During a social interaction, the adventurers usually have a goal. They want to extract information, secure aid, win someone’s trust, escape punishment, avoid combat, negotiate a treaty, or achieve some other objective. Successfully completing the encounter means achieving that goal.
Some DMs run social interaction as a free-form roleplaying opportunity, where dice rarely come into play. Other DMs resolve interactions by having characters make Charisma checks. Most games fall somewhere in between, balancing roleplaying with the occasional ability check.
You don’t need to be a practiced thespian or comedian to create drama or humor through roleplaying. The key is to pay attention to the story elements and characterizations that make your players laugh or feel emotionally engaged and to incorporate those things into your roleplaying.
When thinking about how to roleplay an NPC or a monster, consider one or two adjectives that best describe the creature. Knowing the creature’s alignment can also help with your portrayal. The classic advice for writers holds true: show, don’t tell. For example, rather than describe an NPC as jocular and honest, have the NPC make frequent puns and freely share personal anecdotes.
You can further enhance your portrayal of a creature in the following ways.
Use Facial Expressions. Your facial expressions help convey a creature’s emotions. Smile, scowl, snarl, yawn, or pout, as appropriate.
Use Motions and Posture. Movement and posture can help define an NPC’s personality. You might reflect an archmage’s displeasure by rolling your eyes and massaging your temples with your fingers. Hanging your head and looking up at the players conveys a sense of submissiveness or fear. Holding your head and chin high conveys confidence.
Use Voices. Changing the volume of your voice and borrowing speech patterns from real life, movies, or television can make NPCs distinctive.
Although some players enjoy roleplaying more than others, social interactions help immerse all players in the game. Consider the following approaches to make an interaction-heavy game session appeal to players of any tastes.
Appeal to Player Preferences. Players who like acting (see “Know Your Players” in this chapter) thrive in social interactions, so let those players take the spotlight and inspire the other players by their example. However, be sure to tailor aspects of social interactions to fit the other players’ tastes too.
Involve Specific Characters. If you have players who don’t readily get involved in social interactions, you can create situations tailored for their characters. Perhaps the NPC in question is a family member or a contact of a particular adventurer and focuses attention on that character. Some NPCs might pay particular attention to characters with whom they feel kinship.
If a couple of players are doing most of the talking in a social interaction, take a moment now and then to involve someone else. You might have an NPC address another character directly: “And what about your hulking friend? What will you pledge in exchange for my favor?” If a player is less comfortable with roleplaying, you can get them involved by asking them to describe their character’s actions during the conversation.
Use Other Ability Scores. Consider the following additional possibilities to give characters whose Charisma is not their strong suit a chance to shine:
Strength. An NPC won’t talk to the characters until one of them agrees to an arm-wrestling match. Or a strong character needs to bodily prevent the NPC from running away.
Dexterity. An NPC is Hostile toward intruders, so the characters must talk from hiding. Or the social interaction provides a distraction that allows a character to get close enough to the NPC to steal something from the NPC’s pockets.
Intelligence. An NPC’s speech is so full of obscure references to a particular area of knowledge that the characters can’t use the information they receive until they interpret those obscure facts. Or the NPC refuses to give a direct answer, speaking only in vague hints that the characters must piece together to get the information they seek.
Wisdom. An NPC is hiding something important, and the characters must read the NPC’s nonverbal cues to understand what’s true and what’s deception. Or key information is concealed in details around the room where the interaction takes place, which a perceptive character might notice.
Each creature controlled by the DM has one of the following attitudes toward the adventurers: Friendly, Indifferent, or Hostile. The “Monster Behavior” section in chapter 4 offers guidance to help you determine a creature’s initial attitude.
Characters can shift a creature’s attitude by their words or actions. For example, buying drinks for an Indifferent group of miners might shift their attitude to Friendly. When a shift occurs, describe it to your players. For example, the miners might display their newfound friendliness by imparting some useful information, offering to repay the kind gesture at a future date, or challenging the characters to a friendly drinking contest.
You decide the extent to which ability checks shape the outcome of a social interaction. A simple social interaction might involve a brief conversation and a single Charisma check, while a more complex encounter might involve multiple ability checks helping to steer the course of the conversation.
When a character uses the Help action to help another character influence an NPC or a monster, encourage the player of the helpful character to contribute to the conversation or, at the very least, describe what their character is doing or saying to contribute to the other character’s success.