How to Roleplay New Characters | TTRPG | 5e D&D | Web DM

hey there fellow pcs i'm pruitt and this is jim davis and we get asked all the time about how to role play new characters something great something memorable when sometimes all you need is an arrow to the knee and you'll be remembered forever it's role-playing new characters on web dm if you like the video please like subscribe and go ahead and ring that bell to get those notifications the web dm exists thanks to our patreon patrons the web demons if you join the web demons you'll get our weekly podcast show audio discounts that'll save you way more than five dollars a month on books and dice and so much more check out our free podcast episodes right now including our free interview with luke gigax about all things d d all right jim let's talk about new characters yeah i mean we've been playing a long time but there's a lot of people out there we get asked this a lot you know like how how do you role play a new fresh baby character right out of right out of the oven uh still piping hot i'm so really fortunate in this because most of my rpg playing up until the last year or so has been dm focused and i i liked it i preferred it that way i'm gonna have friends be like oh i want you to play the game because you never get to play like i get to play all the time but having played more than i dm'd over the last year or so i've had to do more of this right kind of like come up with characters and just like play them and i find that like i've refined my method for doing that the the sort of thing that i prefer so i think a lot of players get intimidated there's awkwardness there's you know a lot of expectations that uh that go in to starting a new game and a new character oh yeah and uh i used to write the elaborate backstory and i had wanted to fit it into the world and try to fit it with the other people even though it doesn't yeah you know that's that's something you need to figure out at your table like do these people know each other and we'll kind of get more into that later but like i used to have this big thing that i would do and now i'm leaning like as as more and more i go along like now it's just kind of like no they had this like one thing in their past yeah and i find that it's much more freeing to don't write out all the details of what happened in the past you save that for in the game so when somebody is in a situation be like oh this is like that time at blah blah blah and then you get to make it up right there as a way of being able to give advice in game and to role play that and so to just remember that but find a you know not not to rip off city slickers or anything but you just got to find the one thing like find one thing about your character that they kind of revolve around and i don't know everything else pretty much you can you can wing it after that coming up with it on the spot as a way to both you know shed light on your character's past but also to tie it into something in the game and and especially if it involves you know another player and their their character's sort of personality or backstory that's that's a show not a tell right and and i find that that's really what i strive for when i think of like playing a new character i start making the character before i know who they are yeah bonus points for me if it's random generated mostly because i hate having to make decisions and i find the creative constraints of having this randomly determined set of parameters very satisfying you know oh jim i'm right there with you i would create the whole back story and then as i'm rolling my stats and making my character i'm trying to conform the numbers to that preset narrative whereas now it's like no no no get your numbers first get the randomness of nature out of the way to illuminate how your character acts in the world yeah and uh i i definitely find that that is a much more enjoyable way to play now i really love it i really do and i find that like starting with a random element whether it's ability scores or random background or something can be a real springboard to to having a really satisfying character and in the last just last six months i've had three characters that i've made where it's like i know virtually nothing about them going in and yet they are two of them at least i've played the third one long enough but two of them are very satisfying characters and really enmeshed in the world in the in the dynamics of the party they they have real stakes uh you know what's going on and it all started from just randomness uh and and forming a pattern and something cohesive out of this noise because it took me so long to really start playing games i saw a lot of players who were like come to the table with the fully fleshed out intricate back story they already have a nice strong idea of who their character is they're invested in it even before they've started playing that there's so much at stake the expectations are so high and they have such a specific idea of what they want the character to be that it's really hard to like live up to all that for both the player side on the dm side right oh definitely um one of the things that got me on a kick of like all right all right guys no detailed backstories was simply reading things in the backstory that's like wait a minute this could have been an adventure we ran you know this could have been something that we do together instead of having it already written out you know that kicked off to me this idea of like all right i want to create a character that is ready for adventure that's my number one priority when making a character and then from that what stats did i roll what what arrangement are they going to be in what else about their background or you know personality or just characteristics can i randomly determine i love the tables and xanathar's guide to everything because it'll generate a background for you and it's if you go with what the dice roll and and work within those creative constraints i you'll find that you make characters that you wouldn't otherwise make and if everything you make is very like deliberate and chosen and built out then chances are your character is very samey you know jim you you thank you for setting up one of the points i was going to make because i i found that the one of the reasons why i go to the way i do characters now is i would realize i was playing like one of four archetypes that is what my characters had started to become wonderful we used to keep we used to keep a uh what do you call it uh not a raffle but a a you know a party pool yeah which care which of pruitt's characters are we gonna get this time around yeah is he going to play the spellcaster electric guy is he going to play the tough fighter is he going to play anyway like talking about the random tables in xanathar's they're a lot of fun also just like leaning on the backgrounds that you choose from don't fill out the details that's you'll figure that out later just having a general idea of your background and your tbifs your traits bonds uh ideals and flaws whether you roll those randomly or pick them but just like letting those five pieces of information i'm a soldier that has this trait bond ideal and flaw like oh i'm a drunkard but i like helping people and i got a sister uh you know and like that that's hey that's all you need really that's all you need okay let's let's start adventuring now i don't know if it's because i i played so much as a dm yeah used to that like you know creating a pattern out of the noise that on random roles and the like um that i just approach it differently or if it's you know that i'm just way out of touch with the people like playing their characters but i find it a very i said a very satisfying way so as an example for me i'm playing in uh playing a ranger in kobold press's uh you know midgard uh campaign on their channel i was initially gonna be like a grizzled bandity type troll kin you know it's like you know it's i'm channeling the witcher you know and all these other sorts of things and i realized like wait a minute i am i played this character before yeah like this is a stock gym character that's when i was like let's see what xanathar's rolls up it turns out i made a 16 year old who who did not live with their mother and dad her mom and dad and was you know raised by their grandparents and had a rival and like all of this stuff emerged out of these roles and then once i started playing the opportunities to flesh out those details just kept coming and coming and coming so i could make a comment about my brothers and like i don't know anything about them until i commented on it you know i don't i didn't know that you know this character's mother was you know missing because of the entanglements between baba yaga and some of the other cosmic forces that went on i just know she wasn't around and so like being able to look for those moments of like this is a moment for me to show the party and the dm a little bit more of my background you know and deep you know add depth to the character and i'm way more satisfied with slain now as he's evolved than i ever would have been if i'd gone with my original idea of him just being a grizzled bandit looking to for redemption or something now he's a socially awkward teenager you know trying to find his estranged mother uh and tangled up at a lot of baba yaga shenanigans doing it this way has produced such satisfying outcomes for me and for the people i've played with i should really struggle to understand like where people who have a different play style come from not their play style is wrong or they should they should always do what i tell them to or whatever but more just like what benefit uh you know are you getting here with that troll ken because this is another another facet of this question that pops up is uh do you do a voice form i didn't know what voice i was going to do until it came out of my mouth and it developed over the first couple of sessions like a lot of the my characters right like i will start out with something just different something different than my normal voice not necessarily to have something that i inhabit or or like a persona whatever but just to differentiate when i'm talking am i talking in character out of character and because so much of my playing now even before covet was over zoom and sort of you know online chat based having that different voice that like okay when we hear this we know jim is speaking in character versus when i drop out and and you know talking my regular voice now i'm talking about metagame stuff where are you guys at are we sure we want to do this checking in with the dm checking in with the players yeah and i slip between that effortlessly again something that i think my dungeon mastering experiences has sort of given to me is that i don't see an issue with like explaining something in an out of game way and then slipping into character voice and sort of talking in first person as if i'm the character and then back out and back in and back out and it's not that i think it's unique i think a lot of people do this but for me it's very purposeful oh oh definitely man they're in the call of cthulhu years over on counter role play i did it all the time like especially like in when i was playing costco for monovich and having to do a russian accent and then hey how do you do luck is that oh okay so i'm going to try to find this thing you know yeah like flipping back and forth the best moment i had of that though was the was the my my sniveling coward who is crying i'm literally crying tears are rolling down my face and i break my little monologue to be like hey what's the rule for blah blah blah okay cool and then right back into it and you know it takes a little practice because i don't have the years of dm experience of doing that but i always love theater and acting and all that i don't think players should worry about a voice i literally that should be the last thing like like you said they should try to do what you do which is don't try to come up with a voice just as soon as the first time you get asked a question in game see what comes out see what comes out working and guess what you can change it like over the first few adventures and if people like hey did your voice change be like well i was i didn't know if i could trust myself around you people because actually i'm a spy you know however you want to however you want to play that like work it into your game you know the awkwardness that comes from playing a new character starting a new game you know you especially if you've got a couple of campaigns that you've you've had very successful and they've they've been long lasting there's that anticipation of like all right we gotta we've gotta make this thing gel we gotta make this thing come together i gotta have a character that is as rich and detailed and everything that's my last character who i played for you know a year or more whatever yeah i'm like that's a lot of pressure to put on yourself to me the the only things i really focus on when i'm first role playing a character is creating something distinct that stands out but mostly to me right that i'm interested in finding a way to relate to enough of the party members that joining this group of adventurers feels natural and and not too incongruous you know a lot of times it seems like the hurdle that player players get with the new characters like you know would they pal around with these and a lot of times i do that by you know before the first game begins just asking other players you know is there anybody know me does anybody know my character before or you know did we meet on the road have we you know did we live in the same place and just sort of know each other in passing it doesn't need to be a lot but the last couple of times i've done that some there's always been at least one other player that goes yeah we've traveled together for a while we know each other and like from the beginning without needing to have a lot of investment in it me and those other players have bounced off of each other and i have at least a frame of reference for the rest of the party a point of contact that i can say like oh so and so maybe we did this on the road or or or i know you already i know what you're like i'm i go along with you because i trust you in that it doesn't need to be very fleshed out it doesn't need to be you know super in-depth or or very you know emotionally satisfying it's just enough to give you an excuse even in real life how many times do you meet somebody and they're like oh you're from that town well you know this person oh yeah i know them oh i used to hang out with their brother oh you mean so-and-so and so i've had that so many times in my life and you're like oh small world like yeah it's the same for d and d like you know oh you're from warmer do you know this you know sir brad bradford of the of the night oh yeah it's okay to work out just like a single connection like that before absolutely absolutely and i'm thinking of my own life right like how many times do you start a job you don't know anything about these people you're forced to work together you've got to find some commonality some common ground to just go along and event in from that point of contact from that group experience that that shared experience then will come the investment it seems like based on the questions we get at webdm a lot of the hiccups that new players face a lot of that awkwardness comes from wanting the investment beforehand right and of wanting to have that very satisfying you know experience before putting in the work yeah and and it does require work it requires you to pay attention to what the other players are doing to pay attention to the world the dm's created to make a character that fits all of that you know you can do that before play has began by talking to them what kind of character you playing what kind of game is this but if you're in it for the emergent elements which i i am and the immersiveness of it which i am then having a very loosely defined character lets me mold that once i know where the campaign's going yeah definitely uh yeah that's why like investment requires you to invest like if you just want it to happen that's more of like inheritance i want to inherit all these bonds before we ever like get together and so it's just kind of like you know know what you're going for and know what you need of course i think sometimes that awkwardness either helped or hindered depending on how you look at it if you're talking about is this the same group of people you've always played with or are you literally with a whole new group of people in a new setting both physically and fantastically uh and you're having to create a new character with new people and so it compounds that awkwardness a little bit but i think that you should use that as an opportunity like how does your character feel well how do you feel right now you have to get to know these people and you have to get to know their characters and realizing that there's a lot more that you can you you can pull from in a new setting i i learned that playing at vigilante like i think i became a much better role player because all of a sudden like every week i was with a different group of people with this one character like oh you know and i'm playing the most vanilla fighter possible and it turned out you know he ended up being one of the badasses of the of the campaign you know absolutely absolutely i think a good way to do that with new players is to pay attention to when they introduce their characters yeah find something about them something about what they've said something about the choices they've made whatever amount of backstory they have to make a connection with them and either that's something that that you think your character would connect with them or it could just be something like man that's cool i really like that i'm gonna find a way for my character to relate to that and once you start reaching out as a player once you start making the connections yourself someone at some point will start reciprocating yeah and it's when that reciprocation starts to happen and you start validating and building on each other's imaginations each other's expressions through their character that's when the investment occurs and if you're doing that with a dm who is presenting adventures in situations that are at least plausibly related to your character and nothing nothing that's like oh no i would never do that never in the world you know when i do that uh then you start getting a campaign where things very quickly get the sort of investment that it seems like a lot of people are looking for and i mean it requires some work on the player's part but it doesn't require as much as you think it might yeah well well just like a basic part of like social bonding uh is is a form of mimicry and so the one thing i like i like to do when i learn this a vigilante is when people introduce their characters pay attention to what they focus on in that introduction is it details about what they're wearing is it details about them as a person is it details of what what their appearance like relays as as uh as talking about um like the actual class and coming back when it comes to your character description and using kind of some of the same language because that is going to it's kind of a subconscious way of getting them involved in your character and you're showing whether it's obvious or not that you are involved in what they're saying because you're giving them complimentary data so that you can compare and see the scene together right absolutely bonus points if you can do all of that and have a game mechanic to represent that kind of thing yeah i absolutely agree with you i i did that with this uh with this trolkin ranger in that i was like well i'm a i'm a warrior type but i do not yet have weapon training right but there's a couple of fighters in our group who already have that so maybe my character looks up to them maybe my character sees them and will always see them as the better warrior because they already knew what he was aspiring to know yeah and that one of them happened to be a halfling fighter it was all the better because my guy's like a seven foot six inch troll kin you know fun first session moment to look at the halfling fighter and go like well you know she's really a badass like i could learn a lot from her what a mighty warrior right and to tell and then to express that through the character going like hey i really think you're a badass like can i train with you and then we had a nice moment where our characters are training together and sparring and and the like and it was in it it was through little things like that you know i was able to sort of build up you know my investment in the character the group seems to like them even though i'm constantly getting in trouble with my seven charisma a lot of powerful moments of connection can come from those and if you've already got an idea of what your character is who they are what they would do who they like who they don't like like you're just putting more stuff in the way of looking at those moments and taking advantage of them other than not being in a rush playing to find out keeping the details loose say there's one other thing that i keep in mind when making a new character and that is i have whoever they are whatever their specialty is whatever their background is whatever their personality ends up being they are there to have an adventure because i am there to play a game this is another sort of common thing that i've that i see in my own game sometimes although much less so now than it used to which was like someone's made a character they've shown up but nothing that i as a dm do has hooked them in yeah and it's not for lack of trying on my part lack you know lack of attempting to mold something to their interests it's just that they've made a character that in their mind because they've they've so thoroughly invested in them is like i would not do this adventure why did you make this character yeah why did you make someone that wouldn't go adventuring we're here to play football i brought my baseball player right you said we're playing a game right it's like well yeah but you can't use a bat like anyway know your game and know your role you know what do you think this is a 90s saturday morning cartoon yeah bo jackson and friends there's a point at which the character needs to conform to the game you're playing with real people and that's the thing i always try to keep in mind is that i am playing this game for a purpose that satisfies me as a living breathing person and no imaginary person that emerges from that no no fictional element that i create can ever supersede the fact that as a human being i have sat down to engage in this game with other human beings there are limits to what i can do there are limits to what's acceptable for me to do that's okay and i always want to have them at the forefront of my mind because then i will make a character that's going to sing yeah i'm going to make a character that is going to contribute to the group that's going to be there for the adventure that's that's not going to have the dm jumping up through a whole bunch of hoops to get me involved and i sometimes will tell the dm that straight up like you do not have to worry about me i will find a reason to do the thing right and as we get to know each other i will flex my freedom and and the like uh as seems appropriate but you can count on me to to bite the hook right because that's why i'm here and to me that's like probably the most important thing about playing a new character and role playing them is just to be ready to engage with the game and not put too many barriers in front of yourself through pre-determined choices that's like yeah my character wouldn't do that or they wouldn't do this or this doesn't appeal to them it's like what if it did yeah you know and you don't have to have tons of buy-in you can grouse you can be like my character would do this but not without complaining then you just describe that they complain a lot and that's it you know you have to role-play all that out to me that's the ultimate consideration if you've showed up to play a game then make a character who would participate in the game being played if i could identify like one thing that is a commonality across a lot of the questions we get at dm webdium in terms of this subject it would be like you didn't make characters that are that want to adventure or your party if you're the dm did not make characters who want to adventure they seem to want to play a different game and maybe that's what you should be playing if everybody feels this way and you don't mind then play this other game that seems like everybody created characters for a lot of times it seems like it's one person and everybody else is on board in which case early on in a campaign is the exact time to remold an idea i'm not telling you guys to completely scrap your precious ocs your your your you know i've got them as well i've got my characters where i'm like i don't want anything bad to happen to them and damn you if but to not necessarily give up on that to not just completely scrap it and play in a way that's unsatisfying but to leave enough wiggle room that if there's hiccups within those first few sessions you're able to adjust and able to say like you know what maybe this part of my character is not working for this game because i haven't expounded on upon it a lot i don't have a lot of investment in it myself i'm just gonna quietly forget about that part and focus on this other stuff or let the dm know like hey i kind of went with these bonds and ideals and flaws but i think this flaw is really going to be trouble for this group you know maybe i'll pick a different one and use that to help me role play and determine who the character is i think that's perfectly reasonable to ask that it takes a while to get your character up and running so you know i know a lot of players have been burned they've played in games where they thought they were going to get a lot of investment and they didn't get into too soon they didn't gel with the group they had dms who weren't responsive to them it's a lot to ask to tell those players who are looking for a certain experience they want that you know time spent with a character who is you know that really resonates with them to hold back to not put as much into their characters i look at it a different way if that's your experience if if you've if you've had a lot of false starts to a campaign a lot of mismatches in the groups you've played with then keeping things loose keeping things you know waiting a while to detail things it's going to lessen the sting of those sort of disappointments where you realize like man the kind of game i want to play in is not the one this group is going to deliver or i really can't stand this other person you know and i'm i'm looking for a way out or you know the dm's just not throwing things my way then you got a lot less to lose i really do think that approaching character creation from a wave is like loose use random elements think about the the game concerns first be ready to adventure all those things you might find that a group you wouldn't otherwise gel with that you do gel with because you've made a character that's specifically for them and that group uh and then good times ahead happy gaming yeah you're the activating agent if you like our advice for your games then why don't you come check us out and watch us play yeah head on over to our second youtube channel webdm plays and subscribe thanks for watching [Music] i think i'm just going to call everybody fellow pcs hmm pcenas well i'm just thinking when you have an npc put their former pcness in your face that's like taking an arrow to the meat no it's just done

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Keywords: DnD, dungeons and dragons, d&d, dungeons & dragons, web dm, webdm, rpg, how to play dungeons and dragons, Dungeons and Dragons, Dungeons and Dragons 5e, DnD 5e, How to play dungeons and dragons, dungeons and dragons 5th edition, character backgrounds, how to create a character, dnd 5e, dnd stories, background, backstory, dungeon master, game master, 5e, character backstory, tabletop, how to, pathfinder, gm, dragons, rpg games, critical role, voice

Id: ldK_hgsnZ8U

Length: 27min 5sec (1625 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 02 2020