I'm not good at conversation in real life, because I put a lot of thought into every word I say, which causes me to miss my chance and end up saying nothing. In fact it took me over 10 minutes to type this post.
This gets harder when I have the additional step of "what exact words would this character say?", and I just can't get into the mind of a character who isn't myself.
I'm not so bad at roleplaying ACTIONS, but for WORDS it takes a lot of effort to make sure I'm being consistent with my character's personality traits that are different from my own personality traits. Like I'm neurologically incapable of imagining what exact words would come out of a different person's mouth. I don't understand how personality traits relate to speech. I keep trying and I always take too long to think about it.
I'm going to keep asking until I get good advice or a suitable new hobby.
I'm running out of time to understand how to roleplay. There's going to be a campaign starting in a week or two that I'm not sure I should join.
My last RP group (online, text only) broke up over it, but I don't want to quit roleplaying because I enjoy it so much. How do I get better?
>practice
Technically that's what I'm doing, unless you mean a dedicated practice exercise outside of game sessions.
If I "practice" by continuing to actually play tabletopn RPG campaigns and I fail, then that has consequences for other people, so I consider it more than just practice.
I ALREADY KNOW the answer is "practice", but what can I do IN ADDITION TO "practice" in the meantime?
>just do it
Just cure cancer! It's that easy!
>an hero
Nice meme.
How do I learn to roleplay, and learn it FAST?
>I'm not so bad at roleplaying ACTIONS, but for WORDS it takes a lot of effort
If you don't figure it out in time for the campaign I've had a lot of fun playing mute characters in the past.
alcohol
Maybe have a libation and stop overthinking it?
If you're piss poor at staying in constant character be reactionary instead. Don't think about how your character would act just get in the "mood" of your character and react to the shit happening. You'll find your groove once you stop roll-killing yourself.
That's how I do it. I can't roleplay well unless I'm tipsy. But you absolutely have to make sure you don't get actually drunk, because then you do stupid shit and actually get worse at roleplay.
How polite is your character, and towards who? What kind of social status did his family have? How old is he? What are his major personality flaws? Are you trying to imitate an accent? Do you have any fictional character to roughly serve as a frame of reference?
You don't need to play the character perfectly, as roleplaying is just a hobby and they won't mind if your RP isn't absolutely top notch as long as you're getting a sentiment across.
no
nooooo
NOOOOOO
a) play a soft self-insert, think what kinda conditions in whatever world you're playing in would make your character like this
b) play a mute character
c) (option for fags) use doping, like suggest
d) watch others RP
>"My character says this and that"
That's how my group is doing it and has always done it. Occasionally someone slips into first person if he feels inspired, but 90% of the time there's no need to imagine exact words.
>I ALREADY KNOW the answer is "practice", but what can I do IN ADDITION TO "practice" in the meantime?
See a doctor, find out what letter soup diagnosis applies to you, get treatment for it.
If you do a self insert try to play up the worse the aspects of your personality, people often don't like self inserts because they are idealized
>(option for fags) use doping, like (You) suggest
eh, fair enough.
>"what exact words would this character say?"
Words in a language you do not know, because it doesn't exist, and which you probably could not pronounce if it did, using terms you would not be able to comprehend, because they express a cultural concept you cannot be familiar with.
There's no point in thinking about it, because you have to paraphrase anyway. So describe what the character does, rather than imitate the character's speech.
>"I ask about..."
>"[Name] warns his fellow adventurers that..."
You don't need to learn to roleplay... This is literally just being someone.
Just be yourself
What if two other PCs are bitching at each other for half an hour about in-character drama neither I nor my character care about because it's not advancing the plot or helping anyone, and then those two players expect me to have my character interject at some point with a third opinion because I haven't said anything in that scene yet, but it would be rude to just tell them I don't care?
Tell them you don't care.
Tell them your character doesn't care.
Roleplaying is literally pretending to be someone you are not.
Just take any trope and play it up to a stupid degree.
Dwarfs = like drinking and killing orcs
Barbarians = love fighting and are stupid/ignorant of technology. Think Lenny in mice and men.
Elves = superior, stuck up, proud, aloof.
Dwarf = ' My beards drenched in ale and I'm ready to crack some Orcs '
Barbarian = 'Krom give me strength to smash you ' . 'oooh shiny thing'
Elf = ' Are you planning to participate in this battle mongrels or are you just that slow ? '
For humans just pick a movie character and play that. Nobody is expecting you to be an original genius, just to participate.
Not OP, but what if I have this problem as a very new GM?
The same advice applies.
I'm exactly like you OP.
To try and get past it, I tried to think back on advice my English professor gave me for writing. Never start a sentence with "I think", or any qualifier like that; whatever you say is obviously what you think, and it just sounds weak. Say it like it's a fact; instead of "I think so and so is in the wrong" you could say something as simple as "that's fucked" and it would be more effective. Secondly, always say what you think you want to say. You can go back and clarify (or retract) it later.
But as you guessed, it takes practice, and you can only get practice by interacting with people. Maybe try posting a bunch, but skip the part where you spend 5 minutes editing it. And no removing chunks of it. If it was in your head enough to type it out then leave it there.
You could also try an in-character conversation with a chat-bot without using the backspace key. Or maybe some throwaway name in an internet chat room, if those still exist.
"My character left two minutes into your argument and went to meet our contact."