A group for Dungeons & Dragons uses a kind of warm-up program in their streamed sessions to better immerse themselves in role-playing at the start. This method not only reveals more about their characters, but it can also make you better role-players.
The streaming group “Bards of New York” is, similar to Critical Role, a group of actors and artists who stream their D&D campaigns live for their fans. Due to their artistic background, the group places great importance on collaborative role-playing, the narratives, and the found families of their characters that they embody in the campaigns.
That’s why they have introduced a method at the beginning of their sessions that helps them to better slip into their roles. A kind of “role-playing warm-up program”, as they call it. Here, a player from the group poses a question that one should answer regarding their own character.
This not only helps to dive into the mentioned character at the beginning of a session. It also gives the heroine or hero more depth, little traits that would otherwise not come to light, and allows fellow players a glimpse into the inner emotional world.
In this clip on YouTube, you can see what a typical role-playing warm-up program looks like:
The question “What is the item or object with the most sentimental value that your character possesses or possessed” is just one of many different examples that can instantly put players into the mindset of their character. A method that can not only stimulate the Bards of New York to think but also all D&D groups, including yours. And the group already offers a lot of material for this.
Character development can happen with heavy but also light questions
In the various sessions of the Bards of New York, many questions have already been used that can be utilized in your own sessions with friends to deepen your characters and get into role-playing. And even if you do not place much value on collaborative role-playing, they can help you give your character more personality.
Here are a few examples that you can directly adopt and that show how serious or silly they can be:
- What does your character smell like?
- What did your character want to be when they were little?
- Tell a joke from your character’s perspective.
- Which of the seven deadly sins does your character embody the most?
- How does your character express love and how do they feel it?
- Is your character jealous of another person in the group, and what does this jealousy refer to?
- What is your character’s morning routine?
- What trait or weakness does your character fear the most that it gets attributed to them?
- If your character were to get a tattoo, what would they get and where would they get it?
- Name something that your character admires about each of the other characters at the table.
On the official Fandom page of the Bards of New York, there are many more questions that would exceed the length of the article. However, you can find more examples here.
The Appeal of Role-Playing
Besides the “mechanical” aspects of Dungeons & Dragons, such as the choice of race and class, leveling up and combat, many players desire to better establish role-playing, but it is not always easy to do.
Especially for newcomers, a certain shyness might hinder the liberating feeling that arises from a strong back-and-forth between characters.
Even MeinMMO editor knows this feeling well:
Role-playing in Dungeons & Dragons is what ultimately led me to D&D. I stumbled upon Critical Role, the great character dynamics, and emotional moments, and thought: I want to do that too!
The realization is just: I am neither a trained voice actress nor an actor, and neither is the rest of my group. At the start, we were almost all newcomers, and what we imagined strong role-playing to be simply did not reflect our reality.
However, over time, we recognized how much fun one can have when they dare to truly step into their character. Often, it takes the initiative of a player to convey to the rest of the table: Okay, I can jump in here and join the conversation!
I personally have the privilege of playing with friends I trust, which has greatly helped me during my first clumsy attempts at role-playing. However, such things can also develop over time.
Even though we have already accomplished great battles, it is mainly the shared moments between characters that stick in my memory. I have also written more about this in my article about my clichéd warlock.
With the warm-up program of the Bards of New York, even tired role-playing fans can wake up and slip into their roles. Do you have your own method that helps you improve your role-playing? Feel free to let us know in the comments!
If you need a few tips regarding other aspects to start in Dungeons & Dragons, we have prepared some here on MeinMMO. MeinMMO editor Caro has been playing for 2 years now and looks back at the things she has purchased for role-playing: 7 things I bought to start in D&D, and which I actually use after 2 years
