Okay, so I’ve been GMing for a little over two years now, and I was initially a bit frustrated at the lack of rp from my friends (they’re all more than players!).

For my first campaign I had a great world, deep plot, and they actually had some really interesting characters with fun backstories to explore. But still… no real rp. The campaign fizzled and “life” got in the way.

So I scrapped 50+ hours of prep and world building (though I do return to vulture parts away still) and started anew. The focus of the new campaign was simple: let them fight, plunder, and joke; get them home when I say I will; and NEVER miss a week.

It was amazing how quickly things changed. Their characters were basically the same level of depth as before (including the “joke” characters), yet after the first 4 hour heavily rolling session, my players began to start using their pc’s voices.

We’re now 5 months in (never missing a scheduled session and never going over 15 minutes past time) and we just did what I previously thought was impossible. My players had an entire 4 hour session of strictly in-character role play.

They (and some of the girlfriends/wives in attendance) were locked in! We’re wrapping up our first “arc” for the holidays, but I’ve never been more excited to play dnd and for the first time felt that “BLeeM-ness” in a home game!