On Party Cohesion

From PagodaWiki

This was originally supposed to be an article about developing character backgrounds, but its since come to be far more about making decisions during the course of the game, particularly as regards roleplay. I'm borrowing a lot of ideas directly from Rich Burlew's article on "Making Tough Decisions."

Stop Being So Damn Careful!

Its a common problem, and its tied to this idea that roleplaying and combat are two completely separate entities. A lot of players ignore the entirety of their character's behavioral intricacies whenever they're in an active combat situation, thinking that those are only relevant in diplomatic conversations between the fights. So you get stupidity like Halfling Rogues with a Wisdom of 4 moving around with all the tactical prescience of a long time wargamer, never mind how badly they bumbled the tactical meeting with the captain of the guard three scenes back. No. Bad. Your character's personality does not turn off just because the dice come out.

Burlew says that a good way to begin considering combat roleplaying is to figure out what you character considers and "acceptable loss." Do they mind being wounded? Do they continue pressing on no matter how badly hurt they are? Is safety a concern, or is defeating the enemy worth any cost? How frequently do the burn through limited resources? Does a caster blast away until his spells are gone, or does he jealously guard them, for reasons relating to personal power or perhaps to hide his true capabilities? What about potions, scrolls, wands, and other non-renewable combat resources?

What all of these issues boil down to is, of course, caution. Caution is good, to a certain extent, it shows that players are invested in their characters and don't want them to die needlessly. But sometimes player's let caution get the better of them and end up, delaying the game in order to proceed in a so overly-calculated manner that it doesn't make a lick of sense for their characters personality. Fighting this is related quite simply to what makes a role-playing game fun, which is, of course, the role-playing. Succeeding is fun, and certainly you should be succeeding much of the time (which is why I'm a fan of character optimization - it allows you to worry less about "playing the game," because your character - statistically speaking - is generally more likely to survive, and is more inherently competent, thereby allowing the player to divorce their own personality from the character, but I digress), but its not the point of the game. Be willing to let your character go down the "wrong path" once in awhile, if it means staying in character.

Character Reactions

Intraparty fighting. It happens a lot, especially if someone is playing a Paladin or a Druid or a Cleric or something else with a particularly dogmatic viewpoint. Frequently the argument runs out of character (especially if its holding the game up), and the excuse from the "offending" party is quite simply: "Well, thats how my character would act!"

So yeah, okay. The problem here is that while you may be in character, you're not contributing a damn thing to the game. Its just a logjam where neither side wants to back down. The solution here is obvious - Decide to react differently.

Whats that? React DIFFERENTLY? Yes. I cannot tell you the number of times I've had someone say "But the character isn't under my CONTROL!" This is basically the opposite problem to the above section, where overzealous roleplay actually makes the game worse. The illusion here is that TOTAL IMMERSION roleplaying is the same as GOOD roleplaying. Your character is not a separate entity that you cannot control. Every decision he makes is a decision you make first, so don't make the decision to make the game unfun for anyone else. It is possible and preferable to craft a character's personality such that they are consistent, yet also capable of being accommodating. The key here is to remember that even those with the most dogmatic beliefs rarely approach all those that transgress those beliefs with ultimatums.

When confronted with a situation like this, ask yourself: "Is this the ONLY way my character can react?" Chances are the answer is no. Try to refine your character so that he or she deals with conflicts of ethos without resorting to ultimatums and threats. Think in terms of compromise, or at the very least an agreement to disagree.

Another useful application of this concept is when it comes to GM adventure hooks. Try to never just say, "My character isn't interested in that adventure." A lot of people mistake this for good roleplaying, because you are asserting your character's personality. Wrong. Good roleplaying should never bring the game to a screeching halt. One of your jobs as a player is to come up with a reason why your character would be interested in a plot. After all, your personality is entirely in your hands, not the DM's. Come up with a reason why the adventure (or the reward) might appeal to you, no matter how esoteric or roundabout the reasoning.

If the paladin is to blame for the last problem, this one belongs to the druid. Druids have such a specific set of principles that players often mistake them for being a free pass to demand that each adventure revolve around their goals. Raiding a dungeon for gold doesn't appeal to the druid mindset, so what are you to do if you play one and are presented with that goal? You improvise. Maybe the gold will enable you to purchase magic items that will let you protect the wilderness. Maybe the ruins contain unnatural monsters that need to be killed regardless of the treasure. Maybe, just maybe, the other PCs are your friends and you are willing to help them just because. Too often that last part is forgotten; I don't think anyone reading this has never spent the night doing something they'd rather not because a friend asked.

Anyway, take all of these tips with a grain of salt, because there is an extent to which these mostly relate to my personal opinions on what makes a roleplaying game good. But I feel like reading this will enhance everyone's ability to play any RPG, DnD in particular. Having fun, of course, is still Rule 0.