Roleplay. It’s commonly understood to be one of the three pillars that make up the game of D&D. But, roleplaying between the DM and player is one thing… how do you get your players roleplaying amongst themselves?
In this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave discuss their best tips in getting players to roleplay amongst themselves, drawing from their games in Tomb of Annihilation, Shadow of the Dragon Queen, Journey to Ragnarok, and their homebrew world of The Further.
A game full of great roleplay can get you super jazzed… so how do you get to bed when it’s a school night? Dovetailing into a listener question from Dr. DM, Tony, Chris, and Dave discuss strategies to deal with late night games during the week and how to decompress and “turn your brain off”, so that it doesn’t lead to DM burnout.
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1:05 Will Ferrell Scene from Stepbrothers.
2:20 Giving the player some stakes or secrets to approach their fellow adventurers with.
4:25 What to do when the players will only engage with the DM.
5:25 Fireside chats, campfire tales, and other story prompts to assist your players.
10:30 Using story prompts and roleplay to create more immersive Hexcrawls.
14:00 Prompting a player who’s not engaging with more concrete examples other than abstract roleplay.
16:25 Supporting players and teaching them how your game works.
17:45 Ending roleplay scenes that have gone too long.
26:20 A listener question.
28:50 Find an activity to decompress from the session and reset.
31:00 Not the best advice: don’t run late games on weeknights.
33:00 Lean into your strengths to focus your prep and not overwhelm yourself.
34:00 Plot is a couple of paragraphs. The story is what happens when your players meet it.
39:15 If your players are interacting amongst themselves, you don’t have to be the battery all the time.
44:00 Final Thoughts.