“Oy! Bartender! Geh me anotha pint of that whadayacallit…Red Beer!”
Getting into your character is important for game masters and players alike. It helps set the scene for the game and it’s easier for players to remember the name of the gruff dwarf that doesn’t quite know what wine is. Acting out your characters with different voices and mannerisms is much better than just stating the character has those qualities.
If you’re unsure how to act things out at the table or you’re a little bit too shy to bust out with an Ahoy!or a disgruntled Aaaarrrrgggghhh! then take heed me hearties with these acting tips to beef up your role-playing…
Gamemasters – Know your stuff!
Your acting gig at the table is perhaps the hardest to perfect. You have a lot of different characters to deal with and you certainly don’t want to mix them up. Also, you have to keep in mind that some, if not all, of the players are taking their cues from you. If your NPC’s are dull then the players have nothing to work with, so before you do anything make sure that you’ve got a good handle on what makes your NPC’s interesting. Practice their mannerisms and accents if you need to; it will make your game much more immersive. Remember, DMing is like a performance art, be ready to perform!
Alright, Mr. Demille, I’m Ready for My Close Up
Almost every gaming system talks about adding a bit of flavor to your character. Try to figure out Here are a few notes to refresh your memory:
- What are your characters motivations? – If they’re worried about retribution from a local thieves guild maybe they’re a bit skittish. Are they paranoid? Do they constantly look over their shoulder? If your character is paranoid they probably want to talk in hushed tones, afraid that someone nearby is listening.
- Are they confident? – Is your character a proud noble or a thief? It’s good to have a good grasp of how your character presents themselves and if they’re a bit pompous you can puff out your chest and look down your nose at the other people at the table. Just don’t be a jerk about it, you’re just role-playing!
- Are they from around here? – If your character is from a different area then give them a different accent. Try to decide if all people from that area have that accent or if it varies between races. Your halflings probably shouldn’t sound exactly the same as your half-orcs, and your alien from the planet Quxar shouldn’t sound like your average joe. If you’re consistent, players may be able to determine where an NPC is just by listening to you speak. If the accent you want to learn is a real one, look for books, movies or other media that feature your accent. Youtube is exceptionally good for this kind of research, there are tons of examples there for you to pull from.
Stage Fright
If you’re a bit shy then there are a few things you can do to calm your nerves before a game. First, picture all of your gaming buddies in their underwear. OK…Not really. That might just make you more uncomfortable in close proximity. Go with this instead:
1. Be prepared – Make sure you know your character like the back of your hand. Try to get into their heads, practice their voice and mannerisms. Do it in front of a mirror if you have to, it’s a good way to build confidence.
2. Stretch – Athletes need to stretch before a big game, and actors need to as well. Take time to stretch out your neck, arms and face. Actors sometimes have to contort their faces into weird expressions so it’s good to get the muscles in your eyes, mouth, and cheeks a little bit of a stretch.
3. Have fun! – Try to enjoy your own performance and those around you. It’s not a contest to be the best. Try to relax and just have fun with it. You are your own worst critic.
Don’t Overact
While everyone at your table might like a good role-playing session, nobody likes a ham. Remember that you’re trying to have fun and nobody should be taking all of the limelight. Try to be aware of the people around you and don’t upstage anyone. It’s great that you think your characters stutter is the best thing in the world, but overplaying it can waste game time which gets frustrating for everyone.
Do you have any role-playing or acting tips yourself? Share the wealth and leave a comment below!
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I think this article has a few assumptions built in, which is interesting because the degree to which people get in character depends on group-to-group.
I wouldn’t be comfortable for instance, being the one guy at the game table talking in a goofy accent if that’s the kind of group you’re in. Different groups have different degrees to which this is appropriate or expected – I’ve been in some games where nobody talks in character ever. This isn’t “wrong,” as the way that works is the right way.
A lot of gags like Order of the Stick and Knights of the Dinner Table have gotten a lot of mileage out of jokes over minmaxers, powergamers and so on, but I always thought extreme thespian types have their moments of being just as irritating, and for an intriguingly overlapping reason: they attract attention to themselves at the expense of everybody else.
What’s interesting is the way the total character immersion vs. I’m-just-here-to-kill-things pendulum has started to swing AWAY from the acting/storytelling/narrativist side, and toward the more “get together with your friends and kill monsters” side. Hackmaster, once a Dinner Table joke, is a real system and it is selling unironically very well. There was a great ad for a new D&D online mini game which actually sells it for “powergamers and minmaxers,” saying “you can ‘roleplay’ out your death scene.”
One can argue that nostalgia, a return to a traditional game experience like D&D 1st without all the thespian pretentions of later games, is a part of it, and that is certainly true. Nostalgia dominates gaming like it dominates movies and television (for heaven’s sake, they brought back Tron and Thundercats this year).
I happen to be much more sympathetic with the perspective RPGs are about killing things and loot over the idea they’re storytelling, because the thing is, resemblance to storytelling is incidental in an RPG, and that at the end of the day these are GAMES first and everything else a distant second. There is a limit to how much like a story something like an RPG can be.
A lot of games celebrate this take on gaming, appealing to the adolescent powergamer in all of us – SenZar comes to mind. I always thought SenZar had its flaws but it came out at the wrong time, when all gaming was thought of as interactive movies or improvisational theater thanks to West End’s movie games. SenZar was seen as a pimply teenage embarassment.
(White Wolf was symptomatic of this trend, not the cause of it, and as evidence of that I point to the fact their core system was basically plagiarized from West End.)
The RPG climate of the 1990s and early 2000s killed off the rules-heavy games of the 1980s like RuneQuest and Rolemaster like the Ice Age killed the dinosaurs, though they hobbled around, irrelevant, for a few more editions. Champions and GURPS, thank God, are alive and well, though they were by far the least crunchy of the 1980s games.
Now the pendulum is swinging back on RPGs, with the emphasis on the G as opposed to the RP.
wow this is lovely