#roleplaying advice

[raisin-shell]

[skitariiposting]

A rant about roleplaying and taking advice from goblin eratta

Look, look, I get it. D&D is famous for its goblins and whatnot. But trust me when I say, pathfinder goblins are so much better art wise and writing wise than D&D's.

For example:

This is the D&D monster manual illustration for goblins.

Firstly, orange, chunky, this guy's has the aura of "might attempt tactics" about him. He looks more like he'd try and throttle you rather than run in fear at the sight of a large sword. The head is oddly shaped as a goblin's head should be, but it looks more lumpy warrior face than gobliny. The armor is far too organized. The ears are droopy and smooth. This is not goblin, this is a small ork at best.

Yeah they've got a brief section explaining the hobgoblins and bugbear relations, a little bit about goblin language, but not much as far as flavor text.

Now pathfinder goblins...

These are the quintessential goblin.

Green, scrawny, cowardly, chaotic, looks like they scrounge their clothes from local landfills, oblong football head, big ol' perky pointy goblin ears; *chefs kiss* perfection.

Pair that with the tidbits of goblin lore from pathfinder and ough you've got something good going on.

They are afraid of and have a burning hatred for horses. They typically wield 'horse choppers,' basically big cleavers or axes, instead of daggers or shortswords like in D&D.

One of the few occasions they'll organize and come up with plans is if they're pulling pranks or massive attacks under the command of a warlord or leader, of which they will occasionally get on accident.

They don't have to be bound to a leader, though, sometimes goblin bands can manage just with cooperation alone.

Goblins are crafty little buggers, laying traps and building ramshackle contraptions to get the jump on their foes. They prefer going for sneak attacks or surprise attacks over head on combat. They know they can't win a fair fight, so they fight unfair.

If you invade a goblin dwelling, they'll usually retreat on sight, but not always because of cowardice. Sometimes, they do so to lead you into their traps or to get you into a bottleneck. They can come up with strategies, but usually only if it's below the belt and breaks all the rules of engagement.

War crimes and chaos, if they aren't committing one of the two, they must be defective goblins.

There are occasions in the pathfinder modules where it encourages the DM to have the goblins get into antics over attacking the players. One such example is during a fight at a festival, it reccomends having some of the goblins focus on the festival food over the potential threat of the player characters, since they'd find the food much more important.

Some I came up with include swinging from ropes and attempting to grab players' hats, hoods or helmets, having some attempt to crawl into the clothes of the players instead of attacking, or even just crawling and wallowing all over them like opossum babies. My personal favorite and what got a huge laugh out of my players was having one find a big cast-iron stew pot and putting it on its head. It made it blind, but it also gave it more armor, making it sort of run at the characters to attack but not being able to hit them because it couldnt see, and the swords and maces bouncing off the pot due to the additional armor made it difficult to kill him. Pair that with the constant deafening the goblin would endure with the "bong" sounds any impacts would make, causing it to panic and run around more, bumping into walls and people alike.

What I love about these little tidbits of fight modifications is that it exemplifies the "combat doesn't mean roleplaying is over" factor many players and DM's either have never considered or just miss entirely. Many people complained that "man, if only combat in D&D was like the movie," and to that, I say: it can be, if you stopped being boring and made it that way! Describe what your character does! Add flavor to it! An action is 6 seconds. You can do so much in six seconds while still attacking! Describe the actions you take! Take free actions to do little flairs or flourishes! Show off! Fight with elegance, fight with brutality, fight with conniving, fight with confidence! Spend an action doing something in character instead of attacking! Yes, it's not efficient, but it's more interesting and entertaining to take a fall for a storytelling moment instead of spending yet another turn attacking. Flawed moments are far more interesting than constant perfection, that's why you use dice instead of always having a nat20 every turn. Use the failures to your advantage, show how your character reacts to a bad situation or rough luck!

Don't just spend the time in between your turns waiting for yours to roll around. Instead, be planning the sick ass thing you'll do if the dice allow you to, or the reaction to the adversity if they don't! And, sometimes, break away from the "I swing my sword, I cast a spell, I eldritch blast" combat! Push enemies off of elevations with the push action! Flip a table over to get cover from spells and ranged attacks!Grapple them to make it easier for your team mates to hit them or use them as a human shield! Grab a big rock off the ground and chuck it at someone! Cast a spell that doesn't just do damage!

Broke:

"You shoot a fireball at the thief as he attempts to escape."

Woke:

"As the the thief runs, I go to launch the fireball at him, but notice the mirror to the left of me. My narcisim gets the better of me, and I end up taking a second to check my hair. Ah yes, dashing. Oh, wait, I was doing something. I manage to tear myself away from the mirror long enough to barely catch the thief in my fireball as he attempts to flee."

So, I say all that to say this: players and Dms alike, roleplay during combat! It's a roleplaying game, not a roleplaying game+formulaic tabletop war game any time there's combat. And hey, if you ever find yourself needing inspiration on how to make fights more interesting in your tabletop games, grab a couple low level modules off Paizo, and read up on Pathfinder goblin scenes, they pay extreme dividends.

[rpedia]

How to deal with lack of motivation to reply?

Ah, the old blank screen stare. So, for the most part I consider this issue to be several intersecting problems at the same time. Usually a lack of motivation indicates a.) a lack of fun/enjoyment, b.) low/no expectation of reward, or c.) fear or apprehension. Let's explore that under the cut.

When you are roleplaying and you're not enjoying yourself explicitly, if the journey to a finished post is not fun itself, we're kind of fucking ourselves over. Creation of these words, excitement at turning a phrase or approaching an idea you really want to explore is basically the whole gist of it. It is a hobby, and loving what you write and laughing at your own jokes is important! You are your own first audience, and if you're not impressed or pleased with what you're writing, it becomes an endless Sisyphean task where you unhappily struggle to write something, anything, to just get through it.

In this case it may be a lack of inspiration. With no structure, or core, we can really easily lose sight of what kind of play we're looking for. What are your goals? Are you here for plot, or character? For smut, or a quick playful bit of banter? Do you want to fight, or are you reaching for some overarching thing? Hell, do you know where THIS scene is headed, or does it feel like an endless trudge? These ideals disappearing or falling to the wayside for someone else can really fuck the vibe!

How are you supposed to know what to write, if you don't have any plans for the character, or don't know where they might potentially go? Like it doesn't have to be hard and fast, but understanding your characters own personal goals, fears, joys, and secrets (entirely different to you, the player) can help with motivation in writing them. I like to explore these by playing games with myself, and daydreaming about scenarios and possibilities that aren't "canon" to my character, but just let me know more about them if a similar situation were to come up. Having a library chock-full of potential what-ifs can help a ton in figuring out how to approach any actions or direction a partner may push you towards. Be excited to explore your character, and to show them off to others! This journey is soooo important to love for itself!

Like with any piece of art, not enjoying the process is a quick short-cut to burn-out and misery. So, if this is happening you might want to adjust some things if you're sitting there upset and bored instead of enjoying what should be a fun pastime you can lose yourself in! So instead of beating yourself up about posting, figure out why it's a chore. Are you taking care of yourself? Have you met the S.H.R.E.K. criteria for the day? Is this post not something in your wheelhouse, or do you feel like you could be doing something else and getting more fun out of it?

Before I get ahead of myself, let me address the truly horrific acronym I just threw at you. S.H.R.E.K. criteria? Who would inflict this on you? Well... me, because it's so memetic and stupid I remember it way better than most acronyms, so buckle up buttercup. It stands for:

Socialization: Have you talked to someone or had meaningful interactions with others for the day? Depending on your needs, you may need hugs, touching others, chatting with loved ones, or cuddling. Some people literally need to be touched, held, hugged, and talked with the thrive, and others can do just fine with a little less. Listen to the monkey studies: Don't be a wire mother to yourself, let yourself have cloth mother sometimes. Hydration: Have you been drinking enough liquids to be hydrated and keep your piss from being too yellow? No liquids means your body starts sucking at everything from getting oxygen to the brain, to making food into energy. Make sure you balance hydration with salt and food intake, but never underestimate what a good cold cup of something can do. And yes, any liquid works. Coffee is dehydrating, so is soda, but their hydrating effect is way bigger than how often they make you piddle so it balances out. Still, water is best but don't beat yourself up about it. Rest: Have you slept enough in the last 24 hours? I know you think 4-6 is okay, but it's really not, it will actually cause you to behave like an alcoholic and lead to later insomnia, mental issue worsening, and health problems like heart issues. Nip that in the bud, sleep full 8-10 hour nights. Or nap if you're just sleepy! Eat: Have you shoved nutritious food in your gob or are you dying from scurvy, beri-beri, and malnutrition simultaneously while depriving the lil dudes who help you write a good lunch? Don't starve your lil neuron folks, they need a good meal too. Even if it's just ingredients for a meal, anything is better than nothing and you deserve food. Kinetics: Have you moved around? Stretched? Walked or played? Sometimes if you're starting out from zero, you might try just standing up and sitting down a couple times to help get bloodflow going! Getting active at whatever level you're at is good for the brain.

Anyways after that interlude, back to basics. At the lowest tier we want to be having fun. If we're not, it might be us, or it might be a boring lackluster partner. That's where a lack of reward comes in. If the partner is, bless them and their hard work, just not giving you the thrills to pay the dopamine bills? That just might mean you guys aren't a good match! This is not the end of the world, it just means you might need to stop playing with them.

Step back, consider if roleplaying with their style and output is worth your time and effort, and do BOTH of you a favor if they aren't. Set them free to play with other players who love their writing and can't get enough of it, and stop grating your teeth across cement trying to come up with something to keep things you don't even like going. This is the communication part, remember how I used to harp on that? Well old Uragani still thinks it's super important. So discuss that 'hey, we might not be a great fit for writing together' and come up with solutions. Maybe finding new partners, and just staying friends, or just waving goodbye to each other and hitting the road.

Here we find ourselves looking at challenger #3, the good old fear and apprehension. This comes up more than I'd like to admit. Are you worried about what's happening next? Or how you might portray something? Have you worked yourself up too much, and now you feel like you can never meet your own expectations? Are you scared of letting down a partner, and not giving them your best? Do you feel like your post might go over an unwritten line, and leave people upset with you?

Congrats! I hate that shit too! I do not know why brains do this to us! I would like to sue!

Anxiety is a hell of a beast, so is Impostor Syndrome, and fear of letting people down, and all the other fun goodies in that bag. They can be worked on at home, in small doses. You gotta learn to sit back, and be able to talk to yourself. Why are you feeling this way, and finding the name for your emotional state, accepting it, and letting it pass through can help. In major situations, you might need to find yourself a good old Common Sense Dispenser, better known as a therapist. They have the tools you need, and yes, roleplay can be a play you find out what you need. It's not dumb, it's useful.

Working through this can be as simple as discussing your fears with your partner and making sure everything is kosher. It might need you to look at a worst case scenario and then planning an exit strategy for that, even if it never happens. Sometimes, you just gotta heft yourself up, and push through the fear. There's a million ways to get through it, and I'm not the person who can tell you which will work for you. But I can tell you, it gets better the longer you work with it. Confidence comes from experience, the more you work at it, the more it feels like second nature.

But that brings with it the last beast, the hidden #4. Burn-out. Sometimes, when we delve too deeply into something we love, we ignore the signs of burn-out. Losing interest in things we once deeply enjoyed. Feeling exhausted at the thought of starting a post, or writing anything. Feeling like we've lost touch with what we used to be good at. Burn out can be a miserable thing, because it stand between us and our goals, our happiness, and it keeps them behind the thickest glass, so we can see them, but getting them feels impossible. The harder we push, the thicker the glass becomes.

In cases of burn out, like the kind I've experienced, sometimes you need to take a step back and just do something else. Go on hiatus. Maybe it's hooked to a character, and you simply have to play with some other muse. Maybe it's with another player, and finding a new fandom without them in it can help. Maybe it's with writing at large, and you need to go find some other outlet to explore while this one heals. You cannot do the same thing forever, you will lose touch with what makes it special. Believe me.

But after healing, which can take years if you keep pushing it like some idiot who wrote RPedia long after you should stop, it'll be fun again. You'll want to come back, and do the thing you were good at, and loved again. The spark will return, and things just... settle and feel better. I promise. Just let yourself have that time to recover without pushing yourself somewhere you aren't meant to go right now.

Naturally there's other stuff too. ADHD/Autism/other issues could be throwing the executive dysfunction ball into your lap and suddenly doing the thing you've done a thousand times is impossible. Stars aren't in alignment. Maybe you're stressed out because of an external force and need a break. Maybe the thread you're in has been going on too long in the same scene, and you need to cut and start a "fresh episode" before everything stays stale forever. Maybe you just aren't in the mood! There's a million reasons, but all of them come down to figuring out what the problem is, and engaging with ways to break that problem down into bits. Find your fun. Look for partners who make you feel like writing with them is worth it. Work with your fears, and express yourself about them and let them past through you. Find external help if needed, and take care of your body while you're at it.

And hey, remember, I am not the end all be all of advice. It could totally be something outside of these circumstances, but I'd like to think that in my experience these are the major factors that I keep coming across. If any of this has been a help, I can only be happy to have said it. Thank you so much for reading!

[the-stanley-parable-roleplay]

The Stanley Parable Worldbuilding

How do you worldbuild for your TSP blog? Remember that these are all just guidelines NOT rules. You can change anything, twist things around, delete or add stuff to your heart's content!

Important Note: You do not have to know all of these things immediately. Take your time discovering who your muse is and the world around them, answers might come to you hours, days, weeks or months after you started roleplaying!

Let's start with the basics. There's

The Protagonist (usually but not always Stanley)

The Narrator

The Story (add/change it as you wish, more endings, less endings, make it spooky, silly, romantic, weird)

The Office (feel free to add, delete or change as many rooms as you like)

Who is your protagonist? If it's not Stanley, did they replace him or has Stanley ever existed to begin with? How did they end up here? How much do they know?

Who is your Narrator? Why do they narrate? Do they have a choice? Did they write the Parable? Are they the only Narrator? What is their relationship to the Protagonist?

What is your Story like? Is it the same Story as the Game? Is it a Game, a Story, a TV Show, a dream, a pocket reality? Does it have more or less endings than the original? Is it about Stanley? Is there a Story at all or did the Narrator stop telling it?

What is your Office like? Is it a normal Office? Does it restart people who have died? Does it wipe memories from its inhabitants? Does it have a Line™? Is it sentient? Does it open doors on its own or does the Narrator control everything? Is it like a video game or like a haunted house? Does the exit work? Can people leave whenever they want?

If you want, you can also go into more details such as

Do you have a second Narrator (female or otherwise)?

Is there someone controlling the Parable and the Narrator(s)?

If it's a game, are there developers? Players? An audience?

What happened to Employee 432?

What happened to the Protagonist's coworkers?

What is the driving force behind the Parable, if there is one at all? Does it demand to be told?

Does your world crossover with any other fandoms or ocs?

More worldbuilding help

[skeletonwalksintoabar]

It’s funny, as a player character, to ask your fellow players to make a check. Want a character you’re hanging out with to notice your cool new coat? “How about you make me a perception check”. Costs you nothing. Cuck your DM. You’re in my world now.

[rootintootinhighfalutin]

what if

i told you that you're allowed to write a canon character any way you like? that roleplaying is a hobby and it's for fun, and it's not that serious? that the only 'obligation' you have to anyone else is to respect their time and let them know if your character is wildly canon divergent? that it's not wrong to write what you enjoy?

[dungeon-apprentice]

ID in alt text. Direct link to the original artwork in the source of this post.

One of the things I appreciate most as a dungeon master is when my players not only RP (I love you for it), but immerse themselves to the degree where they try to avoid mechanical terms like "short rest" or "skill check". So here are some ways I've found that can be done, if you really want to treat your game master/storyteller/person who runs the game to some immersion they don't have to be responsible for!

Skill Checks

Instead of saying "I want to roll [skill] to..." (because, you don't get to choose your skill check - the game master does), instead explain what it is that you want to achieve:

"Do I believe what she's saying about her family?"

"I want to look for signs of hidden doors in this room."

"I am going to take the device apart to see if I can figure out how it was made."

"Does the painting look like anything I can recognize?"

Doing it like this means you hand your game master a springboard on a silver platter (unsure if that combination of metaphors work, but whatever) from which they can easily jump into a description of your efforts.

Resting

If you work with a system like D&D where you are encouraged to take frequent in-game rests, it's a lot more immersive to talk to your fellow players about your needs for rest if you do it in character, instead of saying "I'm out of spell slots" or "I want to take a short rest". Here are some suggestions:

"I really need a moment to sit down."

"Don't know about the rest of you, but I have some wounds I have to tend to."

"I can't go on like this, we need to find somewhere to sleep for the night soon."

"My head hurts from casting spells all day, I think we should try to avoid fighting until we've rested. Is there an inn nearby?"

After you've discussed it in character, either wait for your game master to ask whether you're taking a break, or tell them outright. You should always confirm that you're on the same page, but just a bit of in-character buildup is something I personally really appreciate. It also adds to the feeling that your characters are real people experiencing exhaustion, not just (video) game people.

Healing/Hit Point Loss

You can't see hit points! They're an arbitration for us as players to keep track of how well a character is doing physically, but asking in the middle of combat "who's low on hit points?" when that is not something the characters know what is kinda wrecks it for me. Instead, consider:

"I saw [character] was struck earlier, how badly hurt do they look?"

"You see how blood is pouring from a deep cut in my arm, it looks really painful."

"[Character] is a little woozy from the blow to the head he just suffered, but he'll be fine."

"I want to spend some time examining the burns [other character] suffered during our last fight - how bad is it?"

Basically, treat your player characters' hitpoints the same you do the hitpoints of an enemy: With zero idea of what the actual number is.

Melee Combat

Not gonna lie, unless you are into martial arts and such, you probably run out of ways to describe "I hit the monster with my sword/fist" fast. However, just going "I roll to hit; that's [x] points of damage" again gives that very video game-y feel that I think should really be avoided as much as possible when you sit with a TTRPG. Try one of these on occasion to shake things up:

"I take a running leap and bring my axe down hard on its arm!"

"With my legs around her throat, I slam my elbow into her face!"

"I do a series of somersaults toward the mafia don and try to kick him right in the gut!"

Just because you can't cast spells doesn't mean you can't pull some theatrical moves!

Ranged Combat

A lot of what I said about melee combat above also applies to ranged combat, I feel - and can be solved similarly.

"I point my gun and aim for the tiny gap in their visor."

"Nocking one of my enchanted arrows, I shoot at their feet and try to ignite the ground around them."

"I aim for the rope holding the chandelier in an attempt to shoot it down."

"Bracing for the recoil, I aim my rifle at the hand she has her sword in, and pull the trigger."

Maybe look up some videos of people using the weapon(s) your character uses to get a feel for how to describe the movements involved? It's certainly something I need to do more!

Spellcasting

Spellcasting is a special beast, not only good for combat but also in many utility situations. And there are a lot of ways to talk about it without referring to spell slots or class spell lists. Here are some:

"Can you cast [spell] today?" "No, I'd have to meditate on it/consult some books first."

"I bring out my magical orb, and you see how it starts to spin rapidly over my hand until it's just a blur, and I cast [spell]."

"I'm sorry, that sort of thing is beyond my capabilities. We should try to find a powerful wizard, they might know how to do that."

"Five lightning bolts shoot from each of my fingertips, right at the enemy!"

Take advantage of the spell descriptions that come with the spell to explain what it looks like when you use the various components, and when the spell takes effect - and maybe also what happens when it fizzles out for whatever reason.

If you're not super comfortable with roleplaying, but want to try doing it more, I hope you take this as positive encouragement and as an example that it doesn't have to be all that hard or elaborate all the time to increase your feelings of being immersed in the game. We can do this!

Disclaimer: 95% of my experience with TTRPGs are in fantasy settings. I'm sure someone else has much better examples of roleplaying for Sci-Fi and other genres. Please do add to this post if you have any thoughts!