ceryl

"We're all out of toner!"

  • he/him

The prettiest sergal on the block, not the smartest.



Jackie-Tries-Internet
@Jackie-Tries-Internet
  • Lockpicking: “Okay, solve this puzzle cube”
  • Athletics: “Okay, lift this dumbbell”
  • Attack: “Knife fight me irl, you coward!”

SomeEgrets
@SomeEgrets

see i couldn't do this, if i were playing a character with high social skills, it's because i want the power fantasy ot being able to talk to people normally and convince them of things

if you ask me to do this IRL, i will probably end up four parentheticals deep explaining a tangentially related thing and talking about standard deviations or something


blaurascon
@blaurascon
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ceryl
@ceryl

I mean, obviously I can't read the DM's mind, so maybe they are approaching it differently, but in my experience when the DM is asking "what do you say?" they're not looking to map your words 1:1 with what your character might. They want to get a sense of what sort of tone you're aiming for. What information you're emphasizing or omitting. If you might let some Important Tidbit slip accidentally that they can use as a hook. Keeping that in mind will probably help loosen your tongue.

One thing that has helped me immeasurably is knowing what my character sounds like. Their voice and cadence. Having that in your head (even if it's just a vague sense of it) is a massive help, and literally all my favourite characters to play, in D&D and OCs, have very clear voices. And it's not like I'm being original! Harlan, my neurotic lemur? Literally just Mordin Solus.

The last thing I'll touch on is that it's important to not assume "charisma = words". Charisma is also about presence and influence. It's getting people to do what you want. A massive warrior who speaks only in curt nods, but still manages to get people to do as they say because they're just so obviously powerful, is just as charismatic as a bard with a silver tongue. You can do an Oscar-winning job acting out a character, finding every exact word they'd say, but they might be a little turd that everyone hates and/or ignores.

So TL;DR, build up an archetype of your own character in your head, and worry more about closely hewing to that than what words you're saying (unless your DM's an ass), and you'll have a much better time with charismatic characters.


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in reply to @Jackie-Tries-Internet's post:

I ask them "can you tell me exactly how you critically fail/critically succeed?" And my players paint a beautiful picture telling me just how pathetic and awkward/cool and swave their play pretend guy is.

Not even the people on actual plays roleplay things out as much as people on actual plays. A show is a very different setting than the basement with snacks, side conversations, and that one combat monkey that is a frozen sentinel until we roll initiative that new players will actually experience