Encouraging Charactization

[Evilhalfling]

I ran a great one shot last night and it started with a some simple role-playing.

it was a living forgotten realms group, so the characters and players were mostly unfamiliar to each other. These were paragon characters, so I asked each player about how they fit into the world, if they had met the NPCs before, and if they had arrived on time to the meeting.
I then provided a gossipy guide, and asked in person about current events and their opinions.

This intro period had no meaningful choices but really felt like it helped the players to get into their characters heads. Sort of a mini-showcase that went far beyond "what does your character look like?"

It was a long game with a lot of (fun) fights. Unfortunately the NPC they ran in the middle of the game was approached as just a problem, and role-playing was strained.

Three epiphanies:
1. I should make time so that each character has can introduce themselves, both in words and actions that reveal their personalities.
2. This is important in my home game as well as 1-shots. So that we are all reminded of the individual personalities of the characters.
3. How do I focus on NPCs being people, not problems to solve?

I think PCs need more chances to show off who they are, without having to be pragmatic, or groupthink.
How do you encourage your players?

 

[aco175]

In my group there are a few people that have good backstory and a few that have the stock "My family was killed by (insert monster race name) and I was raised by my mentor before he died and left me to find my place in the world".

With 4e we now have two groups that we play and everyone has a decent story and made ties to how they meet each other, without my intervention. There could be a roleplay session to introduce everyone, or even a informal talk before the 'game' starts. I do think it is good that there is some sort of introduction for everyone.

As far as npc's being people, I kind of view these as 2 groups of prople. Those that are obstacles and those that are for roleplaying. The local lord or bartender is someone that will be a reoccuring character. He gets more personality and traits. He has motivations and secrets. OTOH the npc they meet in a prison cell after the group just killed the goblin guards is there to provide an obstacle, weather to use a healing potion to get information, provide dilemna on weather or not to lill him or escort him out, whatever. This person is meant for one time interaction and had limited thought put into him. As always they can become the former if they resurface and then they get more thought.

 

[L1qw1d]

There are sites that have good long lists to ask- favourite foods? etc. But the ROLE part of the Role play is part of story crafting which has little to do with the game books and more to do with story arcs.

If you want people to view NPC's as more realistic, making them exaggerated starts well. Have PC's have positive interactions, or relaxing or stiffening- just subtle things the PC notices people are doing because they're around- Paragon is the Tier where populace start recognising and being heavily swayed by PC's. It is COLLOSALLY hard to craft stories sometimes with this edition, but I like trying mechanics from other systems out- White Wolf (the OLD stuff) works WONDERS for this in areas like reactions (more subtle variations), as well as "grey areas" like dealing with situations where convincing people should be more than a roll.

 

[Numlock]

My standard procedure for this kind of problem is including 'character defining choices' in the start of my adventure or campaign. The first half hour of gaming will be riddled with choices, but with little consequences. I.e. a beggar comes up to the character, does he give some money? Either choice will have no consequence, so denying the beggar gold will not make him the BBEG, and hate the character forever. Giving the beggar some money will not make him super thankful and helpful.

Make these choices increasingly difficult and with more consequence when you feel the players understand their characters.

 

[amerigoV]

I'll share an concept that I have implemented in onr of my campaigns. I start the gaming session with one or two roleplaying scenes. The scene is personalized for the player/PC and is not dice/abilities based, just pure roleplay (if a “skill” comes into play, I just presume they rolled a 15 on a d20). I limit each scene to 5 minutes.

I use the scenes to (1) show off the world and (2) give the players a chance to explore their PC’s personality in a “non-threatening” situation. It was really for the first function that I came up with the idea—there is just a ton of “neat” stuff in Eberron that a GM would never be able to show it all off in a campaign. It allows me to give out world flavor without having to force it into the plot. The second function just happened to be a nice by-product. My group has new PCs that they are getting used to playing. I tell the players that it does not matter how they react in this original scene, but to think about how the PC would react in the future.

Note that most scenes do have some pressure or tension, but that there generally is not the risk of a fight based on their choice/reaction (the PC is alone, and I do not want this to take too long). Also, the scene is usually is not tied directly to the current plot. If there is some tie in, the link is usually just informational. For example, one of the PCs had a scene from childhood with a group called Cloudreavers (out of control privateers). It gave her nice context when I then said that a Cloudreaver ship was in port in the main part of the session (it was in essence, a cutscene for her). Furthermore, she went to great lengths to add detail in her backstory about the Cloudreavers.

In theory, I would pull the player outside the room to run the scene because it is just for them. However, I run it in front of everyone (and make others stay quiet) and the player states at the end if they ever told the other PCs about this event. Allows me to get more information about the world across to more players.

The players really liked this idea. It has allowed me to show off the Dragonmarked Houses, convey some warforged “religious” options, detail Cloudreaver pirates/privateers, create a contact in mysterious continent of Xen’Drik, and show off parts of the massive city of Sharn. Everyone gets a few minutes of pure attention with no input from others. I tend to do two a session, rotating through the group. They last no more than 5 minutes each so as not to eat up a lot of time.

 

[CharlesRyan]

I love the idea of having an NPC ask the characters their opinions on current events. Really breathes life into the events and the world as well as the characters. I'm totally going to steal that idea!

Another technique I've found very helpful and not too draining of prep resources is the "Five things everybody knows about [XXX]" trick. I write about it here: Five Things Everybody Knows . . . . The Fascinating World of Charles Ryan

 

[Thunderfoot]

I oddly use a mix of most of the things here (though I have to admit, the 5 things I'm yoinking, great idea).

First we still create characters at the gaming table, usually devoting a whole or at least a half session just to character creation. This has a couple of effects, I can make sure that no unauthorized rules are used and the players interact during the creation phase so less "I'm a brooding loner" types are created. Often times this leads to characters that are either tied to each other via long-standing relationships such as childhood friends or the creation of families (siblings, parents and children (once had a dwarven family adventuring party the group referred to themselves as "The Adventuring VonTrapp's" you know like that Austrian singing family only we aren't from Austria, and we don't sing, and we're dwarves) or cousins and such).

While they are creating their character I have them fill out the questionnaire du jour. Inane questions that get the player's thinking about who they are and from whence they came. I rarely if ever actually use any information on these sheets as story fodder, though occasionally there is just something that's way too good to pass up and things you would never have imagined.

I have the players describe the characters to one another, kind of like a fantasy/medieval AA meeting with swords. The rules are, no mention of class, level or abilities or obvious meta-game references. Dress, speech mannerisms, distinguishing features, height, weight hair and eye color - that's all fine, using references to other more well known novelizations is allowed, but if you are playing Gandalf junior or Medieval Terminator, you get a lesson on imagination, creativity and copyright infringement.

After all this, the players decide if they know each other or not. Obviously if anyone has chosen life long friends, they know each other. Unless they decide they were separated and this is their way of re-uniting. I had two players that were childhood friends that adventured for four days before realizing their childhood mate was now their boon adventuring companion and it wasn't a oh, BTW we are long lost friends, they wrote it that way, and it worked.

Armed with all that, then it's my job to bring it together. Do this a couple of times and NPC creation/description becomes easier. Mostly, because you'll find yourself using these same techniques to flesh them out. When the character exists clearly in your mind it's usually easier to get that across to the players.

 

[Zhaleskra]

I'm willing to accept that I cannot force players to be character actors. When I'm handed a pregen, it takes me a while to get used to the mechanics of the character before zie gets a personality or until I'm comfortable with the described personality. Last May I experienced this going from barely immersed with the author (of the system)'s pregen to fully immersed.

All that said, I prefer at least a minimal level of immersion: "I explain I could get it for a lower price elsewhere" > "I haggle with the shopkeep for a lower price". My opinion and all that jazz.

 

[pemerton]

I should make time so that each character has can introduce themselves, both in words and actions that reveal their personalities.

<snip>

I think PCs need more chances to show off who they are, without having to be pragmatic, or groupthink.
How do you encourage your players?

This is really at the core of the way I try to run my game. The way I do it is to build each scenario, and as much as possible each encounter, so that it contains elements that the players (via their PCs) can build on to express what it is they want to about their PCs.

A very simple example - I have a paladin and a cleric of the Raven Queen in my party, and so include encounters with undead, and with trapped spirits of the dead, and with servants of Orcus.

A bit more complicated - I have a wizard/invoker in the service of Erathis (among other gods), and who is hostile to a wide range of monsters that he sees as threatening of the human social order (so goblins and gnolls and demons, obviously, but also devils and devil-worshippers). Encounters that evoke the history of the fallen human empire (via architectural setting, or historical documents, or NPC antagonists), or that involve the monsters to which this PC is opposed,, give the player a chance to express his PC's world view.

A corollary of this - it is important not to punish players if they express something about their PC that is at odds with the views of others (of course there are issues of tastes/standards, but these have to be solved out of the game, not within it). The wizard/invoker I mentioned has done some fairly ruthless things to hobgoblin prisoners, and also to devil-worshippers who thought they were under the protection of the PC party. This has caused some shock at the gametable, and is likely to have consequences for the PC as the campaign unfolds. But I don't see it as part of my job to use alignment rules, or anything similar, to respond to what the player has had his PC do. Having set up situations that invite this sort of engagement by the players, I have to accept what they do, even if it means the PC is not in all respects what I would consider an admirable person.