The Best Players Are Fishers
If you want to add value to your table, learn how to reel people in.
There’s so much advice on the internet about how to be a better GM. And the vast majority of advice to players on how to be their best selves is, frankly, geared more towards “how to not inconvenience your GM”, or in its worst form, “how to optimize your character so that your GM wants to kick you out of the group.” The expectations for players are extraordinarily low - show up, don’t be toxic, bring snacks, whatever, loosey goosey fun times baby!
That… kinda sucks. The GM does so much work and, at least in my case, is a full time student of the world of TTRPGs. I talk about deliberate practice in RPGs like it’s an Olympic sport. I understand that I volunteer for this work, and it’s the satisfaction of the hobby that drives me as opposed to the need for external validation, yet I remain dismayed by the lack of good player advice in our hobby.
So, I’m going to give the best piece of advice I can to players, on how they can make their games better without involving the GM, far more than “have a good backstory” ever could. This advice is simple, social, extraordinarily effective, and borderline required if you care at all about your game and your table. It’s simple:
Bring other players into your roleplaying.
The idea is simple. When the GM puts the spotlight on us, intentionally or otherwise, our first instinct is to perform. That’s a good thing, and you should embrace it. We are, at the end of the day, pretending to be someone we’re not so that the people around us can laugh and cry and shout and feel things. So perform. But it is far more important to bring other people into your performance than it is to perform well on your own.
It’s basic math - a scene with two players is better than a scene with one. Three is better than two, and all of you are better than most of you.
Be a fisher…person. (Is fisherman okay? Or just fisher? English is sometimes not a very inclusive language.) Reel other people in, against their will sometimes, to roleplay. Have someone join you, and put the spotlight on them. Emphasize something they are good at - If your characters are at a grand festival and there is a strong man competition, bring in your barbarian and shout to the crowd about how she’s guaranteed the win, how she is the strongest woman this side of the Forked Peaks. At the castle, ask the knight if they have ever been here before - give them a chance to hint at the epic tale of how they bested the duke’s right hand man in single combat, and how the betrayal that came after still aches in their heart. Getting ready to make camp for the night? Ask the wizard, “What is that you’re doing, with your books and your… sticky thing. Are you preparing spells? Could you teach me a trick or two?”
This little trick will make you the best player at the table. And once you all catch on and start doing this for each other, you’re going to realize how cool your character is - because everyone will be so excited when it’s their turn to rope you in and show off the best parts of your story.
Go fish.