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Player Tips – Ways to get More Immersed in Your RPG – Part 4

Welcome back to Nerdarchy.  Today I will continue my series on getting more immersed in your table top RPG.  Last week I talked about descriptive actions.  You can read that article here.

Today I am going to talk about Flaws and Goals.  Every character that has ever been popular in movies, tv and  books has had some weakness as well as ambition to do something.  The iconic Superhero Superman is an extreme example of these concepts.  His Weakness is a literal weakness.  Kryptonite brings him to his knees, too weak to even move at times. His ambition is plain to help humanity and save people.

Do Flaws and Goals get YOU more Immersed in your RPG?

Now unless you are playing a Super Hero game you need not go to these extremes.  Your weakness could really be that you cannot keep a secret or the lore of money is too much for you to pass up even if it could be the detriment to your friends.  D&D 53 has a section for flaws on its character sheet and is incorporated in the back ground section.  You need not limit your self to only these options when you make your character, it can be anything that works with the theme of the game.

Your flaws though they seem like a detriment to you they are a role playing tool that not only can you call to action on but so can the GM by putting you in a situation that will force your reaction.  The reason that it is not a downside is that it creates a problem that the group has to decide how to resolve.  It can cause strife or issues in the party sire, but it can also bring you together.  Should your character fear fire and you realize that you are going u against a pyromancer you had better get creative or you are going to run screaming for the hills.

Now lets look at the other side.  Goals: If you know anyone who claims to have no goals ask them do they sit and do nothing each day.  Our goals might be small, such as I just want to do what makes me happy.  Or they might literally be huge I want to be financially wealthy or take over the world.  When you have a character in a story the only reason they do things is because they are driven by goals.

An entire party is usually made up of different individuals all questing for different reasons.  The fighter type characters could be seeking someone who can actually best them or train them to be even better.  The arcane could be looking for more or new magic or simply to increase his or her own power.  The religions types might be seeking to defend the weak, help those who need it.  The sneaky ones might be looking for coin or an opportunity to get wealthy.  These are just stereotypes that by now we are already familiar with, but there is also no reason why the thief can’t be out looking to do some good in teh world with his skills while the cleric is out peddling his healing for coin.

As much as our flaws define our character and potentially our background, our goals define our future.  Both are usable by the Game Master.  If a GM does not know what it is that your character is looking for then they will never know what to put into the game to entice your character.

Lets take my Cleric in Nerdarchist Dave’s game.  Dave and I had a conversation a while back when it was clear that other characters were being rewarded and Rellion was not.  We realized that a knowledge cleric was not always easy to appease and the types of magic items that were flowing around, little though they were, are not something that would appeal to him.

So we sat down and examined the character together and realize that he was looking to be seen as one who not only quested for information but wanted to find the lost secrets of our world.  So far the things that have happened have all really been story rewards, not an item that can be tracked on a character sheet.  The last session that I missed my character was involved and wound up getting as a Human the elven trance ability.  So as a human he meditates for 4 hours as opposed to sleeping.  For a person who reads a lot an extra 4 hours added to his day is an amazing reward.  There is no in game benefit.  He will not be gaining levels faster but I was so excited about this because for the character it is amazing.  With all I do I wish I could trance or reverie.

Rellion also picked up the traits of Linguistics and can now speak 11 languages.  As this information spreads around town, to the people who care any way, he is angling to be the foremost member of the town on languages.  Of languages in the book there are only 5 he does not know yet and is already working on number 12.

As for uncovering secrets he knows of a place guarded by kobolds that holds a history that dates back to when the Dragons were here with their dragon born and is getting ready to head to a temple that was part of another ancient race.  Again not a magic item that will help him in combat but he combat capabilities of the rest of the party do just fine without him.  I add to it what I can, a cure spell here and there along with a firebolt or cool spell fitting for what we are up against but for the most part I know and have always known that where combat is concerned I am playing a support character.  I am cool with that.  I have had more than my share of bashers that like to deal damage.

So my goals are set my flaws are there, heck not being useful overly much is a flaw in and of itself.  I am no C3-P0 who just stands there.  I have had on more than one occasion stood over a downed party member when I only had 1 HP left because it was the right thing to do.

So if you want to be more immersed in you game you need to know about your character.  Breathe life into them by knowing what are their flaws and where do they want to go, what are their goals?  If you can fugure that out you too can get excited and more immersed into the game as it unfolds around you.

As always thanks for reading, and Until Next Time, Stay Nerdy!