Matt Colville on Roleplaying

nope · September 04, 2019, 03:13:59 PM

Acting =/= roleplaying, but they taste pretty good together on a bun.

Haffrung · September 04, 2019, 03:19:25 PM

Popular ideas of tabletop roleplaying are being shaped in a big way by actual play streaming. So it's nice to hear an influential guy like Colville present the case that speaking in character isn't necessary for roleplaying, or better than simply describing your character's actions.

sharps54 · September 04, 2019, 03:45:22 PM

Quote from: Haffrung;1102334Popular ideas of tabletop roleplaying are being shaped in a big way by actual play streaming. So it's nice to hear an influential guy like Colville present the case that speaking in character isn't necessary for roleplaying, or better than simply describing your character's actions.

Agreed, many of the actual plays are entertainment not gaming. We never played like that and I hope that isn't what new people to the hobby expect.

S'mon · September 04, 2019, 04:01:37 PM

Quote from: sharps54;1102335Agreed, many of the actual plays are entertainment not gaming. We never played like that and I hope that isn't what new people to the hobby expect.

I have had to discuss voice acting at my table recently - I was semi apologetic for not doing it for most NPCs. But a player pointed out I always give my big evil monsters hilarious gruff voices.

nope · September 04, 2019, 04:05:54 PM

Quote from: S'mon;1102343I have had to discuss voice acting at my table recently - I was semi apologetic for not doing it for most NPCs. But a player pointed out I always give my big evil monsters hilarious gruff voices.

A couple campaigns ago I realized that any NPC I do an actual accent for automatically becomes the group favorite. Not only due to the characterization part, but because my players love forcing me to keep doing accents the entire damn time...

Steven Mitchell · September 04, 2019, 04:28:39 PM

Quote from: Antiquation!;1102346A couple campaigns ago I realized that any NPC I do an actual accent for automatically becomes the group favorite. Not only due to the characterization part, but because my players love forcing me to keep doing accents the entire damn time...

I was doing a raspy, smoker's voice recently for an NPC that I thought wouldn't be very interesting. The players talked to the character so long I finally told them that they'd need to wind it down, if they expected my voice to hold up to do the rest of the session.

nope · September 04, 2019, 04:31:30 PM

Quote from: Steven Mitchell;1102349I was doing a raspy, smoker's voice recently for an NPC that I thought wouldn't be very interesting. The players talked to the character so long I finally told them that they'd need to wind it down, if they expected my voice to hold up to do the rest of the session.

Ha, exactly! I've left multiple sessions with my voice half-gone and a sore throat from attempting stunts like that.

Spinachcat · September 04, 2019, 11:22:15 PM

I'm a bad acting ham so I love giving NPCs all sorts of verbal and non-verbal ticks. But I've had GMs who only used 3rd person descriptions without dramatics and their games were also highly immersive fun because they had great word choice with their descriptions so scenes played out in our heads.

Either option is good roleplaying. Bad roleplaying is when there's no care for immersion and NPCs are just obstacles in the rush for XP.

Alexander Kalinowski · September 05, 2019, 02:44:19 AM

Quote from: EOTB;1102123All my characters are essentially branching variations of myself.

And even if they weren't, they'd highly likely be the type of characters you "get".

Mistwell · September 06, 2019, 03:26:19 PM

Quote from: Anthony Pacheco;1102219Yeah, like his Sandbox vs. the Railroad video, Matt's on the money here. He's talking about a trend that started long, long ago and needs to go away.

I wish I would have seen this video 20 years ago.

I agree. I don't watch his videos often so I am glad Shasarak highlighted this one. This is a great video. Role playing is not doing funny voices. Always speaking in funny voices, even when it's you the player asking the person who is the DM a question, is weird. Adding a third dimension to your character is fun and makes the game more interesting. I am glad he made this video, and I hope a lot of people watch it. Particularly the guys watching Critical Role and similar shows.

I sometimes think Matt would fit in well on this message board by the way. He thinks like a lot of us think. Probably because he's gamed since 1e.

S'mon · September 06, 2019, 04:53:49 PM

Quote from: Mistwell;1102760I sometimes think Matt would fit in well on this message board by the way. He thinks like a lot of us think. Probably because he's gamed since 1e.

He thinks Conanesque swords & sorcery art is sexist and demeaning to womyn! :eek:

Mistwell · September 06, 2019, 05:31:09 PM

Quote from: S'mon;1102775He thinks Conanesque swords & sorcery art is sexist and demeaning to womyn! :eek:

So do some people here, I imagine. Or are those thoughtcrimes?

cranebump · September 06, 2019, 06:02:23 PM

Good advice="What does (character name) do?" Of course, the downside, sometimes, is that a player will do something just plain douchey, then say, "But this is what my character would do!" without having established precedent in any way. On the whole, though, a thoughtful vid, as all of his seem to be, imho. Of course, my tables feature mostly folks who just want to roll some dice, which is fine with me.

S'mon · September 06, 2019, 06:28:50 PM

Quote from: Mistwell;1102788So do some people here, I imagine. Or are those thoughtcrimes?

'Tis the Foulest Blasphemy!!

Omega · September 06, 2019, 06:46:20 PM

Quote from: S'mon;1102775He thinks Conanesque swords & sorcery art is sexist and demeaning to womyn! :eek:

Yeah he's gotten gradually more SJW/Virtue Signalling. Still overall small stuff but it gets annoying to hear this same damn tired line of falsehoods over and fucking over by these woke morons. It detracts from his otherwise often fairly entertaining pieces and why I look up his stuff less and less.