7 hacks to get your D&D party to roleplay with you 

Take 40% off any annual World Anvil membership (but only if you're okay with being in a film BLANC): www.worldanvil.com/w/ginnydi Use code "GINNY" for your discount!

Tip 8: just put a door in front of your party. They will roleplay for hour, trying all the means to get them open.

As a GM, I just love when I get to sit back and see my players communicate in game with each other.

The fighter in our party noticed a romance budding between my nervous paladin and our impulsive cleric, so he’s been doing everything in his power to get the two of us together. It’s made for a cute dynamic between the three characters, and it also gives us all something to do in rp scenes.

my very favorite session as a player, we literally did not advance the plot for hours. we all just made drinks (some alcoholic, some not) and then played Truth or Drink in character. It's a great way to develop your PC because it's so fun to just adlib and improv answers, and all of our characters got real bonds and insight into eachother that would have been harder to develop in regular gameplay.

Ginny out here literally teach us social skills, which gods know we wouldn't learn naturally. Thanks for another great video!

There’s nothing that makes me happier as a DM then seeing the players truly caring for an NPC or another players character. That kind of investment is at the heart of D&D and roleplaying between the group is a major part of cultivating that.

Ginny: "Maybe the other characters offer terrible advice" Me whose half-orc is named Terrible (it's a long story): "Perfect, that's just what she wants!"

A bit of a morbid conversation starter, but I had a warlock who lost their best friend (another PC) and started asking people they adventured with, "Hey, it's possible we're going to die out here. If we do, what do you want done with your body? Do you have family we should contact? Any religious rituals?" - He'd also ask something similar with his 'speak with dead' ability.

I don't believe Ginny didn't mention this one: Spend downtime together. If you're doing downtime on the table having your character spend his downtime with other characters is a great way for building relationships and there will always be plenty of room for roleplay. Like when they go shopping together and give each other fashion tipps or when they decide to start a tinkering project together and work out details of it or even when they decide to break into that ancient mansion at the end of town to see whether or not that mansion is cursed by an evil spirit they can argue on who was responsible for making noise or make it a competition on who stays longer in the cursed house or even just tell the story of that haunted mansion that almost killed them together to the rest of the party.

Can we take a moment to appreciate Ginny's new graphics? Like the icon with the pretty hair and the flowers, and then those flowers appearing next to the titles? It's so pretty and really suits Ginny's vibes as well as the background of these videos!

As a real-life introvert and relatively new player, this is actually a huge help in figuring out both how to talk in game and in real life. Thanks, Ginny!

I totally believe Ginny when she says she doesn't have a dozen clones locked in her basement for skits...

One Halloween many moons ago, at a party with some friends and their families, something magical spontaneously happened. I got up and started telling the story of Persephone and Hades, how he kidnapped her and then tricked her, and why that leads to fewer sunlight hours and cold weather. But as I told the story, I called up people from the audience to act out the story as I narrated. This was 2004, and whereas a few years later I'd be LARPing with these same friends, we had NO idea what D&D was. It was one of the coolest things I've experienced :)

My favourite session by a mile was a session following a character death, wherein the party took it upon themselves the opportunity to organise a whole viking-style funeral for the dead bard; it was easily one of the most satisfying things to watch as a DM!

FREE THE CLONES GINNY! They don't deserve this! Who wants to collect a party with me? venture out on a journey to Ginny's castle where we shall thwart this evil and free her clones! RIDE WITH ME INTO BATTLE!

I like how slowly more and more lore is added to the GDCU, like how ginny has a ton of clones in her basement

Checking Ginny's schedule to see if she is appearing at several conventions on both coasts and several continents on the same day ...

"Get within melee range of blackout drunk" is my new favorite phrase 😂

Ginny and these ads.... I legit could watch her do an entire video on these alone

I once prepped for a full session complete with NPCs and Combat. My party never made it past the pancake station. And I loved it. Suddenly they're discussing what goes on top based on their family, where they were raised, critiquing each other's builds. The group really just turned up the role play from that session and it never stopped after!

Action heavy sections followed by a quieter moment to rest and allow both characters & audience(/ players) to process are called "scenes and sequels". Learning about these concepts really changed my perception of stories, mostly as a writer. Not sure it applies as much here, but thought it was interesting enough to share

The prison clone is so funny! Ginny must be doing a creat job requiring clones to do skits to be allowed food!

25 seconds in and I'm like "wait... there's 'Ginny-verse' lore!?!" I'm legit flashing back to the videos where there were multiple Ginny's on screen and having my mind blown. I thought it was a green screen, hours of hard work and meticulous editing, but turns out it was Ginny's extensive knowledge of biotechnology and work in DNA mapping the entire time!! Came for the D&D talk, but leaving with a Metal Gear Solid sized chuck of backstory, lol

To the clones in the basement: It’s ok. Your life is not in danger. You have nothing to worry about. You are completely and totally safe. Just like, don’t worry about it. It’ll be fine. Probably.

"Share a hot take with the party!" My Orc character: Yea I just really can't stand elves, they creep me out. The two half-elves and dark elf in my party: Wait what.

Ginny Noir is incredible. It seems there’s also some kind of clone sub-narrative being established in the Ginny-verse. Consider me intrigued.

This is an important one, I've had pure 'yes.' 'no.' party members. Thank you once again Ginny

This is my favorite part of role playing! I love evolving the characters' relationships. Sometimes it can be little things, like my fighter thanking the bard for healing him by calling him "brother" (he'd married the bard's adopted sister, the rogue), after starting the campaign feeling resentful against the bard. Or how the party's rogue has a bit of a one-sided prank war against my cleric. At one point, half the group randomly decided to play Tag withou my cleric realizing he was the target and was subsequentally very confused when he was suddenly surrounded by his friends and they slapped colored chalk hand prints all over him and ran off. Just another weird moment in our adventures.

Ok, this was by far my new favorite ad spot. You always kill it (no pun intended to your "skit characters" you're "working on")

Weirdly I’ve found intraparty roleplay is so much easier to keep going that roleplay between pcs and npcs. It’s just easier to develop in-character relationships with characters that my character is always around.

You offer amazing insight into the rollplay aspect of the game. "Making NPC's ask about the feeling of a character makes a player answer in-character" & "Saying controversial things will draw out reactions." are things of which I'll remind myself of more often.

Since I almost exclusively play non-D&D TTRPGs, I really love these tips that translate so well into all the other games. Keep ‘em coming, Ginny!

I came to RU-vid today specifically to look for videos about getting inter-party roleplay going. Then I found this video has been up for 1 hour! How serendipitous! Thanks for your content, Ginny!

I've been rewatching your other character and role-play related videos this week while I attempt to come up with a personality for my new character I'll be playing this weekend. So far only one other person in my group really does any RP, so this video is timed well!

My party LOVE to RP. I had 3 hours of them sitting and talking last session. Building a Party dynamic. I barelyt had to do anything, In fact I had to push them out of it a bit to get them to move along with the plot lol. It was great. They almost all have the Entertainer backround and are a band called "The Menagerie". The Party Consists of a Harengon, a Dragonborn, a Arakocra, A Saytr and a Reborn former Symic Hybrid that looks like a month. Its pure Chaos....and I am lovin' every second of it! Keep up the awesome work Ginny! :)

This is well timed - I've been trying to get my players to do more intra party rping lately. Thanks for the tips! And lol the clones.

There is no better feeling as a DM, than sitting back and listening to your players role play amongst themselves. I have one group who is particularly good at this and they’re so invested because of it.

I don't really talk to or roleplay with the party most times during games because I'm too shy, so I usually go for NPCs instead. In one campaign I made a Monk/Cleric who speaks in short worded sentences when speaking, (Common isn't their first language) and whenever they do interact with the party, they actually really like it and enjoy spending time with them, even if they don't say much. It was a revelation for me to have more chances to roleplay with party members not to talk, but to just listen to their troubles, what's on their mind, or even just letting my actions speak for me.

In a campaign I was in recently, our characters had our first combat session when we were traveling on the road and were pseudo-ambushed by some bandits who wanted us to pay them to let us go on. The other two players were a pacifist Cleric and a Blood Hunter who thought the bandits were just misguided and not actually dangerous. When we showed the bandits that we were tough enough to take them in combat, our DM explained the rules they used for lethal versus nonlethal attacks, and our Blood Hunter player said (above-table but not in-character) something to the effect of "let's just knock them out and be on our way". When my turn was up, I swung at the bandit leader and killed him, and the bandits scattered. Afterwards, we had a good roleplay session where the other characters basically sat my character down and asked "hey, what the hell was that?" The context was perhaps a little macabre, but it allowed all three of us to develop our characters' opinions on the idea of killing enemy NPCs in a natural way. To be clear, I'm not saying I planned it that way, it just worked out serendipitously.

Your intro peaked my interest in the topic immediately. It was because so much of what you were saying, and what followed, is so appropriate for teaching, whether it's leading a discussion, keeping an activity on task, or even for actual RPing during a game. In my own experience, playing really hooks middle schoolers, and draws them in. I suspect you'd have made an excellent teacher, Ginny. On the other hand, you're actually creating a career out of thin air here, and that's pretty cool. Thank you for sharing. Best wishes.

Oh man, roleplay is EVERYTHING! Obviously I love a good combat, but good RP is so much more important to me in general. If there isn't any going on, that's okay, but I'm also totally okay with combat-free sessions. Great video! There are definitely some RP-starved folks out there, and I hope this video finds them!

Great video! I especially love how nothing weird happens and there are no clones, none at all, just editing, don't worry about it.

I don't usually prefer a super roleplay focused game, but figuring out how to make those moments happen when we do want them is tough, and this is really helpful.

I had a character who couldn't read find out that sword had a "W" so for the rest of the campaign she said she wanted to learn how to use a s-W-ord. It was one of my best rp campaigns in total.

This is great! Exactly what I needed for my new group! A lot of them are newbies interested in role play but I haven't known how to naturally get scenes going with them. Also love your editing style in this one. But maybe you should lock your basement a bit better. Can't let them escape.

Apart from all the amazing advice in this video, this has got to be one of my all time favourite sponsor skits in your videos. The overall quality of your content is improving constantly and it’s so impressive and inspiring!

I appreciate this sm! I’ve been the only person trying to make fun scenes with other party members before, and it can be super disheartening to be the only one and has honestly ended many times in any role play fizzling out

We have clones, We have different time periods, We have lore, The Ginny Verse is going mad crazy rn and badabababa i'm lovin it

Ginny’s sponsored skits are absolute genius. I usually skip ads but I watch hers every time. They just get better and better

i’m new to dnd but i really want to roleplay, hopefully i’m able to use some of these in future games!

Ginny pro tip for clone control create them with a limited life span of about a month. Have them work a regular 8 to 9 hours and give them their final week of life off. These help cut back on revolts and clones trying to prove they are the original. It's saved me a lot of effort on maintenance and clean up that way. Hope this helps a lot of my clones love dnd campaigns so your videos help me a lot.

Ginny Di: RU-vid prisoner is such an interesting and compelling character. I would be curious to hear more from her in the future.

My favorite campaign was my favorite because the bonds my character made with the others. We were trying to persuade our way into a town and my character managed to get a ticket in but the others weren't so I claimed one of them was my husband and then a third character piped up that he was our son and we managed to con the entire group into going. But then my character kept going out of her way to take care of her "son" to keep the secret at first but then because she cared. And then there was a fight in the woods and his character called mine mom and damnit i made a family. All of our characters had moments where we cracked jokes or referenced events that happened that made our characters bond. We had running gags between characters not just as players, and my dm was great at facilitating roll play. We havent played for a few months but we are starting back during the summer and I am so excited

I kinda fell into roleplay because my first game had some very good roleplayer players that I admired. They didn’t pressure me to join but were happy to leave openings and engage if you took them up. They also had a fun banter between each other. So now I roleplay to varying degrees in my other games. I enjoy it and I try to emulate what I enjoyed so much about how they played. Of course I try to follow the flow and culture of the table I’m at. But I can say I really enjoy my roleplay heavy tables the most of the many ongoing campaigns I’m part of (yes, I have a problem, I’m aware of it). One of my favorites is one where, despite all our characters getting along, each of our characters has a distinct personality, pov, and way of doing things. For instance. Our bard is very innocent and childlike and wants to believe everyone has some good in them. Their experience in life has been mild and time and they can be said to have grown up in a happy home and family and are only on this journey to find their twin who ran away from home after the death of the father, not able to process their grief properly. For the Paladin they left home to find their father who had been called away by someone of my own character’s race. The role they filled in the community is what plays a role in the Paladin’s motivations though. Once their father left, all the responsibilities the father had taken on were pushed onto the paladin’s and they started to feel resentful about it, especially since they were constantly, not just living in the shadow of their father, but told they weren’t living up to it. They also felt constrained and like they wanted to be different, not a carbon copy of their father. So they started their journey to find their father and send him back home so they could properly move on with their own life instead of imitating his legacy. And then there is the wizard. Wizard comes from a noble family and had a decent life but his biggest passion has been his research subject. Even so he is a deeply loyal person and has no qualms in being protective of said people once he decides they are his friends. He is practical for the most part and doesn’t really care about what constitutes are good or evil. He doesn’t care about it. He cares only about making sure the other isn’t a threat, can be of use, or is a nonentity in his eyes. He also is very pragmatic about money and making sure he gets a good deal at the market. He isn’t actively harmful though unless what is his is threatened. And lastly is my character, the ranger. He is a deeply traumatized man who lost his entire family. He had a good life and spent much of it in pursuit of linguistic research because he had such a passion in learning from and getting to know people. After he lost his family he became a refugee in a new town. It didn’t take long before he came to love this place as well and set about protecting it with his learned skills. He would drive off bandits and brigands, guide lost people, and find rare plants needed for potions that benefited the health of the people. He even took on a handful of students in those peaceful years. And then he lost his home town to an invasion. He escaped with a student and his best friend but had to give up the rest. Now he is someone who feels like he is a failure, not a good person, and while he loves people, is deeply afraid of losing them almost to the point of madness. He is protective and kind but will, and has, eliminated what he believes is a possible threat to what he has left that he cares for. He has little love for corrupt authority figures and institutions (since they were a factor behind his family’s deaths) and will have a difficult time allying himself with them unless the party shows they deeply wish for it. He can be bullied into decisions though for those he cares for. He is actually an enabler. He also does want to be a better person. His role is something of a mentor for most of the characters (save the wizard who is his best friend). And the funny thing is, we spend a lot of sessions not in battle. We have had deeper conversations between our characters on their philosophies and experiences, they insecurities and their strengths. The bard and wizard had a cute moment where they discussed their siblings. The Paladin and I discussed how one doesn’t need step into the shoes of their parent’s legacy, no matter how great it was, and that it’s valid to step away from it. Wizard and I have had our moments discussing past moments and ribbing each other on it. And bard and I have also had our moments discussing my character’s childhood while I was brewing a potion (it’s blew up which was hilarious and harmless). Even bard and Paladin had a hilarious moment over a potato that resembled bard’s twin (it’s didn’t but it was hilarious) all because the two had a funny misunderstanding. Paladin and my ranger have even done some sparring training while having our characters roleplay having a conversation as they practice. It was funny. And Wizard and I have had our fun instance where I translate something in their research and point it out to them which led to a eureka moment for them. Shopping trips were also funny too as we roleplay holding back wizard from going too far in his negotiations with the vendors while my character lets them scam him. Bard is usually the easiest to scam but is so sweet that a simple insight check shows the vendors are too charmed to try. And Paladin has a passion for food and is constantly trying something weird and new. The funny thing is that my ranger will actually accept the weird offering while the other two are wary. It’s pretty hilarious. I suppose you all can see why I love this particular game. There is a lot of work we put into the roleplaying of this game and we all enjoy the dynamic of our characters. It feels like it makes sense that they enjoy each other’s company and get along but they aren’t remotely the same person or too similar, and yet they all have a good reason and enjoy traveling together. They are genuinely friends and want to look out for each other, even when they don’t agree or fully understand each other. Oh and as for why my character travels. Well their reason is to find any other refugees from their home time. They are also trying to avoid any connection back to their birth culture and it’s people due to fearing for their life. And they want to protect their friend because they are physically fragile and will stubbornly pursue their research to the ends of the earth. So they just follow along and look after them and their friend let’s them because they know it’s how they show they care (and also how entwined the power to protect their loved ones is associated with my ranger’s self worth). Oh and one last thing. One thing I had another player question is when we stayed the night at an inn with a bar. We were offered drinks after a fight with bandits and I specifically said that my character only pretended to drink. However, the next night, after a good shopping trip I said my character did drink alcohol. One of them asked about that out of character (they were curious but weren’t sure their character had noticed). I said it wasn’t a mistaken. I had specifically written that my character doesn’t like to drink alcohol after fights because fights make him feel shitty and he learned a long time ago that he shouldn’t drink when he feels that way. In other words, I wrote in that he used to have an alcohol problem that is mostly over but still tries to avoid falling into again. So he only drinks when he is happy or content, and never when he is upset.

This is the only channel that I don't skip over the sponsor skits...

Dang there is a LOT of content in this 12(ish) minute video. I'm stunned. This might be Ginny's best tip video yet!

BRUH THAT WAS THE BEST COMMERCIAL FOR WORLD ANVIL I HAVE EVER SEEN LMFAO such great writing!

We have a party with varying alignments. One session our DM did not have much time to prepare due to a busy week, so we decided to give him a break by discussing the Trolley problem. In character. For four hours.

That clone thing was absolutely hilarious. Brilliant!

okay but that sponsor segment was so good, i have to say i really appreciate all the effort you put into your sponsored content !!

Our table started "fireside chats" as a mechanism for inter-character roleplay. When we take a long rest we'll divide up the watches for the long rest period. Each member of each pair on watch can ask their watch partner a question in character. If a player/character doesn't have a question ready for their partner then our DM can roll on a table for a question as a conversation starter. It's a great way to organically grow rp through our characters digging into each-others' backstories, bonds, motivations, ideals, etc, and gives each player a time in the spotlight to expand on their character's replies. And then questions bring follow-up questions or comments when the other player reacts, and sometimes they make themes and in-jokes that we keep coming back to, and these chats drive our party's motivation when we find plot-hooks and npcs that we now know are parts of each-others' character narratives.

Literally the only channel/app/or service that I actually enjoy watching the sponsor ads! You’re killing it! Keep up the great work!

"What do you want from me?" Or, more importantly, deciding what your character wants from another character. This is a sort of general want, like "I want this character's approval" or " I just want you to do your job". These sorts of general but easily conceptualized ideas can inform roleplaying opportunities and drive conversation. Not only does it help you connect with another character, but it helps you the player connect with your own character.

"Melee range of black out drunk." Can't wait to see that opportunity attack.

OMG!! This is going to be so helpful, for any future games I'm apart of! I'm a very RP heavy player, but i wasnt sure when RP would help the story. I always ended up just holding everyone hostage, trying to get my party to interact. This video, along with "Being a less Selfish Roleplayer" are going in my back pocket, for sure. Thank you Ginny!! Also, Free those poor clones, gurl! They didnt sign up to do your job for you 😂

My current party is made up of mostly childish characters that get into trouble together by doing everything they're told not to and dragging the last member around, who acts as a parent figure for the group. One of our players came up with it after noticing we were all young, happy-go-lucky characters, and it's led to a lot of fun roleplay!

Something I want to get my table into is trying out the Improv for Gamers exercises while we eat dinner before a session or on an off week. They're little exercises to help get a "group mind" going or alleviate any silly feelings.

This is great! On the last point about how to encourage this, our table votes for who gets inspiration at the end of the session, giving everyone a chance to highlight little character moments or fun things that someone did. This has been HUGE for encouraging people to RP, because they feel appreciated when they make the effort AND those things you didn't catch in the moment or have forgotten over the course of the session are brought back to mind, encouraging you to follow up on them in future sessions as they relate to your character. We had a couple of fairly inexperienced players when we started, and over almost two years now it's been AMAZING seeing everyone flourish and really develop a sense of who their characters ARE outside of their own IRL experiences.

Put an enchanted gate in front of them like that one episode of adventure Time where we got stellar music and lore behind how each characters perceive each other and wants to be perceived. The rot dynamic and even past baggage with each other. It was such a clever way to reveal that these two characters may have had a relationship with each other outside of the main character and what more so impressed me is when I re-watched it when I was older with the context of this sugary sweet tyrannical princess and this undead vampire queen had feelings for each other. Adventure time was like the original dnd for me

D & D with thespians is always an emotional experience. Depth of character helps setting up reactions. We had an undead character that didn't seem to know she was dead (denial) on tour with a Paladin. We had a stuck-up Elon that always corrected people that said his name by giving his full title (correcting the King leads to shy characters apologizing profusely). We had a gnome wizard that set off spells every time he was touched (only to find out that she was a former slave and rape victim).

that film noir sponsor was chef's kiss !!!! 🤣

As a DM, I talked to my players about roleplay. We all agreed we wanted to see more of it at the table. I had seen this video previously, so at the start of our session we just watched this video lol.

I will never not be impressed by your ads. I will always watch them all the way through.

Ignore that. That's for a...skit. That did make me chuckle more than it should have.

Something my campaign has been doing constantly (and this ties into tip 6) is having the party do insight rolls for important character moments. Sometimes an event will play out that affects a player in a certain way and you make the party roll an insight check on you. If they succeed you reveal a certain detail that is important to your character: maybe a talk about a certain NPC causes the character to look scared, or they shift their clothes and reveal an old scar, just a little detail that clues the players into a deeper facet of your character

An RP moment happened to fall into my lap by accident once. My artificer had a crush on our party's paladin and was far too shy and awkward to mention anything while the paladin was not picking up on the signs. Something I hadn't noticed when picking my subclass, battlesmith, is that one of its subclass spells is a smite. The paladin's player and I were absolutely gleeful when we realized that. After my guy pulled out a smite for the first time, the paladin noticed and we had a little chat about it over the campfire. It was really fun to play my awkward dork's attempts at explaining that he really looked up to the paladin without confessing his crush while said crush was completely oblivious to any of it.

Our group just had a session where the party sat at a fireplace together after finding out were trapped in a magical mist and we can't leave it till we defead the big evil guy. So we all just sat there, without hope and with no emotions left after that big plot. And we started talking. It was the first time we opened up. This talk lasted 4 out of 5 hours real time and our DM was just listening. Technically nothing happend but at the same time it was one of the most important moments so far. Our group was forced to be together but now were starting to be a group

Also makes the DM get a good laugh w/ interparty roleplay cause sometime interparty tension, shit talking, & roasting gets damn funny!

I had a college course that involved potential role play. I found that it's usually a dead-end effort UNLESS one thing happens. Not one, but TWO people need to be role-playing. That engages the other students to try it too. Why? Because it looks fun. A lot of people are NERVOUS to even try, or they feel it's too uncool. But once two people are engaged and having fun, those two blocks seem to break down. And then a third person joins in, and soon it's harder to be the person NOT joining in.

I find that players love to talk over food. You can roll for cooking, and players can banter over something that is less consequential but makes the world feel more real. I like to get a sense of whether players do chores or are lazy, are messy or organized, as this would be a realistic area of contention and again you can make it fun.

I absolutely needed this, thank you!

One thing I’ve been doing in my most recent campaign is finding ways to include myself and other players in backstories and arcs. Not like I’m spotlight hogging, but I will actively talk to the players and add my character into their backstory somehow, maybe a shared event in childhood that impacted them, or a shared rival, so that way it involves more players in the story when those arcs and backstory moments come up

Great video and I absolutely loved your ad spot.

Always fun and helpful! Thanks Ginny Di :)

these are amazing tips! can't wait to put them to use in out next sessions

Hey Ginny! Just found your channel a few days ago and love it! Lots of awesome dming advice here! Thanks for making such great content :)

great video, very insightful with good advice.

Sending this to all my players! Thanks Ginny for another awesome topic Ginny!

I needed exactly this exactly now

This is great! I literally have a session later tonight. Thanks Ginny!

This was EXCELLENT and hilarious and so helpful!

Thank you Ginny for these easy to chew and implement roleplay scenarios for the ttrpg table.

Another great video. Definitely sharing this with my players!

Great video!!! informative and fun

The noir skit was AWESOME

Wwowoowowowo, that's really great advice. Already making a list for my players

I just totally LOVE these transitioneffects throughout this video. Your video qualit and content is amazing and helpful. Amazingly helpful. Thank you so much ♡

Would love this topic from the DM perspective! Is there anything I can do to plant these seeds as a DM?

I was just thinking about this the other day, and wondering how I as a DM could incorporate this better into games. Now I know tips as a player, too. Thank you!!