How to Roleplay in Chimera

Chimera has included ways to find and portray ones character easier with the usage of various in game mechanics, such as Bonds and Traits which set up a character’s relationships and personality traits, along with Archetypes which pull from a mixture of Jungian psychology and Red’s Trope Talks in Overly Sarcastic Production—which means it can be boiled down to pop cultural influences.

While this helps a player get a sense of who their character is, it might not help them portray this other person. In this way, roleplay is similar to pretending and creative empathy. Sadly, I cannot teach you how to roleplay, or what means to “roleplay right” in terms of character costumes, accents, or anything else the lovely cast of Critical Role does.

To clarify, not being good at these things off the bat doesn’t make you bad at roleplaying; it makes you a part of the hobby, which means that you will pick this up as you play. Roleplaying is a vulnerable experience. Meaning, please don’t be scared away by doing something you aren’t perfect at yet. It will feel weird for some, liberating for others, (kinda like how Aslan is experienced differently by each of the children in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe) but none of this means you are bad. It means you are out of your comfort zone or at least trying something new.

And if you are making yourself vulnerable, you need to make sure you are safe when participating in this hobby.

Remember, at the end of the day, this is a hobby. If you surround yourself with good, supportive friends, this experience will be accessible and fun. The following guideposts are ways to measure if you are having fun roleplaying and if you are growing as a roleplayer:

You are having fun.

You will know when you are roleplaying well when you are having fun. Experiencing a world through your character’s eyes is interesting. You might catch yourself laughing and smiling, and you aren’t sure whether you are laughing as your character or as yourself. Hint: it’s probably both.

Your friends are having fun with you.

Your friends are who your character is going to play with, on the majority, so, while you should definitely have fun, make sure to include your friends too. Share the spotlight and get invested in their character. Do you want a particular thing to happen between your characters? Make sure to talk to the other players first to make sure they are okay with it. Remember, don’t do anything to another player’s character without their explicit, eager, and persistent consent.

You experience fear, sadness, anger, happiness, or any other emotions when it comes to your character, another player’s character, or an NPC.

This is a foreign feeling, at first. You feel sad because your character has lost something important, your friend’s character lost something important, or an NPC lost something important. This isn’t the end-all-be-all scenario, but hopefully you get the idea; you are experiencing your character’s or another character’s emotions. This means you are invested. But, better yet for your GM, this means you are engaged in the world.

You can separate and distinguish your character from yourself, other players from their characters, and the GM from their NPCs and world.

When we as players begin to feel what our character feels, it can become difficult to separate how we feel and how our character feels. It is not uncommon for our egos to become invested in our character wants because we are rooting for them; we may want what is best for our character, for them to get what they want--however, this can come at the cost of other players having fun with you when we begin to take ourselves too seriously. Remember, this is a group activity centered around the stories we tell together. When making a character, try to align your character to what the GM is comfortable with and work with some if not all your other players to include each other in what you all envision for your characters' futures. This is called "plotting"; Plot with them.
If your version of fun conflicts with another player's or the GM's version of fun, you should both try to come to a compromise or at least an understanding: 1) You may find that you can reach a compromise and still have fun; That's great! 2) You may find you are in the minority sometimes but you were able to reach a mutual compromise that doesn't cost your team of players their fun or you yours; That's super cool of you! 3) Or you may feel you cannot compromise but this will cause your team of players to have much less fun; whether or not you are being reasonable, you may want to consider politely exiting your current group to find others who value the fun you value. Because you are part of a group, communication is key.

You ask questions in-character to NPCs or PCs, not just out-of-character to the GM or PCs.

First, make sure you let the GM and Player in question know you are going to do this beforehand. If they object, that is fine, of course. But the game’s roleplaying becomes more natural if Players are allowed to do this. GMs, I task you with opening up designated “Roleplaying Sprees” to get players comfortable with this. The easiest way to do this is when the players go shopping.

You learn to respond more naturally in character.

You respond in character, and you don’t narrate what your character says. Now, this isn’t about responding quickly, and this isn’t about outshining your fellow players. This is about the player growing more comfortable with their character. Even if you need to pause a moment to think about what you will say, you are able to have an organic conversation while in character.

These are not all the guideposts in the world, but these should begin to help you roleplay, as it is both a mechanic used in social encounters and a way to put yourself in the game.