RRyder823 wrote:Sauce Boss wrote:RRyder823 wrote:Not sure if this is the place to post this (but hey its a game after all and I despise reddit) anyone else play DnD?
Recently got back into playing (played for almost a decade and stopped for like the last 7) but I'm having a hard time getting one of my players into the RP aspect of the game despite her theater background
Just looking for tips
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Been playing weekly with the same group for two years, plus weekly play for a year or so before that. What's your issue?
Mostly have players completely new to ttprg. We're 3 months in. Most have picked up the basic mechanics and have started incorporating more actual role-playing but I got one who actually has a degree in acting/theater and works for the Ren Fair but for the life of me I can't get her to actually RP and the little bit she does it comes at the expense of her needing to regale the world in order to do it (ie: I describe what a set of npcs are wearing and she responds with "well one of them is wearing pearls so I want to steal them" and then her shutting back down when I say "They arent wearing pearls. These are peasants and I never said they had pearls")
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Usually when there is an issue like this, it's a lack of communication between player and DM --- trust me, I've been on both sides of this. On top of this, I usually like to think "what am I doing wrong" and do a good self inspection before I say "my player is the problem," so hold with me through my next few points.
First, if I were in your shoes, I'd examine the expectations I've set out for the campaign. Was I abundantly clear that this was a roleplay heavy game? This can be the easiest thing to goof up. When I was newer to D&D I wanted everyone to act their pants off and have complex characters like it was Critical Role; but I didn't express that expectation to my players, who just wanted to drink beer, role dice, and kill dragons.
Next, I have to understand my players and what they are interested in to engage them. Some people are there to interact with every NPC, some are there because they want to hack up goblins. If roleplaying doesn't tickle my players fancy, I'm not going to keep trying to force the issue because it'll just turn into a bad time. Your friend might have a theatre degree, but that doesn't mean they want to act during a game. They might find the dice rolling, dungeon crawling, and pearl stealing to be an escape from acting as their job.
Which brings me to my last point --- the role of the DM is to make the game fun for players. If this person doesn't want to get deep into character, but they want to steal pearls, well maybe let them steal pearls? Give a consequence to it, maybe the person they filched pearls from hires bounty hunters to reclaim their heirloom necklace. That can encourage organic roleplaying; is this player going to give up the pearls or fight the bounty hunters to keep them; if they fenced the item maybe they are now in debt to this noble in a Han Solo - Jabba the Hutt style where they need to make up for it or else.
Without additional detail, I think you just need to work with this player to establish expectations and provide them with content that makes them tic where they organically get to where you want them to be.
