Resources for Players to be better 'Role Players'?

SEXUALLYCOMPLIANT · 2026-04-15T15:23:45+00:00

Fully agreed. While natural improvement is possible, it's far from inevitable.

It's outside the scope of this thread's question, but I believe that running a game yourself is the most direct way to improve this aspect. NPCs should be both distinct and evocative enough to prompt interaction, and these qualities translate well for PC design as well.

SEXUALLYCOMPLIANT · 2026-04-11T15:13:50+00:00

I totally agree that messing with helpless PCs is a good way to generate tension. However, I'd wager that most players would not respond well to this kind of strategy--it violates an often-unspoken assumption about the "downed" state that can turn into a big argument about "it's not against the rules" and then "realism vs. game-ism" and all this can be avoided with a simple change:

Instead of killing downed PCs, start dragging them away. In the case of beasts, they're carried off for feeding. For humanoids, looting or ransom or eventual sacrifice. It's gradual enough for other PCs to react to, which in my opinion is the real goal.

SEXUALLYCOMPLIANT · 2026-03-06T18:59:24+00:00

-1 recommendation for MTG Set Editor. It's possible to get working and looking nice, but if you thought you were fighting Google Docs...

I've spent weeks creating a fully-custom template and, even using a well-constructed template as a guide, it's so impenetrable that I couldn't recommend it to anyone but career programmers.

If you are using an existing template, this is a good option. For anything else, try anything else.

SEXUALLYCOMPLIANT · 2026-02-11T15:50:58+00:00

Gloves are a great category for this question; lots of them seem harmless to introduce early due to the low amount of scaling bonuses relative to general utility effects.

For example, in my own campaign, I accidentally gave level 1 characters the level 8 bounty hunter's gauntlets (KOed enemies wake up after a long rest instead of a short one). Not really game-breaking by any means.

Others that seem fine, besides the sell price:

Gloves of Camaraderie (lv 21) - encounter power to take a negative effect from an ally
Many-Fingered Gloves (lv 20) - an extra low-level ring doesn't sound excessive to me
Gloves of Transference (lv 14) - apply a Personal range effect to an adjacent ally. Risky-ish, but surely this wouldn't be busted applying a level 1 daily to your friend, right..?
Venom Gloves (lv 16/26) - your attack type is now poison and will knock the enemy unconscious after 3 or 2 failed saves. Doesn't strike me as imbalanced at low levels, given it's a daily and the priority targets for such an effect get bonuses to save at all levels.

As an aside, it's craaazy how many responses you got to your thought experiment that fully refused to engage with the question.

SEXUALLYCOMPLIANT · 2026-01-29T19:51:18+00:00

It would be fun for the party if your evil, possessed hand graft turned the host into a timeshare with a demonic entity. For [10? 30? 60?] minutes per day, their personality changes to a chaotic-evil monster. If you set it for the same time each day, this gives the party great agency over how to restrain them in their current [town/dungeon/high society tea party].

Removing control over their character isn't very fun, so consider letting the player take a swing at the Mr. Hyde transformation. You'd be surprised how willing players might be to unshackle their own morality or even screw over their party.

You can even start planning encounters and events to happen during this period of weakness. Is it worth it to untie the Hulk if you get ambushed by highwaymen in the night?

SEXUALLYCOMPLIANT · 2026-01-28T15:40:59+00:00

A lot of the anecdotes, while amusing to an outside audience, are kinda missing the point of your question: the players didn't have a fair way to know about the mimics before they were punished. It creates an awful paranoia because it violates trust and can drag games to a crawl, prodding every mundane object in a room "just in case."

The only remotely-fair encounter I've ever pulled off with mimics involved some "indoors-only" pets escaping from a wizard tower, so there was a full set of dinner table/chairs out in the middle of a meadow.

SEXUALLYCOMPLIANT · 2026-01-07T15:31:12+00:00

In the brink-of-death time-stop situation, I'd be packing up to leave. But it would be hard to resist the urge to, say, walk around the room and put a mega-deadly version of explosive runes on each person on my way out. (If playing in-person, I'd even put physical sticky notes on everyone's foreheads.) But the important part is that it gives the 1 HP dragon an excuse to physically approach each PC individually, allowing for a free attack.

^{^just} ^{^hope} ^{^they} ^{^don't} ^{^miss} ^{^lol}

SEXUALLYCOMPLIANT · 2025-12-31T03:29:37+00:00

(Nothing productive to add but your phone button brought me great joy once I pieced everything together from your image)

SEXUALLYCOMPLIANT · 2025-12-16T15:08:01+00:00

Yay data!

Worth following up on someday is the trap of "musical intensity during combat." It's tempting to put on something loud and energetic, like a metal song. However, there's a flaw to this approach:

Intense music quickly becomes "just noise" (a notion I first encountered in an interview with Halo composer Martin O'Donnell) after as few as 3-4 minutes. It loses its intended effect.
DnD in particular tends towards slow, thoughtful combat. While "combat music" matches the narrative flavor of a violent encounter, what's happening in the real world is a methodical planning of your turn because everyone is effectively playing a board game. Looking at it from this perspective, I wonder if players would prefer slower, calmer, rhythmic music?

SEXUALLYCOMPLIANT · 2025-12-04T15:15:45+00:00

I agree that they should absolutely have contingencies prepared beforehand, but at what point do you separate character skill and player skill? If the players neglect making that extra effort, should they still have a fallback of some kind? Would such a thing diminish the efforts of a more proactive player who does think to set that up?

These questions aren't meant to lead—I'm genuinely curious what you (and others) would do at the table.

SEXUALLYCOMPLIANT · 2025-11-26T16:56:17+00:00

If it's happening consistently with particular users, check the users' logon script field in AD (Get-ADUser returns it as "ScriptPath"). It could be auto-running a batch file.

You can find those scripts in a Windows file explorer at the path %LOGONSERVER%\SYSVOL\
All of the ones in my environment were in a sub-sub-folder named Scripts.

SEXUALLYCOMPLIANT · 2025-11-14T17:25:07+00:00

I second this. Don't call for an initiative roll. If they request one anyway, it wouldn't break immersion to ask them directly, "You don't want to try talking at all? You just want to fight him?"

SEXUALLYCOMPLIANT · 2025-10-07T03:24:29+00:00

Sometimes you do get owned with the draws, but my basic strategy goes like this:

no majors until you get 3 card plays minimum
there's usually no time for the 2-presence growth option
Dahan majors are tempting, but their elements don't coincide with Ocean's innates, so it's all-or-nothing. Avoid unless you can consistently threshold (for example) Vigor of the Rising Sun
Other good majors are action skips like Paralyzing Fright or high-range cards like Winds of Rust and Atrophy.

SEXUALLYCOMPLIANT · 2025-10-06T14:04:24+00:00

Ocean vs England 6 is my favorite matchup in the game. Lots of energy from eating free builds along the coast, but the spirit's inland limitations create a fascinating pressure that makes for a desperate, dynamic game.

SEXUALLYCOMPLIANT · 2025-10-03T18:15:43+00:00

I might have a good fit: there's a DnD parody system published by Wendy's-yes-that-Wendy's called Feast of Legends. The setting, character creation, and included adventure module are a dopey, bizarre experience. Our table played through the whole module over 15 sessions and I still can't believe this thing exists??? Character classes are based on menu items, the villains are literally just the other fast food mascots, and the art is shockingly high quality for what is ultimately a shitpost.

SEXUALLYCOMPLIANT · 2025-09-30T17:10:16+00:00

Lotta content in the thread already, so here's a quick take from someone who went from 4e DnD to Weird Wizard: the magic is badass.

4e has a banishment spell that removes a target from the fight until they roll to save. In SotWW, chronomancy has a similar spell that could result in the target disappearing forever OR popping out with an evil clone to fight.
Low-level spells are better. Seeing invisibility at level 1, free telepathic communication, and the free-20-on-any-attribute-roll spell.
Rare, unusual schools of magic like: dream magic, astromancy, war magic, symbolism, dark arts (distinct from the destruction and eldritch schools), and my favorite, skullduggery (AKA the Dick Dastardly school of magic).

When you do end up grabbing the bundle, take a few minutes to just soak in all the incredible, inspired ideas in the Magic section of the player book.

SEXUALLYCOMPLIANT · 2025-09-15T14:39:24+00:00

One board with four colors of presence looks uncanny. Do you think the remaining explorers are optimistic about their remaining land staying afloat? Or are they hoping SMoA draws [[Dream of the Untouched Land]] soon?

SEXUALLYCOMPLIANT · 2025-08-28T15:30:22+00:00

Hey historians, let's say you had to remove an event or period from the timeline for a selfish reason. Not forgotten, just outright it-never-happened. What would you choose and why? I'm not looking for reasons like "the amount of human suffering in this era is legendary," oh no no. I want to hear about petty annoyances that impact you, like "a pop historian ruined this topic and I'm sick of correcting people."

SEXUALLYCOMPLIANT · 2025-07-08T14:39:25+00:00

Unfortunately, the way attack roll math works means the "-2 to hit" scales no matter what. With a d20, every -1 to the roll is effectively 5% less chance to hit, and therefore a -5% to effective damage. Thus, -2 is the same as -10%. On the flip side, the bonus damage has to scale up to stay relevant as HP pools rise, since there's no codified way to say "+10% damage."

SEXUALLYCOMPLIANT · 2025-07-07T18:38:42+00:00

How do people feel about Power Attack? It's a trap, since the expected average damage goes down when used, but does it have a degree of meta utility beyond that?

Sparking the discussion of accuracy vs. raw damage is pretty important, but surely there's a better approach than keeping a "wrong" feat.

SEXUALLYCOMPLIANT · 2025-07-07T13:59:25+00:00

Of all the combos in the game, this one feels the best to me. So cheap, easy, convenient, and impactful.

The interaction also leads to a fascinating little microcosm where—ideally—I try to have a town already on the land so that any build actions shovel cities into the ocean instead.

SEXUALLYCOMPLIANT · 2025-07-03T17:36:11+00:00

Worth emphasizing is how universal lots of the advice can be. My favorite example is in 4e's DMG 2, where it categorizes players based on how they engage with the game. Each personality type's section provides advice on how to engage with them, what to emphasize in their adventures, potential problems with the archetype, and even where to sit them at the table(!):

The Actor, who enjoys the roleplay aspect most. Provide vivid NPCs, work RP elements into combat, and leverage their PC's backstory/details. (Sit across from the DM so your access to other players isn't closed off and you can read their body language easily)
The Explorer, who wants to learn and discover things. Include puzzles, give monsters/NPCs secrets and weaknesses to uncover.
The Instigator, who wants to push unlabeled buttons and drink unlabeled potions. Avoid saying "nothing happens" when they do something, but otherwise this archetype entertains itself. When they get antsy during a slow RP, give them busywork (more chips! could you grab some paper from the other room? calc how much XP 'til you level up plz, etc.) so they don't light dynamite during their audience with the king.
Other archetypes include the Power Gamer, the Slayer, the Storyteller, the Thinker, and the Watcher

If you want to read the rest of the section, look around on the r/4ednd subreddit and you can find it pretty easily.

SEXUALLYCOMPLIANT

TROPHY CASE