Think of yourself as a character in an ensemble movie or TV series. Doing stuff quietly in the background is good to a point, but don’t pass up a chance to ham up those big roleplay moments – be they heroic sword fights with grunts, screams and big blows or more nuanced moments of skill use and shenanigans.

Remember the game’s not all about you and give your fellow players a chance to have their moment to shine. If someone’s doing their best to establish themselves as a great tracker or as THE person to go too for exotic potions then make a big deal about it. Think of it as that bit in the movie where one of the characters says “shit, this is beyond me but I know JUST the person to solve this problem” and let the limelight move to them for a bit.

This rule is simple. If in doubt make sure you react.

You don’t have to ham it up (but sometimes it helps) but as long as you’re reacting to that sword blow, thrown insult, magical wizzy wozzy, strange gas or situation then you’re probably going in the right direction. If you’re unsure, think about what your character might do and wing it. Don’t just stand there like a wall waiting for a special call or a direction, take the situation you’re given an improvise.

In turn if you hit someone, cast a wizzy wozzy spell or otherwise do something awesome – don’t always expect players or monsters to react how you imagine they should (in your eyes). You don’t know their character background, if they’ve misread the situation or are having a crappy brain fart moment (happens to us all). Give them a prompt if you think they need it or nudge a ref gently if you think they’re straying into ‘taking the piss’ territory but remember ultimately we’re here to have FUN and part of that means not everything will go how you imagine it should.

In a game with minimal fixed rules it’s hard to moderate who can or should be able to do what. We’ve put some guides on the following pages but in general try and think of a focus and maybe a secondary skill. It’s reasonable to assume some characters might know a bit of this and a bit of that but it moves into ‘taking the piss’ territory if you have an UBER fighter who can take a BILLION hits, cast magic, build armour, drive a rocket ship and speak eldritch languages. Most characters fit a ‘niche’ in a movie, try and find yours and give others a chance to shine in theirs.