5 Tips to Be a Better Player - D&D

Here are 5 easy tips to be a better Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder player.

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[mikegould]

Great advice. I have one more that relates to a few.

Mind the table.

This takes in awareness and teamwork, but also takes in character building from the start.

I know you have that "cool idea" you want to make for the next campaign. Note if there are players or characters at that table that would strongly conflict.

That's not to say you can't play a Half Orc in a party of Elves. I've done that. Minor conflict builds story depth.
Playing a Cleric
Of Gruumsh when you know there are elves at a table is a dick move. Know where the line is.

Contribute when you can beyond the RP. I knew we had a new caster that wasn't familiar with the spells. So I made spell cards for him.
We had a new player at the table who had never played before. So I got him a mini to match his character. He felt part of the group.
We had a player who hadn't played for years. I gave him a set of dice out of my collection.
The DM struggled with how to engage a fellow player. So I shot him a few ideas over text based on my observations and let him run with it while I kept quiet.
My current character is a Paladin with the Noble Background. He allowed me to flush out the history of that house with NPC suggestions and some moments/maps. That took some of the burden off him.
Bring snacks or drinks for the group. I always try to bring my DM a coffee.

Just a few thoughts

[marcosfernandesdesousajuni]

There's an important point that wasn't mentioned, "Do not make a character that might be problematic for/with the rest of group"

[Frantasia]

I found your channel a few hours ago and I am so thankful for it. I am in a group of 6 people, none of us, not even the Dungeon Master, has ever played any kind of roleplay adventure before. I noticed the first few sessions we had that things could go better, especially since we all have so much fun when we get to act or a new part of lore is explored. Your tipps really help me to not only make this easier for our dungeon master, who is doing a great job but has a lot to do with the lot of us and with this video, I think I might be able to make things better for the other players as well. This video already gave me a few ideas to solve the struggle we currently have, since we never met before and one of us just gathered us all together to try the game and play.
I'll certainly recommend this to my group, in hopes we'll not only become friends during the game, but outside of it as well.

[Taking]

Here are some simple tips to share with your players!

[DaudAlzayer]

In 5e it's right there in the PHB- several prompts to think about what made your character chose to become an adventurer. That said- I think the DM also bears some responsibility to instruct the players- make a player who would want to do X instead of telling them to make a character thats up for anything.

[silmarian]

I would love players who actually took notes.

[TtheWriter]

Good Tips!

I always tell my players to be ready to play WHEN THEY SIT DOWN. It's so hard to align people's schedules these days with our busy busy lives, and I shan't be putting the game off so you can go shopping, level up, choose feats, choose spells, etc. Sit and play! That's the way!

[TheyCallMeHooperman]

I always hated when the rogue would always try to steal from the party right off from the start of the game. That person was rarely invited back to play again. Be a team player at least as much to make the game work. No need to ruin it for everyone. Have fun but make sure everyone else is having fun as well.

[anthemofink]

Thanks for making this. As a Forever DM, I'm finally getting out from behind the screen for the first time as a player, and this seems like some good thoughts to keep in mind.

[blazinghookshot]

My rogue hides the body not the loot. Also is hiding a body slight of hand or wisdom?

[mystralir]

Love the "Go for it" part, reminded me of the saying within the gamer community: The optimist says the glass is half full, the pessimist says it's half empty, the gamer says "I drink it! What happens?"

[Adelbercht]

Hey Cody, good tips, especially the last one! I just had one remark on the 'be engaged' one, though I agree with it on the most part: I think it is the task of the GM to create interesting NPC's. I mean, taking notes is a great plus, but if players need to check their notes to even remember an NPC, which the GM considers to make a recurring character, it probably shouldn't be recurring at all because the players obviously aren't interested in it.
Not saying this to invalidate the tip, I just felt this one was slightly too much from a GM's perspective and whereas you mentioned a GM's responsibility elsewhere, you didn't mention it here.
Other than that, great video!

[zachdorsey]

after like 4 videos, I am utterly convinced Cody is a coach for a school.

[ryanmclemore]

Liked the point of the being a good team mate. I generally don't try to make problematic characters but the times that I have, I always erred on the side of the team and came up with motivation for my character to do so. Example: once I played an evil character in a good leaning party, it started out as a breakfast club scenario. Demons attacking the town, portal to hell, you guys go fix it and you can't exactly run it seems. So aside from my character: a neutral evil 3rd edition elf rogue with 18 int/ cha, decent dex, and a 4 con; he would do his callous things on the side, murdering guards to get keys when he was "just going to pick their pocket" when it was easier for him, but would lie about it to the low mental stat party. Other than that he sort of became the defacto party leader and kept on with the good deeds because of a few reasons. 1. Good help is hard to find, I am squishy with my 4 constitution, and these guys keep me safe andget shit done. 2. Demons and an apocalypse kind of messes things up for everyone, how am I supposed to scheme to gain dominance in the world if some demon jerks destroy it!? 3. these bad guys have some pretty expensive stuff! and 4. If we pull this off the town might make me mayor or something and I could do whatever I want.
Normally that character would be a bad idea in most games, but being a team player allows much more room in expression with cases like this. Alternately obnoxiously lawful good characters, I have run one of these as well. Aside form the occasional telling the lord whose castle we cleared out that we were not the sort to help ourselves to their treasure stores during the quest(he just gave it to us anyways) I also understood that the thief's choices were not mine and admittedly subterfuge is a useful tool, so I looked the other way for some things.

[VampxDemon]

just to clarify one of the tips. now for reference i'm haven't been in any campaigns that have gotten very far because schdules started not lining up or a personnel issue between a few of the members in thier lives. so my quesiton is about leveling up before the session. how exactly would you go about doing that? would you do that after a session your character gained enough xp to level or could you talk with your dm/gm about your character doing things to level outside of the sessions? as much as i would like to i haven't been a part of a groups thats been able to meet like every week type of thing.

[theomega]

Honestly I would add in "work with your team".

Things like if somebody is stunned, beat the breaks off that stunned character. If somebody has a status like sleep or hypnotic gaze, attack another creature 'cos otherwise you're reintroducing enemies back into the fight and the monk or spell caster is feeling like they just wasted an ability.
Had a player hit a different enemy than the one I stunned 'cos "that enemy can't do anything" ok but you have advantage and it automatically fails dex and str rolls, if everyone piles on then that enemy never gets another turn ... instead you chose to attack another enemy that passed it's dex save.

[daltonprather]

This is absolutely great advice! I would love to hear more about what you have to say about other topics. Luckily I will, seeing how i just subscribed!

[DaDunge]

Well now that we play from a distance we get to enjoy players who sit watching TV when combat inst happening.

[kareemhassanien]

When I went for it my DM kicked me out of the D&D because I was apparently talking role playing too much 😭

[beastwarsFTW]

I play a rouge but I play it like most play bards and I play bards like clerics and rangers like rouges only I take junk instead of loot (I end up using it to make stuff). I don't know if I'm doing them right.