Considering that I cross-post these blogs to LinkedIn, what a spicy title! Remember that LinkedIn is just another social platform that will also die with the churning of time. It’s outlasted Myspace, though I’m not sure it will translate well to the eventual hellscape of the Metaverse. Is going on LinkedIn in VR just… going to work?

Happy Tuesday y’all, or whatever day you’re reading this. For this week’s Tabletalk Tuesday, I want to talk about roleplaying during your Starfinder, Pathfinder, and D&D games. These tips and tricks are intended to help make your tabletop gaming experiences a little more memorable and to make inhabiting your character less daunting. Despite the LinkedIn warning tag above, these skills absolutely translate to activities outside (or inside) the dungeon, so check for traps and proceed with caution.

Roleplay is when you pretend to be a character or thing other than yourself, acting, speaking, and thinking as that individual instead of yourself. Just like when an actor steps on stage or set, you inhabit the characters using various verbal and physical adjustments — maybe your accent changes and you gesticulate with your hands when you talk. Maybe your character has a limp or a unique physicality that you stress to your fellow actors, incorporating it into the social interactions in your game. Whatever you choose to do, roleplaying only serves to make games more electric, immersing your group in a more involved setting and supercharging your team’s dynamic.

But it isn’t something everyone comes to naturally. It is an inherently vulnerable thing, to pretend to be something that you are not, and act seriously in a unique way. So, be patient with each other as you slowly work on making the game better for everyone. And some people just won’t try and roleplay, no matter how hard you try to convince them. If that is something you can live with, great, otherwise you may just need to reestablish everyone’s expectations of what you all want the game to be.

Regardless, here are some tips for roleplaying in D&D (not BDSM lol)

• Discuss it with your Party Beforehand

This is a no-brainer but needs to be said. Tell your party that you are interested in roleplaying as your character as much as possible and ask them whether or not they would be into trying to maintain character a little more in game. If you don’t let everyone know what your needs and expectations are, you can’t rightly let that deter you. So, get over yourself and just set up some clear communication lines with your friends and party members.

• Use a Character Voice

The best way to maintain character and discern between your meta questions is to use a character voice. A seven-foot ogre and a three-foot gnome would sound much different than a human, so get inventive and try out some new voices. They don’t need to be consistent until you find the voice you like either. I highly recommend finding a character voice that doesn’t strain your voice, like the Batman voice or perhaps a really high-pitched Care Bear kind of person.

• Don’t Think About the Game, Think What Your Character Would Do

Dungeons and Dragons is not about winning, but it sure as shit feels good to do so. Often characters will make choices that are actually against their nature because the people playing those characters have a meta goal or understanding. If you are playing as a low intelligence character, that doesn’t mean your character needs to be a brick wall, but it does mean that they’re a few Legos short of the finished model. Characters go for very, very ballsy stuff sometimes, all for the sake of glory and by the safety of their plot armor. I challenge you to think like a real person when you play your character and ask yourself this:

What do I want? Why do I want it? What am I willing to do to get it? Or in other situations: What would I do here, really? Analyze the decisions your character makes, for a character, or a person, is no more than a series of decisions walking around telling itself a story about those decisions.

• Have Fun, Get Weird

Life’s too short to be too reserved. Get weird, open up, be vulnerable with each other. When there is that interior level of trust and goofiness at a table, the game feels more like a shared epic than a crunchy tabletop. It is what inspires people to start podcasts and write stories and pay artists to draw their characters. When we inhabit our characters, we bring them to life. We get lost in their lives, for just a moment, living inside the memory of a world we create with our friends. Isn’t that the coolest thing ever? The game can still be fun and entertaining without this connection, but any tabletop veteran who has experienced a table full of passionate roleplayers will tell you that it is the pinnacle of the experience. Because people who care enough to roleplay tend to be the type to read the books, know the rules, and invest their hearts in the story.

I hope this helps you set off on a roleplay streak at your tables. Life is too short to be a butt snack, so go out there and try something new. Maybe do something good for a random stranger and invite your friends over for a homecooked meal. Then, we get them on the Dungeons and Dragons train. Keep it fantastic and elastic, and I’ll see you around.

Kbat, Dungeon Master at Large

P.S. No hate to LinkedIn, it’s for real my most visited social media lol. Add me on LinkedIn hahahaha?