The most important step comes in my opinion after having figured out the traits. It is about transforming the adjectives and the like that the traits are into actual behaviour. Thus that I do not tell the others around the table who my character is, but put that into verbs to show them who my character is. In that regard I usually do not go with immutable traits or try to emulate a living human being, but instead I look only at thins that create motion, the beliefs and even better their misconceptions about the world, their drives, like what they desire, or what insecurities they have that push them to take actions to avoid being confronted with them. Basically, like characters get created in novels, always in motion and not some static persona that seems to be what method actors go for. Since a character that does not move, might look interesting, but it will start to feel hollow fast, since they do not allow or an interesting arc.
I agree - the adjective to action pipeline is something that can easily be overlooked! It's all about bringing your characters to life through the way we broadcast their actions and motivations 😊
More years ago than I care to think about, a friend of mine asked me to help her out by becoming part of her pirate crew for her college's Ren Faire. In order to do this everyone she had on her crew had to create a persona. The persona was who they were at Faire, basically the character they were playing. This involved deciding on a lot of things such as ancestry, background, social class, religious beliefs, etc. This video reminds me a lot of many of the things she talked about. This would be a wonderful video for anyone interest in how to get into character for interactive theater. However, except for the brief part about choosing some quotes and sayings for the character, this video doesn't cover anything about actual roleplaying. It lays solid background for it, but doesn't take the next necessary step. If you want to get into roleplay for a table top game, especially if you are introverted (raises hand awkwardly to about shoulder height because I would really rather not be noticed), you have to practice. You have created their character, you have gotten inside their head, run through possible scenarios, and talk to the mirror. Get the voice out there. DM's give your players some simple stock scenarios to run through between games. What would (insert character name here) say if (insert npc here) asked them ... where were you last night ... what do you know of the undead ... have you ever seen tracks such as these ... have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight? My persona for that long ago faire was Brother Brendan. An orphan who had been raised in solitude by his overly religious uncle who convinced him that he needed to recreate Saint Brendan's voyage and rediscover Saint Brendan's fair isle. Brendan was rescued from certain death at sea by the crew of the pirate ship, who recognized him as a holy man and asked him to be the ships chaplain. Brendan was naive to the core, and the crew had a body count that would embarrass most groups of murder hobos.
Great tools. I think someone would get a good starting place for what to do with their character using this method. I need to check those sayings/quotes for inspiration. I feel GMing has helped me improve my rp the most. The practice of trying to portray so many different people, even if it's shallow short interactions builds up over time, and of course recurring NPCs are even better for digging into what a character is about. Im sure it lacks the satisfaction of immersively embodying a player character you've realized, but I can overcome the initial shyness that comes from of not knowing what a character will say/do with a three bullet point description and ideally some art, and that's entirely from running games. I used to feel like I needed really solid ideas for a character before the first session. Shifting to a "play to find out" attitude has been freeing.
This is great !! You’ve put in words and a repeatable format exactly what makes good characters good. I recently started playing a really fun Paladin, Nelly McNally, who has a lot of the same characteristics as your Verity. Same hyper-optimistic and naive Rapunzel mindset, except Nelly is less impressionable b/c she’s blindly steadfast in what she was taught even when it’s clearly a bad strategic decision. Always calling back to “Paladin Camp” cross between bible/Girl Scout camp and the merit badge she earned that correspond w/ each of her skill proficiencies.
It wasn't actually roleplay advice, but character writing advice. Find some "core belief" the character has, and constantly refer back to it with all their traits. The character may be aware of this belief, but they actually most likely aren't, and if they aren't then this can turn into "the lie", which is what the character tells themself they believe. for example, A character who's core belief is that "I don't deserve to be loved because i'm not good enough" can have the lie "I will be happy if i just work harder", which is fairly specific, as opposed to something like "workaholic" which is much vaguer and can lead to moments where you could make any number of decisions and they'd all make sense. certain character traits can be vague and lead to moments where you dont really know which trait to lean on. this belief + lie set up gives you a base level from which all character traits and decisions stem from, which makes roleplay easier. Also great video, i'm suprised that there's so few views and subscribers here. this is very polished, great stuff 👍
Thanks for the kind words! 😊 I definitely agree - exploring a character's core belief has SO much benefit, it really helps create very believable characters! I also really like to explore what things *could* potentially change that belief so I can identify those growth moments when they present themselves in game.
I look at it like creating characters in screenwriting. Every character you write has some sort of piece of you in them. Latch onto whatever those thing(s) are and it will be easier to roleplay as that character. If you can empathize with your character, understand where they are coming from, and know what drives them, you will be able to effectively roleplay as them.
A very interesting dive for players to link fantasy to "réalisme" so that make belief stick to the games. 💜💜🍗🍗 and they develop social skills and learned how human's work, playing a socials Games like TTRPGs love the way you cast your spells... 🧙♀ Witch.
I am having trouble playing a badass(tm) without making it feel like I'm mean. Especially wanting to not lead to pc v pc feelings or antagonism for other players. It also comes from my own internal desire to people please and general default of being someone who's job it is to deescalate in the real world, i find it difficult to toe the line between being a bit "tougher" without feeling like im attacking other players, even if I've already cleared it with them. Any advice for how to rp that type of character archetype?
I absolutely do! 😊 So I actually have a video on how to play difficult characters - I use extreme examples in it but they're super helpful for characters that can come off as a little "harsh" too! For that sort of archetype I'd really lean into looking to have those badass moments be squaring off against an NPC _instead_ of the party. So for example, if you want to show that you're tough - instead of arm wrestling your adventuring buddies, you can challenge an NPC in a tavern in order to win over information from them. I'd also lookup archetypes to base your characters personality on - so if I think a character might be like Faith from Buffy, I'd go search her on TVTropes and look for traits that feel Badass but Fun or that humanize her a bit. So like doing a cute little celebration dance after you down an enemy, especially if you're greviously injured, is something that can help take away some of the harsh edges of a character. Hopefully that helps! ua-cam.com/video/P7aXwYvrczw/v-deo.html
Totally other question. What's this croak in your voice. I hear many young American women use it. Is it a trend, regional accent, certain form of speaking? A character trait? I like it a first, then a little bit, is cool and too much kind of irritates. So what is it?
The most important step comes in my opinion after having figured out the traits. It is about transforming the adjectives and the like that the traits are into actual behaviour. Thus that I do not tell the others around the table who my character is, but put that into verbs to show them who my character is. In that regard I usually do not go with immutable traits or try to emulate a living human being, but instead I look only at thins that create motion, the beliefs and even better their misconceptions about the world, their drives, like what they desire, or what insecurities they have that push them to take actions to avoid being confronted with them. Basically, like characters get created in novels, always in motion and not some static persona that seems to be what method actors go for. Since a character that does not move, might look interesting, but it will start to feel hollow fast, since they do not allow or an interesting arc.
I agree - the adjective to action pipeline is something that can easily be overlooked! It's all about bringing your characters to life through the way we broadcast their actions and motivations 😊
More years ago than I care to think about, a friend of mine asked me to help her out by becoming part of her pirate crew for her college's Ren Faire. In order to do this everyone she had on her crew had to create a persona. The persona was who they were at Faire, basically the character they were playing. This involved deciding on a lot of things such as ancestry, background, social class, religious beliefs, etc. This video reminds me a lot of many of the things she talked about. This would be a wonderful video for anyone interest in how to get into character for interactive theater.
However, except for the brief part about choosing some quotes and sayings for the character, this video doesn't cover anything about actual roleplaying. It lays solid background for it, but doesn't take the next necessary step.
If you want to get into roleplay for a table top game, especially if you are introverted (raises hand awkwardly to about shoulder height because I would really rather not be noticed), you have to practice.
You have created their character, you have gotten inside their head, run through possible scenarios, and talk to the mirror.
Get the voice out there.
DM's give your players some simple stock scenarios to run through between games. What would (insert character name here) say if (insert npc here) asked them ... where were you last night ... what do you know of the undead ... have you ever seen tracks such as these ... have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?
My persona for that long ago faire was Brother Brendan. An orphan who had been raised in solitude by his overly religious uncle who convinced him that he needed to recreate Saint Brendan's voyage and rediscover Saint Brendan's fair isle. Brendan was rescued from certain death at sea by the crew of the pirate ship, who recognized him as a holy man and asked him to be the ships chaplain. Brendan was naive to the core, and the crew had a body count that would embarrass most groups of murder hobos.
Great tools. I think someone would get a good starting place for what to do with their character using this method. I need to check those sayings/quotes for inspiration.
I feel GMing has helped me improve my rp the most. The practice of trying to portray so many different people, even if it's shallow short interactions builds up over time, and of course recurring NPCs are even better for digging into what a character is about.
Im sure it lacks the satisfaction of immersively embodying a player character you've realized, but I can overcome the initial shyness that comes from of not knowing what a character will say/do with a three bullet point description and ideally some art, and that's entirely from running games.
I used to feel like I needed really solid ideas for a character before the first session. Shifting to a "play to find out" attitude has been freeing.
Such a detailed, actionable structure for building out a character and investing in others, amazing thank you
I’m glad it was helpful! 😊
That's a lot of really great advice! I especially like the idea of mining TV Tropes to help shape your PC's personality / response to things.
Thanks for the kind words! 😊
This is great !! You’ve put in words and a repeatable format exactly what makes good characters good.
I recently started playing a really fun Paladin, Nelly McNally, who has a lot of the same characteristics as your Verity. Same hyper-optimistic and naive Rapunzel mindset, except Nelly is less impressionable b/c she’s blindly steadfast in what she was taught even when it’s clearly a bad strategic decision. Always calling back to “Paladin Camp” cross between bible/Girl Scout camp and the merit badge she earned that correspond w/ each of her skill proficiencies.
Thanks for the kind words! 😊 and I love that idea for a paladin- Nelly sounds like she’s probably a blast to play! Paladin Camp is so cute 😂
I don't know if its by design or a happy accident but you give big Kristen Schaal vibes to me. Enjoying your content even if DnD isn't my game.
Definitely happy accident but also not the first time I’ve heard that 😂 And thanks for the kind words!
Dont be afraid to check out Pathfinder, Traveller, or Shadowrun for material for videos ;)
What tip were you given that made a huge difference in how you roleplay?
It wasn't actually roleplay advice, but character writing advice. Find some "core belief" the character has, and constantly refer back to it with all their traits. The character may be aware of this belief, but they actually most likely aren't, and if they aren't then this can turn into "the lie", which is what the character tells themself they believe. for example, A character who's core belief is that "I don't deserve to be loved because i'm not good enough" can have the lie "I will be happy if i just work harder", which is fairly specific, as opposed to something like "workaholic" which is much vaguer and can lead to moments where you could make any number of decisions and they'd all make sense. certain character traits can be vague and lead to moments where you dont really know which trait to lean on. this belief + lie set up gives you a base level from which all character traits and decisions stem from, which makes roleplay easier.
Also great video, i'm suprised that there's so few views and subscribers here. this is very polished, great stuff 👍
Thanks for the kind words! 😊 I definitely agree - exploring a character's core belief has SO much benefit, it really helps create very believable characters! I also really like to explore what things *could* potentially change that belief so I can identify those growth moments when they present themselves in game.
I look at it like creating characters in screenwriting. Every character you write has some sort of piece of you in them. Latch onto whatever those thing(s) are and it will be easier to roleplay as that character. If you can empathize with your character, understand where they are coming from, and know what drives them, you will be able to effectively roleplay as them.
I am trying to balance encouraging my players to roleplay more, and not make them feel like they are doing it badly. 😅
Great video the whole way through.
Glad you enjoyed it! 😊
A very interesting dive for players to link fantasy to "réalisme" so that make belief stick to the games. 💜💜🍗🍗 and they develop social skills and learned how human's work, playing a socials Games like TTRPGs love the way you cast your spells... 🧙♀ Witch.
I am having trouble playing a badass(tm) without making it feel like I'm mean. Especially wanting to not lead to pc v pc feelings or antagonism for other players. It also comes from my own internal desire to people please and general default of being someone who's job it is to deescalate in the real world, i find it difficult to toe the line between being a bit "tougher" without feeling like im attacking other players, even if I've already cleared it with them. Any advice for how to rp that type of character archetype?
I absolutely do! 😊 So I actually have a video on how to play difficult characters - I use extreme examples in it but they're super helpful for characters that can come off as a little "harsh" too! For that sort of archetype I'd really lean into looking to have those badass moments be squaring off against an NPC _instead_ of the party.
So for example, if you want to show that you're tough - instead of arm wrestling your adventuring buddies, you can challenge an NPC in a tavern in order to win over information from them. I'd also lookup archetypes to base your characters personality on - so if I think a character might be like Faith from Buffy, I'd go search her on TVTropes and look for traits that feel Badass but Fun or that humanize her a bit. So like doing a cute little celebration dance after you down an enemy, especially if you're greviously injured, is something that can help take away some of the harsh edges of a character. Hopefully that helps!
ua-cam.com/video/P7aXwYvrczw/v-deo.html
Audio is very hard to hear
Totally other question. What's this croak in your voice. I hear many young American women use it. Is it a trend, regional accent, certain form of speaking? A character trait? I like it a first, then a little bit, is cool and too much kind of irritates. So what is it?
It’s just my voice and how it sounds 🤷♀️