zaha: I agree with dwashba that you can’t force those of a casual mindset to roleplay more intensely. The way I encourage players to be emotional is by presenting emotional situations–that matter to the player or the character. I also portray NPC emotions when they’re appropriate. If the DM shows he trusts the players with this sort of roleplaying, the players eventually start to trust each other, too. Moral ambiguity also works well (see below). Also, table awards work well–small bonuses such as the DM’s best friend (+2) work. When someone’s roleplaying entertains the whole group, I have even awarded an action point.

Chuck Smith: Moral ambiguity is great for finding out how players envision their characters. Intraparty disagreement or clash of wills over “grey matters” can make for interesting scenes, as long as no player feels bored or bullied. The players and characters also learn about each other and what it takes to reach consensus in uncertain situations.

E: Hopefully, future articles will give you more of what you need. I intend to talk about character mechanical choices and what they can mean for background building, as well as how players can make sure to be more involved.

Vanir: Aw, shucks.

Andy: That book is on my list.

I <3 this article.

What you've described makes the difference between characters you remember (whether it's love or hate), and throwaway characters. Who cares how strong they are or how cool their gear is if you don't give a crap about them?

You've also finally answered for me why I don't like playing multiplayer FPS games…. there's no risk, and no emotional attachment to anything.
.-= Vanir´s last blog ..Become Emotional =-.

I’d love for you to go more in depth with roleplaying and tips and tricks for making stuff more interesting for the Party

Seriously, though, I would like to read more like this. As a DM I had tried to get the players to make their characters involved in the world and the story by creating hooks for themselves. It never worked, and I had to instead put hooks in for them, which always felt weak and/or forced. I’ve been reading the 4e DMG2 and that book has some great ideas about cooperative world building that I would like to try.

For now, though, I’m on the other side of the DM screen for a while. I’m definitely going to encourage my fellow players to invest their characters more in the story.

I’m blessed with a truly whacked group of RPers as players. At the beginning of the campaign (some 5 years ago!) we had a discussion about what they wanted in the game. One guy said ‘morale ambiguity’ and they all nodded enthusiastically in agreed. This really surprised me, most other games I had run fell into the ‘epic quest’ style, but these guys were asking for me to plop them into situations that could NOT be solved by the swing of a sword.

It has ended up the most successful campaign I’ve ever run

Right now we’re stuck on a rather shallow level concerning stuff like this, and I get the feeling this is partly because they are just too shy/afraid to be embarassed since nobody else does roleplay emotions.

Anyways, I’m going to show my players this article first