Beginner's Guide to the Role Play part of TTRPGs

For people who are uncomfortable with 2 of the 3 letters in RPG

What this post, or guide, is:

• A practical, as in applicable in a structured way, guide for people who are totally new to RPGs and feel uncomfortable with or intimated by the idea of role playing, even if they can't articulate why they prefer the other pillars of play.
• Useful for Players in the role of Player Characters (PCs).
• Useful for Game Masters (GM, Dungeon Master (DM)) in the role of helping new players and for GMs working on their own RP for NPCs. 
• Framed in the language of, and primarily written for use with, Dungeons & Dragons 2024 Edition (aka 5.5E, it's a long story that I probably won't cover here), but I believe these ideas and techniques will be helpful for beginner players of most RPGs.
• Based on the things we can find on the character sheet and in the character creation process.

What this is not:

• A primer on RPGs in general. This guide assumes you are about to start playing, or are still in the beginner phase of your RPG experience, and I will not be covering things like how to find a group, which game you should play, etc.
• How to build a character's backstory, create emotional depth in a character, or cultivate meaningful connections to other PCs in your party. There are already a ton of amazing resources out there to answer those questions, some of which I will reference below, and I'm writing this guide to fill a need that I feel I have not been able to find elsewhere.
• Aiming to answer every possible question related to role play in every kind of RPG. 

Okay, now that we have the most basic of bases covered, let's get into the wordy bit.

Okay okay, one last thing. This post is now the start of a blog bandwagon, a blogwagon!

• The Topic: player aids or increasing player skill
• Parameters: Make a post covering a topic which is primarily targeted at Players as the reader, or intended for GMs to have a new tool to help their players.
• Time: 60 days. Why? I don't know, it just seems like a reasonable amount of time to allow for this to spread and people to write their own posts.
• Why?: Because I've been wanting to write about this and a few other player focused topics for a long time, and I was recently inspired by Patchwork Paladin's two excellent posts on player skills (and by the recent mapping blogwagon kicked off by Prismatic Wasteland). We see so much content focused on GMs, which makes sense, so let's make some for Players.
• How: Just do a post and then tell me about it. Comment on this post, or find me on Discord. If this turns into a thing then I'll create a hub page with the participating posts.

Why this post when there must be so many others like it?

    My wife and I started playing D&D in 2024, just before the new core rulebooks released. This means we are both very much still figuring out how to do these things, even 18 months after our first sessions. I can still remember my first challenges with this part of the game, searching for answers in the books and online, and I can offer the perspective of both a GM and a Player; I've just recently had my first experiences as a Player instead of a GM, in a very cool old-school Star Wars game inspired by Andor. 

    All that to say, I'm here to offer what I think is a new lens through which to view role play as something that you are doing all the time and not an extra layer to the game. "Role playing" is every choice you make and action that you take in the game, from character creation to the end of a campaign; it is not just when you speak as your character or have a social interaction with other characters in the game. I came to this idea and approach after searching through the books and many community made resources, but I felt like all I found was advice on creating a character with depth as one might construct a character in a piece of narrative fiction. The advice would then effectively say: now go do role play. I wanted advice on how to role play, and instead I found advice on making a character to role play. I think these are two different topics, with the former possibly but not necessarily leading to the latter. 

    None of this is required and should not be expected as a qualifier for "succeeding at playing D&D", and if this is an expectation of the DM or group, then that should be communicated up front and facilitated in a helpful way. This guide is intended for people who want to bring a stronger element of role play to the way they play the game and should be applicable by both GMs and Players. My goal is to convey a method of role play, and thinking about role play, that feels approachable for anyone and lowers the barrier to entry for anyone who thinks they want to try playing RPGs but is intimated by this aspect of the games. I want this post to be about demystifying role play, not about increasing player skill.

Descriptive Physicality as Role Play

    I propose that all choices a player makes about the kind of character they would like to play, or how to play that character at any point, is role play, and that leads directly into my idea of "beginner" role play as flavorful description of: 

• A character's use of physical items. Whether this is clothing, animal companions and mounts, equipment and gear, or weapons. What are they wearing and how to do they use it? How does it move as they move? How do they incorporate it into their movement? How do they interact with their animal companion?
• Placing the character in the scene physically. Where are they standing or sitting? What is their posture like? What are they near or touching? Are they interacting with something in the scene other than their own items?
• The character's body language and mood. Rather than trying to portray these things yourself through acting, simply describe these attributes and physical manifestations of emotion as you come to understand the character in the scene.
• What does it look like when... This is the basis for my entire approach, and often the advice we see offered as the entry point to role playing. What does it look like when Alera the High Elf Wizard casts the spell? What is the manifestation of her magic? 

    The idea here is to hone in on the Descriptive Roleplaying approach, as opposed to Active Roleplaying, offered in the Social Interaction example from the Playing the Game chapter of the 2024 D&D Player's Handbook; however, I want to move the focus from emotional intent and perception to the physicality of the character's actions and use of gameplay elements found on the character sheet. I think that this is a good way to practice thinking of a character as being real in the world, separate from the player, and this reinforcement will enable taking the next step of asking "what would my character do or feel in this situation?"

    I will repeat here that none of this is required and should not be expected as a qualifier for "succeeding at playing D&D". It is perfectly fine for someone to stick to declaring their actions and use of features of skills without ever thinking "how would this make believe character in the game feel about these actions?" I repeat this for myself just as much as I do for you the reader. It's so easy for us to get caught up in the ability for RPGs to tell emotionally resonant stories, for people to explore parts of themselves in a safe environment, or delve into complex social and political issues, but we may forget that to many players, new and old, this is just a fun game they get to share with their friends. I think this reminder is just as important for GMs as it is for Players. 

    There is no arbitrary point in the game when regular play has ended and role playing has begun. From the moment a player decides they want to play a Fighter, to deciding their character's origin and appearance, swinging their long sword in combat, contributing to tactical or adventure path discussions with the other players, or briefly describing how the character's background as a soldier means they once lost someone close to them. All of it is role play because those choices made by the player are in service of bringing the character to life in the game.

The inspiration comes during the work

    My hope is to provide a framework for role playing that can be integrated into every aspect of playing the game. Dare I say, a lazy technique that has many benefits. Something that is simple and repeatable and broadly applicable, such that it spurs further inspiration by making the work easy. 

    For some players, the kind of open ended question prompts found in the Create Final Details section of character creation can feel paralyzing, awkward, or just plain unknown at the start of playing a new character. I think the same could be said for a lot of tips and guides I've seen for creating a character's backstory. As great as Ginny Di's videos are (and they really are great, you should watch everything she does but especially for tips on character development), there are some people who just shut down when asked to do this kind of creative work, so I want to skip all the backstory and personality details completely. We don't need it to make compelling scenes and moments in D&D or similar games. 

    That's right, if the questions "who does your character care most about in the world?" or "what lead you to the life of an adventurer?" or even "do you have any siblings?" causes you to say "uhhh...I don't know!" or "what? I thought we were just here to kill dragons or something." then you should just ignore all those parts of character development. You could ignore them for now or forever, but I think I can present a good example of role play that doesn't involve emotional stakes or a character's history outside of the information found in the character sheet's defined fields (excluding the box for Backstory & Personality). This style of describing the character's actions and physical presence in the fiction of the game's world may eventually lead to questions of how the character is feeling in that moment - the inspiration for further examination of the character through the work of a simple description showing the player's choices in action.

    Here's a few examples of how I envision this descriptive physicality in play, and how I think it could lead to that next step of Active Roleplay that I think many people assume to be the only kind of role play (I don't know, I could be wrong about that last part, but it's the impression I've gotten when people talk about a group being "role play heavy" or not).

Player Declares an Action: "I want to walk into the cave, and I'm lighting a torch to see better."

Descriptive Physicality version: "Shava gathers her cloak around her, lifts her torch above her head to burn away the cobwebs, and grips her staff tightly as she steps into the mouth of the cave."

Emotion, Backstory, and Personality added - The player wonders why they described Shava as gathering her cloak and gripping her staff tightly. Did it just sound good in the moment, or could there be more to it? In the next scene they might add: "Shava continues to hold her cloak gathered closely, and her face shows lines of worry. She's nervous because she remembers losing her friend in a cave like this when she was young, but now she's ready to face that fear and whatever else may be lurking within."

 

Player Declares an Action: "Can I use my Survival Skill to see if there are any tracks nearby?"

Descriptive Physicality version: "Aust sheathes his short sword then uses his hand to shield his eyes from the sun, and the dirt crunches beneath his boots, as he kneels down to look for tracks."
Emotion, Backstory, and Personality added: "Aust is feeling confident about his ability to find these tracks. This is something he's been doing since he started hunting small game with his sister as children. You can see his eyes light up with excitement."

 

Perhaps this sort of small comment just slipped out from the player without forethought. It wasn't some big reveal moment they spent time agonizing over as they wrote the character's backstory, it just came out as part of a conversation. The time when speech and thought are one unit. When this happens, embrace it, and add a note to the Background & Personality box on your character sheet or wherever it is you're taking notes during a session. Let the character's story and personality be revealed during play, rather than worrying about some writing assignment outside of the session.

    Now you may already be saying "but I'm not creative enough to even come up with those descriptions!" and sure, I get that feeling. This is something I'm still working on myself as I describe my Star Wars character sitting at a casino table and gambling against an Imperial Star Destroyer Captain, or when I'm the DM describing how an NPC might appear to my players. It just takes practice until becomes a more natural feeling and fun part of your game. The intent here is to find that easy entry point to make role playing feel like this excellent post describes combat:

Players consent to combat encounters when combat is fun. I find this to be especially true with players who feel more comfortable as audience members during other forms of role play; combat is a chance for some players to take advantage of a structured interface that lets them directly contribute to a scene.

    Let the world around the character, the items they wear and carry, and the other beings around them become the structured interface you use to contribute to a scene. 

    The other barrier I perceive to role play and engaging with social interaction moments in RPGs is that all too familiar feeling of awkwardness and embarrassment when we think about trying to embody our characters. Even if we aren't attempting a silly voice or accent or standing up and acting out the physical aspects of what the character is doing, anything more than just declaring an action can feel awkward at first. I think Ginny addresses this better than I ever could when she shared her first experience attending a LARP fest, so I'll just encourage you to go watch 4 minutes of video starting at the time stamp in that link. Everything she says about anxiety may not exactly apply to everyone, but I think it can be relatable to most of us. The real nugget of wisdom here is the lesson she learned from her LARP coaches (let's be really real, though, it's one big nugget of goodness). The idea of "the If and the Click". The If is the space between you and your character, where the Click is the flow state when you have closed that gap. When we can all accept that we have come together to play make believe heroic adventurers and it might be a little awkward, especially at the start of every session, then we can just go ahead and move past that "what If I look silly" feeling and achieve that moment when we feel the Click of connection to our character and the world they are inhabiting with our friends' characters.

    While it may seem that this approach to role play is focused on the exploration and combat pillars of D&D, I do think it can be just as useful for social interaction scenes. These moments in the game can have just as much variety as anything else, and will greatly depend on the game's circumstances and the way that your group plays the game. If these moments feel like the kind of thing you just want to skip past, then it might be worth falling back on the game's core mechanics of these interactions or looking to another game for the structure you need to feel like the scene is worth playing out. It's worth remembering that social interaction scenes in the game can be just as structured as combat, but they probably will require more intentional guidelines before the scene begins. Such as:

• What do you hope to get out of this interaction?
• Is there a chance of failure? What could go wrong, even if it isn't failure?
• How comfortable would your character be in this scene?

    If you can answer these questions, and use the section on the Influence Action (replace the word "monster" with "NPC") in the Rules Glossary (of the D&D 2024 Player's Handbook), then I think just the addition of descriptive physicality can make for a scene just as cool as exploring ruined crypts or fighting monstrosities. 

Curtains

    I think it's safe to say this post has gone on long enough. I wanted to write this for myself and my players, and hopefully someone else might get some use or inspiration out of it. I have a few other player-focused posts in mind, and I'll try to get at least one of those done to add to this blogwagon.