ʅʕ•ᴥ•ʔʃ Becoming a Better Roleplayer (in RPGs like DND)?

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Do you play Dungeons and Dragons (DnD)?
Hell yeah brother 71%  71%  [ 5 ]
No way 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
No, but I want to 29%  29%  [ 2 ]
Total votes : 7

MoeTrashPanda
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05 Jun 2024, 2:47 pm

I have been playing DnD for a few years now, and have improved significantly in my roleplaying and technical skills from when I first started. I credit this to practice, learning more about myself and my characters, playing Baldur's Gate 3, writing interview questions in the perspective of my character, etc.

With that being said, I still feel like I am lacking in comparison to my party mates/DM. ʕ´•ᴥ•`ʔ They have lightning reflexes, and amazing improvisation, whereas I have to write scripts internally and on paper because my brain freezes up when I am on the spot. If I haven't anticipated a situation I feel like I rely a lot on my party members to respond (which works for my character because she is selectively mute).

What tips do you have for improving roleplay skills? I am open to anything and everything! I am also working on accepting the fact that maybe I will always have to work off of loose scripts to succeed in verbal RPGs :skull:


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funeralxempire
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05 Jun 2024, 2:49 pm

Just remember, you're not you, you're them and they don't have your need to freeze up. If the character is NT, they're fluid so be fluid.


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MoeTrashPanda
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05 Jun 2024, 3:10 pm

funeralxempire wrote:
Just remember, you're not you, you're them and they don't have your need to freeze up. If the character is NT, they're fluid so be fluid.


Got it!! Thanks for the tip. Luckily my girly is a ND snake (Yuan-ti abomination), so that gives me some wiggle room ʕ•ᴥ<ʔ


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funeralxempire
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05 Jun 2024, 4:32 pm

MoeTrashPanda wrote:
funeralxempire wrote:
Just remember, you're not you, you're them and they don't have your need to freeze up. If the character is NT, they're fluid so be fluid.


Got it!! Thanks for the tip. Luckily my girly is a ND snake (Yuan-ti abomination), so that gives me some wiggle room ʕ•ᴥ<ʔ


I tend to play characters that are pretty similar to me IRL but less awkward, which makes it easier too.

Being less awkward/more socially fluid is often just the absence of inhibition in the moment, so literally just following impulse more helps to contribute to being socially fluid.

The downside is that being creepy or unhinged is often just following through on inappropriate/the wrong impulses.

Then again, if you're not predisposed to being malicious it's more likely to come off as cloudcuckoolander rather than murderhobo. There's nothing wrong with that though.

For some races because it might be fair to assume all individual members of fantasy races would be ND by human standards.

At least, since the settings I create tend to have a somewhat sci-fi approach, I tend to find it easier to describe the way other fantasy races minds work in the same way personality and developmental disorders and similar are described. Come to think of it, that's sometimes a handy way to describe how human civilizations might impact development of humans born within too.

In my default setting gnomes, goblins, kender and halflings are conflated into a single species/race. If you take into account how their minds tend to work compared to how the humans that surround them behave towards them, you end up with a basic idea of what pressures might influence the development of a creature with certain predispositions relative to humans. Some of those are inherent, some of those are developmental through the lens of what's inherent.


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"Many of us like to ask ourselves, What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?' The answer is, you're doing it. Right now." —Former U.S. Airman (Air Force) Aaron Bushnell


MoeTrashPanda
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06 Jun 2024, 8:30 am

funeralxempire wrote:

I tend to play characters that are pretty similar to me IRL but less awkward, which makes it easier too.


Same, same. I tend to make characters that are reflections of my ideals/personality/dreams/interests.

funeralxempire wrote:

At least, since the settings I create tend to have a somewhat sci-fi approach, I tend to find it easier to describe the way other fantasy races minds work in the same way personality and developmental disorders and similar are described. Come to think of it, that's sometimes a handy way to describe how human civilizations might impact development of humans born within too.

In my default setting gnomes, goblins, kender and halflings are conflated into a single species/race. If you take into account how their minds tend to work compared to how the humans that surround them behave towards them, you end up with a basic idea of what pressures might influence the development of a creature with certain predispositions relative to humans. Some of those are inherent, some of those are developmental through the lens of what's inherent.


That makes total sense! I took some of your advice into play in yesterdays session, and when I had to speak I tried really hard to shut down my own thinking, and become/think as my character. It really helped! I was happy with the speaking I did. There were a few moments of blurting stuff that didn't really make sense because nerves, but the parts that mattered I feel content with.

Thanks again! ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ

(First edit was to correct quoting issue, and second edit was to write this sentence)


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funeralxempire
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07 Jun 2024, 4:31 am

MoeTrashPanda wrote:
That makes total sense! I took some of your advice into play in yesterdays session, and when I had to speak I tried really hard to shut down my own thinking, and become/think as my character. It really helped! I was happy with the speaking I did. There were a few moments of blurting stuff that didn't really make sense because nerves, but the parts that mattered I feel content with.

Thanks again! ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ

(First edit was to correct quoting issue, and second edit was to write this sentence)


Awesome, I'm glad it was useful advice. :D


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When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become king, the palace becomes a circus.
"Many of us like to ask ourselves, What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?' The answer is, you're doing it. Right now." —Former U.S. Airman (Air Force) Aaron Bushnell