Tips for roleplaying.

As a new player who never really got to play these types of games I worry about my roleplaying. If we could have a roleplaying tips thread that would be great, anything to help beginners like myself to start off on the right foot.

I know the amount of roleplaying depends on the party you are with but I'm somewhat scarred. We were playing a homebrew system and I had a trait listed as afraid of dogs/wolves due to past experiences. So when the dm throws a wolf at us it was up to me to kill it (due to location) but instead I said I jumped behind the nearest cover. Everyone laughed and I got the npc we were escorting severely injured. Did I do the right thing or did I over react?

Any and all help is appreciated!

Since it's a homebrew system, I cannot for sure rate the level of intensity of fear your character HAS to experience but I am able to say that you acted reasonably because of it. I also hope the laughter was in good fun because of the situation and not because of your character's shortcomings.

Normally, games have a sort of 'fear' system in place that when you run into something tied to your fear, you have to resist it or fall under a penalty. This can be anywhere from getting the jitters to putting as much distance between you and your source of fear.

As for the notion of how much role playing is needed in mixed company is varied. Normally, it's up to YOU how much you want to role play and interact as your character!
I give you kudos for making your character act like something no one is willing to make their characters act like.
I say that because a former game of Dark Heresy awhile back lead to a situation where a psyker was offered food and he managed to tell that it had a warp signature meaning it was 'alive' or human.

He failed his willpower test and scored pretty bad on the shock table would result in him flipping the table over and yelling "IT'S MADE OF PEEEEEOPLLLLLLE!!" but boy did he argue that he didn't want to actually role play or make his character do that even though he both failed the test and rolled a bad side affect.

The main tip I have for roleplaying is to try to spend as much time away from the game thinking about who your character is, and what made him into that person. So think about his childhood, think about major events in his life, think about what made him have a fear of wolves. Was it just something he has always had, or did he get bit as a child. Note that most if not all of this will never come up in game, and honestly shouldn't, most people don't care that your characters father was abusive, or liked to take him to the fair on his birthday every year ect. However if you know this it will make it easier to decide how your character will act in any given situation. That said if the other players just laughed at your reaction then you probably have little to worry about.

Basalock wrote:The main tip I have for roleplaying is to try to spend as much time away from the game thinking about who your character is, and what made him into that person. So think about his childhood, think about major events in his life, think about what made him have a fear of wolves.

I entirely agree with this.

My current game I am DMing is having a huge problem with roleplaying right now. I find that it stems from two sources.

1) The players are still trying to get comfortable with each other.
2) The players have not made a background yet.

If you actually became a bit uncomfortable with the other players laughing at your character's fear, then you might be having a bit of trouble with problem 1. Then, like Basalock said, just really try hard to make an in depth background. Don't necessarily make it too overly detailed because you might not want to have your character living in the past for the whole campaign. This could run the risk of making a sitting in the back and brooding character. You might also want to draw out your character too. I'm a pretty crappy artist but still take time to draw out my characters anyways. This lets my mind wander to fill in connections with a lot of traits and quirks that I implemented in my character sheet. The last suggestion would be to find ways in your campaign to overcome your characters weaknesses, though not necessarily abolish them. Take your character for example. He's afraid of wolves. You might want to keep in mind that he not a bit pissed at him and embarrassed that a simple dog would frighten him. So next time a wolf situation happens, try to incorporate this past situation to the present one. Will he actually swing at it or take another nosedive behind a bush?

Anyways, I thought your idea for running was a good one. I like to test out traits that PCs say they have, just to make sure they are keeping track of their character and being consistent.

This can create issues with the barrier of Out of Character and In Character, so I reccomend you take this as personal preference, rather than pure advice with a definite outcome.
But I like to invest a portion of myself into a character. Specifically I take a personality aspect and work that into a character. At a tabletop, rarely will you have the ability to portray more than a few personality aspects and though many people have more than one attribute to their personality and this will make your character more shallow, it will also make that personality attribute more powerful and will make the character's means, intentions, or personality more clear. So for example, I would make a Paladin an extrovert, representing my own extroversion and ease in social situations. I would make a Fighter careful, representing my own cautious manner. The list could go on from there. It helps me to get in character when I can relate to the character I am playing.

But all the same one must recognize their OOC and IC barrier. If your character gets tortured during interrogations, don't take that as the GM being a massive cock to you and singling you out. He is trying to create an interesting story or to portray a world for your character to react to. If your character gets killed, don't get offended. Especially if they died in a good manner. I've noticed this a problem with D&D specifically and nothing against the game, but it seems to be part of their mindset when people play D&D. People get hurt when their character dies. I understand being disappointed, because no one likes it when their favourite character dies in a book. But D&D players seem to get especially hurt at the very concept of their character failing or dying or even being hindered. Death specifically is such a powerful character development tool. You are not the only person at the table after all, and how people react to your death will help to portray their characters as well. Also precisely how or when you die could affect how people see your character.

So TL;DR: Use a bit of your personality in your characters, it will help you to relate to your character, always recognize OOC versus IC and don't be afraid to take a dive!