How to Get into Your GM's Story as a Player

One thing I know can be vexing as a player--this was especially the case for me as an early player, but the issue can happen to anybody--is struggling to get into the story when you're playing. Modules might be too simplistic to dig your teeth into, and homebrew material can be imperfect and strange. How do you get into the story the GM is presenting, even when you aren't sure how to do that? I have some suggestions about how to find your way to developing your own stakes on the campaign, and I think that with some roleplaying, it's possible to find a way to get your character into most stories. (I will say that some characters are just not made for some games. I once made a really terrifying lawful evil combat rogue in 3.5 and realized after playing him that he was all wrong for the heroic quest of good in the campaign. Sometimes, the fit just won't be right. But you can adapt to most other situations.) 

The first thing you need is a solid understanding of your character. What are they excited by? What values motivate them? What and who do they care about? Answers to these questions are important because they'll tell us who your character really is, and we'll need to know that to move forward. I've written before about really connecting to your character through exercises like these, but even just having a good idea of your character's personality can be enough. 

Then you want to do an honest reading of the story as you know it out of game. What interests you, the player about it? It is storytelling or details about a particular part of the world or the way the quests are structured or just how it feels to be in the world or to get to be your character at all? Be generous here. What are your favorite parts of the story so far? There's going to be something you like, and you can build on it. 

Then, with your combined knowledge of your character and favorite elements of the story, you pick out things that your player character is motivated to do. In what ways might your character be interested in the things you thought of as your favorite things? You can choose to engage with that more, even if it just means telling the GM you want to see more of something or asking NPCs about it. You may find that you're on the right track with the story, or that you've given your GM a chance to do something fun, and either case is good news. 

Let's use an example. I recently started a text campaign with my best friend, and my character is Daylight, a human Druid with the Haunted One background. For a while, I didn't really know how to play her. I defaulted to the Haunted One background and made her nervous around people given my backstory for why she was haunted. My friend and I played out a long moment in the story where my character recovered from her trauma and was able to function normally, but now I really didn't know what to do with her. So I did these steps. 

First, I needed a solid understanding of Daylight. I'd come to understand her as a direct and sometimes awkward conversationalist, a staunch advocate of nonviolence and nonlethal combat, and a devout follower of a homebrew god my friend had made who honors crafts (like Daylight's alchemy), protection (her efforts as a Druid), and honorable combat (her nonlethal fighting style). I knew that she viewed that people working with her on the main quest were good people who had forgiven her faults and wanted to show her appreciation by being useful to the mission. 

Then I asked myself, what am I interested in? I loved my friend's story--I was part of a team investigating and mapping the continent of the dragonborn, a place isolated for centuries. I liked talking to the different tribes, using diplomacy with them to form relationships and learn from them. Daylight is practical and knows the locals will know more about local wildlife than she can learn for herself, so these relationships are important to her. I also really wanted to see where Daylight could go with her greatest limitation removed--I wanted her to live up to her name. 

Finally, I combined these to answer the question of what Daylight should want to do. I think that for starters, I need to make Daylight more active. She was reactive before, and she made a pretty small impact on the story so far. I want her to be able to go out and forge relationships with dragonborn. I decided that and made it a priority to learn their language in my next session, and now I get to actually talk to dragonborn instead of hoping they understand my improvised sign language and don't attack Daylight (a hope that has been wrong before). This also helps her to forge relationships with the tribes, and that's a great double benefit. I can also make an effort to roleplay Daylight as more positive and warm so that she can be happier about how people see her. 

So now, moving forward, I have goals related to the story, and I can pursue my goals alongside pursuing the main story. I care more about the mapping mission because my character is invested in it. I gave my character the ability to speak to the residents of the island she's exploring. It's really all open possibility, and I'm excited to get to see where it goes. And it took me about ten minutes to think about--that's all it takes to recalibrate a character or get a new reason to enjoy a game.

So with an exercise that only takes a short amount of time, you can give yourself stakes in the story. Even if your style and your GM's style are totally different, you can still find something to enjoy, so just spend as much time as you can pursuing that in game. And if there's literally nothing you enjoy, it sounds like you might need to find a different group. Gaming is supposed to be fun, and when it isn't anymore, it's time to play a different game. 

I'll close by saying this--it's possible to enjoy a bad story. I've saved a few bad one-shots by acting really silly to embrace how chaotic everything was, and I ended up having a pretty good time despite the bad situations. I embraced silliness but also chose specific things in the game that interested me for my characters to fixate on, which let me indulge my interest while still roleplaying within the world. In my book, even a bad ttrpg experience is often preferable to no ttrpg experience, so make the most out of what you can. 

That's all for now. Coming soon: friendship in my homebrew setting, symbols of power by culture, and the locations of important resources. Until next time, happy gaming!

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