How to be a Great D&D Player – 5 Tips

Want to be a better D&D Player?  Here at Cloud 9 Tabletop we’re dedicated obsessed with Elevating. Our. D&D. Game.  We love finding the way to success for really having an awesome time playing D&D and sharing it with you!  In this article we will break down five fundamental tips for being a Great D&D Player.  This will be part of a three-part series on being a better player. Our follow up article will be on how not to be a “problem player” and then a final article with advanced tips. Enjoy!

Being a Great D&D Player Tip #1 – Be Engaged

More of a paradigm than a technique, the more immersed and engaged you are with the game, the more fun is had around the table by all.

Tell a Story, Both on Your Turn and Others

When it’s your turn to contribute to the current scene, in combat or out, be in the moment. Search for things in the creative part of your mind to add to the story. Describe to the group how you see your character attacking, speaking, flirting, fumbling, exploring.  When it’s other’s turns, take in the nuance and drama of their contributions as well.   It’s easy to fall into the pitfall of spacing out when it’s not our turn directly, but it’s easy for the “spark” to go out if everyone at the table is zoning out to the current narrative. However, if we engage in the story both when it’s our turn and when it’s not, we create an opportunity for awesome collaboration.

Let’s take an example of this.  Let’s say that Abe (gnome rogue) and Brad (human fighter) are two members of a party that is in combat with a giant cyclops.  Abe takes his action and lets us in on a little theater of the mind treat while he’s at it. (atta’ boy Abe!) 

“I run under the huge cyclops’s legs, sliding on my knees and ducking under his ratty loincloth, slicing my daggers along his ankles and Achilles as I glide through.”

Abe rolls a hit and deals 5 damage.  Next player is up! Brad, instead of just waking up from his daze and saying…  “oh yeah… I attack, and here’s my damage…”

He takes the opportunity to build on the excitement that Abe has generated. Brad says something like “My character is getting just pushed around in this fight. This cyclops is so strong.  Every slice that my fighter has been making with his longsword has been bouncing off his tough hide. You can see the frustration on my characters face.  Then I see it.  The opening.  Abe sliding under his ankles has made the cyclops become unbalanced.  With the cyclops’s arms flailing to regain its balance, I thrust my sword into his mid-section.”

Brad was able to build this awesome kind of combo attack theater of mind for the table because he did two things.  First, he was engaged in the cool actions that were happening not on his turn, and second, he is taking the leap and being a descriptive story teller with his actions.

Isn’t this kind of collaborative, successively building combat much more exciting and dynamic to participate in?  Imagine if all of the players around the table built on each other’s actions and described their actions this way.

Put a Smackdown on Phones, Game Devices, and Other Distractions When Gaming

Consider taking a strict stance on no playing other games, and maybe no cell phones at the table.   If players feel like they need to bring out a device to play a game, or text, or get on Facebook, or anything of the like, this is a yellow flag.  It means that players either are a bit bored with the current game content, or they have not yet developed their patience muscle or their “be engaged on other players actions” muscle (see step 1 above).  The wrong way to fix this is to allow these distractions at the table. The right way is to get folks thinking and acting in a way that builds fun for others at the table.  It’s hard enough to get a game together.  It takes hours of prep for the DM, and it’s often rough to get people’s busy schedules to align in a way where people can make time for game.  When it’s time to sit down to game, make that dedicated time.  Of course, there are exceptions, folks may need to have a phone nearby for work or to keep up with young ones, etc.

My personal exception to the “no distractions” guideline is doodling, crocheting or doing something else that’s just keeping your hands busy.  Many people focus and engage more if they can occupy their hands (and minds slightly) with something like doodling.  Just use your own judgement and intuition on what’s adding to the collaboration and what is taking away from it and keep the group in the moment together!

Bring a Character That Has Motivations and Plot Hooks

A lot of how well you’ll be able to contribute to the fun of a session as a player is in what your character brings to the table outside of their stat block.  Here is a great formula for storytelling fuel to include things when making your character’s back story:

• The character has a clear reason to adventure.
• The character has motivations from their past that inform their decisions today.
• The character has open story loops that can turn into interesting plot hooks.

Some people are way more into the back-story thing than others.  I have friends that will literally write a 12-page single spaced, beautiful saga for their characters back story with no one asking for it, and others that struggle to get 2-4 bullet points on a list because they want to just get in and play the game.  The good news is that this approach can work for players all over this spectrum. 

Being a Great D&D Player Tip #2 – Be Prepared

In game delays can really interrupt the drama, immersion, storytelling, and fun.  If you want to be a great D&D player, make sure you’ve got these bases covered.  We’re talking fundamentals here:

Level up Your Character Before the Next Session

If you’re leveled up, make sure to take the time to level up your character before your next session.  This is just good etiquette.  Sitting down to level up your character at the game table slows things down and takes your mind out of the experience.  Show up with your game face, and your character sheet ready!

Know What Your Character Can Do / Think About What Your Character Wants to Do BEFORE Your Turn Starts.

We’ve all been there.  So and so has had 8 minutes since their last action to think about what they want to do. 

DM: “Mel, it’s your turn.” 

Mel:  “Oh.  OK I umm…  how many bad guys again?  OK I um… hang on let me flip through my spell book…  how many second level spells do I have?  Can I cast a spell if I didn’t memorize it this morning… like with a penalty or something?”

I get frustrated just thinking about it.  This kind of fumbling around really kills the momentum of the action of combat.  Imagine watching a great action movie and hitting pause to think about what to do for half the film. Your fellow players lose interest and the momentum and fun of the encounter bogs down.  Spend some time out of game learning and understanding what your character can do.  You don’t need to know all the details behind every rule, but you should absolutely know how your characters bread and butter actions work without much rules reference as soon as you can.    If you pick up a spell or ability that has some interesting effects such as poisoned or grappled or sickened, get familiar with how this works ahead of time. We all understand that all of us have been new at some point and so we know that there is a learning curve for new players… but that learning curve should not stick around forever.  Get good at knowing what your character can do so you don’t gum up the works!

Being a Great D&D Player Tip #3 – Be a Team Player

D&D is a team sport.

One thing we love about D&D is that it brings friends together to tell a story of heroes that accomplish great feats that none of them could have done alone.  To make it work, you need to have some strong teamwork fundamentals down.

Share the Spotlight

The best games will have every player making meaningful contributions to the adventure, and to the fun of the group overall.  Doing this well takes two components.  First – just go for it.  Put yourself out there. Be descriptive. Tug on emotions. Do character voices. Channel your characters opinions on the given matter. Make interesting things happen in game.  Second – temper your own enthusiasm with a sense for bringing others into the limelight.  Get a feel for the other players around the table and periodically ask yourself if it seems like everyone else is having fun. Ask if everyone is kind of the best at something in the party and has a unique way of contributing. See if there is someone that seems especially quiet and unengaged.  Maybe help shed the spotlight on them.  Be the mirror that takes the spotlight and reflects it onto others. 

Here is an example. You’re playing the bard and are usually the face; speaking on behalf of the party.  You’re in a social situation with extremely tough, militant, leadership-by-power group of minotaurs that respect other mighty warriors most of all.  You could defer negotiations to the strong fighter in the group to voice his opinions to the minotaur tribe rather than your own scrawny butt.  Yeah, metagame wise his charisma stats are lower, but story wise, this gives the warrior of your group to lead by might instead of just be a hammer only looking to pound nails… or goblins.

Make a team player character

Once more; D&D IS A TEAM SPORT.

So, you’ve worked out a character with an interesting back story and they have motivations for adventuring and good plot hooks that the DM can use.  Great.  But if the personality that seems to spring forth from that is super lone wolf, brooding, not a team player, you may need to strongly consider changing your story.  The experience around the table is the story of the party first, and of the individual contributions of its characters second.  Changing your story will allow your character to really function as part of a group.  As an example, say you’re playing a dwarf that has an extreme hatred for elves… and your fellow player is going to play an elf… edit that back story so that this one elf is the exception.  You love that elf.  The others are just the worst, though.  Keep the same flavor but make the team dynamic work.

I’m guilty of needing to course correct myself on this topic in my current campaign.  In C9T’s play-by-post campaign I created a character based off the character Klaus from the Netflix series Umbrella Academy.  Klaus is a kind of back alley Warlock who is tortured by vengeful spirits and takes to the drink and substance abuse in order to cope and numb the pain.  He’s a bit of a bruised soul… and a drunk.  If I had to pick an alignment for him, I’d say he is chaotic neutral.  Now that he has met the party and we are talking about solving problems… if I’m true to what I feel like his original story was… he just doesn’t care.  He’s in survival mode… not pledge himself to a cause mode.  But this campaign is about our shared experience… so I’m kind of tweaking his story and motivation to make him more of a team player.  With Klaus I’m filling in a more altruistic, team player side of my character that is buried under the tortured soul.

Make the Game About Fun First, Rules Disputes Later

Rules disagreements are going to happen.  It’s very easy to get caught up in the moment of your character trying to do something that we are super excited about, and our DM tells us that it doesn’t work that way and feel frustrated and really want to argue.  Or something happens to our characters that we don’t agree with. 

We’d recommend resolving to this: Drawn out rules disputes do not have any place in the play session.  If another player, or a DM is doing something that you feel is not in alignment with how the rules of the game are designed, by all means… please say something…  Once.  Let the DM understand your point of view, and let the DM make the call on how things should play out.  If you still don’t agree with the ruling, avoid rules lawyering it out during the game session.  Getting into rules debates in game takes everyone out of the immersion of the story and into the bad kind of drama.  The right place to take any arguments about rules that can’t be resolved in a single exchange in session is out of game.  Follow up with your DM offline and talk through how things should work out regarding specific rules. Your party members will love you for this.

Being a Great D&D Player Tip #4 – Be Collaborative

Many players make the mistake of thinking that its mainly the DMs job to make sure that the group is having fun, and to provide interesting ideas for the story.  This is quite the contrary, it’s the player’s job too!  Coming up with interesting ideas for content for the game takes a lot of mental energy for the DM.  It often takes hours of prep for every session. You can be a player that is actively bringing in interesting story elements to the foreground and allowing them to be part the collaborative story that your group is telling. This can not only be a load off for the DM, it can make the experience more interesting for everyone. 

Here is an illustration. You’re in a new city and you are tasked with finding information about a crime committed. Chime n and say, “Hey DM, I was thinking that I had someone in my back story that worked on the docks here.  A rig worker that’s got an in with the docks management. His name is Donny and he’s a peg legged gnome… would it be cool to insert him in to the story?”  Most DMs would say… sure!  Or at least a “yes and,” or a “no but,” and work in how your idea works into the game. The DM’s perspective would likely be: “My player just did the work for me and came up with an interesting NPC that can help push the story forward AND he’s got interesting ties to them. Awesome! Having this work successfully does take a DM that works well with improvisation.

The guidelines you’ll want to stick to are one: make sure you don’t insert yourself or your story on top of someone else’s back story without their consent… two… make sure that your DM is good with this approach to playing and check in with them to make sure that the liberties you are taking are ok.

Being a Great D&D Player Tip #5 – Use Tension and Failures to Tell a Story

This is an advanced tip. In our 3-part series on being a Great D&D Player we’ll have an entire article dedicated to advanced tips.

Here is a challenge for you. Ensure that you are not trying to “win” the game, and not trying to show up with characters that are so badass, you would never fail. Instead, show up with characters with flaws and imperfections proudly woven into their current story. Instead of telling us the story of an infallible badass, tell us the story of your character growing, and failing, and learning, and conquering themselves, and that is in the process of becoming a badass hero we can root for.

Tension in D&D is what helps build an awesome story.  The chance of failure, actual failure by the characters, as well as the characters having to wrestle with, and grow through their weaknesses are amazing ways to really tell the story of the character.  This approach brings us in to who they are beyond just the character sheet.  Every great story has great tension… a sense of not being sure if the good guys are going to win, and the chance that it might not work out.  Your games can (and should) feel that way!

Treat failure as an opportunity for storytelling as opposed to just a failed attempt to do something cool. This makes failure a fun, and dynamic part of the story. 

Here’s an example:  of the character Donovan, the human squire, gone ranger.  He is a young man, with a lump in his throat and has never quite been around real danger.  He is naturally talented with a bow but struggles with overcoming his fear and sometimes freezes up in the moment.

When playing a ranger character… you could easily roll your dice, and even with all your cool bonuses to hit things, roll a 2 on the die and miss your shot.  If your description is just… “I roll a 2, darn. I miss.” then your story falls flat.  If you instead turn the story of your ranger into the story of Donovan, the boy overcoming his fear of battle.  On that same roll of a 2, your description could be

“As the heat of battle crashes all around him, Donovan is terrified.  He glances around, sweating, his throat feeling like he cannot swallow… he lowers his aim and has the spell caster in his sights.  The spell casters eyes meet his, and stare into his with rage. A clang of battle rings in Donovan’s ear, he completely panics… sending his arrow wildly into the air… as he fumbles about to get it together.”

The story of the 2nd character is so much more amazing and compelling. That shift in making an attack alone, does wonders for your campaign much more than the previous way. First, it sets the tone, for awesome combat descriptions for the other players in the group to build on.  Second, it shows us something truly relatable in our hero, Donovan. We’ve all felt inadequate and messed up before, and we really resound with a character that challenges himself to break free of their own fears and finds their awesomeness.  As Donovan gets better and better, we can celebrate his external triumphs that are reflections of his internal triumphs.

All of this is possible by owning and getting excited by the failures in our sessions and not just the successes.  Use both as opportunities to paint the stories of the characters in the session.  Tell us why they missed. What does it look like, what does it feel like? Bring us in to the action, the emotion, and drama and you’ll find yourself elevating your game!