re: letting players feel their way into a scene, letting it breathe – i think i’m probably the kind of player who needs that, especially towards beginning of a session.
it takes what feels like a long time for me to get into an RP rhythm and early scenes can be excruciatingly awkward. do you feel you can just ease into character? maybe there are certain players with whom starting a scene is a cinch?
It depends on whether i’m playing a pre-genned character or one of my own creation: with the latter, I’m much more likely to leap in both feet first and get very proactive with pursuing my PC’s agendas or confronting other PCs. I can do that with a pre-gen, but I’m usually aware that the GM has some kind of plot going on in that case, so I don’t know which innocuous action is going to bite me in the backside.
It depends on whether i’m playing a pre-genned character or one of my own creation: with the latter, I’m much more likely to leap in both feet first and get very proactive with pursuing my PC’s agendas or confronting other PCs. I can do that with a pre-gen, but I’m usually aware that the GM has some kind of plot going on in that case, so I don’t know which innocuous action is going to bite me in the backside.
I don’t usually have any trouble jumping into character. If it’s an NPC, I stay pretty focused on their core motivation, along with one or two character traits I can easily roleplay. For PCs, it depends a lot on the game, but for something PbtA, I start with the move triggers and let those inspire my play. For everything else, I take a minute to think about a theme I want to explore, and then just pick a character from pop culture to model my RP on.
I don’t usually have any trouble jumping into character. If it’s an NPC, I stay pretty focused on their core motivation, along with one or two character traits I can easily roleplay. For PCs, it depends a lot on the game, but for something PbtA, I start with the move triggers and let those inspire my play. For everything else, I take a minute to think about a theme I want to explore, and then just pick a character from pop culture to model my RP on.
I like the sink or swim method for Dungeon World where you start the game off in the middle of the action. It’s almost made me start doing that at the beginning of every session after asking how the party got into the new trouble since the last game. Kind of like how TV shows begin with an exciting moment sometimes. I’ve even considered starting a session with something happening and then before it’s over switching back to “24 hours earlier” type of thing.
But back to your question, getting into character can take some people time. Others can jump right in, but that sudden bit of action definitely helps jump start things.
I like the sink or swim method for Dungeon World where you start the game off in the middle of the action. It’s almost made me start doing that at the beginning of every session after asking how the party got into the new trouble since the last game. Kind of like how TV shows begin with an exciting moment sometimes. I’ve even considered starting a session with something happening and then before it’s over switching back to “24 hours earlier” type of thing.
But back to your question, getting into character can take some people time. Others can jump right in, but that sudden bit of action definitely helps jump start things.
The first game can be awkward. I like to practice my voice and accent while driving a few days before play.
Without going into much details I also brush broad strokes of his past life in my head so I have a bit of content to deliver if asked questions.
The first game can be awkward. I like to practice my voice and accent while driving a few days before play.
Without going into much details I also brush broad strokes of his past life in my head so I have a bit of content to deliver if asked questions.
I jump right in. I may not get it right immediately, but I go for it.
I jump right in. I may not get it right immediately, but I go for it.