“During character creation, I encourage a player to think of what motivates their character, and then, as DM, I work things into the narrative that call to that motivation,” Jeremy says. “My goal is for the player to feel as if the story is ready for their character to come to life. During play, I refer to a player by their character’s name. Just hearing yourself referred to as someone like Felix, wizard of the Library of the Silver Staff, or Emilia, knight of the Holy Empire of Valentia, helps you get in the mood to roleplay.”
Something that intimidates a lot of new players is the idea that they’ll be expected to perform, to talk in-character for a whole session that could last hours. But that’s not really the case. Most games focus on roleplaying the interesting parts, the conversations that are the funniest or most dramatic, while handwaving the rest either by using the game’s rules—which may include skill tests for certain kinds of social interaction like haggling or gossip—or simply slipping into narration. 'I ask if anyone saw what happened to the guy who just got robbed,' is a perfectly acceptable way to phrase a question in most games.
“It really depends on the group,” Mike explains. “My D&D campaign has a lot of comedic moments, many of them unintentional. The roleplaying is a little more self-aware. I usually find that the most immersive moments happen between players, when people get into their characters and argue a point or course of action.”