I thought about doing a list for the Dungeon Master and one for the Players, but I am putting them all together, because, well, there is a lot of overlap. So let’s dive into the first one.

Players Versus Dungeon Master

The first thing new players (and Dungeon Masters0 do is they try and win Dungeons and Dragons. Dungeons and Dragons is not a game that can be won. It is a cooperative story telling game. The Dungeon Master guides the story and the players fill in the details of the story through their actions.

But, for a lot of new players and Dungeon Masters, they see Dungeons and Dragons as any other game. In chess there is a winner and a loser, in most games there are. So people think that is the same for Dungeons and Dragons. If as a player you try and win or break what the Dungeon Master is doing. The game will lose it’s fun for the Dungeon Master. For the Dungeon Master, an ancient black dragon on level 1 characters isn’t a fair fight.

The RPG Academy, a podcast on D&D that I recommend highly, puts it something like this. No matter what rules you get right or get wrong, if you are having fun, you are doing it right. And for a cooperative game that means that there are no losers to the game and that everyone at the table is having a good time. No one is trying to win Dungeons and Dragons.

Knowing Too Little or Too Much

This one might seem confusing. It makes sense that you don’t want to know too little. You need to know how to play your character. For a Dungeon Master, you need to know how to create an encounter. Plus you want to know what the other characters are doing as well.

But you also don’t want to know too much. That one sounds a whole lot weirder because it’s good to know a lot. Except that there is a ton of information. If you’ve been reading my tips for creating NPC’s, building out your first homebrew campaign, and more, you know I am always going to tell you to keep it simple. As the Dungeon Masters, know the players classes but don’t know all of them. As a player, know your class, but you don’t need to know all the other players perfectly or all the monsters.

Knowing too much can at times be worse because it means you don’t get to the table. There is always more to learn, review, and read in Dungeons and Dragons. So just know what you need to know. Oh, and if you are spell caster, know your spells. You don’t need to write them down in detail, but when you add a spell, add the page number so that you know how to find them fast.

Hogging the Spotlight

Now, this one isn’t as universal, but it does affect all players at the table and happens more in games with mainly new players. The Dungeon Master will spend 15 minutes talking without the players interacting. A player will jump in before anyone else at the table every time. This goes back to everyone at the table having fun and that it’s job of everyone at the table to police this.

The Dungeon Master helps guide the story, they don’t tell the whole story. And as tempting as it might be, they don’t have an NPC in the party to be a character they play. And players, give other players chances, in character ask other characters for advice. If someone isn’t getting a word in, pause, or ask them what they were going to say. Make it so that everyone feels engaged when what is going on.

This isn’t an Exhaustive List

That should be pretty obvious that there are more things that can trip people up. I keep on going back to that RPG Academy motto, if you’re having fun you’re doing it right. For a lot of players and Dungeon Masters, you need to make sure everyone at the table, including yourself is having fun.

What have you found that has tripped you up in Dungeons and Dragons? Was there something, if you’re a more experienced player, that you wish you knew when you started?

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So what can you do to make magic items still be useful but more interesting? There are several different ways you can do that, and it ties some into my Friday Night D&D that was also posted today, but you can name the weapon, make it sentient, make it cursed, give it unique properties, or let it evolve.

Named

The point of naming a weapon is that a +1 long sword isn’t that exciting, but Gregor Falhelm’s Long Sword or The Shadow Blade, those are interesting. Who is Gregor Falhelm and why is this sword known as that? That’s something the players can checkout. The Shadow Blade clearly has a lot of history with it as well. Now, they’ll still probably toss it aside when a +2 sword comes along, but in the mean time, you can have a quest for them to track down the history of the sword. Maybe Gregor Falhelm was a famed adventurer who was known for something and now the player will try and live up to it. Or The Shadow Blade is a weapon from a famed assassin that had belonged to a thieve’s guild years ago but had gone missing, and now that you have it and people have seen it, the thieve’s guild wants it back. The names can generate more story for you to play with and make it more memorable than just a +1 long sword.

Sentient

Another thing you can do is give the weapon a personality. Allow it to communicate telepathically with it’s wielder. Maybe Gregor Falhelm died defending an orphanage and because of that his soul was attached to the blade and he can tell them about years ago or give advice when needed. Or The Shadow Blade because of all of the assassinations it has helped with and all the blood on it, maybe it has a dark personality that urges that player to kill. Again, only a +1 sword, no extra abilities, but now you have something more for the player to interact with. How do they deal with a sword that is constantly urging them to kill? Gregor Falhelm is interesting to listen to, but very long winded, what does the player think of that. Give it a unique personality so that the players get a memorable experience with that weapon and it’ll be more than just a +1 long sword to them.

Cursed

Cursing a weapon is always a fun surprise to pull to make it memorable as well. With a curse, make it something that is annoying but not game breaking. Maybe The Shadow Blade thirsts for blood and will cut the wearer if they don’t get blood on it otherwise. Maybe if they get too far away from it the cursed soul of Gregor Falhelm, because he couldn’t save the orphans and now it’s just a constant weeping that only the player can hear from the sadness and they have disadvantage to hit because Falhelm doesn’t want to kill anymore. There are a lot of negative things you could add to a magic item to make it more interesting. A wand of fireballs, but you don’t know where they’ll go. A ring of water walking that walks your feet along the surface of the water, but from the bottom side. Be creative with the negative affects because again, we’re trying to make things more memorable.

Unique Properties

Unique properties is one that is fairly tame, kind of like naming the weapon. Just give it something small or as big that it can do as well. +1 sword, well there’s a magical word to make it glow. Now you don’t need more torches, but the sword is more interesting. Or the word for the glowing sword is common so it’s possible that it could be triggered at the wrong time by anyone saying the wrong thing. One idea I had was a sword of reincarnation. If you died by that sword, within 7 days your soul would find a new body to go into, so you really aren’t dead, but you’re probably pissed that someone tried to kill you. That makes for a great story. It could just be that the +1 sword of Gregor Falhelm glows blue whenever an orphan is near. Or The Shadow Blade adds a mark for each person it’s killed on the blade and if it ever gets full something will happen.

Evolving

Finally, make it evolve. Take what you’ve learned from above and make it get better along with the player. Now The Shadow Blade, which was just a +1 sword will start to grant a bonus for stealth the more the person kills with it, or when the player character hits level twelve, not only do they get a +2 to attack and damage now it gives a +2 to stealth and deception. Gregor Falhelm’s sword glows in the presence of orphans but the player can unlock what is basically the ability the detect evil with the sword once per long rest or once per short rest. The example I gave in the Friday Night D&D was to make Mjolnir. Don’t start off with this amazing hammer that the person can use to fly with and call lighting with, but start out with just a simple +1 hammer, eventually it does an extra 1d4 of lightning damage. Then the player can once per long rest do 3d10 lightning damage on an attack. Eventually at a higher level, at the start of combat the player can cast call lightning and either use it as a one off level 9 call lightning or it can deal and extra 3d10 on every successful attack. Mjolnir, then, which might have started out as at level one as just a regular war hammer could be for the final epic battle a hammer that grants the user flight (though technically it’s just throwing it and forgetting to let go), throwing it and it returning, +3 to hit, +3 to damage, call lightning at level 9 for a one time affect or call lightning at level 3 for an additional 3d10 lightning damage on every attack. You have the weapon evolve with the player and they don’t forget their their awesome weapon.

So there are a lot of interesting things you can do to make it more than just a +1 long sword or a +1 shield, or even a ring of water walking. You can create something unique and create unique situations for them to use it in. It’s silly for Gregor Falhelm’s sword to glow around orphans, but useful if an orphan is lost in a labyrinth and it glows brighter the closer to the orphan you are. So if you create something odd like that, use it in the story. That’s the other and really the biggest thing, none of these things will make the magical item stand out unless you use it in the story. The item being part of the story and important to the world is going to make it more memorable than anything else, so maybe The Shadow Blade is just a regular long sword with a +1, but if the thieve’s guild is coming after the players, it’s interesting.

What are some memorable magical items or moments with magical items in D&D or other RPG’s that you’ve had in a game? Do you use magic items a lot?

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Now, Player versus Player (PvP) is something that might never come up in your game of Dungeons and Dragons. There can be moments that make it worth it for the story to have some PvP, but that’s not that norm.

So, let’s start out with some reasons that you might have some PvP in your game?

A lot of the reasons that you might have PvP aren’t good reasons. The players out of game (or in game) might not like each other, so they might fight. This happens when you have an unbalanced party, when you have a chaotic evil wizard and a lawful good paladin, you might end up having PvP in the game. You can also run into it when you have a rogue or greedy character who is stealing from the players or is hording the good loot because, even though they can’t use it, they want to keep it because it’s pretty.

You might also get PvP, and this is a good reason, when there is a tournament. Maybe there is some sort of challenge that all the players enter into and in the end they have to face off against each other. This is something that works best when you have players who really want to show off their characters mechanical abilities for a session or two.

Finally, it might be a turn, to borrow a wrestling term. When someone turns, it means that they are going from being the good guy and helpful part of the party to possibly becoming the BBEG or some level of villain. This one is neither good or bad because it could be a really cool moment for the players if it’s done correctly and planned out. If it just comes out of nowhere and there’s no reason for it other than the player got bored, then that’s considerably less ideal.

How do you then deal with it these are some of the reasons.

If it is for a “bad” reason, I think you have to deal with it differently than you do with a “good” reason. With the some of the “bad” reasons, I’d start with an above table discussion. Take it out of the game and figure out how you can avoid conflict against two opposing characters for whatever reason that might. Odds are in those situations, one person is going to end up feeling like their character is being picked on in the game by the other character, and that can lead to issues outside of the game. But it is always possible that these players have been intentionally playing their characters in a way to build to that moment. If you don’t know as a DM, you should take that conversation out of the game for a moment before you sit back and watch them go at it.

If it is one of the “good” reasons, try and make it feel unique. If it’s a tournament, make it some reward that all the characters would want to win or need to win for their party so that they can continue going forward with their quest and the story. Or if it’s a turn, make that moment as rewarding as possible. Build to it slowly, pass a note to let the player know when it’s the right time, and then spring it on the other players. Hopefully it’ll be a shock and a good shock, and then let that combat happen. However, if you are doing this and you want that character to end up as the BBEG, give specific instructions when to run and get out of the combat, because up against a single character, the party is probably going to make quick work for them. Or give them something that will allow them to put up a better fight that the players don’t know about. I would also recommend, after that first encounter, you take over the BBEG, former player character, in any of the combats, and let the player roll up a new character.

For both of the good reasons for PvP, I would use them sparingly as if it draws out too much, you are likely going to lose the focus of some of your players at the table. When you are doing PvP with a group of people at the table larger than two, that means that you are going to have some players just sitting around and watching, and unless it’s compelling for the reason for it, or if it’s the whole party against the one character who has turned on them, So keep things moving, keep it interesting, and create some sort of countdown for the players so that it doesn’t end up being a long and drawn out slug fast, though, I doubt it will be. Also, try and avoid fatalities, unless it’s supposed to be a a situation where, going to the example of the character who turned, that they are not the BBEG, but have just been giving information to the BBEG. Then see how many of the party members they can take out before they are taken out.

Overall, I think that PvP in D&D is something that can work sparingly. And I think that’s something that needs to be done carefully. There are plenty of ways for it to go bad, particularly above table that you don’t want to create resentment at the table. You are going to have to get the buy-in from the players to make it really work. Like I’ve already said in the article, keep it moving as well, don’t let it drag out too long, because you might not have the whole party involved in it, and you don’t want them to be bored at the table.

Have you run into a situation where there was PvP at a table that you were a player at or that you were running the game? How did that work for you?

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The issue with true neutral is that it doesn’t give you something to grasp onto. With evil and good, you know those concepts, and between law and chaos, you know what those are as well. Neutral is the position is between those, but it doesn’t give you that easy thing to grab onto. The best starting point that I can come up with is talking about the druid.

The reason for the druid is that as someone who gets their powers from nature, nature isn’t inherently good or evil. It has some chaos, but it also has an order placed on it from the food chain and survival of the fittest, but these aren’t laws with how humans place rules and order around themselves. So someone who is fully devoted to nature could find themselves in this middle ground where they don’t cling too strongly to anything, but they just see life, death, and survival as the cycle of things. This cycle is neither good or bad, but it is needed for the land to survive.

This is where you can get into issues with role playing in an adventuring group but also why you join an adventuring group. Some outside force is working on your land, whether it be a grove or the whole world. So the true neutral character would look at this one of two ways. Either, it wouldn’t get them to do anything, because it’s the natural order of things and survival of the fittest. If you develop a character like that, you aren’t really playing in the spirit of Dungeons and Dragons and need to come up with a reason why your character would care, or roll up a new character.

But that same thing can also be your hook into adventure. Some outside force is working to destroy the land, whether it be your grove or the whole world. Because it’s an outside force, that means that it isn’t a natural force. Your character now has a reason to go out adventuring to stop bad things from happening. Because it isn’t going to be survival of the fittest, it’s just going to be destruction and not from the natural order and chaos of things, but because someone has a plan to destroy it. This true neutral characters mindset wouldn’t be, in this case, to judge the person as bad, but instead to judge their actions as outside of the balance of things.

This is the tension of the true neutral character. There’s a chance for them to be apathetic in what is happening in the game. So as a player, you need to really find those reasons, either because of the threat, or some other reason, that you’re out adventuring. For me, the easiest way that I’d do this would be to add in some relationship with another character or NPC that is a very strong bond for your character. By doing this, you’re going to always have a reason to go adventuring. And it give the DM something that they know they can motivate your character with as well. I personally like the idea of it being another player character that you’re connected to, because then it gives the true neutral character more of a reason to follow along and and adventure.

So, what classes work, again, I’ll start out with the disclaimer that really any D&D class is going to work for any alignment, you might have a few things that just make less sense. The ones that are going to have the strongest ties to True Neutral, I would say, would be Monk and Druid. However, another class that I think works well is a very tribal Barbarian. They are going to see everything as survival and not have the attachment to things that the more “civialized” characters might. Death, trials, and troubles are just going to be the natural way of things and neither good or bad. Harder to work in are going to be your Cleric and Paladin who naturally leaning towards more lawful or good.

Probably a wild card one that I think would be interesting would a rogue. Generally, you think of them as chaotic, but what about an assassin rogue who just does their job and they get money, but they dispatch the target with out any passion for it and they don’t judge whether the target is good or evil, they just take the job given. You can even give them a loose code, but not hard rules that they follow to keep them from being lawful It would be easy to stray into either chaotic or lawful with this character (as well as good or evil), but that could basically be the rule for the character. They will take any job (somewhat chaotic), but they need their payment and their details before they’ll take it (somewhat lawful), to keep them balanced in a neutral area.

True Neutral is definitely a tricky one for me to try and explain. It’s also going to be a trickier one to try and play, and in my experience is generally just a stopping off point for characters as they go to another alignment. It’s a decent spot to start a campaign for that reason as you figure out the character’s ticks and traits that will allow you to set-up their alignment.

Have you played a true neutral character? Did you find it easy to play or did you have to put a lot of work into it?

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In 201, I want to take it more into actually playing your character, bringing your character to life at your table, so it has a different voice than just your voice.

I think it’s something that is pretty easy to do, have a character that sounds like you, acts like you, and thinks like you. And I don’t think that is a bad way to role play, sometimes, but there is much more that you can do beyond that to really play your character in Dungeons and Dragons and not just play yourself.

So, why do I think you shouldn’t just play yourself or your idealized version of yourself?

For me, I see role playing as an opportunity to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and see the world from a different perspective. Now, I don’t mean that you should play a racist jerk because that’s different from who you are, you’re probably going to be annoying everyone at the table, but playing a character who has issues with another race and using that are an opportunity for your character to grow, can work well if done delicately. But even beyond that, you can play someone who has a different view of religion than you do, a different view of politics, of money, or murder hoboness than you do. Or in a different vein but equally as challenging, it can be an opportunity to play an extrovert when you yourself are in introvert, or vice-a-versa.

That’s the theory on why you might play someone different than you and I encourage it, but how do you go about doing that and doing it in a way where it isn’t a stereotype?

I think a good starting point is to create a character who has a tick of some sort. It could be that they are extremely scholarly, or maybe they have a catch phrase (keep it short and use it sparingly), or some default fighting style (every character should have one), but more than that, something that you can always do as your character in a role playing situation. Or something that is interesting about them. In a one-shot game at a convention, I played a monk dinosaur who was observing the other dinosaurs in the tribe and using it as an anthropological study. When I needed a role playing hook, I would lean into that. Or in another game, I was playing a mage who dressed like The Dude from The Big Lebowski and did drugs, so when I needed a role playing hook, I’d channel that.

These are pretty simple hooks, but they gave me a way to always step back into the character. Another way to think about it is to compare it to learning an accent, or doing an accent. Most of the time there is a phrase or a word that you can use to do your version of an accent. It’s that thing that allows you to step into the accent, in the same way, these ticks or hooks are ways for you to step into playing your character. It sounds weird, but it’s going to be a faster way to role playing your character and a good way to jump start it. It also makes it easier to step into role playing someone who isn’t just like you, because you have that way to change your mindset.

I want to address one more thing about these hooks before I talk about combat again. And that is the idea of using an accent or silly voice for your character. This can be used well to keep yourself in character. Such as whenever you are speaking in that voice, you are in character, and when you aren’t, you are out of character. However, there are a lot of people who aren’t great at doing voices. If you’ve listened to Dungeons and Flagons, you can tell that I will do voices for NPC’s and monsters when I’m running the game, but I have a pretty limited selection of voices that I can do. So don’t feel pressure to do this for your character, and don’t compare yourself to Critical Role when doing voices, they are professional voice actors, they literally make a living doing voices.

Now, I want to circle back to combat for a split second. I talked earlier about having your move. The default thing that you go with when you play your character. It’s important to have this a character not just for role playing, as it will become your characters thing, but also for the game, so that you can make combat go more quickly. I know for a lot of people, myself included, I prefer the role playing aspect of the game, versus the combat aspect of the game. And combat, if not done well, can end up being a longer part of the game than the role playing. So, the signature/default move for your character is there for two reasons. One, it does give that hook to get you into the mindset of your character in a combat. Two, and as importantly, it means in combat you are ready for your turn. If you know that you can always roll two attacks with your great sword, when it comes to your turn, you are ready to go. Sometimes you’ll do different things, but if there is nothing obvious and different to do, you can take your turn fast. That’s why I think it’s something that should be required by the Dungeon Master and players at the table to hold people to having that default move.

Now we’ve talked a bit more about how you can get into character and play a character who isn’t just like you. Next time I want to talk more about creating a direction and arc for your character within the game that you control.

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Let’s start out with a bit of the negative. This can be delving too far into the concept that they like to pull into RPG’s from Improv of “Yes – And”. Quickly, “Yes – And” is the concept in improv that you let things roll. When someone throws out an idea, you roll with it and there is no such thing as a bad idea. Now, this is a bit oversimplification of the concept, but it often gets pulled into RPG’s. In theory, this seems like a good idea, it allows for creativity in your game, but there’s an issue with it. And it’s an issue with balance in the game. I’ve seen the concept of “Yes – And” exploited for some people who are too afraid to run their own game for fear of stepping on someones fun, and eventually you are no longer playing an RPG, or if it’s a podcast, it’s really hard to listen to.

So, how do you balance that out so that your game doesn’t go off the rails?

Firstly, I think that ‘Yes – And” is something that you can use in bits and pieces, it just won’t work every time. Or if you want to go to a point where you are really playing a game that is focused on that, pick a rules light game and is meant to be silly or absurd. A game like Fiasco is a good example of a game where it can be as absurd as possible as things fall apart and while there are dice, they are used exceedingly sparingly, to vaguely shape the story.

Next is a reframing of how we talk about improv in RPG’s. There isn’t a one to one correlation in my mind between the two. In stand-up improv (which is what I’m referring to when I say improv here), it’s about content generation and you start with the vaguest of concepts, often a place and a situation, that come up on the fly. That isn’t how most RPG’s work. Again, there are rules light ones like Fiasco or Dreamchaser that are much more about on the fly content generation, but when you have someone running a game who has put time into it, a lot of the improv has to change into something that is a bit more focused. One of the best examples I can give of this is a spoiler for a recent film, so let’s go back a little bit further. In Princess Bride, Billy Crystal, playing Miracle Max, improvises most of his lines. And they are hilarious as you can see below.

However, one thing to note about how Billy Crystal does with his improvised lines is that he is always moving the scene forward. I get wanting to be the funny person in the game you are playing, but ask yourself, is it moving the scene forward, does it make sense in the scene? While Crystal is doing improv, he’s also acting, and that balance is important often for a fun game for everyone. So before you start generating content with your improv, ask yourself if this is the right game and table for that.

Finally, for DM’s, “Yes – And” can work sometimes, but there are other phrases that work as well. These are “Yes – But” and “No – But”. I’ll try and explain these decently well so that you get the concepts that I have in my head.

Yes – And – An anything goes policy and a free flowing policy for playing RPG’s. Works in systems that are very light on rules and rolls but instead focus on collaborative storytelling. You also see that in board games like Winter Tale, Gloom, and Once Upon a Time.

Yes – But – This is probably the most common one that I do. The example that I’d give for this is someone wanting to jump down on top of a monster with their sword. Can they do that, absolutely. Will they take damage from the fall, absolutely. This is something that the character would know in the game, so I’ll tell them the consequences of their action before they do it. Even if it isn’t directly damage based, there are other things that can come from it. You kill all the goblins in the middle of town because that was the best plan you could come up with, or the safest one, that’s cool, you’ve thought it through, but don’t expect the towns folk to love you. They’ll respect you and keep and wary on you, but love you, probably not.

No – But – Out of all of these, I would use this one the most sparingly, at least until you are familiar with your group. The reason being, you want people to have fun, so you don’t accidentally want to shut them down by shooting down their ideas. The concept behind, “No – But” for me is that the player wants to do something that isn’t feasible in the game. For example, knock over a castle onto the evil king that is inside. Something like that, sorry, you cannot do that. Sure, you could eventually, but you don’t have the time or resources to do so, and if I let you do it now, it might break something later in the game, or become your go-to move. But, once you tell me you want to do that, I now can tell you about the loose tiles that make the roof and how you can use a grappling hook or something and pull down a punch of tiles on top of the guards on the top of the wall. The reason that I’m saying this one is trickier is that you need to understand what your players want to do and what they like. So you want to avoid shutting them down, but when you know your players better, you can get an idea of what they want to do, and bring in similar things for them.

So with that, you can create a game that doesn’t go off the rails but also still gives the players agency to add to the story and do cool things.

What I hope I did was show a little bit of difference between a pure improv sort of game and how you can pull some of the improv techniques into your game in places. The reason that I wrote this isn’t to say that games that are in systems with more mechanics, such as D&D and Star Wars RPG shouldn’t use improv, but as players and as the GM/DM, know how to balance it out in the game. Especially if you are making it into a podcast or adding in new players and don’t fully  know the group. And I will say that players who do have an improv background, you often can generate better dialog and crazier ideas on the fly. Just make sure that you are progressing the story while you do so, and everyone at the table, listening online, or watching will love you for it.

What are your thoughts on improv and RPG’s? How well do they mesh together?

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A few common examples:
You’re in a shop and the shop owner has been very nice and helpful to you. You’re even setting up a business arrangement with them. The rogue sees something they want and decide to shoot for a five finger discount on it, even though, that is going to possibly undo a half hours worth of role playing someone else has been doing. Everyone looks at that player, and they say, “I’m a rogue and I like shiny stuff, it says so on my paper, so that’s what my guy would do.”

The party has captured a bandit and are trying to get information out of them. They are rolling poorly, so one of the characters does something that amounts to torture or a threat on the bandits family. The lawful good paladin immediately jumps into the situation and draws a sword against the player character who made the threat. Everyone looks at that player, and they say, “I’m lawful good, so I have to kill anyone who is going to threaten innocent people, that’s what my guy would do.”

The party is meeting with the king. The king, doing their kingly things, doesn’t have much time for the party and when one of the characters suggests that he should pay them more heed, he laughs at them. Because of a character trait of not letting people look down on them, now a character draws a weapon against the king. Everyone looks at the player, and they say, “My guy doesn’t let anyone insult him.”

Now, these examples seem kind of silly, but  you can see why they would be annoying in the game. There are certain things that are so defined with a character, because of what a sheet says or what the person’s idea is for the character that they can’t get past it, for the detriment of the party, the other players, the DM/GM, and the story.

This isn’t to say that your character shouldn’t have convictions and shouldn’t have certain things that you will or won’t do. It’s more that you need to balance it at the table so that everyone is having fun. To quote one of my favorite podcasts, The RPG Academy, “If you’re having fun, you’re doing it right.” This doesn’t mean just you at the table, it means everyone at the table. All the players and the DM/GM should be having fun during the game. So before  your characters conviction changes something, starts a battle with the king and the kings guard or steals from the shop keeper that people have been negotiating with, as yourself, is this fun for everyone? If the answer is that it’s not, or more importantly, if the answer is that it’s going to step on someone else’s fun, don’t do it. If it’s just neutral, like it’s going to give you the spotlight for a little bit, but doesn’t step on what someone else is doing or put the party into a situation that they don’t want to be, that’s fine, but when you start to decrease the fun for other people, you’ve probably stepped too far.

So, that’s all been fairly negative to this point, and I don’t like to write posts that are just purely negative, so let’s talk about some things that can be useful to remember and that can help if you find yourself getting stuck with things you will or won’t do as a character.

First, remember that alignment and personality trait, bonds, flaws, and ideals are all just guideposts. These are the points where your character is going to make a decision around, but they aren’t the only thing that your character makes a decision with. Consider the situation, consider your characters ability to read said situation, consider your characters desire for survival. If you’re going to go fight the king because he looked down on you, remember, you aren’t going to survive. The king has their own guards, and they tend not to be a slouch.

But more on point with this, just because you are lawful good doesn’t mean that you don’t do actions that are not lawful or good. It means that is your touch point for most of your actions. It also means that you character gets to justify why they would do something that might not be their normal alignment when they do it. This often comes up from the situation you are in. If we go back to the lawful good paladin example above, the character threatens to torture the bandit, why might a paladin let that slide?

Maybe they are caught up in the emotion of the situation. Lawful good doesn’t mean you are an emotionless being, again, it’s just a touch point. Or  maybe they firmly believe in the good in the rogue and that the rogue won’t actually torture the guy, it’s just a threat, and you can have conversation after the fact. Two perfectly reasonable options, or maybe, if you as the player see things going that way, the paladin has now stepped outside to check on the horses and make sure no one followed them so you just happen to miss that line. There are plenty of good ways to keep your character still aligned, but not get into a point where you are going to fight another character.

Second, use this as an opportunity to tell your characters struggle and growth. Gaulmack the Destroyer doesn’t take orders from anyone, so how are they going to do when they are paid for a job with very specific orders and instructions? Do not kill anyone on this mission, it is supposed to be stealth. Gaulmack doesn’t do stealth all that well, Gaulmack is better at killing everything until you reach the objective. Gaulmack also speaks in third person a lot. So the first time you come across a guard, what does Gaulmack do?

The natural inclination of the character would be to jump in and kill the guard. And if you’re a player who really loves to combat, that might be your natural inclination too. But everyone else is having fun on this stealth mission, so Gaulmack is going to ruin that for everyone else? Or does Gaulmack go off into the corner and start muttering to himself under his breath, “Gaulmack will not kill guard this time, Gaulmack will not kill guard this time.” Now you’ve created a cool little element for Gaulmack and a probably funny moment later when you are going to have to fight or that is one of the stronger options. “Gaulmack not sneak this time, Gaulmack destroy.”

That doesn’t really change Gaulmack’s character in anyway, but it does keep the mission going and it doesn’t jump things off the deep end and take people out of the fun that they are having. It could change it and they could grow from it. To go back to the alignment and personality traits, etc being guideposts not pillars that lock you in place, maybe Gaulmack’s personality trait is “Destroyer”, you could give Gaulmack a temporary personality trait of “Sneaky”. So next time there is a combat, Gaulmack’s plan could be to sneak around, and even just generally around town, now Gaulmack sneaks everywhere. Eventually, Gaulmack then shakes off that temporary trait and becomes the Destroyer again.

Finally, games like Dungeons and Dragons and other RPG’s are improv games. With the exception of games like D&D 4th Edition or RPG’s where it just focuses on combat with miniatures and combat simulation, these games you need to be flexible in. Sometimes it isn’t because you are playing off a character sheet that causes the issue, sometimes it can be because you expected on outcome as a player and that outcome didn’t happen. Now your character is in a situation that neither you or they expected and how do you react?

In this case, it’s totally cool to take five. That’s what I would recommend, and as a DM, I try and keep on eye on that so that I can suggest it even if the player doesn’t. Just take a few minutes to think it through and to wrap your head around it. Then come back to the table with the next plan for your character. These moments are for you to understand what is going on, not to change what’s already happened in the story. It’s also  your chance to use the two tricks above to help build and flesh out your character in a new way.

It also helps to remember two things. One, that everyone else is improvising at the table, so it isn’t being personally done against your character. It was likely either the result of a die roll or because it was a cool or surprising story moment for the DM/GM that might have been done on the fly. Two, that the game is not personally against you. The game doesn’t know how your weeks gone and while the dice might hate you, that doesn’t mean that you have to let that ruin your fun or bring down other peoples fun.

Hopefully those are some solid tips and ideas to think about with your character and what they won’t or will do. This is a game that we all play for fun, and that’s what I as a DM/GM shoot for as well. Do you have any other suggestions or things that can help in situations where a player is saying “My Guy”?

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