Show, Don’t Tell, Your Tabletop Roleplaying Game Character’s Fear

Salutations, nerds! I’ve got ideas about roleplaying to share once again and this time I’m touching base on fear rather than anger. These two in particular popped out at me because they’re the ones I’ve noticed people hesitate most to get in there and play out. Of course it’s easy to say “I’m afraid” but roleplaying fear without being a ham about it is a whole other matter. How subtly you can get away with roleplaying fear depends on the length of your campaign and a party’s awareness of one another. Without farther ado let’s get into some basic tips and tricks for roleplaying fear.

Roleplaying basics

The free Basic Rules for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons (our primary focus here at Nerdarchy) defines roleplaying in chapter 8: Adventuring.

“Roleplaying is, literally, the act of playing out a role. In this case, it’s you as a player determining how your character thinks, acts, and talks. Roleplaying is a part of every aspect of the game, and it comes to the fore during social interactions. Your character’s quirks, mannerisms, and personality influence how interactions resolve. There are two styles you can use when roleplaying your character: the descriptive approach and the active approach. Most players use a combination of the two styles. Use whichever mix of the two works best for you.”

The descriptive approach to roleplaying entails describing your character’s words and actions to the other players and tell everyone what your character does and how they do so. By contrast active roleplaying means speaking with your character’s voice the way an actor takes on a role. Active roleplaying is more immersive than descriptive roleplaying though it’s still important to describe things you can’t reasonably act out.

A note on masking

Some characters become afraid and don’t want others to know they feel scared. In these cases the fear can present more like anger or sarcasm. It is absolutely possible to do this and make what you’re doing very clear to the other players. In a case like this you can make up other reasons as to why your claustrophobic character doesn’t want to crawl into the tight cramped space. Your tone and body language best conveys the words you are using don’t match your meaning.

“I don’t want to mess up my hair.”

Hesitation

Someone who is afraid to do something will be less inclined to jump into the activity. Suggesting someone else go first can be a good indicator of nerves. If your character is afraid of water they might look at someone else first.

“What are you waiting for? Go on ahead. I’ll be right behind you.”

Physical signs

Close your posture. Bite your nails. Find a repetitive self-soothing action. Take deeper breaths. If you have a group that doesn’t tend to notice more subtle signs then describing your character’s body language can go a long way.

A character drawing a blade during a situation that almost certainly won’t turn into a combat, like a thunderstorm, makes it very clear they only have their dagger in hand to make themselves feel better. Think about the kinds of things you tend to do when you get nervous. Are you the kind of person who tugs at your hair or closes your eyes?

When I was younger and afraid of the dark my grandmother told me monsters were frightened of music and so I would sing to myself to scare them away. Now, as an adult, I still do it sometimes when I’m afraid. Something like this can be particularly useful in a longer campaign when your fellow players have a chance to notice the pattern.

People love noticing patterns. Once you’ve established something about your character the other players in your group generally start paying attention. Whenever the thing comes up they’ll be excited to know exactly how it’s going to effect you and wonder how it will complicate things presently. They particularly like it when it’s something they’ve noticed themselves.

Changes in speech patterns

Just like with anger the way a character speaks and the words they use make a point. Also similar to anger a character who never swears starting to do so or one who swears every other word suddenly stopping can be a big red flag to the other players that something is wrong.

A lot of people will see this and immediately think of a stutter affectation and that’s viable. Many people I know speak more quickly when they’re afraid as well, which is something I feel like a lot of adventurers would do — quickly and quietly like you’re trying not to wake a sleeping dragon. Some people also tend to lose words. Ask for the holdy stringy thing instead of the pouch. Let the words all fall on top of one another.

Seeking comfort

One final thing not everyone does but some do is seek comfort. Vee does an amazing job of portraying this in Untraditionally Arcane with her character Speranza, who will clutch other character’s clothing whenever something starts to make her nervous. This is particularly good because she’s a halfling and it’s made every other character in the game start to feel protective of her. It’s a bond we wouldn’t have shared otherwise and developed into a point tying us all together. If your character is starting to become afraid and they are the kind of person to seek physical comfort, touching can be a good sign of this.

Fear is a lot like anger in the sense you want to pay attention to how often you use it in your roleplaying. If you want your character to start off a fraidy cat, go ham. If you want to have a few points to set them off, choose something they’re afraid of and run with it whenever it comes up. Regardless, go have fun showing your emotions. Tell me all about it in the comments, connecting with us on Facebook or tweeting us @Nerdarchy. Feel free to comment or tweet me @Pyrosynthesis too and of course, stay nerdy!

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