After reading the book "Play Unsafe", i have some take-aways for play in the campaign.
I'm not implying
I do these things any better than anyone else (in fact I don't), but here they are:
1. Min/Max-ing can make play less fun. Min/Max-ing is where you work the rules to their fullest, build
your character with every possible advantage, and unleash torrents of HP damage. Or ramp a skill up to
the point that you can never fail a check. Or tweak your AC until you can almost never be hit. This can
make play less fun because encounters are either no longer challenging or conversely too deadly, as
your DM tries to adjust for super-hero build characters that don't work with the normal encounter
building rules. Instead, try to come up with inventive things to do that add to the narrative of the
encounter, focusing on your background and the environment. Trust the DM to reward behavior that
fits well with your character and their background, even if it's not the optimal rule-based thing to do.
2. Don't work against the experiences that you've come to the table to have. Banter about the
environment, the NPC's, other PC's, and the story line can be a lot of fun, if it's delivered from the
perspective of your characters. If it's delivered out of character, it can come across as meta MST3K type
heckling, and actually pull everyone out of the storyline. If you meta heckle the DM's or other player's
attempts to role play, that can make the space not feel safe, and everyone pulls back to describing
things 3rd person, rather than speaking in-character. On the other hand, if you do that in-character
addressed to the other characters or NPC's, that encourages more role play. If you see holes in the plot
line or inconsistencies, instead of going meta to point those out, have your character speculate about
how it could all make sense. As most comic book storylines demonstrate, almost anything can be
retconned.
3. Engage the "fluff". D&D is a mixture of "fluff" (descriptions of the environment, the story, role play,
environment, history, locales), and "crunch" (the rules, combat, mechanics, leveling). The fluff is what
distinguishes D&D from just an overly elaborate board game with lots of rules. It's what makes the
experience immersive and draws you into a story. If you give off a "yeah, yeah, yeah ... skip all the crap
and let's get to the combat" type attitude, you end up playing a board game. That's kind of where 4e
ended up, and a lot of why 5e pulled away from that. It's just not as fun.
4. Use your improv skills. Lead part of the time, but the rest of the time build on what the other
characters are doing or saying, just going with the flow. If a player slaps you across the face and grows
at you to fall on your knees and grovel to him, consider doing just that and playing it up if that could fit
within your character's personality, rather than immediately going to having your character draw his
sword. Pay attention to what other characters or NPC's are doing, and build on that. Push the story
and the plot forward. Remember that a part of what you're doing is co-operative story telling. Take
your opportunity to shine, and actively support the other characters when they're trying to shine.
5. Consider giving the rules a rest. If the DM says "this happened", and doesn't solicit any help about
the rules, stop to think about whether it matters. Is the story and play more interesting if we stop to
lookup rules? Is a particular player unfairly disadvantaged? Judiciously choose when you want to do
"rules lawyering" and when you can just let it slide. Remember that 5e returns to the idea of story over
rules, where the DM has great discretion in how rules are applied, or whether they're followed at all.
That's because lawyering isn't really very fun. Everyone should feel they're on a fair playing field, and
the rules are there to help ensure that, but make sure the disruption to play is equal to the
consequences of ignoring a rule.
