How to get your Players to Roleplay in Dungeons and Dragons 

My 5 year old son just ran by my TV while this video was on and yelled, "Dungeon Duuuuuuudes" you guys have a fan.

It's strangely satisfying that the video is exactly 30 minutes

I'm glad you hit the key point - you can RP a character without "acting". Yes, voices make it more obvious, but any in-character decisions are good RP

I love the point that roleplay is different for everyone. I have one player that always speaks of the character in third person: “Tazri does [x.] Tazri says [x.]” and it was jarring for me at first because I’m a very first-person roleplayer But I noticed his decisions were ALWAYS in character. He didn’t metagame and he still interacted with other characters in a very in-character way.

Hahaha that shirt tho "I'm dead inside" pink dolphins and smiling suns. 😊

Best strategy I feel is to roleplay heavily yourself as DM Always works

The only reason Kelly role plays is to escape the fact that he's dead inside.

I actually started my current campaign with my players being childhood friends, and the beginning of the campaign took place at their hometown during a festival!

Guys, I've only played 2 games of dnd in my life, and I'm about to be a DM for the first time ever and I'm scared lol. These videos are very helpful :)

I'm personally not a voice actor, but I still rather enjoy acting as my character 'should'. A while ago I nearly had an in-character scuffle with another PC over an ideological difference. And while our characters (mine in particular) were about to come out swinging and really tense, out of character we were rather enjoying ourselves and having fun. The other player told me after the fact that he actually WANTED his guy to get his ass kicked in because he was a snobby elf wizard (currently badly injured and easy to beat to boot) who pretty much deserved it. It was actually a really intense moment that was about to escalate and the other PCs caught on and were attempting to diffuse the situation before it came to blows as actual travel friends would and should. When they quickly failed, they even picked sides! Something that actually changed my outlook of another PC when they sided against me and simultaneously changed my view of another PC who sided with me (2v2). My 'side' was rather stacked though. The 2 against me were badly injured and had lower AC. Even at level 3, I could have taken them both out single-handedly. With or without being hit myself as I was still in reasonable shape. It was 2 totally spent full casters who are both under 5 HP against 2 martial classes (fighter + bard) with nearly full HP. This was a rather silent yet intense RP situation going on that even the DM didn't pick up on as he was caught up explaining things as we just ended the 'boss encounter'. And while this was all said and done in like 3-4 minutes; it's the most memorable moment of that entire session for the entire group and we were discussing it for days on discord (at least I was). But back on topic of the video now that story time's over, the other 2 PCs were pretty damn quiet for most of the session and our more RP-heavy player was absent. This RP situation brought them in and the weight of it even carried over to the following session.

Thanks for mentioning the "It's what my character would do" excuse for bad behaviour, it's a problem sometimes when people are not on the same page as far as campaign/one shot tone or general behaviour at the table. It's a collaborative game first and a personal one second, and that balance can take a while to understand sometimes. That being said, it works great when a PC has a secret or certain elements of the backstory have not been revealed to that point. Apparently "shocking" decisions can be made if it fits the character, but never at the expense of the general atmosphere at the table.

My DM bought some LED orbs that get activated whenever you are inspired. It fun and not only reminds you to use your inspiration, it feels inspirational and you want to earn it! He is in the "give it when you do good role-playing" strategy and I like it as a player

Somtimes I like to discover my character's personallity, ideals, bonds, flaws, and alignment, as I play them.

Some important GM Hints for encouraging RP, especially regarding NPCs: 1. Ask your players "What would your character do in this situation..?" 2. Speak to your player friends in character, directly. In the eyes, as the npc! 3. Personality/Attitude is better effective than a direct impersonation (Meaning: how you portray a NPC is more about the way things are said, as opposed to trying to create a personality simply by using (an often stereotypical) voice..) Hope this helps someone!

I DMed a game with my family for my birthday recently. Two of the players are seven so I simpified some things for them. I definitely learned a lot from the Dungeon Dudes from these videos and their Dungeons of Drakkenheim Episodes. I love you guys and love that you're Canadian. Just the fact that you mentioned Meeplemart in your miniatures video blew me away lol.

Love the shirt Kelly.

Something about Inspiration: When I DM'd the one-shot I did, I've given out 1 instance of Inspiration. What did I do to encourage RP regardless? If they give me a good explanation or RP out what their character does? They'll get Advantage on the check, and I might lower the DC. The most impactful one: A Goliath that had to re-kill their entire clan after a necromancer desecrated them by turning them into his undead thralls.. Gave an earnest and heartfelt speech to the deity the party was tasked with freeing from captivity, about not seeking vengeance on the race that trapped it there. Honestly, being their god, and KNOWING what that character has gone through.. I didn't even make them roll. There was NO CHANCE they could fail with that kinda speech. And I think that's something that a lot of players and DMs don't really appreciate or use. If you can manage an amazing bit of RP with an NPC? Sometimes the usual check isn't needed, because you've removed the chance of failure.

a thing that helps me roleplay is describing my actions, i dont "attack", i hit the goblin over the head with my staff, or do a jumpkick to his face (monks yo!). And for my sorcerer i descripe what i do, then tell the gm the spell and roll the dice, then explain the effect. Counterspell is a small below freezing degrees water orb that i will through the air to the caster i want to interrupt, and if i hit it lands on their forehead, freezing instantly and disrupts their cast. or the mini meteors i can make, they come from me holding my arcane focus (an arcane orb sat on my staff) in my hand and then leading the orb in an arch above my head infront of me, creating the meteors as it goes along, and they stay there floating untill i use them. It's also super fun to come up with thiese effects that fits for my characters.

Watching my players roleplay and take over the lead is a great moment for me, I always have a small icebreaker conversation at the begining of every session with a usually non important npc. I usually turn to the stronger roleplayers first and make sure to speak to all the party in my voices that I do for my NPCs. The sillier I get with my roleplay, tends to make the party ease up and start roleplaying as well

That Dice Camera Action reference in the intro feels like an honor but also cuts really deep.

One of my favorite moments is when two of my players were arguing about the ideologies of their respective home countries in character. That feels so good, that they took the time to learn about their settings and to internalize those ideals into their characters

I've been watching you on 2x speed the whole time, and whenever it's on normal speed I honest to god feel you two are talking in slow motion

Flaws are one of the most interesting aspects of any character!! It's important to make sure you're not letting them be too disruptive, but they're a great way to shake things up and introduce difficult situations

My players love to pick flaws like “loves food” and “honorable to a fault” lol. They usually end up discovering flaws during the campaign.

Back story can offer missions for sessions when all the players can't attend. It pauses the campaign with fun relevant stuff. Foils/personal grudges/etc. shouldn't get completely resolved, so they become a recurring event. Mix up which chars get the focus.

I DMed my first group session yesterday, and it was terrifying at first. However, the work I had put in to developing the NPCs and the adventure itself meant that the players really engaged with it and got into character, and we all had a smashing time. I've been playing for about three years now, and running my own game has been one of the most rewarding experiences I've had so far.

So many great points, as usual! Nice video guys--love the shirt Kelly!

Great advice! I would add a couple more tips from my experience. 1) Let Role Play Trump the Dice: when making deception, persuasion, or intimidation checks I will ask the player what their characters say and if they do a good job I will give them advantage on the roll or even hand-wave the roll entirely. Many people don't role play because they feel intimidated or inadequate. This really helps build their confidence and it helps to mitigate bad rolls. Oh, and I never punish bad role play... ever. 2) Hidden Information: to get the players to start interacting with each other I will use secret info. I will pull them aside to whisper or text them under the table what they saw or heard with their perception or insight checks. This is especially powerful if its because of a passive check. Then it is up to the player how and when to share what they know.

another great vid guys. and good tip on inspiration...and the dreaded, "it's what my character would do" line.

I really do love this channel. Your so much more casually honest with the game, and what you should expect.

Love this video! And the channel! The way you lay out situations and how we as players can better role play helps a great deal! Thanks guys, keep up the great work

This was an excellent episode. Added concrete examples to a sometimes intimidating and hard-to-pin down practice.

Guys, I just want to say a huge "thank you". I've literally been sitting texting my players while watching this as ideas has been springing to mind. So good.

Your videos are always so helpful. Especially for me, a first time DM running a campaign with first time players. I find myself wishing they’d get into character a bit more and I think these tips will make a huge difference. Keep it up, Dudes!

Really helpful. I've got my first DM session this coming weekend. My friends are all pretty up for a laugh but I was struggling for ideas on how to make this immersive. Great job guys and great channel

I love watching you guys! Ive been the designated DM for our group for the past three years and I have learned so much from you guys. Thank you for your inspiration and vast wealth of knowledge guys!

at my school we where playing our first session of dnd hosted by one of the teachers (its a weird school) and I had made a cowardly young human bard who is obsessed with folk tales and stories of hero's he wishes to be like them and is brave by linking everything to a story and reminding himself of them. I practiced speaking with a stammer and learned a bunch of dnd stories and had the dm write/steal me some folk stories and songs from the setting he was running. so when I rolled up to the first session and started roleplaying my character one of my friends started playing along after a while which made me really happy.

This was a very helpful video, guys! I have this problem at my table... My players are long time players, but I often feel the need to move them towards role playing, or they'll just hunt and kill every enemy-like thing that appears in the way. I've been talking to them a lot about our expectations on this current campaign and the talking is helping, but I really needed these practical advices to improve the RP on my table. Thanks a lot! Yours is my favorite rpg RU-vid channel!

I've been setting up a home game with a few friends who are interested in trying the game for the first time. Been binging your tips videos and they're extremely helpful, thanks guys!

I've been really enjoying your guys's content! Such great advice for both players and DMs and done really nicely and helpfully.

I've been needing this video for sooo long. Thank youu!!

Thank you, Dungeon Dudes, for this video! RP is so important. In the game I am playing, I am banished from my home, and I am seeking to restore my name. The DM keeps finding my people (who hate me) in places where we go, and I have to get my party to buy supplies for me. Slowly, behaviors are changing as our fame grows... I appreciate this as someone who enjoys the story aspect of the RPG. I am learning so much from you!

thank you so much for these videos. this one was just what I needed, as my party struggles with rp-ing because they're all very shy. I can't wait to put these tips to the test next session!

There are many options but here is my POV. It is long as always because I am an old guy and we never speak with brevity. I hope it helps but if it does ‘t - no refunds. Give permission to both role play and not if they don’t want to. Be clear that you like it and they will to. But no one expects you to be a genius writer, actor or stand up comedian. No one will hate on a player for trying to RP and you expect them to not be great at it if you do. After all you do it a lot and trying and having fun with it is all that they need to do. Just have fun. You see people like to be invited but hate being demanded. An tangential point is do tell them if the do try you will help them do a fun job of it. Things like RPing a minority person or a lady also feel off to people that are not those things and make sure when you are reviewing characters that you give help and if you have a person of that type (or near enough) that they can always get feedback if they want it to RP that character. This minimizes possible friction and a meta story of all of us against the story. Next, consider “Instant inspiration”. If they don’t have a skill and want to do something in a clutch if they describe it better from the way there character can see it then give instant advantage. This can lead so some excellent moments. It does not break the game they likely are not good at it and advantage may actually make an major difference. Next, at the beginning when they are setting up a character you need some basics (as you said) but the reason people try to have no weaknesses is so the dm does not use them against them. Before you talk about weaknesses remind them that they are going to be okay with almost any personal weakness because they have a group to cover them. And that you will disallow any weaknesses that is debilitating. The key here is you as DM always are on the PC’s side make sure they know that. People (especially tactical players) fear weakness and try to move away from it. They want to have a fear of water - cool you say but your character can swim poorly and float “well enough”. And make it clear that they can help each other in role playing and not just combat. Give examples and do yourself a favor - write it down. Inspiration (list) also works great just think about what you want to reward for and you should let the players nominate when the OTHER player gets is and then you just say yes or no. 1) Make Half the players laugh or one/two player cry about your in character speech or character defining action 2) do something that supports any of your character points ... you get the idea. Use them or loose them as always but having a list makes it concrete and just remind them these are examples. The fun thing is by letting the group nominate the group mind will remember what you like (aka the inspiration list) and takes that off the DM’s todo list. Lastly. Just cause the players don’t “want to” does not mean they won’t. And give them many second chances to do so by asking them for *their character* What and how does your player say that? How do you approach the Princess? Even the currently iconic how to you dispatch the dragon? Thanks for reading and have fun (FYI Dead family is almost never a weakness blocker. Between extended family and raise dead - family always is an issue. 😈)

Speaking as someone who came from a bad family, many of us find a new 'family' among friends. Its that sort of bond that connects everyone from soldiers in an army, to members of a gang, to members of a cult, to addicts, to the homelesss, to street kids & to the other side of those experiences to mental health groups, a community of sobriety, etc. Family is something most people want to have, but many of us are not that lucky but you can certainly use that as a great character origin.

One thing I do as a DM for promoting roleplaying is give out an XP bonus. At the end of every session all players and I vote for the best roleplayer, and players are not allowed to vote for themselves. The character with the most votes gets an XP bonus. (Currently 100 XP per level, but I'm still figuring out what the best value is in 5e.) This worked fine in an earlier 3e campaign - the bonus was fairly evenly distributed in the long run, since all players had their moments. Rcently the first vote of my new 5e campaign (with 14-15 year old players on their first or second D&D campaign) took place. It's too early to tell whether it will work as well as in the earlier campaign, but I have hopes that it does.

25:37 TOKENS! Totally biased opinion here obviously but I think giving out inspiration tokens is a wonderful way to encourage and reward players. So glad to see you mention it.

Man youe guys videos are so helpful honestly have learned so much from stumbling across 5 various ones. Have now subbed and will check out some of your tabletop sessions

Some really great ideas that I’m totally going to use for the campaign we’ve just started!

Thank you guys, keep up the good work! these tips are awesome and have been a great help building my campaign, world, characters and describing the world which I have built, I'm playing my first ever game and stepping into the role of DM on my very first game tomorrow and all your videos have been a great help with the whole process, thank you and best of luck in the future.

One of my favourite things that my DM has ever done was this: I had my noble human paladin get into a random relationship with a general store owner (I flirted my way into some good discounts) and, several sessions later, he ended up getting kidnapped by some slave traders. We ended up using my nobility to trick the slave traders into giving him back to us. It was one of the most intense sessions of DND I've ever had.

The creating bonds between characters is something that is a major component in other types of rpgs, particularly pbta games. They are a literal game mechanic. I think they are really cool and should be included in all rpgs

Really wonderful content here. I'm looking forward to using it in my next campaign!

Dungeon Dudes!!! I know it was only a week but it felt a lot longer. Can’t wait to dive into this.

Lead by example if you as the DM Role play all NPCs as though they are all fully formed characters. players will often follow that lead. If you talk as the NPCs in the first person, then PC's will often follow.

Great video guys! Lots of useful info for any rpg here. Two points really stood out to me. First, having a character with flaws. Not only does this add personality, it gives the character someplace to GO later on. They can confront those flaws, or perhaps give in to them, making the player feel his toon had a nice arc. 2nd, I really like having an actual physical thing to give out when you award inspiration. One game I ran (7th Sea and drama dice, but nearly the exact same idea as D&D inspiration) I went to the candy store and found the lil chocolates that are wrapped up in gold foil so they look like ancient coins. Flavorful AND flavorful.

Thanks for another great video guys. I am a new DM and using what I learn from you has helped a lot.

I believe in the idea of leading by example. As a DM, I want to encourage my players to roleplay, so I roleplay all the interactions and provide cool descriptions of what happens during battle to make it a little more immersive than just rolling dice. And both my players love it. I also did the "How do you want to do this" thing for the final blow of every battle, and it was another thing they seemed to really love. I'm pretty sure I'm not giving them the most honest introduction to D&D 5E, but I sure am giving them what I'd consider a fun and enjoyable introduction to the game.

In my country there are little packs of chocolate milk called "Alex". They cost about 50 cents and are very well liked by basically everyone because they taste good and cause nostalgia because it is also the go-to-drink for schoolkids. What I started doing was I bought a 20 pack of those, put them in the refridgerator and whenever I felt like there was good roleplaying, they got one "Alex" instead of inspiration. The effekt was exactly the same, but instead of just being a roll with advantage they get a pack of chocolate milk on top. Which caused WAY more envy by other players than just getting the roll would do. It worked out not just good, but incredible. My players liked it so much that they quickly offered to do a little "rotation" on who is next to buy a 20-pack. I can only encourage you guys to find something similar that is not expensive but everyone in your group likes.

This video was great and I felt great for new D&D players and new DMs👍🏼👍🏼💯...I RP with voice acting and use improvs to interact with players at the table. I’ve had acting in my past and D&D is my way to still enjoy this favorite pastime of mine👍🏼👍🏼😎💯

One of the biggest problems I have while playing is making the "right" choices in a session. Any time I want to do something, my DM responds with "You wanna do what?!" Indicating that my choices are illogical and wrong. Ex. I was playing a rogue and we needed to get an important artifact. Obviously the tower was guarded so I told the DM I wanted to stealth so I can sneak in. His answer: "There's five guards blocking the door. You want to stealth in front of them?!" So I asked him if I can go around and sneak in through a window. "The walls are bare and there's nothing to climb. What else?" All the while, the more experienced players were snickering at me. At this point I learned that despite being told there are no right or wrong answers, games like these prove otherwise. I couldn't attack without starting a fight, I couldn't sneak in, couldn't figure out anything.

Hey, I watch your videos about the top 5 underrated cantrips too, but this felt like a much more useful video than that sort. Thanks much Dungeon Dudes, hope to see you discuss this sort of esoteric material more!

Hey, guys. Another great vid! Love the shirt. I've been wanting to get into your streaming campaign, but don't really have the opportunity. Have you thought about taking the audio and making a podcast? I could definitely listen to that on commutes and during the workday.

My friends and I have been playing for over 30 years. We live far apart and play online in Fantasy Grounds for each session but we RP between sessions on Discord. During this between time we fill in a lot of the space between the characters and their backstories and when we hit the “table” we know each other as characters beyond what has happened at the table. As a result, when we’re in session we’re thinking in character which creates some really interesting moments.

Lots of goods tips I’m going to use, I currently have a party of first timers. They love the game, they love being creative now I want to bring more role play into it so they really get a feel for what dnd can be. This video helps a lot with my approach thank you

Arguably this was your best/most important and helpful video yet (aside from Session Zero). Well done!

@18:35 a very good point. I find myself playing the cliche orphan often and had this pointed out to me. My newest character has strong ties to an adoptive family and a nation to which he served as a navy shipwright for nearly 50yrs before being called upon by his faith

I was running a clue-like adventure where the pces awake in the manor with no idea how they got there, and another character dead on the ground nearby. Once they had time to move around an look at the room, and they start asking each other things. I would have them each pick cards (five to seven) with each card giving info to them first on their character traits/personality, but also on history an reasons or issues they had (not all of these were for their character), and the last card was sealed till later on , an would be opened to show what they would remember had happened before they awoke. This was so interesting seeing them rp an use those character traits, but also seeing the new players actually learn how to develop their characters even more from such a experience as they now can use cards to keep track of things. It can also get players our of meta gaming as they have concrete points of what they know via the cards that they can look back to, instead of trying to figure out if what they know is character or player knowledge.

I use the idea of handing out "tokens" for inspiration, with cool looking dice that the players get to roll in addition to their roll for the advantage, turning it back in when they have used the inspiration.

I had my first session DMing a couple weeks ago, and it went *super* well, which was all the more gratifying considering we were all a bunch of noobs. One interesting thing though was everyone did a good job roleplaying once we all got past those first few minutes of jitters, but only two of my players had backstories; out of the other three, two of them made their characters but had no idea how to go about making a backstory beyond their background (both of them chose Haunted One from Curse of Strahd, lol) and the third didn't have access to the books and wasn't sure it they were going to play beyond the first session anyway, so I built a character with two different variants for them to pick from before the session started, and they ended up really getting into it! No clue yet when our next session will be, but everyone's looking forward to it when it comes.

I'm a First Time DM. Have been playing in a game for about 9 months with a mate who DMs me and a small group of friends (his girlfriend, his brother, me and two others), who is now also one of my players. He helps me out at the table a bit because my other players (group of friends from work) are a bit new to D&D (two were complete virgins when we started) and the one who wasn't is quite shy, though really starting to become more confident. I've been trying to encourage more roleplay and honestly this video has helped me a lot with some ideas going forward! So thanks guys! Tonight they were heading into what they knew was going to be their first proper BBEG encounter to level them up to Level 3 (I'm doing milestones) and on the walk down the long stairway, my Bard (DM Mate) randomly struck up a conversation with our Barbarian about his life (I have kept their backstories secret from each other OOC) and it turned into a half-hour long session of them just roleplaying and telling each other about their lives - "because hey, they may well be about to end!" It was honestly so beautiful to watch. I barely said a word for the entire duration.

I think this one got past me. I remedied that and watched! Great stuff as always and Like button clicked now! ;-) Awesome job Dudes!

In regards to Inspiration, a DM friend of mine gives it out often but instead of players having advantage with it he gives it out similar to bardic inspiration. But instead of just having a dice based on level, his players get to hold onto them and they stack up. Starting at a d4 and increasing up to a d12, once used the inspiration is gone but it allows him to encourage lots of role playing and players can use it for a big role that doesn't go their way even if they already had advantage on it.

I might just be really lucky but my players are all really strong roleplayers, it's super nice to see even the relatively weaker take on a character. One that I've known for years was never a particularly strong one, but this campaign has really proven how much he's grown and improved, they've had really emotional discussions of his dead brother and subsequent pact with an archfey to save his own life

Something I like is the idea of giving players experience points for good roleplay. Of course not all the time, but in instances where they really did a great job. Saw this in the webcomic Darth and Droids and hope to be able to use it with my players.

things worth noting: If your character is motivated by revenge, it does make sense to make it the ending stage of the game if that's what makes sense. if the enemy is a big enough threat, it's completely fine. eg, conan the barbarian would kinda suck if thulsa doom died in the first or second act. Flaws create chaos. this is a good thing in D&D, and makes for more fun. it's more fun to struggle against your flaws than it is to win forever with your good traits. sometimes flaws are there to be conquered. the only flaw I really wouldn't recommend is mute. kinda sucks the fun out of things having a character that can't really communicate. that said, it worked in the one game where it came up (they were playing a pilot. hilarity ensued. it was a firefly game.)

Another aspect is in combat. Lots of people are shy about RP outside of it but nearly everyone plays for the combat. So when they have epic moments, encourage them to describe how their characters pull those off. It's a classic line from Matt Mercer that can mean so much: How do you wanna do this? They'll form their characters over time doing this, even if they don't realize. Then encourage them to retell and embellish the tales back in town to wow or intimidate the commoners. And that's your in!

Re 11:20 When you brought that up I envisioned Malak (the thief from Conan the Destroyer) plunging his dagger into the dead body of Dagoth. 😄

Give inspiration tokens often, for acting out your weaknesses, character, etc. You guys invented Fate Core.

Great video! Please make another video with tips for Players on how to roleplay!

I have recently employed a homebrew rule to encourage some role-playing called "Campfire Stories". Basically when the party takes a long rest, I ask the party if they'd rather do a random encounter or have one player chosen at random answer a question concerning their character which can result in bonuses for the next day

Thanks guys. Good stuff as always. My lady's solo campaign is specifically to get her working those imagination muscles.

The part about "woooaAAh thAt'S WhaT mY PlAyeR WOuLD dO!" was the most important part I believe. You all saved the best for last I see 🤙

Thanks guys. I love the video.

I've recently created a variant human noble Hexblade Warlock. I know that doesn't sound intriguing. But the thing is, his family are all (excluding him) Eldritch Knights. His pact with a family heirloom longsword allowed him to convince most of his family with numerous Deception checks that he was just like them (Bonus feat was Magic Initiate (Wizard)) and so he just persuaded them to think he just didn't have the strength to wear the Heavy Family armor. His older sister/heir of the family was the only one not fooled by his deception but went along with it in order to keep the family from being shamed...The character is still at level one, has just struck out on his own after coming of age and is on the road with his sword, a chain shirt (a final gift from his family) and is waiting for a game to join...

Thanks for the tips

I've done that before made decisions. I wouldn't make myself but it just made sense for the character I was playing at the time. Wasn't happy about it but I was the role who chose the role

This was touched on very lightly and admittedly not the focus on the video, but sometimes at the end of the day there are some players have little to no interest in roleplaying and get enjoyment from other aspects of the game such as character building, the mechanics and combat, exploration or even simply hanging out with friends, and that is perfectly ok. In the same way trying to outright force (encourage is fine) player to RP won't help and make things worse. As mentioned in the vid as well there are some groups that might take roleplaying too far and that can just as quickly turn people off to RPing and sadly that is something I have had experience with (one group I attempted to break out of my shell and roleplay in the other players literally kept telling me to shut up because the aliens we were talking to considered me a heretic simply due my character class despite the fact that my character in theory still had equal standing at the negotiating table and sadly that is one example).

As a DM who loves RP: 1) I reward player curiosity and gift inspiration for good RP exchanges, especially PCs taking actions in line with their traits, flaws, goals, values, etc. 2) I let my stronger roleplayers declare their courses of action, then before playing out the RP, I say to each of my remaining players in turn "While that's happening, what are you doing?". I then run each scene in the most logical order.

I like the Dungeon Dudes emphasizing near the end of rewarding points for role playing different aspects of a given character. This is often over looked in games I have played in the past by having too narrow of a focus of earning EXP by hacking and slashing only. This in my opinion reinforces the murder-hobo syndrome and encourages that behavior. And keeps role playing to a very minor part of the games as game sessions develop over time.

Hey guys, like the channel a lot. I was wondering if you have maybe thought about a video that helps players struggling with the RP aspect of multi-classing? What are ways you justify your character taking a dip for weapon or armor proficiency, spells or abilities while staying true to your RP?

I usually doll out xp for rp. Depending on how long and how deep the rp is for that character I'll hand out anything between 1-20xp (specific to characters). 1 being a cute but poignant moment that is mainly just "good for character detail" and 20 being an entire scene and dialogue that moves the plot and the goals. My players are two 16 year olds and a 10 year old so they love xp, and it doesn't break the levelling at all, it inspires them to really get into it. I got to keep reminding myself inspiration isn't just for bards to doll out, only used it once as a plot-based buff, thanks for the reminder!

Here's a trick: Use breaks and interruptions as opportunities for RP. For example if the game has to stop for a moment while someone takes an important phone call. Use this as an opportunity for some of the people that are left to do a little RP between each other. Perhaps this can even be between players and not involve the DM at all. It could be a quick aside or even a flashback. For a specific example in one game we had a lull. And in the game I was playing a goblin fighter getting ready to go eldritch next level and one of the other party members was a wizard and I realized that many of the spells I wanted to use were ones that they knew. I had already mentioned to them my character's interest in their magic in passing. So while we were stuck idle for a couple minutes I just went to the player and said, "Okay so last night when we were camping my character was staring at you _really_ hard." I play it out because my character is a goblin and of course has very vivid facial expressions. "Wait, what? What are you doing?" ::in character voice:: "Did it work?" "Did what work?" ::stares with extreme exertion until exhausted from it:: "Did it work? Did you hear it?" ::in character:: "Nergul... What the hell are you doing?" ::in character:: "Your Message spell! I tries it! I have been practicing!" ::lots of staring and pointing and furrowing brow in effort:: The other player gets a big laugh out of it and we discuss a few more things until we are "interrupted" with the missing player getting back from their phone call so our current combat can continue.

I'd like to tell a story from a session that happened just yesterday. I'm playing as Gorlen, the Hobgoblin wizard of Enchantment. In a nutshell, he is far from a smooth talker, often thinking out loud and going on tangents (to the point where a couple party members got so annoyed that they actually threatened to attack him) and generally not understanding social norms and expectations, but he desperately wants to resolve conflicts with peace and wants people to get along pretty much on a global scale. Last session there was an Ogre in the way of where we needed to go, but we hadn't been spotted yet, so we had time to plan among ourselves. Gorlen suggested trying to explain to the Ogre that we were just passing through, but literally nobody was liking that plan. So we fought it, killed it, and that's when we saw it had a huge stash of gold, and among the stash was a greatsword. The paladin likes greatswords, so he touched it, and we ended up getting a kind of glimpse into the past, where a woman we defending a burning village, and she began attacking us. Gorlen was immediately trying to think of how he can use magic to subdue her long enough for his team to pin her down, that way we could at least talk. Tasha's Hideous Laughter? Maybe. Hypnotic Gaze? Risky. Reduce her size and have someone grapple her? She might make the save. And while Gorlen was thinking about this and waiting for his turn in initiative, our bard walks up to her, and gives this honestly astounding speech about how we both have things to defend and that she understands her, and tbh we were all in awe, both in and out of character, and I could hear the bard's player tearing up over the microphone so it must have really struck a cord with her to. It was such a good speech that the DM didn't even make her roll for it. And we got a bunch of info that we will will probably try to investigate when we get back into town. But honestly, Gorlen has been given a lot to think about. He's now not sure if he's been going about his goal of peace the right way, or if he is even the right person to be striving for peace, that maybe he is just making things worse. And out of character, I've been a little uncomfortable with amplifying his flaws. I don't want to make a Mary (or I guess Mark) Sue, "uwu i just want friendship and happiness" character, but I have just been kind of feeling like an annoyance? Both in and out of character tbh. And honestly, what you guys said in this video about up-playing your flaws has really helped me be comfortable with it out of character. But in character, Gorlen is gonna still need to have a chat with our bard, and i'm still trying to wrap my head around how he is handling it all. But honestly, this has kind of made me feel better. So, sorry for the paragraph, but if you two are reading this? Thanks. I love my nerdy wizard boy and I would hate to stop playing as him.

Love your content!

I just ordered that t-shirt I view this as plain honesty.

I have thought for a while, that I wanted to come up with a procedure to split the rolling mechanical portion from the descriptive part. Basically, this would have the players know if their character succeeds and if so, how much, before the describing begins. Thus the description is contiguous, rather than, "I swing mightily... (rolls)...and hits... (rolls)...for 1 damage."

Going the "Your X was kidnapped, oh no!!!" Route can work but it has to be handled very carefully. Doing it *badly* or with the wrong players is a surefire way to end up with a party of unattached orphans

Just had my very first session of D&D a few days ago. The bit with my character introducing himself was kind of awkward. I tried to get the only player who had played before to go first, if only to give us a bit of an example. I ended up having to go first. It did not help that I suck at introducing myself in real life. A bit later, my character was talking to an old woman as the caravan we were hired to guard was traveling. RP was a lot easier in that conversation. I promised to keep the civilians safe on the journey. After the attack, I used up the last of my 2 spell slots to heal one of the NPC soldiers that was nearly killed in the attack, because my character's whole deal is trying to help people no matter the cost. I may have meta gamed a bit. It didn't make the decision for me, but knowing that it was night and we'd have a long rest soon after definitely made using that spell an easier decision. Then he turned down the gold that the soldier tried to give him as payment because "he was just doing what was right." He did make a friend in the old woman, though. When we were sitting at the tavern in the town the caravan was going to, a man rushed in looking for help because his daughter was kidnapped. I already wanted to help, but when the DM told us that the girl that was taken was the grand daughter of the old woman I was talking to on the caravan, I was pretty much determined to go save her even if the rest of the party refused. Even if he's mostly speced as a support character.

Funny, that. I always make my campaigns character-centric. I’ve always found that campaigns designed as : things happens, PC try to wiggle in usually bring disappointingly little Rp’ing. Also, I reward most of the big magic items through those who played their RP the best, either a warlock with his master, a fighter with a king or a mercenary company leader, a guild master etc.