Every player knows that when they sit at that game table take out their pencils, character sheets and dice they are fitting into the role of a entirely different person, during my first experience will role-playing games I would attempt and often fail to play the role of Lidda, Halfling Rogue, I would often act with male brash and show little elegance in the little things to do and many of my players at the time would agree maybe I should have been Redgar, Human Fighter instead. When we finally moved onto my first ever campaign (my first experience was that of the 3.5 basic game…) I picked myself a Human Sorcerer and found myself better able to role-play.
Many Newbie’s like I did will often fall into the common mistakes a role-player can make when playing a character, and some of the problems that turn may even have been avoided if you did the first few sessions just right, everything has an effect on how you play your character including the other characters in your party and the world your characters are adventuring in. Firstly I will outline the common mistakes a Role-Player may encounter when playing as his latest character in the current campaign:
1. Clichés, if your character is entirely based round a Cliché you have created yourself a problem from day one, Cliché becomes very familiar ground to players and instead of actually playing a unique character you yourself have discovered and made you instead tend to just go through the motions.
2. Over Planning. Some of the more experienced Role-Player may no this well. Being able to describe what your character looks like, what he’s like and what has happened to him is good, but there is such a thing as Over Planning and this can cause problems in how your role play your character. So, your playing a quiet guy disturbed by a past of terrifying torture and war you have written pages on what happened to him and what he is like in realistic detail. You are not the only one. Your party of four now consists of four very quiet tortured souls. Does that sound fun… unless you are a mute or mime… I don’t think so…
3. Embarrassment. Often a problem for a newbie, gone are the days when you could run about your garden in child like make believe killing ninjas and saving princesses with out getting real funny looks and mutters of “is he crazy…” and so acting and improvising in your character role can often bring feelings of embarrassment and shame, even though in the company you would normally do it, you should not be embarrassed as it’s all part of the game! I am myself guilty of this often but I am getting better.
Fixing These Problems, or avoiding them entirely.
Clichés
If it is to late to change your character mechanically, you can still avoid the Cliché. If I for example am playing a Orc Barbarian, I can avoid the normally Cliché of stupidity and brutality in a number of ways, yes he is illiterate and not very good with people but that doesn’t mean he is brutal savage, quite the opposite for maybe he loves nature and is actually quite friendly it’s just hard to show this with what nature has given him, but by no means should he then become the quiet type, another pain in the arse Cliché often found, no though he finds it hard he is persistent to improve his communication skills and so often talks to almost anyone he can and strikes up conversation with anyone who will listen.
Over Planning
When creating a character you can truly unleash your creativity, and to avoid the problems of over planning you will need to take control of the creative power locked away in your brain. Instead of detailing in chapter length pieces your characters live write three or four paragraphs on their life, providing the key details, these can then be expanded on the more you play the character so that you can get more of a feel for him or her, if you have already written everything about them it’s to set in stone and you may find that something you thought was cool earlier is not so further on. Expand your horizons the more you play, at first when writing the personality of your new character talk of likes and dislikes, little quirks here and there but do not make it so your character as nearly every nervous tick in the book and no room for his personality to change and expand as the events of the campaign unfold.
Embarrassment
Embarrassment can occur no matter how long you have been role-playing and even I do suffer from it sometimes at the table. But I am getting better, and this is how. You see the first thing you need to remember is your not being foolish or crazy, but in a way you are acting performing with and to you friends, this should help straight away if it makes you feel better you should play in a comfortable and secure location where on-lookers can’t simple look into a room or through a window and see you acting out chopping an Orcs head off. Make sure you are playing with people you are capable of narratively speaking with develop ideas with your fellow gamers to better immerse your self into your characters. These things can help keep the tides of embarrassment at bay and in the end you may find yourself letting go entirely so that there are no boundaries to what you can achieve.
I hope this helps you get into character better, I know there are things I have missed as there are an infinite possibilities to some of the problems that occur, be patient and sometimes thing will work themselves out. Speak with other gamers about there experiences at the table, help yourself by helping others.
