7 hacks to get your D&D party to roleplay with you
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- čas přidán 31. 05. 2024
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► INDEX
0:00 Intro
0:40 Why roleplay with your party?
3:29 Follow the dice
4:21 Sponsored by World Anvil!
5:40 Ask for help
6:33 Share a hot take
7:14 Make a bet
8:06 Question choices
8:50 Build connections
9:40 Offer help
10:29 Turning roleplay into relationships
A lot of Dungeon & Dragons players want to roleplay with their party more, but aren't sure how. Here are seven tips for how to bring more intra-party roleplay into your D&D game!
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Blanc?
How much for one of your spare clones? -_^
Seriously, thanks for the interesting videos--I can't wait to get back into playing RPGs again so I can use some of your tips!
(And if I subscribe, would you be willing to do videos for RPGs other than D&D, such as Vampire: The Masquerade, Star Wars RPG, or even Call of Cthulhu from time to time?)
@Miles Blanc-Crail it's a reference to the joke I make in the ad spot lol
I loved the way you did this ad. You are so creative!
@@GinnyDi hey! It's been a while since you've posted and I don't have other social media to check up on you, so I just wanted to say I hope everything's alright, and hopefully it's just a (well deserved) rest break?
Tip 8: just put a door in front of your party. They will roleplay for hour, trying all the means to get them open.
Had this happen,
Except it was a misclick on a digital tabletop,
So instead of the taxidermy wolf, the dresser next to it nervously moved its front legs closer together.
The players thought this was intentional, resulting in them ritually cremating "Miss Dresser" to bless her soul with the warmth of the hearth goddess allowing them to transcend to a different plane of existence to provide those who died sad and alone with the joy and happiness they missed out on.
I had literally 0 input in this story they had created,
But my players would kill me if I'd dare to retcon any of it.
eventually someone will try the knob
@@Arcon1ous or kick the door
That's what Fireball is for :D
This is a fun one. My party tried so many ways to open a cell door. It was punched, burned and shot at. I also did a STR check to pull it off, rolling a 23. It did not come off.
Then the party rogue picked the lock and we all heard the terrible sound of the entirely unlocked jail cell door lock in front of us.
To be fair, the cell was occupied at the time by a guy we were trying to free. None of us expected him to turn out to be a trap in a human shape.
As a GM, I just love when I get to sit back and see my players communicate in game with each other.
It would be a nice little break indeed
Honestly, its really nice.
last Sunday was the start of my first ever DM experience. I absolutely loved watching them talk in character. I couldn't stop smiling. I think I like being a DM more than I do playing now.
Truth.
@@fcsdps6593 first time I dm’d my players went on like a 10 minute tangent about how much they loved peaches. I was all smiles the whole time too
There’s nothing that makes me happier as a DM then seeing the players truly caring for an NPC or another players character.
That kind of investment is at the heart of D&D and roleplaying between the group is a major part of cultivating that.
My current campaign had a villain who I believed was just gonna die in her confrontation with the party, but they forgave her, she became a DMPC for quite a while cuz she needed some protection, and now they're helping her put her life together and move on from her past. I still can't believe that that's the path they took with her, and the way they care about her amazes me even today. And she's one of the first characters I created in my homebrew scenario, so it's really wholesome to me as well that she got a happy ending rather than death
I'm just starting a new campaign (my first attempt at DMing a homebrew rather than a module), and I admit I'm heckin' worried about this part. I'm an introvert DMing for a bunch of introverts who aren't all playing introverts, so there's a pressure for me to "get them to do things." We're very roleplay-heavy, so I want to provide beats for them to roleplay, and create NPCs they'll love. Only.... how do you make NPCs your players will love??
I maintain it is some sort of bottled magic that is so exclusive, only a few DMs can get any. Matt Mercer definitely is hogging the supply, that rapscallion...
Agreed! In my game I've been doing some sessions that focus on resolving something from a player's past, and it's always cute to see my players comforting and celebrating in character with their friends.
I also have some NPCs who pop up every so often - a couple of historians/university researchers/archaeologists/tomb delvers (think Indiana Jones if he had that "my major character traits became emancipated from me and are now separate people" cartoon episode except the character traits got married to each other) who study extinct cultures, and my players in our previous session said "hey, we should visit our historian friends to ask them for advice and see how they're doing!" and even though I'd totally just expected them to go on to the next destination, it was really nice to see that they've become attached to my NPCs!
@@AraRaven it's really difficult to give you an answer mate, these things depend not just on the character, but also on how the first encounter goes. This same villain I mentioned didn't work well on her first interaction with the party, and it took me three attempts to make them actually care about her (and oh boy, did it work hahaha). The best advice I can give you is to analyse what your players like and roll with that. My players usually get attached to NPCs who are either funny, or basically just nice people in general, since they mostly play good people. Usually when you act out with your body or do a unique voice helps, because you're acting differently and that catches their attention, but that's not necessary. The villain I mentioned is a woman and I'm a man, so doing a voice would just make her silly. But it's important to accept the fact that some NPCs will just be completely meaningless to your players, and others will be everything to them, regardless if you planned that or not
I really wish there was more roleplay in the campaign I'm playing in, but more often than not, people are just sharing memes as commentary over the situation, reacting outside of character rather than in character.
The fighter in our party noticed a romance budding between my nervous paladin and our impulsive cleric, so he’s been doing everything in his power to get the two of us together. It’s made for a cute dynamic between the three characters, and it also gives us all something to do in rp scenes.
Aw
Ginny: "Maybe the other characters offer terrible advice"
Me whose half-orc is named Terrible (it's a long story): "Perfect, that's just what she wants!"
Now I want to know why.
@@crabjuice47 I was sort of hoping someone would ask! So, her backstory involved being raised in an orc tribe (learning Orcish as her first language), then ending up in a human-run gladiatorial arena. She had a mentor in said arena who fought under the name "Thorgar the Terrible": with this specific example & her somewhat shaky grasp of Common, she concluded that the word "Terrible" meant something along the lines of "Mighty Warrior".
After this mentor died, she set out for the majority-human city where his family lived (planning to bring them news of his fate) & decided to change her original Orcish name to something more human; you know, to fit in. So, partly because of her misconception on its meaning & partly in his honour, she chose "Terrible".
@@annak1042 Nice.
@@annak1042 Thats a really cool backstory and here I am thinking on naming an Orc Barbarian "Anathema" just so the party can call her Ana
I can stan this
Honestly it's means that now
I don't believe Ginny didn't mention this one: Spend downtime together. If you're doing downtime on the table having your character spend his downtime with other characters is a great way for building relationships and there will always be plenty of room for roleplay. Like when they go shopping together and give each other fashion tipps or when they decide to start a tinkering project together and work out details of it or even when they decide to break into that ancient mansion at the end of town to see whether or not that mansion is cursed by an evil spirit they can argue on who was responsible for making noise or make it a competition on who stays longer in the cursed house or even just tell the story of that haunted mansion that almost killed them together to the rest of the party.
Downtime is a great time to have conversations! I tried to make my tips specific to conversational topics rather than settings, since these conversations can be had anywhere.
I really like this tip and looking back I think it’s one I’ve used without realizing. My current game actually consists of mostly new players with the exception of one other, and between the two of us we try to make it a point to at least interact with every other player once per session even if it’s something small like a quip or an idea because those often spark greater conversations in character. Thank you for making me realize something I’ve been doing without acknowledging
This brings in a DM advice topic too. Give your party down time and word it in a way that doesn't go around the table asking what do you do one at a time. I pick a set amount of time and usually say something like what do ya'll want to get up to while you wait 3 days to recieve word back from your contact. In a mideviel setting sure magic might might some things go quickly but honestly there are tons of things that can go very slowly and filling that time with downtime can really help players connect to each other and the world rather than just progressing through the story like an rpg. Also, it's fun to mix in some roll play with non standard rolling dice games.
I had 2 players once enter into a wrestling match on the roof of a bar and didn't want it just to be strength and dex rolls the whole time so they had to roll offense and defense with 2D20s. The catch was they could choose to do one of each or both towards one to see who scored points in the round. A shady NPC was trying to rig the fight and all the other players were placing bets, drinking, cheering, and the whole thing got out of hand when 1 player rolled 2 nat 20s both on offense and the other player a combined 10 for defense which I decided meant the body slam was so hard it both broke the shabby stage and the roof resulting in a roadhouse style bar fight. The whole table was shouting and standing at this point and for a newer group not too comfortable with role playing yet it was awesome to watch.
Oh yeah, after my first campaign was over, me and me friends just did role-playing for fun as our characters and it was always fun
Ginny out here literally teach us social skills, which gods know we wouldn't learn naturally. Thanks for another great video!
RPGs have so much potential for helping with mental health and interpersonal issues.
It’s a perfect video for a stereotype of a dnd player that has no social skills. Me. I mean Me. & My Friends. Everyone I have ever played with. We have no idea how to human.
@@cryofpaine Exactly! There is even a whole 100 year old method of psychotherapy based on roleplay!
my very favorite session as a player, we literally did not advance the plot for hours. we all just made drinks (some alcoholic, some not) and then played Truth or Drink in character. It's a great way to develop your PC because it's so fun to just adlib and improv answers, and all of our characters got real bonds and insight into eachother that would have been harder to develop in regular gameplay.
I haven’t had many good experiences as a player but as dm in my last two sessions were wonderful one was action packed with high stakes and interesting encounters the other was fucking even better and there was like one fight but the role playing from one of my players was fantastic I’m no voice actor but I act out my npcs like as best as I can and he met my energy in style I was inspired by his fuckin speech to the people and starting out his character was almost a blank slate you know very simple one paragraph edgy backstory but as he settled in to the world the character flourished
We had a similarly fun session in my game that we spent entirely on decorating our new hideout. Sometimes the non-plot stuff is great, and I know the GM enjoyed a chance to sit back & watch us bounce off each other for a bit.
A bit of a morbid conversation starter, but I had a warlock who lost their best friend (another PC) and started asking people they adventured with, "Hey, it's possible we're going to die out here. If we do, what do you want done with your body? Do you have family we should contact? Any religious rituals?" - He'd also ask something similar with his 'speak with dead' ability.
That's great! My party found a Scroll of Raise Dead, which only two party members - my bard and the cleric - can use, and since it takes an hour to cast, and I figured a bard casting it would do an hour long jam session, I've taken to asking in character what everyone’s favorite songs/music genres are. For flavor purposes, we figured playing the deceased's favorite songs would get the soul's attention and guide them back to the body. It's been fun getting answers from everyone.
and now to put a funeral home in the next town
FREE THE CLONES GINNY!
They don't deserve this!
Who wants to collect a party with me? venture out on a journey to Ginny's castle where we shall thwart this evil and free her clones!
RIDE WITH ME INTO BATTLE!
FREE THE CLONES GINNY!, FREE THE CLONES GINNY!
I was specifically scrolling to see if someone had said this already or if I would have to start it.
Free the Clones! Free the Clones!
Begun, the clone wars have
This skit is too silly, quit cloning around!
I'm with you! I'll roll up a character to join the crusade.
Let's see what I have in my basement - here we go, a human bard who inspires people and casts spells through their entertaining and informative skits. She has blue hair, light skin, and is exactly like all of the other characters I have in storage. What a coincidence!
Can we take a moment to appreciate Ginny's new graphics? Like the icon with the pretty hair and the flowers, and then those flowers appearing next to the titles? It's so pretty and really suits Ginny's vibes as well as the background of these videos!
YES I was just thinking to myself how her branding is on point, super stylish and clean!
As a real-life introvert and relatively new player, this is actually a huge help in figuring out both how to talk in game and in real life. Thanks, Ginny!
Another tip I found particularly helpful,
Is to never give the answer 100% clear cut,
Unless you're gonna ask them why they disagree with you.
For example if they're asking for dating advice
Instead of saying
"I can't help you with that." or "Just buy some red flowers."
say "well it isn't my forté, but have you thought about..."
or "Didn't they talk about..."
or the always useful "What options are you considering?".
By phrasing it as a question you prompt them to help you to keep the conversation going.
While also implying that somewhere deep down
They already know the answer
And you're just there to guide them towards it.
Bear in mind that these tips are given with the idea that all interaction is good interaction, for roleplay reasons! Still plenty of useful stuff, but for example you probably want to go more gently on the hot takes and the inserting yourself into peoples' lives to offer help, since those are more prone to causing petty rivalries and conflict than the others, IMO. It just so happens that to tabletop roleplayers, that's just as valuable as positive social relationships and friends. Good luck! (P.S. I clearly don't listen to my own advice about offering help lmao)
I totally believe Ginny when she says she doesn't have a dozen clones locked in her basement for skits...
I believe her too!! *checks PayPal for the money she promised me for not ratting her out*
One Halloween many moons ago, at a party with some friends and their families, something magical spontaneously happened. I got up and started telling the story of Persephone and Hades, how he kidnapped her and then tricked her, and why that leads to fewer sunlight hours and cold weather. But as I told the story, I called up people from the audience to act out the story as I narrated. This was 2004, and whereas a few years later I'd be LARPing with these same friends, we had NO idea what D&D was. It was one of the coolest things I've experienced :)
My favourite session by a mile was a session following a character death, wherein the party took it upon themselves the opportunity to organise a whole viking-style funeral for the dead bard; it was easily one of the most satisfying things to watch as a DM!
"Get within melee range of blackout drunk" is my new favorite phrase 😂
I like how slowly more and more lore is added to the GDCU, like how ginny has a ton of clones in her basement
Checking Ginny's schedule to see if she is appearing at several conventions on both coasts and several continents on the same day ...
Ginny and these ads.... I legit could watch her do an entire video on these alone
I once prepped for a full session complete with NPCs and Combat.
My party never made it past the pancake station. And I loved it. Suddenly they're discussing what goes on top based on their family, where they were raised, critiquing each other's builds. The group really just turned up the role play from that session and it never stopped after!
To the clones in the basement: It’s ok. Your life is not in danger. You have nothing to worry about. You are completely and totally safe. Just like, don’t worry about it. It’ll be fine. Probably.
Action heavy sections followed by a quieter moment to rest and allow both characters & audience(/ players) to process are called "scenes and sequels". Learning about these concepts really changed my perception of stories, mostly as a writer. Not sure it applies as much here, but thought it was interesting enough to share
The prison clone is so funny! Ginny must be doing a creat job requiring clones to do skits to be allowed food!
25 seconds in and I'm like "wait... there's 'Ginny-verse' lore!?!"
I'm legit flashing back to the videos where there were multiple Ginny's on screen and having my mind blown. I thought it was a green screen, hours of hard work and meticulous editing, but turns out it was Ginny's extensive knowledge of biotechnology and work in DNA mapping the entire time!!
Came for the D&D talk, but leaving with a Metal Gear Solid sized chuck of backstory, lol
You offer amazing insight into the rollplay aspect of the game.
"Making NPC's ask about the feeling of a character makes a player answer in-character" &
"Saying controversial things will draw out reactions."
are things of which I'll remind myself of more often.
"Share a hot take with the party!"
My Orc character: Yea I just really can't stand elves, they creep me out.
The two half-elves and dark elf in my party: Wait what.
This is an important one, I've had pure 'yes.' 'no.' party members. Thank you once again Ginny
Weirdly I’ve found intraparty roleplay is so much easier to keep going that roleplay between pcs and npcs. It’s just easier to develop in-character relationships with characters that my character is always around.
Ok, this was by far my new favorite ad spot. You always kill it (no pun intended to your "skit characters" you're "working on")
Ginny Noir is incredible. It seems there’s also some kind of clone sub-narrative being established in the Ginny-verse. Consider me intrigued.
This is my favorite part of role playing! I love evolving the characters' relationships. Sometimes it can be little things, like my fighter thanking the bard for healing him by calling him "brother" (he'd married the bard's adopted sister, the rogue), after starting the campaign feeling resentful against the bard. Or how the party's rogue has a bit of a one-sided prank war against my cleric. At one point, half the group randomly decided to play Tag withou my cleric realizing he was the target and was subsequentally very confused when he was suddenly surrounded by his friends and they slapped colored chalk hand prints all over him and ran off.
Just another weird moment in our adventures.
I came to CZcams today specifically to look for videos about getting inter-party roleplay going. Then I found this video has been up for 1 hour! How serendipitous! Thanks for your content, Ginny!
Since I almost exclusively play non-D&D TTRPGs, I really love these tips that translate so well into all the other games. Keep ‘em coming, Ginny!
This is well timed - I've been trying to get my players to do more intra party rping lately. Thanks for the tips!
And lol the clones.
I've been rewatching your other character and role-play related videos this week while I attempt to come up with a personality for my new character I'll be playing this weekend. So far only one other person in my group really does any RP, so this video is timed well!
My party LOVE to RP. I had 3 hours of them sitting and talking last session. Building a Party dynamic. I barelyt had to do anything, In fact I had to push them out of it a bit to get them to move along with the plot lol. It was great. They almost all have the Entertainer backround and are a band called "The Menagerie". The Party Consists of a Harengon, a Dragonborn, a Arakocra, A Saytr and a Reborn former Symic Hybrid that looks like a month. Its pure Chaos....and I am lovin' every second of it! Keep up the awesome work Ginny! :)
There is no better feeling as a DM, than sitting back and listening to your players role play amongst themselves. I have one group who is particularly good at this and they’re so invested because of it.
Ginny pro tip for clone control create them with a limited life span of about a month. Have them work a regular 8 to 9 hours and give them their final week of life off. These help cut back on revolts and clones trying to prove they are the original. It's saved me a lot of effort on maintenance and clean up that way. Hope this helps a lot of my clones love dnd campaigns so your videos help me a lot.
Our group just had a session where the party sat at a fireplace together after finding out were trapped in a magical mist and we can't leave it till we defead the big evil guy. So we all just sat there, without hope and with no emotions left after that big plot. And we started talking. It was the first time we opened up. This talk lasted 4 out of 5 hours real time and our DM was just listening. Technically nothing happend but at the same time it was one of the most important moments so far. Our group was forced to be together but now were starting to be a group
I don't usually prefer a super roleplay focused game, but figuring out how to make those moments happen when we do want them is tough, and this is really helpful.
In a campaign I was in recently, our characters had our first combat session when we were traveling on the road and were pseudo-ambushed by some bandits who wanted us to pay them to let us go on. The other two players were a pacifist Cleric and a Blood Hunter who thought the bandits were just misguided and not actually dangerous. When we showed the bandits that we were tough enough to take them in combat, our DM explained the rules they used for lethal versus nonlethal attacks, and our Blood Hunter player said (above-table but not in-character) something to the effect of "let's just knock them out and be on our way". When my turn was up, I swung at the bandit leader and killed him, and the bandits scattered. Afterwards, we had a good roleplay session where the other characters basically sat my character down and asked "hey, what the hell was that?" The context was perhaps a little macabre, but it allowed all three of us to develop our characters' opinions on the idea of killing enemy NPCs in a natural way.
To be clear, I'm not saying I planned it that way, it just worked out serendipitously.
Oh man, roleplay is EVERYTHING! Obviously I love a good combat, but good RP is so much more important to me in general. If there isn't any going on, that's okay, but I'm also totally okay with combat-free sessions. Great video! There are definitely some RP-starved folks out there, and I hope this video finds them!
Your intro peaked my interest in the topic immediately. It was because so much of what you were saying, and what followed, is so appropriate for teaching, whether it's leading a discussion, keeping an activity on task, or even for actual RPing during a game. In my own experience, playing really hooks middle schoolers, and draws them in. I suspect you'd have made an excellent teacher, Ginny. On the other hand, you're actually creating a career out of thin air here, and that's pretty cool. Thank you for sharing. Best wishes.
This is great! Exactly what I needed for my new group! A lot of them are newbies interested in role play but I haven't known how to naturally get scenes going with them.
Also love your editing style in this one. But maybe you should lock your basement a bit better. Can't let them escape.
Ginny’s sponsored skits are absolute genius. I usually skip ads but I watch hers every time. They just get better and better
I don't really talk to or roleplay with the party most times during games because I'm too shy, so I usually go for NPCs instead. In one campaign I made a Monk/Cleric who speaks in short worded sentences when speaking, (Common isn't their first language) and whenever they do interact with the party, they actually really like it and enjoy spending time with them, even if they don't say much. It was a revelation for me to have more chances to roleplay with party members not to talk, but to just listen to their troubles, what's on their mind, or even just letting my actions speak for me.
Great video! I especially love how nothing weird happens and there are no clones, none at all, just editing, don't worry about it.
I appreciate this sm! I’ve been the only person trying to make fun scenes with other party members before, and it can be super disheartening to be the only one and has honestly ended many times in any role play fizzling out
Apart from all the amazing advice in this video, this has got to be one of my all time favourite sponsor skits in your videos. The overall quality of your content is improving constantly and it’s so impressive and inspiring!
I kinda fell into roleplay because my first game had some very good roleplayer players that I admired. They didn’t pressure me to join but were happy to leave openings and engage if you took them up. They also had a fun banter between each other. So now I roleplay to varying degrees in my other games. I enjoy it and I try to emulate what I enjoyed so much about how they played. Of course I try to follow the flow and culture of the table I’m at. But I can say I really enjoy my roleplay heavy tables the most of the many ongoing campaigns I’m part of (yes, I have a problem, I’m aware of it). One of my favorites is one where, despite all our characters getting along, each of our characters has a distinct personality, pov, and way of doing things. For instance. Our bard is very innocent and childlike and wants to believe everyone has some good in them. Their experience in life has been mild and time and they can be said to have grown up in a happy home and family and are only on this journey to find their twin who ran away from home after the death of the father, not able to process their grief properly. For the Paladin they left home to find their father who had been called away by someone of my own character’s race. The role they filled in the community is what plays a role in the Paladin’s motivations though. Once their father left, all the responsibilities the father had taken on were pushed onto the paladin’s and they started to feel resentful about it, especially since they were constantly, not just living in the shadow of their father, but told they weren’t living up to it. They also felt constrained and like they wanted to be different, not a carbon copy of their father. So they started their journey to find their father and send him back home so they could properly move on with their own life instead of imitating his legacy. And then there is the wizard. Wizard comes from a noble family and had a decent life but his biggest passion has been his research subject. Even so he is a deeply loyal person and has no qualms in being protective of said people once he decides they are his friends. He is practical for the most part and doesn’t really care about what constitutes are good or evil. He doesn’t care about it. He cares only about making sure the other isn’t a threat, can be of use, or is a nonentity in his eyes. He also is very pragmatic about money and making sure he gets a good deal at the market. He isn’t actively harmful though unless what is his is threatened. And lastly is my character, the ranger. He is a deeply traumatized man who lost his entire family. He had a good life and spent much of it in pursuit of linguistic research because he had such a passion in learning from and getting to know people. After he lost his family he became a refugee in a new town. It didn’t take long before he came to love this place as well and set about protecting it with his learned skills. He would drive off bandits and brigands, guide lost people, and find rare plants needed for potions that benefited the health of the people. He even took on a handful of students in those peaceful years. And then he lost his home town to an invasion. He escaped with a student and his best friend but had to give up the rest. Now he is someone who feels like he is a failure, not a good person, and while he loves people, is deeply afraid of losing them almost to the point of madness. He is protective and kind but will, and has, eliminated what he believes is a possible threat to what he has left that he cares for. He has little love for corrupt authority figures and institutions (since they were a factor behind his family’s deaths) and will have a difficult time allying himself with them unless the party shows they deeply wish for it. He can be bullied into decisions though for those he cares for. He is actually an enabler. He also does want to be a better person. His role is something of a mentor for most of the characters (save the wizard who is his best friend).
And the funny thing is, we spend a lot of sessions not in battle. We have had deeper conversations between our characters on their philosophies and experiences, they insecurities and their strengths. The bard and wizard had a cute moment where they discussed their siblings. The Paladin and I discussed how one doesn’t need step into the shoes of their parent’s legacy, no matter how great it was, and that it’s valid to step away from it. Wizard and I have had our moments discussing past moments and ribbing each other on it. And bard and I have also had our moments discussing my character’s childhood while I was brewing a potion (it’s blew up which was hilarious and harmless). Even bard and Paladin had a hilarious moment over a potato that resembled bard’s twin (it’s didn’t but it was hilarious) all because the two had a funny misunderstanding. Paladin and my ranger have even done some sparring training while having our characters roleplay having a conversation as they practice. It was funny. And Wizard and I have had our fun instance where I translate something in their research and point it out to them which led to a eureka moment for them. Shopping trips were also funny too as we roleplay holding back wizard from going too far in his negotiations with the vendors while my character lets them scam him. Bard is usually the easiest to scam but is so sweet that a simple insight check shows the vendors are too charmed to try. And Paladin has a passion for food and is constantly trying something weird and new. The funny thing is that my ranger will actually accept the weird offering while the other two are wary. It’s pretty hilarious.
I suppose you all can see why I love this particular game. There is a lot of work we put into the roleplaying of this game and we all enjoy the dynamic of our characters. It feels like it makes sense that they enjoy each other’s company and get along but they aren’t remotely the same person or too similar, and yet they all have a good reason and enjoy traveling together. They are genuinely friends and want to look out for each other, even when they don’t agree or fully understand each other. Oh and as for why my character travels. Well their reason is to find any other refugees from their home time. They are also trying to avoid any connection back to their birth culture and it’s people due to fearing for their life. And they want to protect their friend because they are physically fragile and will stubbornly pursue their research to the ends of the earth. So they just follow along and look after them and their friend let’s them because they know it’s how they show they care (and also how entwined the power to protect their loved ones is associated with my ranger’s self worth).
Oh and one last thing. One thing I had another player question is when we stayed the night at an inn with a bar. We were offered drinks after a fight with bandits and I specifically said that my character only pretended to drink. However, the next night, after a good shopping trip I said my character did drink alcohol. One of them asked about that out of character (they were curious but weren’t sure their character had noticed). I said it wasn’t a mistaken. I had specifically written that my character doesn’t like to drink alcohol after fights because fights make him feel shitty and he learned a long time ago that he shouldn’t drink when he feels that way. In other words, I wrote in that he used to have an alcohol problem that is mostly over but still tries to avoid falling into again. So he only drinks when he is happy or content, and never when he is upset.
I had a character who couldn't read find out that sword had a "W" so for the rest of the campaign she said she wanted to learn how to use a s-W-ord.
It was one of my best rp campaigns in total.
i’m new to dnd but i really want to roleplay, hopefully i’m able to use some of these in future games!
I’ve been in it for 6-7 years now and I bid you good luck! These are good tips many of my best players struggle with
We have clones, We have different time periods, We have lore, The Ginny Verse is going mad crazy rn and badabababa i'm lovin it
My favorite campaign was my favorite because the bonds my character made with the others. We were trying to persuade our way into a town and my character managed to get a ticket in but the others weren't so I claimed one of them was my husband and then a third character piped up that he was our son and we managed to con the entire group into going. But then my character kept going out of her way to take care of her "son" to keep the secret at first but then because she cared. And then there was a fight in the woods and his character called mine mom and damnit i made a family. All of our characters had moments where we cracked jokes or referenced events that happened that made our characters bond. We had running gags between characters not just as players, and my dm was great at facilitating roll play. We havent played for a few months but we are starting back during the summer and I am so excited
This is the only channel that I don't skip over the sponsor skits...
BRUH THAT WAS THE BEST COMMERCIAL FOR WORLD ANVIL I HAVE EVER SEEN LMFAO such great writing!
We have a party with varying alignments. One session our DM did not have much time to prepare due to a busy week, so we decided to give him a break by discussing the Trolley problem. In character. For four hours.
dear Ginny Di advertisers..... she is the only maker that i let run through the adds. pay her well please.
Our table started "fireside chats" as a mechanism for inter-character roleplay. When we take a long rest we'll divide up the watches for the long rest period. Each member of each pair on watch can ask their watch partner a question in character. If a player/character doesn't have a question ready for their partner then our DM can roll on a table for a question as a conversation starter. It's a great way to organically grow rp through our characters digging into each-others' backstories, bonds, motivations, ideals, etc, and gives each player a time in the spotlight to expand on their character's replies. And then questions bring follow-up questions or comments when the other player reacts, and sometimes they make themes and in-jokes that we keep coming back to, and these chats drive our party's motivation when we find plot-hooks and npcs that we now know are parts of each-others' character narratives.
"What do you want from me?" Or, more importantly, deciding what your character wants from another character. This is a sort of general want, like "I want this character's approval" or " I just want you to do your job". These sorts of general but easily conceptualized ideas can inform roleplaying opportunities and drive conversation. Not only does it help you connect with another character, but it helps you the player connect with your own character.
Ginny Di: CZcams prisoner is such an interesting and compelling character. I would be curious to hear more from her in the future.
I had a college course that involved potential role play. I found that it's usually a dead-end effort UNLESS one thing happens. Not one, but TWO people need to be role-playing. That engages the other students to try it too. Why? Because it looks fun. A lot of people are NERVOUS to even try, or they feel it's too uncool. But once two people are engaged and having fun, those two blocks seem to break down. And then a third person joins in, and soon it's harder to be the person NOT joining in.
that film noir sponsor was chef's kiss !!!! 🤣
OMG!! This is going to be so helpful, for any future games I'm apart of!
I'm a very RP heavy player, but i wasnt sure when RP would help the story. I always ended up just holding everyone hostage, trying to get my party to interact. This video, along with "Being a less Selfish Roleplayer" are going in my back pocket, for sure.
Thank you Ginny!!
Also, Free those poor clones, gurl! They didnt sign up to do your job for you 😂
Something my campaign has been doing constantly (and this ties into tip 6) is having the party do insight rolls for important character moments. Sometimes an event will play out that affects a player in a certain way and you make the party roll an insight check on you. If they succeed you reveal a certain detail that is important to your character: maybe a talk about a certain NPC causes the character to look scared, or they shift their clothes and reveal an old scar, just a little detail that clues the players into a deeper facet of your character
As a DM, I talked to my players about roleplay. We all agreed we wanted to see more of it at the table. I had seen this video previously, so at the start of our session we just watched this video lol.
Literally the only channel/app/or service that I actually enjoy watching the sponsor ads! You’re killing it! Keep up the great work!
okay but that sponsor segment was so good, i have to say i really appreciate all the effort you put into your sponsored content !!
That clone thing was absolutely hilarious. Brilliant!
Dang there is a LOT of content in this 12(ish) minute video. I'm stunned. This might be Ginny's best tip video yet!
Ignore that. That's for a...skit.
That did make me chuckle more than it should have.
I could tell this ad was trouble the moment it walked into my office.
The noir skit was AWESOME
Something I want to get my table into is trying out the Improv for Gamers exercises while we eat dinner before a session or on an off week. They're little exercises to help get a "group mind" going or alleviate any silly feelings.
D & D with thespians is always an emotional experience.
Depth of character helps setting up reactions.
We had an undead character that didn't seem to know she was dead (denial) on tour with a Paladin. We had a stuck-up Elon that always corrected people that said his name by giving his full title (correcting the King leads to shy characters apologizing profusely). We had a gnome wizard that set off spells every time he was touched (only to find out that she was a former slave and rape victim).
ngl the film noir sponsorship was pure class
An RP moment happened to fall into my lap by accident once. My artificer had a crush on our party's paladin and was far too shy and awkward to mention anything while the paladin was not picking up on the signs. Something I hadn't noticed when picking my subclass, battlesmith, is that one of its subclass spells is a smite. The paladin's player and I were absolutely gleeful when we realized that. After my guy pulled out a smite for the first time, the paladin noticed and we had a little chat about it over the campfire. It was really fun to play my awkward dork's attempts at explaining that he really looked up to the paladin without confessing his crush while said crush was completely oblivious to any of it.
OMG! The film noire vs whiteboard pun!
One thing I’ve been doing in my most recent campaign is finding ways to include myself and other players in backstories and arcs. Not like I’m spotlight hogging, but I will actively talk to the players and add my character into their backstory somehow, maybe a shared event in childhood that impacted them, or a shared rival, so that way it involves more players in the story when those arcs and backstory moments come up
"Melee range of black out drunk."
Can't wait to see that opportunity attack.
Okay, need to write this down.
There are hundreds of content creators our there, giving advice on tabletop rpgs. I've watched a lot of these, as I'm interested in the theme and always curious to pick up ideas on how to improve my DM skills, and how to be a good player. I keep coming back to thinking that Ginny's videos are a special. Many creators do very interesting videos, but the focus is often on an intellectual level - how to structure things, advice for combat, etc. Good stuff, but the aspect that make Ginny's videos stand out in my opinion, is the underlying theme of always focusing on the people around the table. There is always a clear understanding that this is all about a bunch of friends sitting around a table, interacting with each other - and that's what the advice is aimed at. There's an empathy and understanding, that I dearly enjoy seeing, it really resonates with me. Ginny - your videos are top notch - you got this!
Put an enchanted gate in front of them like that one episode of adventure Time where we got stellar music and lore behind how each characters perceive each other and wants to be perceived. The rot dynamic and even past baggage with each other. It was such a clever way to reveal that these two characters may have had a relationship with each other outside of the main character and what more so impressed me is when I re-watched it when I was older with the context of this sugary sweet tyrannical princess and this undead vampire queen had feelings for each other. Adventure time was like the original dnd for me
This is great! On the last point about how to encourage this, our table votes for who gets inspiration at the end of the session, giving everyone a chance to highlight little character moments or fun things that someone did.
This has been HUGE for encouraging people to RP, because they feel appreciated when they make the effort AND those things you didn't catch in the moment or have forgotten over the course of the session are brought back to mind, encouraging you to follow up on them in future sessions as they relate to your character.
We had a couple of fairly inexperienced players when we started, and over almost two years now it's been AMAZING seeing everyone flourish and really develop a sense of who their characters ARE outside of their own IRL experiences.
My players barely talked to each other in character. They were always just planning what to do next or talking to NPCs. They are slowly warming up to it though, im super happy
These ad breaks keep getting better and better XD
But the rest too. Could it be that the GDCU just tarted truly going and now we are are exposed to a hidden dark story? Or I'm just over thinking 🤔
The mind boggles....
The part where you said that after action/tense moments (just the jist, not exact words) that following them up with calm moments afterwards to process actually reminded me of a recent session I had. We had just finished a daring rescue/heist and our party cleric got separated after our wizard and artificer snagged us out of there (their characters didn’t realize the cleric was there too). Well, because cleric is separated she ends up targeted by the villain and goes down (the villain here actually had a personal grudge towards them). Myself and the monk, because we have the highest speed, run off to where we think cleric could have headed two ahead of the party, after we realize cleric isn’t with us. We get there in time to see a strange entity reviving our cleric friend. But yeah, cleric is alright. We ended up following this all up with a long session of campfire discussion. Stuff was somewhat aired out, drama happened and tension was there as newer party members start finding the rocks in the friendship path. Everything gets smoothed out and we have our next target mission settled though. But either way, it was nice to have that session, especially with how tense, and then explosively action packed, the last few have been as we attempted that rescue. I know a lot of dm’s try to pile on more and more missions but I appreciated being able to sit and process with the party afterwards.
I’m actually the new addition to the party. I have a connection to the one being rescued, and access to the resources that would get us their quickly, but I also had my character stumbling into this party’s ongoing drama. Lol like the monk lecturing our cleric. Or the wizard and the npc we rescued having romantic tension and a past filled with misunderstandings from missing letters (which is a question for another day) and needing to discuss it. And even my own character and the monk as we realize that, while we got along very well and could be really good friends, had some issues that cropped up. A simple conversation soothed hurt feelings though, especially with a promise to do better. Also I had the fun of showing my character’s own closeness to the npc, and why it was so important to them that they would go with a bunch of strangers to attempt that rescue (the relationship is platonic before anyone gets ideas, but strong and with easy going teasing between the two). It was honestly good and some backstory stuff is revealed as it becomes sharing time. Which is where my character feels awkward, and actually furthers the tension between monk and my character (but they have their own discussion to sooth it). Anyway, I enjoyed it. There was plenty of camaraderie and time to process what just happened but it was no less important nor less tension filled. It had its nail biting moments. Just gotta have a group that can and will buy into it.
I will never not be impressed by your ads. I will always watch them all the way through.
I find that players love to talk over food. You can roll for cooking, and players can banter over something that is less consequential but makes the world feel more real. I like to get a sense of whether players do chores or are lazy, are messy or organized, as this would be a realistic area of contention and again you can make it fun.
the whole time im laughing because all these ways to having meaningful character conversation in dnd translate very well into dating advice
Also makes the DM get a good laugh w/ interparty roleplay cause sometime interparty tension, shit talking, & roasting gets damn funny!
I love the advice. I'ma try to throw more of this into my play, cause some of my parties are... utilitarian.
As an addition to all the good advice, it always helps if players are willing to have their characters bend a bit to accomodate others. Yes, maybe your character's backstory makes her unlikely to wish for any interaction with a certain race or social class, but don't fall for the old "but my character would do it" excuse if it would be a right bother for everyone else. Besides, it makes for great roleplaying if your fellow players are given a chance to calm you down and guide you through dealing with whatever it was. So fire up the homicidal rage but allow your party a few sentences worth of time to talk you down.
Your framing content is just getting better and better - freaking hilarious! And thank you for the spectacular advice
It reminds me of the relationship between my character and the character of another player in my ongoing game. I'm a human sorcerer, kinda playboy style. He's an elf wizard. One might think that he is more rational and toughtful while i'm more passional or emotional. But it's quite the opposite. He's always coming with some crazy plan or a big burst of emotion and i'm usually the voice of caution, trying to keep our feet on the ground. In the end we're always counterbalancing each other, it's a very fun dinamic. In the last session, we met Mordekainen. He went full fanboy mode, while i was the embarassed friend apologizing for my crazy acquaintance.
So sorry that your files have been mixing up, Ginny! Tech problems are the worst. Can't wait to see the skit you're using those clips in!
One of my favourite momnents from a session was when me and the party were having arguements on whether or not to kill the crew of a ship we took over. Think we spent a good half hour debating it and there were only like 4 or 5 crewmen left alive. The dicision was split 50/50 between us and it got spicy, but thankfully it turned out more entertaing then it did stressfull.
The first time I remember loving tabletop gaming was because of another player swooping in unexpectedly to support my roleplaying. I knew NO ONE at the table, but when they started pushing my tongue-tied pc to talk to the handsome vendor, it opened the door to some hilarious and witty banter, and established meaningful connection between PCs.
All the groups I'm in enjoy intra party roleplaying, so I guess I did not *need* this video, BUT! I still wanted to applaud you on this! I thought it was great and you had some really good tips that I will definitely try using in the future - I really like the Hot Take!
You're an amazing D&D Creator and one of my favorites out there, especially because you are not so focused on the rules of the game, but the personalities involved - in-game and at the table. Great stuff!!
Would love this topic from the DM perspective! Is there anything I can do to plant these seeds as a DM?
Traveling time is a really good opportunity for this. If you just wanna leave the door open, you could ask 'is there anything your characters would talk about while you're traveling?' Or if you wanna be a bit more direct, you can ask 'what do your charcters talk about?'
Doing it during travel is great because you're already at a natural break in the pacing, and it makes the travel feel less like unnecessary filler.