 Howdy how's it going? My name's Davy Chappy, and if you've been watching my videos for a while, then you know that the D and Davy stands for roleplaying. So today, I'm gonna help you flesh out your characters, whether they be the playable kind, or the 15th farmer with the exact same southern draw. As always, keep in mind that the majority of this is just my opinion, so if you just want roleplay to stay in the bedroom, feel free to play your games however you want. But with that out of the way, let's begin. So acting is a vulnerable job. Everybody wants to be Jack Sparrow, but then when the time comes, they can't even pronounce Caribbean right. As soon as it's your line, someone turns to you and meticulously scans every breath and expects perfection that can never be achieved! And if Matt Mercer can make the funny voice, why can't you? Except that that is just a fantasy that we make up because we privately expect failure on ourselves and our minds are set to friendly fire. You are your own worst enemy. You are the only one who recognizes all of your flaws all the time. So it's easy to bet on your own failure because if you mess up, hey, you were right about yourself, clever you. But the rest of the world doesn't automatically see it that way. When you're a player, most of the game isn't centered around you, so however poorly you roleplay your character, nobody will know that that's not just how your character acts. Your fellow players are actually inclined to think that you're a good actor, as long as your character isn't just a carbon copy of you put to papyrus. So you shouldn't have to worry about critics as long as you aren't just using D&D to air your own melodrama. It's important to get this feeling out of the way early because I can give you all the advice that you want, but if it's layered on top of insecurities, then we aren't gonna get to the root of the problem. Now, as for acting itself, roleplaying a character can be broken down into three main things. What is your character's long-term goal? What is your character's immediate goal? And what are your character's quirks? When you think about how your character would react to something, you're trying to get into the mind of a different person. So having the what and why of these three ideas fleshed out will be a life-saver in the long run, because you'll always have something to fall back to. I've played a character who failed to save his home, so he rushes into things if he sees somebody in danger. The party went to a town that was in the middle of performing a ritual sacrifice, you know, as one does. And so even if Davy Chappy would take a moment to figure out the situation, Davy Chappy's character fell back on his immediate goal of save life, be hero. 5e did a great job of presenting this idea by introducing bonds, flaws, and ideals as part of your character creation. But the reason I emphasize knowing your character's goals is because bonds, flaws, and ideals will give you the tools that you need to react to any situation, but you most likely don't want to just be reacting to the world, you want to be a proactive part of it. And to do that, you need to acknowledge your character's drives. The quirks that you create for your character are also important because they define your personality, besides just your outlook on life. For instance, you can create two characters with the urchin background and give them the same ideal of I am going to prove that I am worthy of a better life. But that is not itself a personality, it just gives a clue as to what that personality might be. The two characters could have the same outlook on life, but the quirks of who they are are what make them different. The idiosyncrasies could be as simple as the Paladin really likes eating cans of 50% beans, and that little character quirk is enough to remind the other players that this is, in fact, a real person and not a full-plate armored smite machine. Role-playing this out, it usually helps me get into the mind of a character if I can find a few of those social ticks and really sink into them for a while. When I play my roguish investigator, I lean into the mic and I talk in a lower grizzly voice like I perhaps smoke too many 50% cigarettes. I do a little grunt as I figure out exactly which synonym of stupid I want to call my party members, and I actively avoid any kind of direct combat if it's possible to talk, hide, or otherwise smart brain my way out of it. All of this adds up to a character who's methodical and set in his ways, his ways in this case being play 5D chess with a hill giant until he gets upset and smashes the board, then shoot it in the face with your crossbow. You don't know his bonds, his flaws, or ideals, but you do get who he is, and that's what makes a good role-player, getting the audience to know your character. That's why I said before that messing up when it's your turn isn't automatically going to be picked up on by your fellow players because they don't know who your character is or why they do something, so when you do something that you perceive is incorrect, you have three options. You can pretend it didn't happen and role-play your character out how they're meant to be, hoping that nobody else noticed, which it bears repeating they probably won't, or you could roll with it and just make that a part of your character retroactively because sometimes inspiration comes out of thin air and it hits you on the head like a falling bullet to kill your self-esteem, or if you feel really self-conscious, or if it's just not that big a deal, you can let your party know that you've made a mistake and redo whatever you were saying or doing. There's nothing wrong with taking a mulligan, especially if not doing so will make you feel like you messed up your character. That said, you and the rest of your party should be receptive to people messing up sometimes when they're trying to role-play and be willing to let them roll back something that they just said or did. When I was growing up, I played D&D with a bunch of dick brains, so whenever I stuttered or said something correctly, oh yep, you said it, that's the thing, you gotta do it now, and that's just a shitty way to play the game. Yes, you're trying to be a performer, and in real life, if you go on stage and mess up the witch's rap, you can't just be all like, oh, sorry, audience, let's redo that, but you are not on stage, you are not critical role, no audience is expecting you to be perfect, and if your friends are unwilling to take that step back, then that's their problem and you may need to weigh out what's more important in your life. That said, this is all talking about you as a player. As a DM, it's a little different. The DM is the show that the players are watching, so they'll be focused on everything that you do. All those insecurities that you have in the back of your mind are true when you're the DM, and exponentially so, given that you aren't just playing one character, you're playing all of them. If you're a DM that's trying to role play five different characters a session, it can be a little difficult trying to keep them all straight in your head, and while players are there to play a game, it's your job to be an underpaid street performer, so the pressure is real. This is the main issue that first time DMs face, the job of being a performer and knowing that it's all on you. If you're the kind that gets stage fright, then I actually don't recommend putting yourself in a position where you're absolutely going to get scrutinized, because even friends will have private lasting impressions on your DM style if you do a bad job, but your friends also want to play D&D, so if you can manage to keep pushing the story forward, keep pushing the game forward, then your players should be willing to forgive any other misgivings. I've played in games with a lot of DMs, and sure, I can tell when the NPCs have the same voice and speak the same way, but as long as the game stays fun, I don't mind it, and it just makes me appreciate the DMs who go the extra mile even more. Overall, role playing is a complicated profession. Your comfort level will ultimately decide whether you're a Sam Regal or an Adam Sandler, but remember that ultimately, this is your recreational time, and you shouldn't sweat about something that should be helping you relax, play to your strengths, feel good about not being that good, and the next time that somebody brings up role playing, remember to use a safe word. Buuuut that'll about do it. I hope you enjoyed this video, be sure to hit the like, comment, subscribe, ring the bell, check out all my social media in the description below, and maybe support me on Patreon so that I can keep affording all that secret role play juice that makes me a more charismatic DM. But yeah, Davy out.