really good thing to take from this is that a character lacking in one or two of the three qualities could slowly progress to a “better PC” over the course of the game, whether that means gaining more power to help their allies, becoming more active among the group, or opening up more to everyone. Dynamic characters are great in D&D (and any story of any kind), so fixing your terribly designed character could be made a campaign-long process of epic proportions! Batteries not included.
6:18 Cooking actually DOES have a mechanic in Dnd that a lot of people don't know about! If you have a background as a chef, and you cook a meal for characters during a short rest, I'm fairly certain you can relieve them of exhaustion without a long rest.
There is no Chef Background. There is an experimental (UA) feat. It doesn't remove exhaustion, but rather allows your party to recover a small number of hit points. Cooking is indeed mostly a roleplaying exercise in 5E. That doesn't make it less worthwhile.
I play a Tiefling Wizard who has severe trust issues, from a combination of childhood neglect, trauma, and the low humming of their demonic sire drumming in the back of their head. On the outside, she is abrasive, unlikable and quick to retreat from difficult situations, but she is clever, cunning and blasts out magic really damn well. She's become a respected member of the group because of her sheer ability to set things on fire, and think outside the box. One of my friends noticed a large shift in her behavior when she brought my Tiefling some spell books. She noticed she was a lot more agreeable and even smiled. She was pleasantly surprised to learn that in her childhood, her uncle bought her books to read, something she really enjoyed as a child and one her happier memories. She really liked how she accidentally stumbled upon something that made my character act a lot more three dimensional and nuanced, instead of just a grumpy wizard.
Recently, in one of the campaigns I play, I lost my character. I had noticed the character had no proactivity whatsoever, and decided that now I had to reroll, I might as well fix that. So, I made a lizardman barbarian. A mercenary. He just wants to go out and get resources. And going with the party seems to yield a lot of resources. But this guy has proactivity cranked up to the max! When the party is sitting in the tavern after breakfast, unsure what they do, he will soon slam his hand on the table, declaring that they go look at the quest board, or follow a recent rumor they heard. Or, on one occasion, even just going into the nearby woods. His whole thing is to get the party moving, when the party doesn't realise it's supposed to be moving. He also got capability down pretty well (his stats are absolutely fantastic, with his physical stats being 18/18/16). He just doesn't really have any social skills. He doesn't sit down and convince the party to go on quests, or talk with NPCs to learn stuff. If the party is too slow, and doesn't want to get moving even after he has declared that 'This is what we do today', he just... Grabs them and 'abducts' his party for questing purposes, 'cause he doesn't know this isn't acceptable behavior.
"I have no dreams. I want to die" could work depending on the context. Imagine playing Mr. Meeseeks, and that's the actual goal of the character, and they get thwarted in every encounter by bumbling adventurers that asked to be better adventurers.
a rule i sort of follow is giving each of my characters a flaw. Something that gives them personality and something that both the dm and my party members can work with.
There is a 4th stat you need to remember as well, though that can be part of a different talk altogether. Compatibility. You need to make a character that does not extraordinarily conflict with the other characters. This can take more than one form. The first form is making a character with a moral or background situation that is absolutely not compatible with the current group. Making an evil character in a hardcore good group or vice versa. Making a character part of an organization that is kill on sight in the area they are going without making plans about keeping their identity secret. A character who also has radially different and incompatible goals as other characters is a problem as well. It is worth noting that, like any lacking stat, this can be made up by other categories, and steps put in place from the DM. It is the DM's responsibility as well to make sure players are informed about incompatibilities. If you make a wizard in a setting with 3 players who kill wizards on sight and the DM didnt tell you before you rolled, that's on him. The other form is when your character occupies the same niche as another character, and they are redundant and end up butting heads, either in their skills, role, or social style. If the characters are an intentional double team, that works fine, but if both characters are incredibly similar, it will cause compatibility issues. That is not to say only one of a class is allowed. You can have two clerics, two fighters, two wizards. But if you have two war clerics, or two Champion kit two handed weapon fighters, or two diviners, then you end up with character redundancy. At best, the characters will feel less special than each other. At worst they can end up becoming toxically competitive.
My group found my Elf Monk/War Cleric to be Capable, but a bit dour and grim... Then they came to temple with her, and found she was know as "The Barmaid of Hanseath", (dwarf god of carousing, brewing and fighting)... The fleshing out the temple has made her more likable to the rest of the party who realise when she's travelling she is usually all business, will occasionally come to temple, though they will try to sneak in their tankards of sobriety and rarely join the holy bar fight portion of the service. The fleshing out of her faith - a simple thing - has made the character a lot more fun to play... And more popular to be around
I tried to make a character that would be not sociable but would react kindly towards those that are friendly. Like my character would put up a fake act of being arrogance because I was hoping they would understand that my character is scared of attachment and by adventures and socializing they would become better
It also helps to know your own personal limits to create a character you're actually capable of voicing and roleplaying as. It's hard to role play as something you don't really know anything about, such as theoretical physics.
So, I'm in a Wildemount campaign, I play a Half-Orc Barbarian devoted to Kord. Our group was in a massive cave and managed to grab some ice toads that were riding mounts for some slavers using the cave as a hide out. Separating us from the slavers was a large cold lake. On my turn (and a damn good roll), My barbarian raging, leaps over the lake on the back of the road, battle axe in hand and yells "Kord!" and manages to take out two of the five slavers. And this was the first encounter. Moral of the story...don't save your epic moves for the Big Bad at the end of the campaign
These tips are also good for someone who studied leadership in university. 'Why the hell should this group have formed?' I love the RP systems that ask you to have a background/job, I roleplay my background instead of my class. "I was just a simple farmer until I laughed too hard at a tavern joke and feathers sprouted out of my nose."
You can even use this for fighting. A socialbe character might persuade the enemy into surrendering. A proactive character might not fight directly, but is doing other important stuff. On time I played a scholar (not magically capable) And he knocked out a Bossencounter when the boss was behind a the meter high magic barrier, fighting another PC. My Character sneaked behind him, took his herbarium (a really fat book) took one turn to prepare the throw and threw it over the barrier, right on the head of the boss, rendering him unconscious.
A character that engages in party-banter, which is often motivating the others can be very likeable. Like an old Soldier who plans strategies and shakes up the others, bragging about his (in his mind) superior strategic experience...
In my group (The dark eye) we have a merchant/smuggler PC who is not very capable in most situations. He is a coward, superstitious and basically has to be forced into adventures ... so far so bad. BUT I really like this character because he is sociable, he connects to NPCs (going so far as to putting his reputation on the line to save a young bandit from the gallows and taking him as an apprentice) Now I regulary use this sociability in my plots to give the PCs information, thus making this otherwise problematic PC very essential to the group.
Did my Paladin with Capability, Proactivity, and low Sociability. Very Charismatic, but no skill in diplomacy. Played him as more of a gruff character who relied more on his presence than anything else. Sometimes it's nice to be able to come to the game and not have to think about everything, especially when you're running a game, too.
Huh, so that's why everyone likes my character. I'm playing a Kenku Warlock and his combat capabilities aren't the best, especially since I play him as a melee fighter, but he shoots for the stars with proactively and Sociability. He has a knack for finding shinies and doing stupid but funny shit as well as getting good information from people for the mission. So yeet
@@ThePennySavers Well, What you could do is try having your character write down their thoughts in a notepad of sorts and display that to a vendor or whatnot. Or, what I do, is write down words or phrases that My character has and hasn't heard yet. Say for instance your Kenku hears a phrase one of your party member is speaking. Write that down so you can know what your character can and can't say (you don't necessarily have to mimic the voices when you say the lines, it may or maynot get annoying). This helps me remember what my Kenku can't say. also another thing to help is by thinking around the word. Like, an example is my Kenku hasn't heard the word "death" or "died" so indead I have him say "Forever rest".
Hey Guy, This is great, we are about to start our second campaign where I am playing a race that known for their Brash Honesty( disadvantage with Charisma (deception) and Charisma (persuasion)) checks.on Which I think is awesome for a rogue who can not lie or talk his way out of a situation. This means while he is extremely good at getting into places unseen and unheard, he is going to rely on others to handle any diplomocy... or so I hope. As a person who is going to have a sometimes annoying character, other times very useful and loyal companion who will travel to the deepest regions of hell with you. I do talk with the DM and Players in the group and let them know ahead of time. I did this when I played a Kenku and for the most part he became endearing with all his mimicry *DM ruled: Kenlu have heard many words in thier lives, they have perfect speech just in a variety of voices* . Anyways. I loved this video and will place it on my players to watch list.
I was a optimizer/power gamer for years and people constantly complained but I was super shy so it was hard for me to come out of my shell. I found the best way to make a likeable character was to give myself the lowest possible Intelligence and the Highest possible Charisma, I just roleplayed dumb but likeable My two most memorable characters to other players, as in the ones people have told me they loved were the Goblin Paladin who was raised by wolves and the Druid Life Cleric who was a hippie stereotype. One more tip if u don't wanna be dumb be as adorable and as weak looking as possible, everyone wants to protect the group mascot.
I was running a Star Wars campaign and one of my players was a gentleman’s theif (in his words just stole from the rich and gave to the poor). When they got to where they flying to the players all left the ship except him because his character put on a business disguise and then left the ship, I was like that’s fine you would like to be a business man on Coruscant. When they were going down a street to where they needed to go a bypassing citizen that looked pretty poor as I described and the “gentleman’s theif” intimidated the citizen and threatened him because he was a “famous businessman” and the citizen asked who he was. Long story short the citizen just moved along and the party realized where they were going isn’t there anymore so all of them ran back and asked the citizen. While in the middle of just talking the the citizen the businessman decided that he’s going to tackle and put the citizen in binders (handcuffs) so that the citizen would show them. Another player didn’t like what they did so he was going to roll to get him out of the binders but the businessman referred to a rule I made the session before about you can’t roll against another player using a SOCIAL skill (such as deception, intimidation, and etc.) so they did a roll of to defend the citizen from getting out and to get the citizen out. The person defending the citizen from getting out rolled a 18 while the other rolled a Nat 20. Out of character they argued on and on about how are you sure it was a Nat 20 (which we play online due to a virus going around), but I put trust in my players and I said that the person frees the citizen. What they then learned was that the citizen was one of the higher ups in the federal district and wouldn’t push charges because something else had come up. For the rest of the entire session the player remained silent until I asked him if he agreed with what the party was doing (he always said yes). At almost the end of the session when Coruscant was getting attacked his character wanted to stay and help on the the NPCs that was on their ship defend the mass city, the player found that in that moment he wanted to leave the campaign because of a stupid little argument. Both of the people who were playing their characters are good people but the gentleman’s theif wore off in the second session, he was just a chaotic person by then. Again both the real players are good people it’s just they argue a lot
Social and capable is usually the way I roll. Currently trying the "social edgelord" approach. Basically your average warlock in black clothes, of course the silent type, but absolutely loves a little chat, yet is considered absolutely untrustworthy by the rest of the party due to her appearance and the way she speaks. "Your eyes are beautiful" would get a response like "yeah, but I still need them". Looking forward to seeing how this is gonna play out - and if I'm gonna be able to turn her into an actual social character.
A player in my group had a half-ling rogue who was incredibly capable, but also a habitual liar... they didn’t reveal the real name of the PC until the 10th session and would often just go it alone and make decisions to split from the group. It made it really hard to build up any kind of rapport in game. There was a lot of detail put into the backstory and character but the dishonesty made them tough to play with.
Not to disagree with you, Guy, but I've had two very weird characters, according to these indications. If you could help me figure out what happened with these two, I'd be very grateful. One of them was not proactive, not competent (except for a few occasions) and not even a little sociable. Yet that character was the one that both I and the other PCs adored the most. I guess underdogs are especially lovable. The other wasn't particularly competent, but had 100% sociability and proactivity, always looking for conversations and fun, helping other PCs and NPCs and also looking for quests as soon as we completed one (he was a bard, just fyi). He was looked down upon and belittled by the other PCs and no one liked the character except for maybe me. I guess the game being very focused on combat may have had an impact.
I think you answered yourself. Each game is different. And these three reasons are not the only three reasons people like others. It is the core three that I think help make better characters. So your completely useless character - what did they do in game? Inspector Clouseau was completely useless, and yet we loved him. Why? Because of his tenacity, his pure thought, and his intention to do his duty. These are other, far more complex and subtle means of making a character likable.
@@HowtobeaGreatGM Thank you for answering! I think the useless character had an especially interesting backstory and personality. Also, I think the amount of bad things that happened to her made her an underdog, and the fact that her daily life was explored in depth might have helped. However, she was still incapable of fighting without strong emotional motivation (her powers were basically evil, so she needed to keep them under control all the time), wasn't proactive (in fact, I'd say she was quite the opposite) and wasn't open to social interactions.
One minor thing that I do as a DM is that I have my players roll a d20 when they're creating their characters. I give them a boon (usually a free feat) on a 20 and I give them a bane (usually a minor flaw) on a 1. First time I tried this, one of my players rolled a 1. Now she has to make a DC 12 Wisdom saving throw every time she sees a rodent or attack it indiscriminately. The best part is that her character (Human Order of the Mutant Blood Hunter) is otherwise quiet and reserved. I can't wait for her to encounter wererats or be polymorphed into a rat.
My formula for making a fun/good character. Step one, pick what kind of character I want to introduce to the party. Example, a bard Step two, choose a character class other than a bard. Example, warlock Step three, build the character to to be convincing as a bard, performance skills, etc. Wait as long as possible, likely appearing as a mediocre bard, before casting that first Eldridge Blast, and watch the reactions around the table.
I think proactivity is more of a player thing than a PC thing. In my experience, it usually falls to the same players to be proactive regardless of who they're playing (with the exception of maybe a dummy barbarian shopping for the wizard to stock up on spell components), whereas the other two can vary more with the PC.
I'm looking to give dnd a try but can't find groups online. I have no idea how to use roll20 and my friends are kinda skeptical of the whole dnd thing.
fun fact, usually i'm the npc like pc in the corner of the group, i tend to interact when talked to but otherwise don't talk much(cause people said i talk too much, and its annoying)
I have told one of my players that he keeps designing great NPCs but not a PC. Threatened to take the last one as an NPC and have him roll up a new character.
Does it count for Proactivity, if my character, when downtime is achieved in a town, is the one who makes the shopping list of the items that are a must, and leave the actual shopping to the rest of the group, while she goes off, and look to see if there is a "quest" to do for a little extra coin, that she then accepts or declines on behalf of the entire group?
When I make a PC or when I am advising a player who is making a PC I make sure to ask "Why would other people want to adventure with this character? What about them makes them worth keeping around? What do they add to the group?" If you can't answer those questions then you have either made a bad character or you need to spend some time fleshing out your character more.
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Thank you, I've been making a Fallout version of D&D to play with friends and was looking for advice. Thank you.
'No person is useless at everything regardless of what people might think. There is always something they are good at'
I came here expecting another fantastic role-playing advice and, not only I got it, but you cheered me up
I had a Bard in a 3.5 game that was an absolute coward (funny because he was a halfling) and the best way to beat an encounter was to run from it. HOWEVER it was his roleplaying that saved the party more than one time.
Best time:
You open the door to decaying old man, he raises his fingers and speaks as dust billows from ever word.
"How Dare you Enter my Chambers"
Wow a Lich and we are what level 3... uhmmm Halfling steps up "Well Sir, I am Farwin a storyteller of some ability and you see, there are stories about you told be people that have never met you and really I dont like telling stories third person without confirming all the facts. So these fine people here I paid to get me to here so I could learn the truth from the one who knows it the best. Would you tell me your story so I can spread the truth among the elves?"
DM stairs for a second... are not you the coward? his look on his face spoke. He rolls a dice and then facepalms after confirming my diplomacy modifier. "Those elves tell many lies, let me tell you the truth so you can set them strait...."
Me setting the elves strait with the story is another anecdote for another time.
@@MrTopherDK love it
What if you want really don't want to rp. But you really do want to get into a group.
It's not that i don't want play out what my character would do. What his motivations would be. His backstory and so forth. In fact character creation is one of.my favorite parts. However acting out in the kinda of way that I have classically see rp done. I'm sorry it just makes me cringe.
I'm probably not your average player. You would never identify me as guy that played d&d and the first ad&d when I was young. I had little friends that played. So I would create characters, world's and dungeons. I loved it. Still have no friends that would play. Friends that go shooting and training dogs. But no d&d player type of friends.
Thanks for any help.
Proactivity and Sociability: The moments when you actually roleplay your character.
Every That guy ever: eww gross roleplaying on my roleplaying game, I dont want to do that
I just started a new group with beginners and two players stopped roleplaying because the third one looked super bored when they did.
b-b-b-but he's a brooding lone wolf
I try to roleplay but it’s hard without making like a checklist of stuff that describes that character such as I have one that is
•dumb
•curious
•loves sandwiches
•friendly
•very athletic
His main trait is loving sandwiches heck is back story he got lost trying to find bread and he is also pretty terrible at making them and I love role playing that I’m a very simple person by nature so I see my self in this character because of that, But I also just started dnd like 4-5 sessions ago so I’m fairly new. My second character is boring I can’t figure out how to make her interesting she is snarky most of the time and bad mouths people but absolutely hates to think of people getting hurt and and will do anything she can to prevent such but life threatening or dangerous stuff does not come up very often outside of combat
@@rosewarrior706 a bit late ig but here are some basic ideas that could help!
-her snarky and badmouthing attitude can be a front. Whether it had be on purepose as a shield for peoples to not get too close to her or viceversa, or just an attitude she picked up from an important person in her past, but deep down she do care about peoples. She can get easily attached or have a certain soft spot but for her own sake she tries to burry/hide her emotions and keep up said front.
-she think/is trouble and would be some sort of bad luck for others, and thus try to paint herself in a bad light for peoples to avoid her, whilst she actually deeply care for others.
-seeing peoples in such a bad state trigger something in her, it can be personal trauma or a fear she have, from loosing someone or something deer, to seeing herself in that state like a mirror, which make her have this unexplainable switch!
I don't have any experience playing dnd but quite a lot with developing characters and story, so I'm not sure if it is helpful but I hope it at least gave you some ideas!
Have a good day/night uvu
I've found relationship to food to be a great way of generating proactivity/sociability. One current character is a military type. Maxed out for capability. She is all about the "chow". She gets food for the others during missions; steals the biscuits during meetings; arranges evening meals with the crew; denies people snacks to punish them, whatever.
Loads of roleplay around it: it's what everyone knows/loves about her. Without it, she really would be just the girl who is great with a rifle - and that's no fun.
And her name is Sasha, the potato girl!
@@falkyrie5228 it's not, but maybe it should be!
Cupcakes! yay!
Rolling up an Amazon/wizard back in AD&D. Rolled an amazing set of stats (rolling four d6 drop one die) except for a six. I put that in charisma. GM gave me a minus to diplomacy, but a huge plus to intimidate. Her catch phrase became “You know what your problem is?” She was a blast to play, she spoke her mind even if it really didn’t help out in the encounter. Party once scheduled a critical negotiation after they gave her gold to go on a shopping spree in the market. She spent it on expensive booze and had to be bailed out of jail after starting a cat fight with a group of dwarven girls on a wedding shopping trip.
In this regard I'm actually really proud of one character in particular. Rolled stats for a new game with my regular group and didn't get below a 14 in anything and started with a Nat 18 in hand. I could play anything I wanted as any race and still be fantastic at everything.
So I made a Goliath Monk who's mute by choice and follows strict rules in regards to killing others. He only deals non-lethal damage in combat unless certain rules are broken. He can only communicate through his journal, some chalk on dungeon walls, or a signal whistle in combat. But so much of his personality shines through his actions as well as his words. It's lead to many a fun, tense, and even scary roleplaying moment with him as a result of him not saying a single world.
I have a friend at our table who has a character that's incredibly intriguing and likable... but only outside of the game.
The friend tells us interesting aspects about their character, such as their personality and thoughts on events that happened during a session. They give us little tidbits of the character's backstory, and overall the character seems very unique and interesting. The way they describe the character is as a shy, empathetic person who's a little mistrusting because of past events in their life.
I love the idea, but it just hasn't worked in practice at all. In game, the character barely talks to anyone. They do not trust almost all of the PC characters, and for a couple of the PC characters they actively dislike them (like my character, for example, which is frustrating because he dislikes her solely for being overly extroverted). The character is always following the party around without question, they're essentially the "loner who sits in the corner of the room type."
So that crosses out the sociability and the proactivity aspects from this video. And it's bad enough that they don't have 2 out the 3 attributes you described, but honestly I feel the character doesn't even have capability either. They very frequently go down in combat because they're a wizard who decides to stay in the frontline, and even out of combat their skills have honestly only been used for one thing that happened last session.
I love my friend, but their character just annoys me to no end. We talk about the character a lot, and the friend has even expressed that they want the character's arc to be about them opening up to other people. But when I tried to discuss how my character could help reach that goal, they essentially told me my character can't because their character doesn't like her. And that her trying to have any serious conversation with their character will make things worse between them? It's so confusing to me, and they've even mentioned that this character needs other characters to actually go through this development. They're solely dependent on the off chance that another player will be able to talk them into changing their personality somehow, which seems impossible to me because the character is very stubborn and set in their worldview.
We're almost 40 sessions in at this point and the character still acts like this. I think they're starting to open up to a couple new PCs who joined recently, but I'm just at a point where I've given up on trying to interact with their character. I want to like them, but I just can't because they're so damn unlikable.
Anyways, just wanted to vent about this. I love playing DnD with my friends, but this character can be incredibly frustrating to deal with sometimes.
Sometimes? Holy ... let's just say I think you are more than justified in feeling frustrated.
This guy needs to take a step away from the fanfic he's writing in his head and start thinking about how that character is coming across to his audience (ie the GM and the other players). Fans of Futurama will know that, "You can't just have your characters announce how they feel!" but this guy isn't even doing that. He's explaining after the fact the things he was supposed to be RPing at the table.
One thing I make a point of explaining to new players is that this hobby is a team sport and they are expected to create and play characters who want to adventure with the party and whom the other PCs would want to adventure with. Your friend's created a character who doesn't seem to like the other PCs, gives no reason why they should like him and sucks at his job.
I feel bad for you having to deal with a character like this. I know me personally has trouble role-playing sometimes, so I will keep a "journal" from the perspective of my characters where I write down our adventures and I will add some thoughts and comments that I might not have thought of in the moment. However, I do try and interact with every party member and I would never tell someone that my character hates theirs so talking to them is pointless. That's just bad role playing, especially if your goal is to have them open up
I have played a few sessions with the "loner" type as a PC. I've started GMing a couple of years ago, doing it more frequently now in social isolation, and I do not know how to handle that kind of character. I have had a player wanting to play the silent loner archetype and politely asked them to either have a confidant within the group to whom their character opens up or choose another concept altogether because I don't know how to make it a fun experience for everyone. Thankfully, they didn't take offense and decided to instead have a character who is distrustful of people outside of the PC group, which works for the group as a whole and the adventure.
I feel that either your party as a whole or your DM should talk to this player because I don't think they realize how much frustration they are causing. It should be fun for everyone involved. If it's not fun, you're doing it wrong.
You should definitely have your DM talk to them about this.
It sounds like they need some character development. I'd suggest either of the following.
1. A mini-arc, where they get "forced" to open up because their character has all the relevant info/skill/understanding of the relevant trade, thus leaving a lasting change. (A little direct, but very effective)
2. Or, they need to consciously make an effort each session. (Less direct, less straightforward, but more organic.)
Just be careful not to push the character too far in the other direction. In general, Introversion isn't a flaw, it's just a difference in kind. This character is introverted to an extreme extent and it's obviously effecting their life in a negative way.
But, they shouldn't just become an instant extrovert.
My story: One of our players tries to be the most helpful he can be. Not a session goes by when he takes his turn and eventually asks "What do you want me to do?" Especially in combat. He loses his proactivity and disguises it as "being a team player". He gets way too distracted with personal drama outside the game, loses interest in whatever's going on if he's not forcibly involved by the GM, and is in complete denial about his recurring apathy.
He is a wonderful friend. Very loyal and can bring a good time. But his marks are adding up and it's putting a strain on some of our other players. It's getting to a point where some of us a real quick to jump in and tell him what to do rather than let him make his own choices.
My message to you people: Don't let people hide away easily when they have a chance to engage. MAKE them interact, even if you have to throw a random NPC to "accidentally" bump into them and strike up a conversation just to get them going. And CERTAINLY do not let other players tell them what to do as a habit. It's fine for moments like puzzles or honest group-discussions, but when they can't even decide to swing their sword before someone else tells them to do something else that's when it's a problem too late.
Well that explains why everyone liked my Dwarf Barbarian even though he had a Charisma of 2 and was rude, obnoxious, vulgar, and smelly. He had pretty high capability with his axe, and was proactive all the time. I loved playing that ridiculous stinky hairball.
Thank you for this. I literally just had this overall issue with my first character (along with that ever important "where's your family" bit). I'd like to mention that in the event that you've made the NPC-PC, especially when it comes to proactivity and sociability, you may be able to turn it around.
My own character (Dragonborn shadow sorcerer-rogue), was more or less a fly on the wall PC who didn't really get involved too much. He cracked jokes and was halfway decent with magic, but he really wasn't part of the group like you'd expect out of a party member. After picking where his family was within the Sword Coast, I asked myself "He's already exhibited these negative behaviors, why are they there?" and started to integrate it into the roleplaying.
Work with your GM on the details and start to explain in game why the character is starting to make the changes. Don't kill off the badly designed character because you screwed up on the initial build because, sadly, there are people like that in the world, but, thankfully, people like that can learn and grow.
I think the biggest one players struggle with is "the edgelord". At some point, most of us like the idea of playing a dark, brooding, edgy character. The concept seems fun. You're a lone wolf type. You're dark and mysterious. You're psychologically complex. (But are you, really?) But this often comes out as distant, boring, annoying, and often destructive to the game and scenarios.
When one thinks to play an edgelord, they should look to existing mediums for examples of edgelord characters who work on groups. Comics are a great source. Batman, Punisher, Daredevil, Wolverine, and many others are totally edgelords who often work in teams. Follow their examples on how they work WITH others to further the story proactively, rather than using your edginess to drag the game down.
I agree with you completely. I would also add the edgelord with a growth arc towards sociability like the Goblin Slayer or the Mandalorian.
so i used to play a sorta edgelord style, but i used assassin in 4e, and still backed up the group, generally. i got away from it for a while, when i really figured out what playing a role was, as opposed to just using the mechanics to go through a storyline. more recently i played an edgelord who was intentionally made to be campy, and the DM helped me out with it. this character was a neutral evil drow using a form of paladin i built for the character (designed with "paladin of Lolth" in mind). the character was edgy, but i made a point of going overboard with it (her armor was made out of her shadow because darkness).
as the three core points here go, she was very capable in a fight, being designed to fall somewhere between heavy damage output and heavy defense, and her moderate magic allowed for some flexibility as far as what she was able to do outside of fighting. The DM leaned into what she could do with her shadows, allowing conjuration tutoring in the cities academy to boost her capabilities. about the best she got was in dire straights, she had advantage on checks for out of the ordinary things, like Wings or Walls (walls at one point stopped a TPK, but she didn't survive.)
she was proactive to a degree, seeking things to do within her wheelhouse that weren't really trying to create problems for the group. about the closest she got there was she and the barbarian got into a fight with the arena promoter, who was a centaur.
socially, she tended to avoid staying around one person for too long, but as the group went, i looked for traits in each character that would make my character want to keep them around, and befriend them. for instance, the barbarian was one who she theorized could threaten her in a fight (OOC the barbarian probably would have steamrolled her, she was an arrogant character, and it got her into trouble several times). the rogue was good for getting her into places she wasn't supposed to be (she had great stealth, but didn't have the tools to get into places, so often the rogue would pick locks so she could sneak around). because her house had just been wiped out prior to the start of the campaign (surface assault, not another drow house) she tread lightly in social, and had a rage trigger surrounding people going on rips about drow (started several fights), but it wasn't utterly non-existant.
when she died i came back with an asimir healer, who was pretty much the polar opposite of that drow. less proactive, but more sociable
The problem with the edgelord is simple: D&D requires player *and* character input and interaction to function. Edgelords think it's cool to be emo and silent.
Even "I work alone" Batman has Nightwing, Robin, Red Robin, Batwing, Batgirl, Batwoman, Oracle....
Just because you don't trust everybody, it doesn't mean you can't cooperate
A good way I found to make my characters more sociable is to include other PC's in my bad or mediocre skill check results. So for example I have a look at something or someone and roll for something like perception, investigation, history, arcana, etc. A lot of times there's atleast 1 other person who also gives the skill check a try. Now if I have a bad or mediocre roll gaining only vague or no information, but the other PC has a good roll then I'll address them and ask them in character, if they know anything about it or if they have seen or notice anything I haven't. They can then summarize their knowledge from the DM in character to me and afterwards (again in character) I either thank them for their help, acknowledge their skill or I'm impressed by their knowledge which also helps to build trust and friendship between the PC's :)
Only issue that can arise from that is that you are well, metagaming.
You are specifically asking because you know a player rolled better then you, even if they said nothing.
@@TheArhive I think that the best way around that is to ask even if you got the better roll. If you do it often enough, the DM may make the vague information that the other party member got different, but still less than the information you got. Like a history check on a great war, someone rolls high and knows the entire campaign from the viewpoint of the victors, and the lower roll only knows the details of a specific battle from the point of view of the defeated army. Still could be helpful and may make the whole role-playing aspect more enjoyable.
But then again I have only played D&D once, so I could be woefully wrong.
I've been watching you for a couple of years now, well, since I started playing d&d actually. I was really nervous and I wanted to actually know what I'm doing. You've made it so easy for me and you are such a cool guy! Thank you so much for all the help.
Hello, I really enjoy the fact you've started making quick 10-15 minute videos. It makes them more palatable. Your longer videos literally putme to sleep. Not out of boredom, your voice and cadence just lull me to sleep lol. Thanks for a good video.
I love how Guy has basically boiled down 20 years of my RP experience into 3 bullet points. lol
What did you start with? I started Role-playing through Larp in my basement. I think that was around 1991. I also wrote a few short stories and a few not so short ones in the mid 90's and onward after that. I tried out online Role-playing in the mid 2000's. Currently, I just finished a SCP based D and D style Role-play making up the story as I went and using a notebook to write notes in. My current D and D style role-play is a RPG style one in a Zombie Apocalypse.
@@lanceknightmare I had a different experience. Strange how you can get into this from different angles. :) I started on some old MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons). Basically text based games where you'd roll up a Thief or whatever and stab text based orcs for a while. (Met my beautiful wife there.) It had an active RP community, and they got me into it. I went onto World of Darkness or D&D stuff from there, again in online chats or weekly games. Most of my RP experience has been entirely text based.
I am playing in a Werewolf 20th Anniversary game and I am also running a group through Eberron as a DM.
My very first charachter for my very first long term campaign ended up being rather problematic, mostly because he was a super villian and i genuenly had difficulty playing him in terms of balancing out him working with the team and getting along with them and i guess part of me embraced the dislike everyone had of the charachter(i was fairly good with the roleplay aspect but i sent him in the not great direction ) but i didnt play him well and it led to a string of events that ended in him dying before i could do anything even remotely redeemable. I wanted to fix him mostly cause he was starting to sap some of the fun out of the game for others.
So in terms of Proactivity i had that going for me .....sadly i feel that is ultimately what got him killed.
Sociability was also fairly good but like said not in a super likeable direction
And he was relatively Capable based on his powers but he (me ) was rather incapable at planning
The GM tried helping me but ultimately i was the source of my own demise, but ive accepted it since then and ive made a new charachter that is at least somewhat better and in a better position to get along with them
Sounds like an experience you learned from and will remember forever. This is a successful character in my eyes. They don't all have to live forever, or save the world, as long as you walk away from the character with something.
Just passed this out to my table. Have 7 very passive people. My NPCs will ask a question and be greeted with crickets until they go down the line and pull teeth.
My character tends to be the voice of reason and is regularly outnumbered. It makes for some funny moments.
Oh gosh. I was in a game last year where I was that person too. I chose "Chaotic Good" for my alignment, thinking that I'd be the trickster/troublemaker of the party. What I hadn't counted on was the fact that I was the only one in the party who had 'Good' in my alignment. Most people were neutral and one was evil, so there were times where I had to say pretty much "Hey, radical idea, what if we DON'T burn down the farm of the guy who we're being hired to help?"
Been there, done that my friend!
@@autisticlizard5468 I remember one time where I was playing a Lawful Evil character in a party of "good' heroes and wondering how the hell I became the "respectable" one. I had plans to acquire power but instead I spent most of my time being a responsible adult.
Going to have to pass this on to a couple of people.
Same
This is a great video, Guy. I think it really breaks down the key to great characters in general and understandable terms.
The most-liked character I ever played was a thick-accented, simple southern gentleman beekeeper. The introductory scene with him, I cranked all of these traits and the party loved him almost instantly.
Sociability is the most important in my opinion, it's what makes pcs stay together, care for eachother and generally bond them as a group
I never comment on videos, but I feel like this is a strong calling. If anyone is reading this and worried about whether or not you have a good character, ask yourself one question. Are you including the others?
I tend to take point in my groups. I'm the boring one who's the good one and keeping the party together. Which means that I tend to do the most of the talking. I worry about it sometimes, and in those times, I say "I turn to X (or the entire party) and ask them how they feel about this." This let's you share the spotlight so amazingly well and gives another player an easy-in for role-playing.
I do agree that the best characters have at least two of the three pillars, but I feel like sociability is probably the most important. It is a group game, after all
This video made me feel pride in recognising my own characters' strengths in these columns, and validated with my choices in balancing them.
This was pleasant and uplifting, and I know some people who ought to see this...
"If you have only two of these things, then your character is just an npc. If you're fine to be an npc, then this video was a waste of your life, *but you're an npc so it doesn't matter* "
I wasn't expecting to reflect on my actual life because of a dnd video, but I guess better late than never
If it makes you feel any better, everyone has at least some worth from their cababilities. This means that everyone has at least 1 by deafult. The only ways to be an npc is are either to have no proactivity at all (only does things when prompted), or to have no social contacts at all (complete isolation).
There is no way to be an npc without either literally waiting to someone to press A near you, or being completely unknown to all.
So, as a GM, how do you encourage a person who is essentially an NPC to become a PC? Especially if the person is clearly not sure about some aspect - like new players not sure what is helpful in being proactive, or a person a little more scared of the sociability aspect for various reasons? Do you ever enlist other PCs to help draw out that one, or use NPCs to do it in game? At what point would you have an OOC convo with them?
Simple: if a person wants to play, they must come up with a concept of a character (envision that character) and needs to have aspirations, desires and preferably some hinderances that will cause that player to “act” out what their character would do, not what the player would do.
Easier said then done, but anything a player can give to a DM about their character will help a DM delve and mould there campaign to suit the players hero’s. after all, a DM is really a dungeon masters Slave (slave to the players characters becoming hero’s, not a master to the characters. The later will cause players to loose interest in the game).
We must remember that some players want to be NPCs. We must respect that. If you don't like it, the only solution is to replace them with another player. On the other hand, players who try but fail, need to be guided at character creation. I sometimes - with younger players - give them the three ratings and ask them to tell me how their character fits on those ratings and how they will work together as a team. This channel is about education, and that is where it starts - what a video, spread the word, learn and adopt or look for alternatives.
I tend to have the OOC conversation sooner rather than later. Preferably in session zero.
@@HowtobeaGreatGM This is amazing advice. This is why I follow your work. Wise, thoughtfu, and respectful.
As a new player, I desperately wanted to be helpful and didn't know how to be. As a DM, you might need to help them out with what their options are. Example: downtime activities. Once I found out I could research during downtime, I've had my character's nose in a book. I have a Tressym familiar, and I use her to do aerial scouting when we go somewhere new. My fantastic passive perception has been a Godsend in dungeons for finding traps. Especially for new players, we become fixated on learning about how to handle combat first because so much emphasis gets put on it, and often haven't had the capacity to ALSO become familiar and comfortable with what can be done outside of combat.
"A Tale of Two GMs"
It was the best of role plays, it was the worst of roll plays.
hahahaha
It is a far, far better thing that I do, that I have ever done.
Roll for Dexterity check.
Love your character tips! I am always trying to be a better player and it is easy to forget the simple things.
That's a pretty good system; I think you touched on something like this when you made a really good video about how to play an evil character, and put emphasis on why your character values/treasures the other player's characters. PRETTY sure that was a video of yours, good excuse to go look it up again!
Let’s be fair, a character who is going on adventures because they’re emotionally traumatized and is hoping to die is at least interesting.
Not inherently IMO. There are really interesting things about trauma and how characters may choose (or not choose) to deal with it. But there's nothing intriguing or propelling about it, in and of itself (indeed, often the very opposite), both in real life and in fiction. The real challenge about writing and portraying mental health is HOW to do that - how do you get other people to be interested in something they by definition cannot feel or experience. The most successful examples allow people to tap into that part of themselves that can empathize or at least understand a piece of that pain.
But that is fantastically difficult. If you fail in doing that, what you end up with is a character that is less capable in several ways, is generally passive and downtrodden, and ultimately anti-social in important ways. SUPER not fun to be with. And so, you either have a character that overemphasizes the dark and brooding and becomes a meme - or you end up underplaying it, so you don't bog down every scene.
But that's just my opinion.
Probably not as much as you think. Looking at people in the real world, if you actually want to die, you're going to make that happen - even if it's not directly in the form of killing yourself, you certainly wouldn't have the incentive to perform well in combat or try hard when it comes to continuing/solving the game's plot lines. And if someone wants to die and isn't performing in combat, they're more likely to get me killed as well...I wouldn't keep hanging around them.
If you push that concept to the edgy-extreme, you could get a hilarious and fun result.
"Hey PC, would you like a donut?"
"I WISH FOR NOTHING MORE THAN MY INEVITABLE DEATH. EVERYTHING THAT HAS A BEGINNING HAS AN END, THE UNIVERSE IS DYING AND LIFE IS PAIN."
"Well, a donut will kill you. Eventually."
"...I accept your donut."
Your character could want their death to mean something. Jumping into the jaws of a dragon doesn't help anybody, but if they fall while giving their all or staying behind to buy time for others, it doesn't feel like a waste.
@@dungeonsdierolls7617 Yeah, the only place that shines the most is that 'oh no' moment when that death-driven character realizes that the people they've come to be around are giving them the most terrifying and hard to deal with thing in their entire lives: A reason to actually keep living.
I have a couple of character ideas that I could've done better. This is in Pathfinder. I had this character her name is Kazma Goodwitch (She was a witch, shocker) and she was in a campaign where we were fighting demons and dealing with war etc. However, Kazma was a contentious objector. She didn't like the aspect of "war" in the slightest. She was a tiefling, who looked more like a catfolk. She would talk with you, and she worshipped Desna, so when people died or if she needed safe travel she'd ask Desna to help. This is because she had ran away from a coven of evil witches and (From her perspective) without Desna's help she would be dead. She was merciful asking to give surrendering enemies mercy.
She helped out in weird ways. I never REALLY capitalized on this, but I hear you now: If she hated war? Why would she join adventurers? Hell, what would she be doing in combat? First, she joined everyone because safety. There's safety in numbers. If there's a war, I'll die if I'm all alone, BUT in a group? I'll survive longer! Which funny thing she was the longest surviving character of that group by luck and the magic of GTFO. In combat, she'd try to help out by making enemies sleepy, healing friends, greasing floors, ripping open flour, she couldn't kill a fly if you gave her RAID but she could was good at running away. I roleplayed her, by like pointing at a bad guy and then "cutely" pleading for it to sleep, while throwing my hands forward (Like she is shoeing the enemy away).
Wow, not only is this useful, but it's also super clean and simple. Some of my players definitely struggle when it comes to creating character personalities and this could be a great way to help steer them in the right direction. Definitely the kind of stuff I love to apply for my games. Thanks, Guy. :)
I’ve managed to make a character that has all of these attributes, in both good and bad ways.
He’s very capable at hitting things and screaming. Also an expert at rushing into battle and refusing to give up.
He’s very proactive, always going on little adventurers to cook meals, collect flowers or perhaps buy some candy. Somehow, he also always manages to end up in arguments and in worst case in jail.
Lastly, he is very sociable. Constantly making jokes and pranks with the people around him, while also being very curious about what the others are like. Deep down, he’d sacrifice himself in a heartbeat to save any of the other characters.
That said, he is terrible at taking criticism and expressing gratitude.
This makes me feel SO much better after I was passionately putting in all this progress and further personality into my character and hesitating (briefly) by thinking, "I'm the only one who cares about ANY of this in this campaign, aren't I?". The answer to that didn't even matter, since I left that game. What did matter is that I DID care! What I was doing was striving to build upon the 2nd and 3rd columns. And I still build upon it to make a fully 3-dimensional character.
Numbers and statistics are cute and all, but the most impressive thing on a character sheet is character itself. It's the personality and imagination that brings the character to life, warts and all.
Really interesting. I might suggest one more semi-meta trait that I have found makes a big difference not just in D&D, but in almost all group endeavors - a splash of humility. I think this is self-explanatory in real-life. But at the table, it's less about your PC being meek or modest, and more about you the player deciding to use your character's capability, proactivity, and sociability to highlight OTHERS. Use your cunning and charm to set the stage for other PCs to shine. None of this has to be transparent, either. We should generally want everyone in the party to have a good time and sometimes the best way to do that is to know when to step back and let someone else shine every once in a while. And then being excited when the adventure goes off in an unexpected and crazy way!
I've played with people who are great at making builds, always have a plan for what to do next, and just try to "help" everyone into doing the optimal path. And sometimes, that's great! But when at the end of a 2 hour debate about what to do next, we all are just resigned to following this person's plan because that's the only "right" path, it makes it hard to like that PC (or the player) over time.
This is actually the video i needed again... i got a character who is pretty good in itself in fighting/stats, but lacked in preparation and sociability.
He's grumpy and doesn't trust people easily. But also doesn't prepare well because... money must be in his pocket. I did however realise this a few sessions ago, so i'm trying to swap his personality slowly to more prepare for the battles type of guy. The one running in first and standing last while protecting his allies at al cost.
This video is god tier. What an efficient breakdown and explanation. Well done.
I left my gaming group back in the 1980s to go to university in another part of the country. The last character I made was an elven fighter-cleric-ess that I just couldn't make sense of. I tried to create a well-defined and well-adjusted personality with a couple of flaws based on the class combination, but it just felt artificial. Then our GM decided to switch to another rule set, and fighter-clerics were no longer allowed. He asked me to choose one class, but I suggested that I split her up in twin sisters, one cleric and one fighter. When I wrote them up, I also split up the traits and flaws that I had tried to unite among them. The cleric became a no-nonsense, somewhat standoffish mother figure for the party, who made sure that the gear was in order, provisions were bought, fees and tolls were paid in cities. The fighter was slightly dim and fairly hedonistic, but very proficient (a bit like Jayne Cobb in Firefly, only less nasty and a decade early). Her naivete and easygoing lifestyle made it easy for her to mesh with the party. I had never heard about this capability, pro-activity, and sociability model before: it's kind of fun that the last character(s) I played became a demonstration of the transition from capability only to all three categories.
"Capability" is very underated in my playgroup. We are 5 people and only one knows how to hold a sword. The others are: A dancer, a merchant, a scallywag and a scholar. But our sessions are a blast. :D
5:20 ya boi's american accent made me double take
I already started my campaign but I thought I’d watch this. Really proud of myself for meeting all of the points. Somehow my party likes me even though I’m a bard.
One drawback to doing all three of these is that if nobody else at the table does all three, you're automatically relegated to Main Character status. I've had this happen a lot because even when I try to play a character who lacks proactivity or sociability to a large degree, no one else will step up to the plate, and if that happens, we become listless and indecisive. This is more of an issue with my main group of friends than anything else, but I have another group I play with who are almost all go-getters, so that's where I can sit back and finally just be support.
Here's some ideas for awesome characters that'll leave a lasting impression in your group:
- Savant wizard with debilitating autism but he's actually just possessed by a wright
- What if Mr. Rogers was a lawful good rogue?
- Artificer that uses 17th century chemistry as his gimmick (lyme, qick lime, pitch/tar, sulfur crystals, magnesium/phosphorus if your DM is generous). Also make him high int low wis so that he has the lots of ideas but no common sense to see which ones are good and which ones will singe his eyebrows (aka i pick that lock with a handfull of magnesium)
- Palading Oath of Ultraviolence
- Bard that runs a Ponzy scheme where villagers get to invest to profit from your groups adventure loot (bonus points if you get your groups barbarian to invest into said scheme)
Thanks a bunch for this video. I'm really good at making powerful characters but not making interesting characters. I'm going to take this stuff to heart 😁
One of the most fun games i have played was with a character that had to play a little telephone to relay information (most of the characters spoke english, and my character spoke german). While my character couldn't participate in the more social aspects of the party, he would go off and gather items for the adventure or move the plot along by mucking about with setting, and when it came time for combat just shrugged and got on with it.
He was capable, and proactive but a language barrier made it difficult to be social.
ABSOLUTE RESPECT SIR!!!! You have opened my eyes to a new and more simplified way of analizing PCs and NPCs.
Thank you very much
I loved this video! I would also warn against bring too much of anything. Are you so productive others can't do things? Are you so sociable that no one else can talk to the NPCs without you jumping in? Weakness is the spice of D&D. Find the right balance of all three of these aspects.
Great way of boiling down a complicated topic! Thank you!!
Hey another great video! Have you heard of Beam Saber? It’s a tabletop game that uses the Blades In The Dark System but tells Mobile Suit Gundam themed stories. Yes rules for Mech combat as well as space conflict are both presented herein. However you don’t have to just use Mobile Suits, it comes with a fluid vehicle crafting system that lets you create just about anything! From boats to even robot versions of real animals!
Another great video in your continually improving format.
One bit you touched on, but perhaps could make a new video for is how for these three, one not only compensates, but working on it will enhance aspects you are good at, and negecting can hurt.
The strong fighter. If you neglect social? You may find rest of party ignores you in a fight, or even considers you a liability. I know I have had that in a fight. No, not going to use my big heal spell on you because you go and run off to be a solo warrior...
...because the social person now knows the other members and they know you which makes for a strong team. Teamwork gives you the advantage in a fight.
Also the inverse is true. A well made character isnt just max stats. It is a theme designes to work with and in a role. It is why a bard, while low in stats can be powerful. But if you just meta it, then that limits personality you can do even if a very roleplay and social character. However if you consider your build for a role and theme?
Well... now you have a brand new character trait to roleplay. Perhaps you are a fan of illusion magic? There may a numerically better spell or something some minmax how to play wizards video might say is a must, but if you consider the roleplay, you will find more opportunities to include that aspect in your character's story.
Personally, that is where I always start my build. I try to get a mental image of my character, then choose abilities that enhance it so that my attributes make the social aspect much more engaging to everybody, including the DM.
This is actually helpful to me as a GM. And what I need to prep for.
I made a proactive character that, statistically, was also capable, though I rolled awfully bad for him, and he always tried befriend the other characters and include them on his plans. People found both his sociability and attempts to include others annoying and actively attempted to shut it down and deny it, leaving only by bad dice rolls, despite good statistcs to roleplay... of course, things were just one bad roll away from failure. The group tried to murder the character and I had to remove him from the group. This was a couple months ago, before the lockdown, but I was pretty much following the 3 pillars and yet the other players actively shut any attempt of generating good interactions with my character down and blew over the top the results of my bad dice rolls as if I had being activelly atempting to get in their way...
I forgot to say this the first time I watched the video, but I really like the new format.
Those are three awesome looking columns!
Right ?! I want to 3-D print those suckers and use them in my tabletop game !!
I just noticed that my favourite characters to play tend to be both sociable and capable, but I still need to work on proactivity (story of my life really).
My favourites so far are my Elven Fighter Adran, my Drow Rogue Snowhead and my Half-orc Barbarian Jork.
Adran has a dark past that he doesn't want to disclose, but any other topic is fair game. He really likes to talk, maybe a bit too much, and he's really good at cutting heads. He isn't all that proactive, but on occasion he can come up with plans to get out of sticky situations.
Snowhead is a natural talker. His favorite weapon is his tongue, and he's used it multiple times to save himself. He is also really good at fighting, using his Swashbuckler archetype to great effect, dealing good damage and then getting the hell out of dodge.
Jork made his money in pit fights, where he learned to entertain and hype up his matches to make himself more money. He is almost as strong as he is durable, but he isn't all that wise and lacks strategy, meaning he's the guy who falls most of the time (and he's been the only casualty of the party so far), not before smashing one or two heads though.
Thanks for that video, as obvious as it might be, it's very helpful to be reminded of it.
I find one of the best ways to do this is not to play to a character's strength, but their weaknesses. To whit, my character before the lockup: Manfred the Mutilated. A human fighter of humble origins who on his first campaign in an army took a filthy spear clean through the chest by a Sahuagin. This knocked him off the ship and he was swept away in the storm. He has spent the last two years scraping himself back together after the mercenary band he was signed up with wrote him off as a lost cause.
So his dump stat is Con but he's got the Tough feat to make up for it. He's physically frail but so mentally tough he makes up for it. He's still a monster in a fight and tends to fight defensively (literally, he's got the defense fighting style), he talks to guards and patrolmen, he collects weapons and equipment and is trying to get a certain 'look' going. Why? He wants to start his own mercenary band, but he's going to need weapons, recruits, a place to train them. Other people to help train them and oh dear god there's so much! But he's still whacking at it.
I find the best way to make a character is to ask a couple easy questions. How did this person get here? Why are they sticking around? Ignoring the plot of the story, what does this person want to do? For Manfred, he got here because he really needs the money and is taking odd jobs all over the place. He's sticking around because you might make a good captain and he still needs to get resources as well as exercise again to get in shape and such. Where's he going? He's going as hard as he can to a better tomorrow!
I’m not sure it was explicitly stated, but another really good thing to take from this is that a character lacking in one or two of the three qualities could slowly progress to a “better PC” over the course of the game, whether that means gaining more power to help their allies, becoming more active among the group, or opening up more to everyone. Dynamic characters are great in D&D (and any story of any kind), so fixing your terribly designed character could be made a campaign-long process of epic proportions! Batteries not included.
6:18
Cooking actually DOES have a mechanic in Dnd that a lot of people don't know about!
If you have a background as a chef, and you cook a meal for characters during a short rest, I'm fairly certain you can relieve them of exhaustion without a long rest.
There is no Chef Background. There is an experimental (UA) feat. It doesn't remove exhaustion, but rather allows your party to recover a small number of hit points. Cooking is indeed mostly a roleplaying exercise in 5E. That doesn't make it less worthwhile.
Thanks Guy - great advice once again.
Thanks for the video, Guy I appreciate it
I play a Tiefling Wizard who has severe trust issues, from a combination of childhood neglect, trauma, and the low humming of their demonic sire drumming in the back of their head. On the outside, she is abrasive, unlikable and quick to retreat from difficult situations, but she is clever, cunning and blasts out magic really damn well. She's become a respected member of the group because of her sheer ability to set things on fire, and think outside the box.
One of my friends noticed a large shift in her behavior when she brought my Tiefling some spell books. She noticed she was a lot more agreeable and even smiled. She was pleasantly surprised to learn that in her childhood, her uncle bought her books to read, something she really enjoyed as a child and one her happier memories. She really liked how she accidentally stumbled upon something that made my character act a lot more three dimensional and nuanced, instead of just a grumpy wizard.
Recently, in one of the campaigns I play, I lost my character. I had noticed the character had no proactivity whatsoever, and decided that now I had to reroll, I might as well fix that. So, I made a lizardman barbarian. A mercenary. He just wants to go out and get resources. And going with the party seems to yield a lot of resources.
But this guy has proactivity cranked up to the max! When the party is sitting in the tavern after breakfast, unsure what they do, he will soon slam his hand on the table, declaring that they go look at the quest board, or follow a recent rumor they heard. Or, on one occasion, even just going into the nearby woods.
His whole thing is to get the party moving, when the party doesn't realise it's supposed to be moving.
He also got capability down pretty well (his stats are absolutely fantastic, with his physical stats being 18/18/16).
He just doesn't really have any social skills. He doesn't sit down and convince the party to go on quests, or talk with NPCs to learn stuff. If the party is too slow, and doesn't want to get moving even after he has declared that 'This is what we do today', he just... Grabs them and 'abducts' his party for questing purposes, 'cause he doesn't know this isn't acceptable behavior.
"I have no dreams. I want to die" could work depending on the context. Imagine playing Mr. Meeseeks, and that's the actual goal of the character, and they get thwarted in every encounter by bumbling adventurers that asked to be better adventurers.
This, I needed this. As a newer player I have only created one good pc.
i heard one word from your mouth and immediately knew
you are a perfect GM
a rule i sort of follow is giving each of my characters a flaw. Something that gives them personality and something that both the dm and my party members can work with.
There is a 4th stat you need to remember as well, though that can be part of a different talk altogether.
Compatibility.
You need to make a character that does not extraordinarily conflict with the other characters. This can take more than one form.
The first form is making a character with a moral or background situation that is absolutely not compatible with the current group. Making an evil character in a hardcore good group or vice versa. Making a character part of an organization that is kill on sight in the area they are going without making plans about keeping their identity secret. A character who also has radially different and incompatible goals as other characters is a problem as well. It is worth noting that, like any lacking stat, this can be made up by other categories, and steps put in place from the DM. It is the DM's responsibility as well to make sure players are informed about incompatibilities. If you make a wizard in a setting with 3 players who kill wizards on sight and the DM didnt tell you before you rolled, that's on him.
The other form is when your character occupies the same niche as another character, and they are redundant and end up butting heads, either in their skills, role, or social style. If the characters are an intentional double team, that works fine, but if both characters are incredibly similar, it will cause compatibility issues. That is not to say only one of a class is allowed. You can have two clerics, two fighters, two wizards. But if you have two war clerics, or two Champion kit two handed weapon fighters, or two diviners, then you end up with character redundancy. At best, the characters will feel less special than each other. At worst they can end up becoming toxically competitive.
My group found my Elf Monk/War Cleric to be Capable, but a bit dour and grim... Then they came to temple with her, and found she was know as "The Barmaid of Hanseath", (dwarf god of carousing, brewing and fighting)... The fleshing out the temple has made her more likable to the rest of the party who realise when she's travelling she is usually all business, will occasionally come to temple, though they will try to sneak in their tankards of sobriety and rarely join the holy bar fight portion of the service. The fleshing out of her faith - a simple thing - has made the character a lot more fun to play... And more popular to be around
I tried to make a character that would be not sociable but would react kindly towards those that are friendly. Like my character would put up a fake act of being arrogance because I was hoping they would understand that my character is scared of attachment and by adventures and socializing they would become better
Great advice. For both players and dms.
It also helps to know your own personal limits to create a character you're actually capable of voicing and roleplaying as. It's hard to role play as something you don't really know anything about, such as theoretical physics.
''But you're any NPC, so it doesn't matter''.
A useful quote indeed!
As a noun "attribute" has the emphasis on the first syllable.
It's part of his charm. 😁
Thank you for these tips. I’m a new D&D player and I’m seeking to improve my roleplaying.
So, I'm in a Wildemount campaign, I play a Half-Orc Barbarian devoted to Kord. Our group was in a massive cave and managed to grab some ice toads that were riding mounts for some slavers using the cave as a hide out. Separating us from the slavers was a large cold lake. On my turn (and a damn good roll), My barbarian raging, leaps over the lake on the back of the road, battle axe in hand and yells "Kord!" and manages to take out two of the five slavers. And this was the first encounter. Moral of the story...don't save your epic moves for the Big Bad at the end of the campaign
These tips are also good for someone who studied leadership in university. 'Why the hell should this group have formed?' I love the RP systems that ask you to have a background/job, I roleplay my background instead of my class. "I was just a simple farmer until I laughed too hard at a tavern joke and feathers sprouted out of my nose."
You can even use this for fighting. A socialbe character might persuade the enemy into surrendering. A proactive character might not fight directly, but is doing other important stuff. On time I played a scholar (not magically capable) And he knocked out a Bossencounter when the boss was behind a the meter high magic barrier, fighting another PC.
My Character sneaked behind him, took his herbarium (a really fat book) took one turn to prepare the throw and threw it over the barrier, right on the head of the boss, rendering him unconscious.
A character that engages in party-banter, which is often motivating the others can be very likeable. Like an old Soldier who plans strategies and shakes up the others, bragging about his (in his mind) superior strategic experience...
In my group (The dark eye) we have a merchant/smuggler PC who is not very capable in most situations. He is a coward, superstitious and basically has to be forced into adventures ... so far so bad. BUT I really like this character because he is sociable, he connects to NPCs (going so far as to putting his reputation on the line to save a young bandit from the gallows and taking him as an apprentice)
Now I regulary use this sociability in my plots to give the PCs information, thus making this otherwise problematic PC very essential to the group.
Did my Paladin with Capability, Proactivity, and low Sociability. Very Charismatic, but no skill in diplomacy. Played him as more of a gruff character who relied more on his presence than anything else. Sometimes it's nice to be able to come to the game and not have to think about everything, especially when you're running a game, too.
Huh, so that's why everyone likes my character. I'm playing a Kenku Warlock and his combat capabilities aren't the best, especially since I play him as a melee fighter, but he shoots for the stars with proactively and Sociability. He has a knack for finding shinies and doing stupid but funny shit as well as getting good information from people for the mission. So yeet
How do you have socialability as a Kenku. I'm playing one and I find it very hard.
@@ThePennySavers Well, What you could do is try having your character write down their thoughts in a notepad of sorts and display that to a vendor or whatnot. Or, what I do, is write down words or phrases that My character has and hasn't heard yet. Say for instance your Kenku hears a phrase one of your party member is speaking. Write that down so you can know what your character can and can't say (you don't necessarily have to mimic the voices when you say the lines, it may or maynot get annoying). This helps me remember what my Kenku can't say.
also another thing to help is by thinking around the word. Like, an example is my Kenku hasn't heard the word "death" or "died" so indead I have him say "Forever rest".
Hey Guy, This is great, we are about to start our second campaign where I am playing a race that known for their Brash Honesty( disadvantage with Charisma (deception) and Charisma (persuasion)) checks.on Which I think is awesome for a rogue who can not lie or talk his way out of a situation. This means while he is extremely good at getting into places unseen and unheard, he is going to rely on others to handle any diplomocy... or so I hope. As a person who is going to have a sometimes annoying character, other times very useful and loyal companion who will travel to the deepest regions of hell with you. I do talk with the DM and Players in the group and let them know ahead of time. I did this when I played a Kenku and for the most part he became endearing with all his mimicry *DM ruled: Kenlu have heard many words in thier lives, they have perfect speech just in a variety of voices* . Anyways. I loved this video and will place it on my players to watch list.
I was a optimizer/power gamer for years and people constantly complained but I was super shy so it was hard for me to come out of my shell. I found the best way to make a likeable character was to give myself the lowest possible Intelligence and the Highest possible Charisma, I just roleplayed dumb but likeable
My two most memorable characters to other players, as in the ones people have told me they loved were the Goblin Paladin who was raised by wolves and the Druid Life Cleric who was a hippie stereotype.
One more tip if u don't wanna be dumb be as adorable and as weak looking as possible, everyone wants to protect the group mascot.
I was running a Star Wars campaign and one of my players was a gentleman’s theif (in his words just stole from the rich and gave to the poor). When they got to where they flying to the players all left the ship except him because his character put on a business disguise and then left the ship, I was like that’s fine you would like to be a business man on Coruscant. When they were going down a street to where they needed to go a bypassing citizen that looked pretty poor as I described and the “gentleman’s theif” intimidated the citizen and threatened him because he was a “famous businessman” and the citizen asked who he was. Long story short the citizen just moved along and the party realized where they were going isn’t there anymore so all of them ran back and asked the citizen. While in the middle of just talking the the citizen the businessman decided that he’s going to tackle and put the citizen in binders (handcuffs) so that the citizen would show them. Another player didn’t like what they did so he was going to roll to get him out of the binders but the businessman referred to a rule I made the session before about you can’t roll against another player using a SOCIAL skill (such as deception, intimidation, and etc.) so they did a roll of to defend the citizen from getting out and to get the citizen out. The person defending the citizen from getting out rolled a 18 while the other rolled a Nat 20. Out of character they argued on and on about how are you sure it was a Nat 20 (which we play online due to a virus going around), but I put trust in my players and I said that the person frees the citizen. What they then learned was that the citizen was one of the higher ups in the federal district and wouldn’t push charges because something else had come up. For the rest of the entire session the player remained silent until I asked him if he agreed with what the party was doing (he always said yes). At almost the end of the session when Coruscant was getting attacked his character wanted to stay and help on the the NPCs that was on their ship defend the mass city, the player found that in that moment he wanted to leave the campaign because of a stupid little argument. Both of the people who were playing their characters are good people but the gentleman’s theif wore off in the second session, he was just a chaotic person by then. Again both the real players are good people it’s just they argue a lot
What has happened to the GM tier videos? Loved them so much.
Social and capable is usually the way I roll. Currently trying the "social edgelord" approach. Basically your average warlock in black clothes, of course the silent type, but absolutely loves a little chat, yet is considered absolutely untrustworthy by the rest of the party due to her appearance and the way she speaks. "Your eyes are beautiful" would get a response like "yeah, but I still need them". Looking forward to seeing how this is gonna play out - and if I'm gonna be able to turn her into an actual social character.
A player in my group had a half-ling rogue who was incredibly capable, but also a habitual liar... they didn’t reveal the real name of the PC until the 10th session and would often just go it alone and make decisions to split from the group. It made it really hard to build up any kind of rapport in game. There was a lot of detail put into the backstory and character but the dishonesty made them tough to play with.
Not to disagree with you, Guy, but I've had two very weird characters, according to these indications. If you could help me figure out what happened with these two, I'd be very grateful.
One of them was not proactive, not competent (except for a few occasions) and not even a little sociable. Yet that character was the one that both I and the other PCs adored the most. I guess underdogs are especially lovable.
The other wasn't particularly competent, but had 100% sociability and proactivity, always looking for conversations and fun, helping other PCs and NPCs and also looking for quests as soon as we completed one (he was a bard, just fyi). He was looked down upon and belittled by the other PCs and no one liked the character except for maybe me. I guess the game being very focused on combat may have had an impact.
I think you answered yourself. Each game is different. And these three reasons are not the only three reasons people like others. It is the core three that I think help make better characters. So your completely useless character - what did they do in game? Inspector Clouseau was completely useless, and yet we loved him. Why? Because of his tenacity, his pure thought, and his intention to do his duty. These are other, far more complex and subtle means of making a character likable.
@@HowtobeaGreatGM Thank you for answering!
I think the useless character had an especially interesting backstory and personality. Also, I think the amount of bad things that happened to her made her an underdog, and the fact that her daily life was explored in depth might have helped.
However, she was still incapable of fighting without strong emotional motivation (her powers were basically evil, so she needed to keep them under control all the time), wasn't proactive (in fact, I'd say she was quite the opposite) and wasn't open to social interactions.
One minor thing that I do as a DM is that I have my players roll a d20 when they're creating their characters. I give them a boon (usually a free feat) on a 20 and I give them a bane (usually a minor flaw) on a 1. First time I tried this, one of my players rolled a 1. Now she has to make a DC 12 Wisdom saving throw every time she sees a rodent or attack it indiscriminately. The best part is that her character (Human Order of the Mutant Blood Hunter) is otherwise quiet and reserved. I can't wait for her to encounter wererats or be polymorphed into a rat.
My formula for making a fun/good character.
Step one, pick what kind of character I want to introduce to the party. Example, a bard
Step two, choose a character class other than a bard. Example, warlock
Step three, build the character to to be convincing as a bard, performance skills, etc.
Wait as long as possible, likely appearing as a mediocre bard, before casting that first Eldridge Blast, and watch the reactions around the table.
I think proactivity is more of a player thing than a PC thing. In my experience, it usually falls to the same players to be proactive regardless of who they're playing (with the exception of maybe a dummy barbarian shopping for the wizard to stock up on spell components), whereas the other two can vary more with the PC.
I'm looking to give dnd a try but can't find groups online. I have no idea how to use roll20 and my friends are kinda skeptical of the whole dnd thing.
Good life advice in general!
1:47 this is valuable life advice, just sain.
edit: this video is pretty good life advice as whole i guess.
fun fact, usually i'm the npc like pc in the corner of the group, i tend to interact when talked to but otherwise don't talk much(cause people said i talk too much, and its annoying)
I have told one of my players that he keeps designing great NPCs but not a PC. Threatened to take the last one as an NPC and have him roll up a new character.
See my above statement about that. My friend makes PCs that are better suited as NPCs.
Does it count for Proactivity, if my character, when downtime is achieved in a town, is the one who makes the shopping list of the items that are a must, and leave the actual shopping to the rest of the group, while she goes off, and look to see if there is a "quest" to do for a little extra coin, that she then accepts or declines on behalf of the entire group?
When I make a PC or when I am advising a player who is making a PC I make sure to ask "Why would other people want to adventure with this character? What about them makes them worth keeping around? What do they add to the group?" If you can't answer those questions then you have either made a bad character or you need to spend some time fleshing out your character more.
I have a character that is based on being useful. Its a dragonborn cook that is constantly looking for the best foods in the world.
I play a good all rounder: a powerbuilt paladin who's the team momentum who drags players to the spotlight and is really likeable but a flawed person.