Encouraging a different kind of roleplaying

I wonder what the best way to get people to play their character is. What I mean is that so often gamers just play themselves with a sword and shield, rather than developing personality and motivations for the character. I find myself doing this as well. Unless I spend the time to really make up the character of my character, I am just playing an archetype with my own personality.

I fell into this trap again this week. Derek starts his third story arc on Saturday, for the Supers game that we have been playing on and off since late 2005. I made up a cool wizard and when we sat down to play test him last night in a solo game, I realised that a cool wizard was all he was. Sure, I had thought about his background and had a pretty good idea of where he learned magic, but apart from his desire to stem the inevitable demon invasion, I had no idea what drove him or even who he was.

Luckily we had that session last night, because otherwise I would have been stumbling around Saturday's game not knowing how to be in character. I still haven't worked it all out yet, but I at least now know that I have to work it out. Personality.

Being in character means more than putting on an accent and speaking like you are in an Elizabethan drama*. It means actually trying to put yourself in the shoes of the character you have created and this is something that a lot of gamers do in a lackluster kind of way. The best examples of this often come from religious characters.

The player creates a priest of the god of justice and thinks about how to play the character and then homes in on the religious side. Easy. A very straightforward style now comes from that player, as all his character’s decisions are based on the will of the god of justice. All of his interactions with the other characters are scornful of their perceived failings and his choices are easy because they are predetermined. This is all fine if you are prepared to settle for predictable, lackluster play.

The priest I have described is only remotely real. While I’m sure there are historical instances of the man devoted wholly to his god, there are many times that number that are devoted to their god while retaining some semblance of personality. Interesting characters have quirks and flaws. Rounded characters have desires and prejudices. The priest of the god of justice I described has none of these things because the player took the easy road when figuring out how to play him.

From now I am going to expect my players to fully develop their character before playing. I want to know about their quirks, what frustrates them, what they hope for, what they fear and a host of other things that will flesh out a character so that it is more than an office worker** in chainmail.

*unless you are in an Elizabethan drama.

** that is not aimed at anyone.

Game options for people stuck in 3.5

If (like many people) you refuse to go to 4E D&D, but look at what is available for 3.5 and see a logical endpoint because there is no support for it anymore the you can always try Pathfinder

Not that I am going to play it, but I downloaded the free beta copy (over 400 pages of goodies) and already found a few ideas to adapt to my other games.

Role Playing games and so on

I am starting this blog to chronicle my experiences with and thoughts on Pen and Paper Role Playing Games or RPGs* and even though I have another gaming blog, I have found that it was being taken over by Table Top Wargames.

What games am I involved with?
Currently I am running a fantasy game for the 9th to 12th graders at my school. There are seven kids in the group and they have really been enjoying hunting down an ancient evil that had found its way back to earth. They recently manage to kill it, or at least they thought they had; they just found out its not dead. For the system I used Mutants and Masterminds and it worked very well.

I am leaving the country for a new job in July, so I have been giving the kids a chance to run games to get used to it so that someone can take my place next year and so soon one of them is going to do a Super hero game using Necessary Evil, one of the world books from Savage Worlds. I'm looking forward to it because it is fun to play alongside the kids and I love Supers games.

I am running a fantasy game for a bunch of my mates using the Song of Ice and Fire Role Playing Game or SIFRP. It took a bit of adapting to get it to work (I had to invent a system for magic) but the mechanics of the system work well and diminish that all too common moment where the character falls flat in an area he is a specialist in because the player rolled badly.
My group are currently hunting a Wizard and had tracked him to a trading town (where he had become quite influential) and confronted him. That was where last session ended; well Alex did kick the door in as Mike was climbing one of the walls as Derek looked on aghast.

Lastly, Derek has been running a Supers game that has been an on and off thing for years. 'Off' because he did spend a year and a half mostly living in the USA and we also had a complete change of players at one point; I am the only original player from 2005. Colin moved back to the States and Paul moved to Switzerland. At the moment I am finishing off my new character, as my last character died saving the world at the end of the last story arc.

In other recent RPG developments i bought the player's guide to Hellfrost today and am very impressed with it. I would love to run it or play in it and I can just imagine a person in Sydney who it would suit right down to the ground. Derek had a look at it today and made appreciative noises as he flipped through it.

*I make that clear so I can link back to it when a certain person decides to make jokes about Rocket Propelled Grenades.