Player Roleplay w/ Taliesin Jaffe (GM Tips w/ Satine Phoenix) 

Taliesin is probably the most laid-back person I've ever seen. Of course, after 4,000 years of experience, what would bother you?

Taliesin AND Satine? The goth levels are off the charts!!

Taliesin talking about playing dumb and how people love dumb just showed me why so many people like Travis Willingham as Grog...he does dumb like almost no one else.

Satine: Taliesin will you please? Taliesin: *proceeds to tease Satine and by extention the audience with an amazing set up that leaves us craving more*

Now I want Taliesin to narrate some Lovecraft audio books, that is a great narrator of horror voice

Taliesin Jaffe is awesome. That Seven Dwarfs - hi/mid/low technique is brilliant! Totally going to use that.

Taliesin's Matt Mercer impression is ON POINT!

sometimes I get so used to the cast of critical role playing as their characters that I forget that these are immensely talented actors. Good Gods Talesin, that gave me shivers!

Taliesin: Does an amazing outro narrative that leaves Satine speechless Also Taliesin: Wriggles ringed fingers mystically

The first voice Taliesin makes when talking about the Seven Dwarves is obviously how Caduceus was born

I love that Taliesin has notes. You don't always have to keep everything in your head. Huzzah!

I'm a simple man. I see Taliesin Jaffe, I click thumbs up.

I want Taliesin to DM a Cthulhu game for me. What a man. What a beautiful, creepy when he wants to be, man.

I doubt anybody cares, but the point they mention a few times about bringing back throwaway NPCs or fleshing out NPCs is such a big point. In the first DnD 5E campaign I was in, we kept going back to this creepy/weird throwaway shopkeeper that our DM introduced because we were shopping. Leonard may have ended up as the main villain of at least two other campaigns since then...

Getting players to roleplay: - Advise from the very beginning that bonus XP can be awarded for roleplaying. Players can be bribed. - As Satine says, lead by example. To quote Ghandhi: Be the change you want in the world. - Refer to players by the character's names at the table. The more you build immersion, the easier roleplaying becomes. - Pay attention to the hooks that the players respond to in RL. If you want to encourage a character to roleplay, lure them with a D&D version of "that thing they care about" in RL - be it kittens, their grandparents, political activism, or donuts. - Try to respond as positively as you can to when they DO roleplay. Encouragement works. - Have specific NPCs or Villains focus their attention on one or two players, and rotate this sort of interplay with different NPCs/Villains. When "Hethrenk The Undying" casts his expressionless stare at one player, and says in a slow, deliberate, and low voice..."I remember....long ago....another just like you. Hmmmmm. Yes. Same eyes. Such wonderful eyes. They thought they could defeat me too. A sad loss...especially for a pupil..." ...and then slowly, still unblinking, looks away. Now you have that player wondering.... who? What pupil? I look like a formal pupil? Wait...what? Even if such hooks go nowhere, I'll bet that they're not forgotten. Then you can have another NPC bring up similar comments. Once players are invested, they're more likely to roleplay. And Taliesin, great outro. I love to leave my players on a hook. It's awesome. Thank you Satine. Again. Always.

Haha! His "GM out of here" broke Satine! So good! Totally wanna see Taliesin GM something, now!

if you've got Taliesin Jaffe being in awe of and scared of your power, like Matt Mercer somehow managed, you're doing something right. god damn.

I love Satine's energy. She seems like such a genuinely happy, beautiful person. This was a very helpful video BTW. I hope to DM my first game soon!

"I used to play with a rocket scientist" oh, Talisen Jaffe

Ugh the fact he brought Commedia into this made me so happy, seriously knowing improv and dramatic history has helped so much with my NPC creation, as well as making my players sooooo engaged

Holy shit, Taliesin knocked this one out of the park. Put that man in charge of a one-shot Geek & Sundry.

Taliesin is op nerf pls

For lighthearted games, add drunken to the personality list, I once had a drunkard tell a tiefling he had a spiky head like a unicorn. The drunkard travelled with them for like 20 sessions.

Missed opportunity: Using Laura's Vex accent for the haggling NPC.

Dear Taliesin: aside from joining the throngs of people begging you to DM a game or two, I also ask you consider doing more voicework for audiobooks. Please and thank you,

Taliesin thank you so so much for the discussion on the tone of voice and posture. I am abhorrent with accents and also have a hard time with projecting harsher sounding tones. Because of this, I tend to have a very small repertoire of voices in my pocket. You bringing up posture and speaking from a low, mid, or high point really helps me to open up my voice possibilities. Also I noticed this GM table has Goldar and Lord Zedd on it and that makes me smile. xD As for getting players to roleplay, in our current group we play a lot of scene-based systems which give creative control to the players as much as the GM. The players make their own decisions and the worlds are so full of NPCs that are just as characterised as they are. (Which thank you for pointing that out! It really is a Lead by Example kind of thing). And we play online so we use have to use a lot of descriptions to supplement the lack of pantomime that can be done with face-to-face. It's easy to say "I take my sword and slash at the knight" before rolling dice, but taking it one step further and saying something like "I vault off the side of the nearby wall and spin my body, arching the sword across the knight's side as I land back down on the ground" just after you've rolled the dice and confirmed the hit, does wonders if you happen to be an online player. Also side note, the "Cream Puff" conversation made me laugh so hard because we had a 3rd edition D&D game where one of our character's mentor was a taken as slave who was working in a dark wizard's city serving cream puffs at a gala when our party showed up. So I just couldn't help but relate it to our GM saying in the most dopey voice "Oh Abhay! Would you like a cream puff?" xD

I noticed what i did, as a DM, for my players (even before CriticleRole). I would stand up and act out the final blow in combat. In hindsight, this was my "How do you want to do this" moment. While it was me acting it out, most of the players would imagine their characters in the role from what i was doing. The result! Players started acting out their own actions with other players and NPCs. While they didn't stand up, the hand motions were there and facial expressions came with vocal interactions.

Someone has a crush .... dont blame you I have a crush on Taliesin too XD

Satine doing that excited thing with her hands whenever Taliesin says something clever is a mood.

I LOVE the 7 dwarfs trick. I have always struggled with accents and this seems like a great tool. Can't wait to try it in my next session!

Percy got some gm skills. like dam

Spent a great deal of time in my Theatre Class discussing Commedia dell'arte. Whenever we discussed the archetypes and how the actors would claim those archetypes in a performance and react to a plot outline/scenario. All I could think about is how that reminds me of tabletop roleplaying.

Omg you got the king goth himself to show :D

As someone who is just now getting into DM-ing, this is honestly the most helpful thing I've seen yet. Taliesin is so clever.

The blue mohawk is my FAVORITE Taliesin hair. He looks so good in blue hair dye.

I uh....I ah....once ran into a field of wheat.

Two goth icons together, magnifying their goth power

Wow, such major props to Taliesin for recommending Children of Paradise! Yes, it's a black-and-white, 3-hour, French film from the 40s, but it's also one of the best films ever made. Often referred to as the French Gone with the Wind, and I actually think it's vastly superior. Amazing film and an amazing reference!

Taliesin is just a beautiful artistic soul

got our first glimpse of caduceus at 8:32 hahaha!

Talieson should be the next host for this. I would love to know more about his gameplay style especially after the closing bit here.

4:36 - Satine catches Taliesin "on the back foot" after he grooved a pitch over home plate.

Oh lordy those people on Critical Role sure can DM. Taliesin what amazing advice you have given. I hope some time in the future you will DM a one shot involving all of your Critical Role cast mates, just like Liam did. As a matter of fact I really hope that we get to see each person on CR DM a one shot. Each of you are so talented that it would be so fun and entrancing to see what type of story they weave for one another to be a part of. Thank you again, good sir, and also great job Satine with the GM tips. They are so informative and entertaining. Just as awesome as the great Matt Mercer's were. The wealth of information you have both provided the D&D community is so valuable and useful for both new players and DM's. I highly recommend all these episodes to people looking to learn what Dungeons and Dragons is all about. So thank you very much.

Taliesin's Gilmore impression is SPOT ON!

Tip #2 supplemental: an easy fix that may be less dickish is just address them as such. So, if they keep saying "Satya pulls her sword" or "Satya looks through the tome", all it can take is "Ok Satya, what do you find in the tome?" Sometimes, that little cue will snap them into the switch into first person. On a side note, I LOVE story driven RPGs that reward a critical hit with control of the story. Like one time I was playing a Star Wars one shot and got a really good roll that gave me control. So not only did I stun the guy we were capturing, I got to say "I draw my blaster, jump onto the booth bench, kick myself off the wall, and flip over. As I flip, I shoot him squarely in the nuts and land superhero style, while he writhes in pain." That was reward enough for me, though we did beat the boss too.

2 years too late but I love the way Satine is absolutely enthralled with all her guests. So genuinely interested and engaged.

They need to give Taliesin a show on CR of him just explaining stuff.

We Need Taliesin One shot!

You two are adorable together in this!

Taliesin is freaking awesome. Oh my god. Satine is freaking adorable. Oh my god.

One of the best interviews to anybody I've ever seen. I love it! Plus Taliesin is just a joy to watch acting.

Legion of Jaffe reporting for duty.

I really love this series. As a many yeared-GM, it's nice to hear some of the techniques I use called out, and is also great to hear/see other tricks I hadn't thought of. Satine is an awesome hostess (no pastry pun intended) and has great info to share for both GMs and players. Thank you so much for doing these :)

I love their dynamic. Such a good rapport.

I'm so ready for talesin to run a game he's my favorite person

Satine when are you gonna appear on Critical Role?

I know a good portion of their interaction is scripted and is certainly prepared, but has anyone noticed how great an interviewer Sarine is? It's a really underrated skill: she is so engaged with everyone she speaks to and really gets the most out of them.

So bloody pumped for my first session as DM! This series has really helped. Thank You ^^

13:55 "WHAT IS MY MOTHER'S NAME!

Taliesin with his weird hair still somehow looks appropriate

Taliesin is an absolute treasure. Protect that man at all costs.

Tal’s Gilmore was SPOT ON what the hell.

Excuse me while I use Taliesin's intro at 18:38 to start my first ever campaign in three days. ;) You're DM knowledge inspires me, Jaffe! I look forward to when I can one day see you DM a game!

Couple things to help budding GMs to get people to role-play. There are two different types of rper, the roleplayer and the rollplayer. The roleplayer will need very little encouragement to get into character. The rollplayer may require a lot of encouragement and may not be into that side of roleplaying. Some just want to be part of the group and that's ok. So long as they don't disrupt everyone else. The second is by encouraging roleplaying solutions that don't have skill checks. What I call playing outside the rules. It helps your players come up with inventive solutions to problems and promotes roleplaying. Lastly and the best solution I've found to help players become more comfortable with roleplaying is individual mini side sessions. Setting up a little solo side mission will enable the player to get comfortable with roleplaying without an audience to feel embarrassed about. I've been gaming/gming for close to 35 years and have found this to be the best way to get someone comfortable with roleplaying.

I didn't know who Taliesin was until I watched this, and now I love him so much :3

I LOVED the Comedia del Arte reference! It's one of my favorite theatre games and is an amazing training tool for actors of any level.

Gosh, this is so useful! Genuinely terrific advice. I've just started GMing and I feel like this will mean my players have a bunch more fun and feel more immersed. Love the series.

"[npc] having issues with the guy down the street, and just being sort of aggressive about it" (paraphrased) really only makes me think of "Steve Carlsberg"

I love this series! I'm not a GM, I have played a couple one shot games as a player, but I'm mainly a writer. I have started using so many of these tips and tricks in my writing it's amazing! Thank you so much!!!

NPC's are the thing I struggle with the most and this just made so much sense to me.

I love Taliesin, hes such a cool dude

I love Jaffe. I still don't 'get' his choice of hairstyle but cannot deny he has one dapper closet

This show is amazing, you guys are amazing! I will DM for the first very very time for a group of friends in a week or so and i`ve been learning a lot from you guys. One of my friends is particullary sober and a little grumpy, so it will be a challenge to get him to roleplay but i`ve gotten good tips fro your channel. I`ve only played a session of DND in my life, a few years ago, with a friend and i loved it. Now i will try to introduce my friends to this world! Thank you, you rock!

I will watch this video over and over again forever.

I don't know how I feel about this. On one hand, yes I prefer everyone role play, on the other hand, I don't agree with pushing people out of their comfort zone if they don't want to. At my table, everyone has a different type of role play, and they all work together. I roleplay and my friend describes her actions.

Thank you Satine for doing this episode. I would like to see more AL players role play more and I as a player have inspired others players to role play just by role playing at a table at Cons and local stores.

I love the lists!!! Thank you

I've seen the "My character does..." work really, really well when combined with in character speaking, but to each our own. I've got so many conflicted feelings about Percy, but my god Taliesin is amazing. The dwarf thing is something I've got to try.

That was some high quality advice, Taliesin.. Thanks for your time!

I’m new to DND and needed some great tips to RP the various NPC’s as a DM. These are great tips!!! Thank you!

Great tips and good ideas for DM's as well as players, thanks.

I keep a folder of fantasy art for characters. It's got 30-40 pictures of npcs ready to go. The players interact with one and I show them the picture for a brief flash and (here's where it gets fun) I ask the highest perception check to describe that character to me. It's never boring.

Ahhhhh! Two of my fave D&D peoples in one amazing, informative ep! Plus both of their hair games are completely on point...thanks guys 😘

Taliesin's voice gives me chills when he drops into his chest voice.

Best episode yet. Fun watch.

So in love with Taliesin :). His are always my favourite characters

Omg your aesthetics are GOALS. also I’m going to be binging this.

I love your show. Your energy is amazing

I want to see Satine on Critical Role! (I'm only on episode 50 so if it's already happened forgive my fashionable lateness to the party)

About to DM for the first time tomorrow! Such great tips, thank you guys. :)

I mean I loved this episode but I got distracted by how long Taliesin's eyelashes were. Like whoa.

14:22 Well hello, Mr. Clay!

Really good video with excellent tips, thanks a lot.

Ooh, I'm using that! Thanks Tal

Wow that was an awesome interview. He had some great stuff that i'm going to have to try at my next gaming session. Thanks.

Saline, I love this. I do GM Tip videos too, and this is super advice on roleplaying more. I love getting into character as a GM and bringing life to every NPC. Roleplaying Rasputin has been extra fun for me in my current campaign. I even have and English to Russian translator up on my pc and saying what he says both in English and Russian

thank you for making that show i am really enjoying it :D

I found this episode very helpful. Good acting tips.

damn, i got chills from the GM close. EPIC!!!!

Taliesin is my favorite... I LOVE that he referenced Willow in there.