How to Work Well with Other Players

Beginner players in the world of tabletop games have a lot to learn. There's the rules of the system (which changes between games), their individual character's abilities, the plot being spun by the GM, the in-jokes the party has been crafting, the combination of group and personal goals to consider, and more. It's easy for decisions in the moment to overlook something, be it a minor detail, a glaring issue, or something more subtle. In my experience, one of the first things that drops off in tabletop games is good teamwork. This guide will give you some pointers on how to maintain (or create) a good working relationship with other player characters, something that's vital to having a good time playing. 

The first step is awareness of goals. What does the overall party want? What do individual players want? How can we see player actions as driven by what they want? Where do desires by players overlap or conflict? Answering these questions will give you a good sense of what direction you're headed in. It will also give you the ability to anticipate things better. The next level of this is figuring out what the players want from the game, which will also help guide our understanding of things.

Storytime: Once, I was running a campaign, and I had a player who was playing a paladin. But the player tired of being ceaselessly good and decided that the most compelling thing to do was have him turn evil. Actually, the player wanted to kill the character off and start over, and I insisted we find a way to make the paladin interesting. So we did an evil turn which was preceded by playing the character as increasingly disillusioned and hopeless. The player's intention was to have an epic, exciting turn in his character's story, and that overrode what the character wanted, and since the other players weren't factoring in their fellow player's goals, they were taken totally off guard. It was exciting, but the clues were there had the other players been looking. 

Once you recognize the motivations in your game, it's time to decide which ones you want to focus your energy on assisting. Your personal goals will almost certainly make this list, and the main story should be represented as well; deciding how and where to help your allies is another element of this process. This can be a simple or complex process. If you agree with the goal and the person with the goal is a friend and ally, the decision is simple. What if you disagree with the goal but want to offer an olive branch to the person who holds the goal? What if someone you detest wants to help with a goal of yours? All of these factors can grow complicated, so keeping our base desires (which goals we will prioritize) in mind matters a lot so we can avoid getting distracted. 

Another story: I got to play a con artist build I'd been dreaming about for years. Our DM put us on a sprawling, epic adventure that spanned a continent and multiple dimensions. There were endless fascinating details to latch onto, many of which inspired new goals in our group. We tended to these in the way that D&D players do--"yes, we just slayed a den of vampires, and now I'm eating 40 soft pretzels and watching a boxing match--leave me alone." In the end, our schedules fell apart. There were seven of us trying to coordinate together, and it got to be too much. Our DM gave us a written epilogue wrapping up the campaign and seeing our characters off into the sunset. We all felt similarly: there was more we wanted to do. We never saw the end of the story ourselves. We'd spent sessions frolicking and puzzling and chatting, and the actual story had eluded us. I think if we had kept in mind that real life time was an issue and been more diligent, we would have lived out that story, and while I'm not claiming you shouldn't goof around or explore, I do think that there's a balance to keep. 

Then it's time to coordinate. You know the goal, and you know who's cooperating with you, so you have to figure out who's doing what. Fortunately, tabletop games clearly spell out who has the best chance of success at a task via your skills--you can compare the skill rank of say, Survival, on two different character sheets and see which one is higher. Much of tabletop games involves getting a sense of who is good at what; it becomes intuitive, as having the most skilled person do something is classic and fairly obvious strategy. For more abstract challenges, though, teamwork is usually the solution: brainstorming solutions to problems, collectively convincing someone of something, and outright doing tasks in tandem are all common strategies in tabletop games. What matters most here is that you're strategizing consciously, not acting on impulse.

Storytime part three: In Of Gods and Dragons, my most recent campaign, I tried to pose all abstract problems to my party. I had designed the campaign to be about roleplaying and emotional experiences, and that meant using their wits and creativity to solve problems, not to mention diplomacy. You could see that it was pushing the players to their limits at times--everything was complicated and messy and directionless, and they had to sort it all out. But they persevered. They cooperated. They thought creatively. And when all was said and done, they had amassed enough power to steamroll over every other challenge in their way. But this was only possible because of cooperation. I have never seen a group so focused on the same goals; it was truly magnificent, and I hope to see that again as a GM some day. 

And then it's time to act. This is the easiest part to consider. You declare an action, you roll dice, your GM tells you the result. But! Then it's back to the drawing board. It's time to plan again. 

You may be saying to yourself, but this is all simple enough and can be done without thinking too hard about it. Perhaps. But I have been playing tabletop games for a long time. There are a number of things that happen in practically every party at every table with every game. Panicked decision-making is one of them. Unclear, poorly thought-out, conflicting plans are the bane of every group of tabletop protagonists' existences, and any player or GM who would claim otherwise is unaware of the chaos they live in. 

Storytime one last time, and of a very different nature. I grew up hating myself. I thought that there was nothing positive about me to be said, that people rightfully hated me, and that I deserved the bad things that happened to me. I tried therapies and antidepressants and religions and all kinds of stuff. I was still miserable. Then in my mid-20s, a therapist recommended a book. It was called Self-Compassion by Dr. Kristin Neff. It basically argued that if you are mindful--if you can be aware of what you are thinking while you are thinking it--that you can change your thoughts. You can make them gentler and kinder. You can teach yourself to love yourself. It sounded far-fetched like all self-help books, but I saw no reason to not give it a chance. 

It wasn't immediate. Mindfulness is hard and gradual and only as effective as you let it be. But I got into the swing of things and started shifting to gentler thoughts. I learned to like things about myself, then to hope for good things for myself, and finally to actually loving myself. It hadn't been far-fetched. It was neuroscience, and it worked for me. Mindfulness works on whatever you set it to--any change you want to make, even just in attention, is possible. It is, without hyperbole, a total gamechanger in terms of how you exist in the world. 

So what I'm addressing here isn't frivolous or too simple to discuss. If we can use a tiny dose of mindfulness--just a little constant check-in in your mind that asks some basic questions--we can make much better decisions in-game. These are questions like, "How does what we're doing right now relate to our goals? What other paths might we take to get there? How might we simplify our plans? How are my allies in the party and the NPCs we're working with interested in our plans?" These are simple, yes, but they are critical thought questions that keep us from getting caught up in crazy plans or overlooking important things. 

But finally, beyond understanding and contributing to plans well, there is one last key to working well with other players: friendliness. I don't mean your character should embrace a caricature of polite behavior or some kind of chipper demeanor. I meant that you, the player, outside of the game, should be friendly with a player when you work with them. It's a big thing to offer assistance in tabletop games, and a spirit of kindness goes a long way in terms of making that assistance into a meaningful moment in the campaign. We are all here to have fun, so try to embrace the cooperative in-game spirit with the same energy out of game. 

This will guide you in most things. When new situations arise, trust your intuition. Most of all, remember that this is a narrative game. Failure is just as interesting as success, and often more interesting. Don't be afraid to ask for help and guidance if you're nervous. And just have fun--that's the point. 

That's all for now. Coming soon: how to stop railroading, a profile on the island of Ramsey, and how to "win" tabletop games. Until next time, happy gaming!

A Guide to Dice

I write most often about the higher-level thinking of TRPGs--about how to tell stories and create memorable games--but sometimes players' needs are more basic than that. I've written before about how to get started as a beginning D&D player, but your beginning players may still be struggling with more simple questions, like how to roll and read the dice. After all, one of the things that is new to experienced board game players who haven't played TRPGs is wrapping their minds around which die to use and when. This guide breaks down this component of gameplay for beginners. 

The first step is familiarizing yourself with how we think about dice. The first and most vital information is that a die is referred to by the amount of faces it has; you can also think of this as the die being referred to by the highest number it can roll. Let's start with the smallest die: the d4. 

You can recognize the d4 by its sharp pyramidal shape. This die is used pretty rarely in D&D; it is responsible mostly for rolling low-level damage, as from an unarmed strike or magic missile. Some beginners have a hard time reading this die; in the image above, the number that appears at the top is the selected number, whereas other d4s will list the number along the bottom. If you're not sure which your die is supposed to read, turn it without flipping it, and the number that remains consistent on the top or bottom will be your answer. Let's move to a more common die: the d6.

The d6 is the most recognizable die for most players. It's a simple cube, and it's the same die that most games of chance use. The d6 is used for a number of rolls, especially standard damage for simple melee weapons and early spells. It is also used to select your attribute scores (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma) at the beginning of making a character. Keep a d6 handy when you're playing a lower-level character since d6 rolls are so common in the early stages of the game. The dice continue to grow, so let's look at the d8. 

The d8 is recognizable as being similar in shape to a top, or two pyramids stuck together at the base. You'll need a d8 for common weapons in the early game, most especially ranged attacks and martial weapons. Aside from damage, the d8 is pretty rarely used, but for some players, every successful attack will be followed by a d8 roll. Be aware that the d8 looks very similar to a d10, so be wary of how rounded its edges are; sharp edges like in the picture above are a d8. Let's move on to the more rounded d10:

The d10 is an exception among the the six types of dice you have as a D&D player. Whereas the other five dice are all ideal platonic solids, the d10 has a more irregular shape. Not all d10s are shaped the same way, but most generally follow the image above. D10s cross up a lot of beginners because there are two of them, but it's actually a fairly simple concept. A d10 can be rolled individually for higher level damage, but it can be paired with a second d10 with double digits on it to form a d100. If you were to roll both simultaneously, you would take the single-digit die as your ones digit and add it to your double-digit die, which would be the tens digits. Rolling a d100 is used sparingly according to the rulebooks--it is mostly for DMs to determine random information--but some DMs use it for player actions that require chance (I use it when players pray to see if their god answers). Overall, you aren't likely to use your d10/d100, but when you do, just keep in mind that a single-digit "0" is actually a 10 and not a 0. Let's move on to the d12: 

The d12 is, aesthetically speaking, my favorite die. Every face of the die is a pentagon and it has a pleasantly sturdy appearance. The d12 is used only very rarely, mostly for high-level damage from special weapons and powerful spells. Beginners can mix up the d12 and the d20 because they both have rounder shapes overall, but you can recognize the d12 by those pentagons (the d20 uses triangles). While you won't use d12s very often until you're a higher-level character, keep it in mind as you level up, as you may end up using it regularly with the right layout. Onto the final (and most important) die: the d20. 

The d20 is, without a doubt, the most commonly used die in the whole of D&D. Other TRPGs switch up the usage of dice; Call of Cthulhu uses primarily d100s and Don't Rest Your Head is only d6s, but D&D is a d20-based system. Let's break the numbers down. A single face on a d20 represents a 5% chance of coming up as a result, which means that there is a 5% chance you will automatically succeed with a natural 20 and a 5% chance of automatically failing with a natural 1. The results in between will be added to your respective bonus and compared to a Difficulty Class (DC) on the DM's part. The d20, with its triangular faces and nearly round profile ("the big one," as many beginners refer to it), will be most of your rolls. You roll a d20 to attack, to perform a skill check, to roll a saving throw, and to determine initiative order. If your DM asks you for anything with the word "attack" or "check" (as in skill checks), you need a d20. But don't get complacent with the d20--your damage will almost never be a d20 (only for very powerful spells). 

These pictures can be helpful, but a lot of players still struggle with learning which die is which. In particular, knowing which die is called for when the DM requests a d20, for instance, is something that takes time. You can give yourself a leg up, though, by laying out your dice with the highest number of each die facing upwards. If you do this, you can simply listen for the die that is being used and grab the die with that number on top. It should look like this: 

With this layout, you can easily grab the die you need without having to search or inspect the dice. If you keep your dice this way, though, you will be denying yourself one of the pleasures of TRPGs: dice stacking. It is a long venerated practice among TRPG players to stack the dice into towers, carefully strategizing which dice will stack on others in a stable manner. It's a game within a game, but until you're comfortably familiar with each die's appearance and can reliably grab the right one, stick with the layout in the picture above. You'll be inaugurated into the dice-stacking world soon enough, and your DM will delight in your joining a time-honored tradition in gaming. 

A very satisfying way to occupy yourself while the game progresses. 

That's basically all you need to know about the dice and how to use them. I recommend using this list as a guide for beginning players, so refer this to anyone who's just starting out and needs a leg up in familiarizing themselves with the dice. This is a major step in learning the game, so take your time to get to know the dice, and you'll be ready to take on any adventure. Look out for a guide to describing magic, a rundown of the accessories you need to play, and how to build a strong party. As always, if there's something I didn't cover here or you would like to see written about here, comment below! Happy gaming!

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A Guide for Beginning Players

The advice here on Over the DM's Shoulder is mostly oriented toward GMs, but sometimes a good GM could use some help teaching beginning players how to adapt to TRPGs. This guide contains everything a player will need to know to succeed in a game of Dungeons & Dragons. The same rules will generally apply to all TRPGs, but for the consideration of statistical details, I will be focusing on D&D. If you are playing a different TRPG, ask your GM for help understanding the rules--they will help you to work through all the numbers and give you an understanding of how to play. But building a game-ready character is more than understanding rules; let's address what you need to be ready as a player. 

The first piece of information you will need is what the focus of your game is going to be. Ask your fellow players and your GM what you'll be trying to accomplish with the game--will it be a combat-focused journey, a creative story, a roleplaying exposition? The character you create should be made according to this information. Once you have determined this information, it's time to create your character. I'll handle each possible focus, beginning with roleplaying. 

I've written elsewhere about how to roleplay, and the basics are simple. You'll need a backstory--check out the linked article for full tips on creating a backstory, but the core idea is that you're providing enough details to give yourself inspiration for how to behave in small moments. You want to know without doubt how your character would behave in any given scenario, and that takes an understanding of who they are, where they came from, and what they want. A good roleplayer is someone who contributes to the overall story through individual actions, and you will find that simply trying to honestly portray your character will do so. 

If your GM wants to focus more on storytelling than roleplaying for the sake of roleplaying, it's a good idea to tailor your character to the campaign. Let's say your GM has designed a story about falling stars which explode in fiery bursts when they strike land. They want the party to discover what's going on and do something about it. To contribute to the storytelling, it's a good idea to pick a character design that would be interesting or helpful in this scenario. You could decide to be a stargazer or astronomer and have a background in the campaign's focus area. You could also decide to be an explosives expert who is interested in the detonation upon impact, or a nature preservationist who is alarmed at the destruction of land, or a humanitarian bent on helping those whose lives were impacted by the falling stars. The important thing is that your character be able to contribute to the story with their own unique perspective. 

A roleplaying or storytelling approach also means that you as the player are going to be expected to generate content in concert with your fellow players. That means that in either case, you'll need a healthy improvisational spirit. You can read about how to use improv rules to work together on a story, but the basics are that you accept whatever detail is added by another player or the GM and you add to it. If the GM says that stars are falling near you, you can respond in many different ways as long as you add something to it. "I run away from the falling stars, trying to warn nearby townspeople," or "I stand still, too frightened to move," or "I cast a spell on the star to determine whether it is magical" are all great options, but the important thing is that you added your character's action to the mix. 

If you're playing a combat game, you'll want to be ready with appropriate rules and strategies, and you'll especially want to be familiar with your character sheet. Here are the basics:

The most vital information is how the stats generally work. As I've written before, the key is in understanding the attribute scores. The basis is simple: each score for an attribute like Strength or Charisma has a corresponding scaled modifier. This modifier reflects the bonus you get to rolls for skills and attacks, as well as your difficulty to be hit (your armor class) and your overall hit points. A +3 to Strength means that you get +3 to your "to hit" (plus your proficiency modifier as well); it also means you get +3 damage on top of what your damage dice roll. If you understand this basic formula, you can grasp 90% of the numerical values in D&D. Check out the linked article for more detail on how this is applied. 

But just knowing how your numbers relate to one another won't be enough--you'll also need to know how to find specific information on your character sheet. And among that information, there's specific details that you will want to memorize. First though, let's break down the character sheet, using the official template from D&D Beyond. Here's the character sheet for Asa, who I introduced here.  

Highlighted: the attributes and their bonuses. 

As mentioned above, the attributes are the core of the statistical framework of D&D. Take a look at the attribute bonuses and compare them to the skill check scores in the middle column. Skills which rely on Intelligence have a +1 bonus, which is because Asa's Intelligence has a +1 bonus. The only differences are when a character is proficient in a skill--Asa gets an additional +3 to these skills because of his proficiency bonus (located right next to the attributes). This will clear up much of the confusion about stats in the game. 

Highlighted: your actions. 

It's very important to be familiar with your actions. Many first time players freeze on their turns, unsure of what to do in combat, but this actions box covers basically everything you can do. It includes attacks, spells, and special actions. Anything you want to do related to these will be found here. If you're using the online character sheet, you can click on the top menus in the box to move between attacks, spells, equipment, and more. 

Highlighted: vital statistics. 

The final area of interest on our character sheet is this bundle of numbers in the upper right corner. It includes your hit points, your speed, your initiative, and your armor class, amongst other details. If you are in the midst of playing and you need information about your characters ability to remain unharmed in combat, it will be found here. This information is so important in general that it would be helpful to memorize it. In fact, you should memorize the following numbers so that you can keep combat rolling on your turn:

• Armor Class
• Total Hit Points
• Initiative
• Attack and Damage for your most common weapon(s)
• Checks for your most common skills (dependent on the game, but perception is often used in most games)

The first four items on this list are information which can change, but generally stays the same for long periods of time. Thus, if you memorize the information, you can save yourself having to reference your character sheet when these common rolls come up. The checks, as mentioned, depend on the game, but you will quickly learn which skills your GM wants you to use most often. Once you have this information ready, you'll be able to play like a pro. 

But there are other ideas about combat you should be aware of. Since the creation of D&D in the 1970s, players and GMs have theorized that the perfect party has a definite breakdown of components. The common wisdom holds that a four-person party follows a certain pattern: a healer, a tank, an expert, and a striker. Generally this would mean, respectively, a cleric, a fighter/barbarian, a rogue/bard, and a spellcaster. It's not that every adventure demands this balance, and a good GM won't require a party to have this makeup in order to succeed. But the wisdom holds that the party should be prepared for anything, and having one party member who is well-versed in each eventuality is a good way to ensure you've got what it takes. You can collaborate with the other players to build a balanced party, but you can also just as easily assign roles to the player characters who are best suited for the job. A fighter might take up the striker position if they're a ranged weapons specialist, and a sufficiently skilled sorcerer could be the party's expert. It's all about what works for you, but try to figure out your role in the party and lean into it. 

There are also specific strategies you can adopt in the game to make the most of your attacks. In D&D, there are a variety of special attacks that allow you to target an enemy in a specific way. You can view a hypertext list of them here. You have access to a range of special attacks; you could strike your foe's weapons or shield (Sunder), knock them prone (Trip), push them back (Bull Rush), or knock the weapon from their hands (Disarm). And that's just a bit of your options. These special attacks are among the most commonly overlooked abilities in the game, and if you can begin familiarizing yourself with them as a beginning player, you'll get the most out of combat in no time. 

"This is all great and fine," you might say, "but I'm still hung up trying to design my character." Inspiration for a good character can be a challenge, but there are a variety of routes I find helpful. You might first be inspired by the physical look of the character. You could design a character or stumble upon inspiration, and looking at figurines for combat can be a great option. If you're looking to browse options and be inspired, check out a mini seller like Miniature Market. If you want to have control over the appearance of your character-to-be, try Hero Forge with its many options for appearances. In either case, you'll get a clear picture of who your character is on the surface, and that will help fill in details later. 

You could also start with the core of the character's personality. A good place to start here is with the works of fiction or nonfiction you enjoy. Really enjoy a specific character out there? Tweak some details and fashion them into your character. Wish that a specific character were different in some way? Make them as you wish they were. Enjoy a figure from history and find them inspiring? Create them in the game world. It doesn't matter where your inspiration comes from--you just want to make a complex, realistic character who you can inhabit in game. 

The final method for coming up with a character idea I'll recommend is in working closely with another player. So often are player characters lone wolfs with no real past--and how sad that we deprive ourselves of the opportunities to fill in those details with something interesting. You could sit down with another player and discuss how they know each other and what their relationship is like. This method allows you to get right to the heart of your character's connections with the real world and present a more realistic group dynamic in the game. It's rare that people use this option, but I highly recommend it if you're looking for a storytelling or roleplaying campaign. 

And for players who are very new to TRPGs, the dice themselves can be a challenge. Use this guide to dice for D&D for beginning players, which will teach all the basics of recognizing and using the dice, including what each is commonly used for. Don't underestimate the difficulty of starting out in D&D--there's a lot to learn, and dice can be just the beginning of player issues. 

This guide has covered a variety of concerns for players, and I hope that it allows a few beginning players out there to get a leg up on the intensive process of becoming a seasoned D&D player. As always, if you as a player or GM need guidance on some part of the TRPG process, let me know! I'd be happy to write about your concerns. Look out soon for guides to dice for beginners, describing magic, and what accessories you need to play. Until next time, happy gaming!

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Roleplaying Tips

My approach to TRPGs is roleplaying-focused--I think that what TRPGs can uniquely handle relative to other games is roleplaying and storytelling. Storytelling is the province of the GM, but roleplaying falls to the players. Rich roleplaying helps tell stories in a more complete scale, and it only takes a little bit of practice to be a strong roleplayer. Follow these tips and you'll be prepared to fully inhabit your character at the game table as the story develops around you. 

The first quality of great roleplaying is a focus on performance. Try not to think about your performance as being something you're doing for an audience; your goal should not be to get your fellow players and your GM to appreciate what you're doing, but rather to enjoy yourself in the game. But the fact remains that you are in a sense performing for the other players and the GM, and honing that performance for them will enrich everyone's experience at the table. So how can you tailor your performance so that it reaches your fellow players? 

The first ingredient is how your character fits into the campaign. Is your character someone who drives the story forward or complicates it? Being aware of this detail can allow you to play the scenes in an appropriate way. If your character drives the story forward, they can take details of the plot and relate them to the way that the plot progresses. An example will help clarify: 

Let's say your character is a paladin who is driven by all that is good. Your campaign revolves around clearing the world of a particular type of evil enemy. The paladin is contributing to this actively by agreeing that the evil enemies need to be destroyed. So as a roleplayer, you get behind this goal for reasons that fit your character: your paladin takes the direction of destroying these enemies seriously and talks to the party, trying to convince them that they must help destroy these enemies. You are leaning into the direction of the story, so you act and speak in support of it. This is basic roleplaying. 

But let's say that instead your paladin is a rogue who is driven by all that benefits them. Your campaign still revolves around slaying the evil enemies. But your character doesn't exactly align with slaying all the enemies--the profit of doing so is negligible and your rogue thinks that the enemies are better left alone. So your character is complicating the story: you as a roleplayer voice the opinion that things are better left as they are and resist committing to killing all the enemies. You are leaning against the story, but by doing so, you have created a new story, one about your conflict over killing the enemies. This new story allows you further opportunities to roleplay as the other characters voice their own opinions. 

But now we have a division in the party. The paladin wants to slay the enemies and the rogue is reluctant to help. This leads us to our second consideration in roleplaying: advancing the story. It's perfectly possible that some members of a party will disagree with the others about how to advance, but we also don't want to spend an entire session arguing about what to do and ending up without a decision. So we compromise. Either the paladin or the rogue must capitulate to the other in order for the story to go anywhere. So as a roleplayer, we make the concession that we have voiced our opinion and that the party as a whole is leaning towards a certain option. And in the interest of advancing the story and keeping the peace between the players, we decide to agree with the other players; even though our rogue is opposed to killing the enemies, the rest of the party agrees with the paladin. It's better to agree and compromise roleplaying a bit than to commit completely to a disagreement. 

And this roleplaying compromise ends up being fairly minor. The rogue disagrees with the end result, but you still get to roleplay their hesitation and their preferred actions. Your compromise will be remembered by the other players, who now know that your rogue prefers not to target all the evil enemies around. This is a successful performance. You set out to portray your rogue faithfully, and you did. Mission accomplished. This is how to roleplay in the broadest sense, in terms of major game decisions. 

But roleplaying can work its way into any player decision. Let's say that your character is a bard who plays the lute, and a band of musicians enters the tavern where you are and begins to play. As a musician yourself, you are likely to take an interest in the band one way or another. So during the scene in the tavern, you could roleplay that your bard moves closer to the band during the performance and tries to speak with the performers after the performance. This would open further roleplaying opportunities as you meet the band and learn more about them. This is intermediate roleplaying. 

This is an example of a roleplaying moment that doesn't necessarily affect the story in any given way, but potentially could. And that's just fine! You don't need every roleplaying choice to become a major part of the game--you're just portraying a person with as much detail as possible. Once you've started to make decisions like this regularly, the GM and the other players will anticipate your character's personality. With the bard example, you might establish that your bard is intensely interested in all music, even minor moments in song. Roleplaying these moments consistently would mean that the GM could describe someone whistling in the distance and everyone at the table would turn to you to see what your bard does in response. This is part of the fun of roleplaying: getting so in-character that your character becomes real to other players. Not only does it allow you the chance to *be* your character, but it allows the other players rich roleplaying opportunities when they interact with you. 

You may notice that rich roleplaying like this can slow the game down. All the time spent in-character means that the story is not advancing at full speed. This can be fine, depending on your group. If your GM is running a roleplay-heavy campaign, this should be invited and celebrated. If you're in a group that focuses more on combat and tightly-scripted stories, you should probably speak with your GM to decide how much roleplaying is invited in your game; speaking with the other players can help too so that you can get a sense of who wants to have in-game conversations at length and who just wants to get to the next dungeon. Try to meet people halfway, just as you would want them to do the same for you. TRPGs are a collaborative format, so work with your group to find the right balance. 

If you are in a roleplaying group, it's always possible to take roleplaying to the next level. Again, it helps to work with your GM on details like these. If your GM and player group agree that the focus of the campaign is roleplaying, then dive in and get as invested as you like. Here's where the next part of roleplaying allows you to access advanced roleplaying and its benefits. 

Backstories are an often-ignored element of roleplaying development. I've written before about how to develop characters for roleplaying, and the big key is developing a rich enough backstory that your character has a realistic range of responses to things. In the linked article, I explain the lengths to which I went to create a vivid backstory for my cleric Zig--you can and should feel welcome to create as much as you like, but there are certain points you should always include in developing a backstory for your character:

• What is my character's family like? Friends? Work associates? Even a loner is likely to have a few connections here and there, and the average person will have at least five major people in their lives. Mix up the "tragically alone" backstory that most characters have and design a few people in your character's life. Determine not just the relation but also what these people are like and what kind of dynamic they have with your character. 
• What does my character do to sustain themself? Sure, they're an adventurer, but how exactly do they pay the bills? What did they do before doing what they do now? How do they feel about these kinds of work? 
• What are your character's major life events? Even young characters have been alive for a few dozen years, and a lot is likely to have happened in that time. I advise you create a major life event for every 3-5 years in your character's life--things like moving homes, meeting friends and loved ones, finding new jobs, serious accomplishment or setbacks, any of the tragic events that tend to make up a character backstory. 
• What are your character's values? I don't just mean this in terms of alignment or some other measure of morality. I mean, what things matter to your character? Family, wealth, independence, faith, nature, violence, tradition, humor--what does your character appreciate, get bugged by, or feel indifferent to? 
• What is your character experienced in? You may decide this before or after designing your character's stats, but you should be able to answer a few questions: What are they really good at? Pretty okay at? Terrible at? How did they get good at the things they're good at? How do they feel about doing things they're not great at? How confident are they at what they're good at? 

These five overarching ideas will give you a good idea what your character is like in a way that allows you to roleplay with more detail. Specifically, each idea fills in details that you can use to roleplay. Here are some examples:

• Once you have determined the identities of the people in your character's life, you have lots of options. The GM could add them to the story if appropriate--don't be afraid to ask them to. You'll also have a host of memories of each person that your character can describe in the game, which will make them seem more richly detailed. You might roleplay, for instance, that a certain vendor reminds your character of their mother, and so they frequent the vendor's stall out of a form of nostalgia. With details like these, you can roleplay in a way that makes your character's past and present much more colorful. 
• If you know your character's work history, you know their attitudes on work-related tasks. Perhaps your party needs to patch up a boat with a damaged hull; your character has done woodworking before and hates it, so they reluctantly agree to work on the boat, but go about it in a sour mood. This is much more interesting than "I fix the boat." 
• Once you know your character's major life events, you have a host of things that have colored your character's opinions. Let's say you've decided that your character was scammed by a con artist years ago and lost almost everything. Now there's a street performer who seems to be trying a quick change trap. Your character has a serious issue with this, and now you can respond to the street performer in a way that's realistic to your character. By another token, your character might have spent a brief period of time as a street performer and take pity on them. It all depends on who you've decided your character is. 
• Character values are perhaps the most common and easiest roleplaying moments. Much of a TRPG is centered around making choices about moral issues, so knowing your character's values will allow you to make those choices meaningfully. Let's say your character broadly approves of tradespeople but takes specific issue with predatory pricing. So when a tradesperson offers a steep price for something, your character must now balance their respect for tradespeople with their distaste for being overcharged. This complex moment is really only possible if you have developed a rich set of values first. 
• Your character's experience allows for both strategic planning and rich roleplay. If you've determined that your character is an amateur woodcarver, then you'd get a boost to fashioning a wooden peg to hold a fortress door in place. But you also get to carve when you have downtime, wield a carving knife in tense situations, sell the occasional carving, and talk knowledgeably with other carvers. Each character detail can be useful in various scenarios, and it's well worth deciding what your character is good at that skill bonuses don't always measure. 

Thus, with a proper backstory, you will be prepared for great roleplaying. As noted above, though, you may sometimes need to compromise. If your rich character detail makes the story much more complicated and difficult for the whole party and the GM, feel free to voice it, but minimize its effect on the story. Simply put, everyone at the table is performing, and everyone gets a turn, but no one is the star. So be able and willing to accept when your character details are interesting but not story-affecting. 

The final concept that a roleplayer must keep in mind is the spirit of improvisation. I've addressed this from the GM perspective before, and it's largely the same for players, but I will go into it briefly here as well for this context. Essentially, improv directs us to always respond to someone else's addition to the story with a "yes, and..." That means that when someone adds something, you accept it as part of the story without challenging it and add something to it. For example, another player in your game says, "I gather up all my coins and hand them to the beggar." The GM says, in proper "yes, and..." form, "The beggar pulls out an oversized coinpurse and drops in all your coins with a series of clinking sounds." The GM is accepting that the beggar is receiving the money and is adding the detail that the beggar already has a fair amount of money. You as a character who was miserably poor decide that you are entertained by this and add: "I take a gold piece from my coinpurse and delicately hand it to the beggar." You as player accepted that the beggar was actually well-off and contributed anyway because that's what your character would do. This is basic "yes, and...", which is essentially the format of TRPGs when roleplaying is involved. 

There is a variation on "yes, and..." which can be helpful to roleplayers whos characters have specific details that affect their decisions. It is called "no, but..." and it works like this: when a player or GM suggest something that you have control over and your character details tell you it would go another way, you don't just say that it would not work that way; you offer an alternative in its place. So to return to the above example, let's say that the beggar is revealed to have quite a bit of money and looks to you, reaching out a hand for more coins, and let's say your character hates when people are misleading. You might criticize or even attack the beggar; you may insist they return your ally's money; you may storm off without engaging. But you took your character's personality and used it to guide the actions in the game. That's successful roleplaying and storytelling. 

Roleplaying also benefits from small details. It can be immersive for yourself and other players if you adopt a character voice--even only a slight variation on your voice can help distinguish your player additions from your character additions. I myself wear little totems of my character--a fake wedding ring, a holy symbol, an eyepatch, anything that gets you more into your character's head than your own. There are loads of questionnaires out there that ask dozens or even hundreds of questions about your character--this can be great when developing your character's personality and past so you have a broader and more specific idea of who you're playing. And of course, if you can get to the point where you can turn on and off the ability to think in character, you'll be primed for success as a roleplayer--you can practice this by simply considering what you've developed and making hypothetical decisions. By the time you need to make a choice in-game, you'll be well-versed in how your character thinks. 

One last thing that can help you to enrich your roleplaying is what I call "character-specific actions." A character-specific action is something your character would do that doesn't add to any sense of the game except for roleplaying. Let's imagine that your character is a wood carver and ends up in the woods. A combat focus would tell you to remain wary of potential ambushes. A storytelling focus would tell you to take note of the way the wilderness behaves when interacted with. But a character-specific action would let you develop your roleplaying. By this token, your character might scan the ground for good pieces of wood for carving, taking special note of pieces that are shaped in ways that would lead to a good carving. You can do this without setting the focus of the campaign aside--it only takes a moment to define your character's minor interests. Try character-specific actions when you sense your character might want to do something that isn't covered by standard approaches to the game. 

These tips can all help you to be a better roleplayer, but the biggest key will always be to have a character model you're deeply interested in. So if you can, start with a core tension or detail that you find fascinating and build your character around that. I built both the characters in this guide from ideas I found interesting--enforced morality and guilt issues--and both have been great jumping off points for the stories that have followed. 

Have fun out there, and remember: TRPGs are built in a way that allows for collaborative storytelling in a way that no other system allows. So make the most of it, improve your roleplaying skills, and enjoy your games!

Coming soon: how to deal with player issues, how to design your homebrew setting, and a list of campaign ideas and how to run them. Until next time, happy gaming!

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How to Deal with Player Issues

Every GM has seen issues with players in their time at the table. It's your job as GM to provide the majority of the game, but the players are vital--without them, there is no game. And not every player is ready to provide the game with their input in a consistent way. But you have the ability to work with them on what they bring to the table, and this guide will teach you how to get the most out of your players. 

There are two basic types of issues that arise with players: commitment issues and knowledge issues. Let's start with the commitment issues, which are in my opinion the greatest challenges that most GMs face. These issues keep players from engaging completely with the game in some way, and they can be handled with a simple if delicate conversation.

The first issue associated with commitment issues is scheduling difficulties. Especially for games with players who are in their adulthood, finding the right time to play can be a challenge. People have jobs, school, and other social commitments to deal with, and sometimes D&D can take a backseat. There are two ways to deal with scheduling difficulties. You can work with your players to make the best of your schedules, or you can build a party with scheduling in mind. 

If you've already got a party and you're struggling to get everyone in the same place at the same time, there are options. You can have an in-depth conversation with your players about what times work and what times don't; I recommend setting a default time that everyone tries their hardest to meet at best, but you can also just play it by ear and schedule whenever an opening comes up. My players for the mystery campaign and use this second method because one of our players has an inconsistent work schedule, and it works just fine. What matters is that everyone is on board with the method you're using to schedule. No matter which method you're using, you might be helped by a site like whenavailable that lets people input times they're free and outputs a time that works for all or most people. 

If you have particular players who are struggling to be there for the game rather than a systematic problem for everyone, you can talk to your player. Ask them if they're committed enough to the game to make scheduling work. Remind them that everybody wants to play and would appreciate some effort to meet more regularly. See what you can do as GM to make it easier for them to attend. You want your player to understand that you're not trying to force them out of the game; you just want to look out for everyone's enjoyment of the game. If a player is unable or unwilling to work more on being present, you have a few options. You can consider having their character be out of commission for a session or two to allow the rest of the party to play. You can also hold a smaller campaign or one-shot for a few sessions before returning to the main campaign when the player can join. Or, if it creates serious issues for the foreseeable future and there are no other solutions, you can work with that player to write their character out of the campaign. This is a last resort option--writing someone out is usually messy and leaves a bad taste in the mouths of the other players--but it can serve you if it's the only way back to the game. Think of it as an amputation: the rest of the party wants to survive, so they must remove the dead limb. 

Another commitment issue is, simply put, a product of a player just not being committed. Maybe they're a first time player, or maybe they're used to another style of play, or maybe they're in the game more to socialize than to play. Whatever the reason, the player doesn't seem interested in paying attention to what is going on, and it's affecting the rest of the game. You can either meet the player on their terms, or you can try to get them to meet you on yours. Generally, meeting the player where they are is a better option, but it depends on the scenario. 

Let's say it's a first time player. They grasp that there's a story going on, but they don't seem very invested. They're asking more questions about what they can do than actually doing anything. It may be that they need help learning to play--more on that later. But if they're just stringing the adventure along without participating, you can draw them in. Create a small storyline that's specific to the player. Bring back NPCs and themes that player has responded well to. Make them the center of attention. Now, it will either become clear that they have a knowledge issue, which we'll solve below, or we'll see what happens when the player has little choice but to get engaged. 

Let's say that you're running a roleplay-heavy campaign and your unengaged player only seems to care about combat. When the party is talking to NPCs, the player is sizing up their battle stats and doesn't really talk much. Or alternatively, it's a combat-heavy campaign and your player doesn't seem to care about maximizing their abilities while fighting; instead they're using their turns to communicate with enemies who aren't looking to talk. Give them a little something that they can get into. Mix up the story for a moment and give them what they respond to. If they react positively, you can either work more of what they're enjoying into the campaign or start to include elements of their preferred playstyle in what you're already doing. For instance, if the player wants to engage in combat during a roleplaying campaign, offer more encounters when you can and emphasize roleplaying in combat. Use what they already enjoy to get them hooked in the thing you're running. If this doesn't work, ask the player directly: What can I add to this story that will keep you invested? It's perfectly fine to admit to your players that you need help giving them what they want. 

Let's say that the player is mostly interested in socializing. This is an especially difficult one. You don't want to put up walls between them and their friends, but you do want to pull the player into the gameworld. I recommend increasing the exposure that player has to NPCs--let them become friends with characters in the game. Work on creating rich characters who the player will probably like. If the other players engage with the NPCs, it's an even more social experience. Don't be afraid to run an entire session where your players are in a tavern with friends. A little bit of this will go a long way for the player. But you can also just ask them: You're into hanging out with people while we play: what can I do to make the game more exciting for you? Not every player will have a thought-out answer right away, so give them time to think about it and be ready to change your plans a bit. 

The last common type of commitment issue can be understood as table discipline. Do you have players who are always surprised when it's their turn? Players who start out-of-game conversations in the middle of important scenes? Players who are always on their phones? These are all examples of players who just aren't really paying attention, and pretty much every GM knows what that's like. Fortunately, all these problems have solutions, although they can be delicate matters. 

What do you do about players who don't pay attention? It may be that they're not feeling engaged because of one of the above issues, or perhaps they don't understand what's happening, which I'll discuss below. But oftentimes, not paying attention is just a product of being distracted. You can solve these issues with a few tweaks to your playstyle as GM. Occasional zoning out is to be expected, but always being caught off-guard is a systematic problem--involve that player more if you can. Write mini-stories that involve that player, or have an NPC who's interested in their character who's constantly asking their opinion. Whatever you do, make sure that the player is regularly engaged--you basically want to train them to always be plugged into the game. If this fails, there's always a conversation: I notice that you're caught off-guard a lot when we play; is there something that's distracting you that I can fix? If they have an answer, that's your guide, but if they don't, you'll have to keep experimenting to see what keeps them engaged. 

What about players who derail your work as GM? Starting conversations and making jokes and telling stories are part of what TRPGs are about, but there's also a time to be focused on the drama you're creating. There are little things you can try to curtail this. Put on a narrator voice and get extra dramatic--people are less likely to interrupt that. If it's especially pervasive at a critical moment, you can interrupt your players, but this should be reserved for serious issues. My preferred method is to allow the player to finish what they're saying and then return to the game with an "Anyway..." This reminds everyone that you're here to play and that the game is waiting for them--it's enough to get most folks back on board. If all else fails, resort to directly addressing it: We're having a hard time staying focused--how can we stay on task? The important thing is to teach your players that you're going to focus. 

What about the ever-present issue of phones? Players are often browsing memes when it's other players' turns or liking statuses during combat. As a ground rule, you can let people tune out every now and again, but you don't want them to be removed from the game entirely. I like to catch phone-users by surprise during their browsing with a question: What does your player think of that? How does your player respond? This gets people directly hooked back into the game with only minimal prodding. But if it's a serious issue, you can make a no-phone rule at the table. People can check incoming messages and calls, but should otherwise be paying attention even when their characters aren't doing something. The key is to remind players that they're gathered for a special occasion and that they should be engaged. 

But let's say your players are committed to the game and there are still issues. You're probably dealing with a knowledge issue. Your players may not have the tools they need to understand what's going on. It's your job as GM to teach them what they need to succeed. It could be that your players need something as basic as learning how to use the dice. Largely, though, you'll be concerned with more complex rules. Let's look at the two kinds of skills players need to succeed in a TRPG. 

The first issue many players are likely to face is a lack of understanding how all the numbers work. Some systems are very simple in terms of mechanics: the fantastic game Don't Rest Your Head uses only a collection of d6s and has clear rules for what is a success and what is a failure. But Dungeons & Dragons is far more complex. There are rules for practically everything. So where should a new player start? 

My theory is that players should be taught D&D from the standpoint of the attributes (strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom, and charisma). Each of these attributes has a modifier--a wisdom score of 16 means a +3 wisdom modifier. This is a good place to start because essentially all rolls a player makes are based off the numbers. All skill checks are determined by the modifier of the appropriate score, and this makes up the majority of dice-rolling moments. But they affect other important stats, too: your strength modifier plus your proficiency bonus is your number for attacking (in 5e, at least). Your damage is your weapon's die plus that same strength modifier. Your dexterity modifier plus your armor bonus is your armor class. Your hit points per level are your class's hit die plus your constitution modifier. Spellcasters' difficulty for spells is equal to 10 + the spell's level + their spellcasting attribute modifier. All of these are major considerations (some would argue the most important stats in the entire game), and all of them are rooted in the attribute modifiers. There are many details to cover, but if you convey to your players that the modifiers are the basis of basically all rolls, they'll be in good position to be able to understand the process as a whole. I recommend explaining this when players roll characters to begin with since it affects how the player will control the character, but any time you notice a player struggling with stats, this is the model to go back to. 

But your players could be focused on the game, proficient in mechanics, and still be struggling. This is where roleplaying issues come in. I'll be providing a guide to roleplaying soon, but there are some big ideas to keep in mind which will help your players go from lost with their character to fully inhabiting that character. 

The first key, as I've discussed before, is in good improv. When a player encounters something new, their response should be to accept what they're presented with and add to it. This takes practice, but if a player is able to understand that their role as player is to take part in the world *and* add to it, they'll be on the right track to roleplaying well. They should also know that backstory is a vital to having a complete character to roleplay with. I've written about my method of writing for characters before, and players should take away from this that a complete understanding of their character will allow them to understand them well enough to portray them with fidelity. 

These are tools the players can use to succeed as roleplayers, but they might still be hesitant to stretch those roleplaying muscles. You can and should encourage them with your playstyle. Create scenarios that allow the players to guide their characters toward important decisions--present the players with divisive issues you know they'll be fired up by. This lets the players wade gently into the ocean of roleplaying in a safe and simple way. As they get more comfortable with taking stances on in-world issues, it will become more natural for them to have responses to other things. Soon, they'll be able to play their character confidently in just about any scenario. 

Finally, when it comes to roleplaying, there is no measure of success. Good roleplaying for one player might look nothing like good roleplaying to another player. Even if it's not to your taste, give players the room to roleplay in a way that makes sense to them. As long as you can tell your player is considering how their character actually behaves, then it's a success. Don't try to get everyone on the same page roleplaying-wise unless that's an explicit goal of your campaign and all your players. Even if a player's main roleplaying is in creative food and drink orders, allow them to make those choices. But don't be afraid to offer them challenges to get them more engaged, either. 

So how can you lead your players to understanding stats and roleplaying better with your GM style? The key is to offer easy challenges for the players to meet. It's your job as GM to challenge the players, so think carefully about how the players could be succeeding that they aren't. Give them an easy way to get practice with it. And I promise, most any eager player will rise to meet that challenge. Let's look at some examples:

When it comes to combat, inexperienced players will be intimidated by all but the most basic challenges. So if people are being overwhelmed by combat, simplify. Hold off on the huge encounters and give the player(s) experience with less overwhelming odds. If an individual player is afraid of all the numbers, separate them from the party and have a mugger attack them. It will be dramatic, but it will also give that player a chance to work out how to defend themselves in a straightforward way. It's important that a fight like this be easy to win--if your player is afraid their character will die, they're less likely to learn how to succeed. After a few easy challenges and with your coaching on how to navigate the stats, most players will be ready for more complicated and intimidating combat. The only way to improve is practice, so give your players easy practice, and they'll get there. 

What about roleplaying? This is a much more abstract world than combat. But we can solve it the same way. Take a talkative NPC with no ulterior motives and have them latch onto your player who's struggling with roleplaying. Have this NPC ask lots of personal questions, such as about the character's family or past, or even just asking opinions on the news of the day. Even if the player only wants to get away from this character, they'll still have to roleplay being off-put and trying to end the conversation. If a player like this responds well to an important NPC, have the NPC become friends with the player. In their conversations, focus on what animates the player and gets them talking. The important thing is that you get your player invested in being a part of the world. By bits and pieces, you'll be able to train your players to roleplay. 

There are of course many other issues you may face as a GM when it comes to your players. These, though, are the most common, and fortunately, they all have a number of solutions. So take these ideas, run with them, and whip your party into shape. You owe it to yourself to have a table full of engaged players who are comfortable with the game. 

In posts coming soon, lore about dragons in my homebrew world, a Con Air one-shot, and how to get started as a player of D&D. 

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