Playing Better Characters With Action and Objective
Character creation is my absolute favorite part of role playing. Each new character I make inherits a part of me like they’re progeny, and I carry their stories in my heart like a grandfather’s collection of wallet children. And while they’re all nuanced characters with sprawling backstories and multifaceted emotions, sometimes my characters are an absolute bore to actually sit down at the table and play with.
My children can do no wrong; this is my fault.
An example from a recent one-session game of D&D: the other week I played by far the most mechanically-cool character I’ve ever built. He’s a tabaxi monk-sassin with the tavern brawler feat. He’s a percussionist, too, and works well with bards for that reason. I was excited to play him, to try out features that I’ve never used before. But when the game started, I realized one very important thing: I knew nothing about what my character wanted.
I knew who he was and where he’d come from. I wrote a backstory for him, labeled him easygoing, and even gave him a couple of ideals (“Let’s have fun!” “Life isn’t fair, but I’ll do my best to make it that way.”). But I didn’t know what he wanted. And while the rest of my party was running around the tavern grabbing drinks and having fun, I was scrambling to figure out what exactly would make sense for The Tintinnabulation Wells, Tabaxi Monk-sassin Extraordinaire, to be doing in this situation.
“He’s easygoing,” I told myself. “Just let him be the party’s yes-man for now and see where it goes.”
A full in-game day went by without Tinna having done anything of note. That’s when the GM asked the dreaded question: “Leon, what is your character doing right now?”
“Oh,” I fumbled. “You know, he’s just kind of…taking it all in.” Embarrassing.
Filling out your character sheet prepares you for combat. But If you want to come to the table prepared for role play, you’re going to have to do a little table work. Thankfully, we’ve got some words in our actor’s toolbox to help us here. They’re called action and objective.
Every actor knows that the character they’re playing wants something. Every time they come out on stage, they do it with a specific goal in mind. This is called the character’s objective. While that character is on stage, they are taking steps to get the thing that they want. This is called a character’s action.
In each scene, every character has an action and objective, from the lead soliloquizing to the child in the tree costume upstage left. That’s what keeps everyone engaged and in the moment.
Take a look at this clip from The Office:
Michael sets up a mock phone call so Dwight can practice his sales skills. His task: selling paper to his coworker Jim, who adopts the ridiculous persona of a grumpy old man named Bill Buttlicker.
Dwight’s objective is to make the sale so he can impress his boss and prove he’s worthy of being a salesman. Jim’s objective is to get a rise out of Dwight.
Jim succeeds pretty early on in what he wants. It isn’t hard to get Dwight upset. When he first claims his name is Bill Buttlicker, he is challenging Dwight, who takes the bait. He uses the “other line” bit to stop Dwight from progressing the conversation. Then, with his conversation with the imaginary person on the other line, Jim mocks Dwight.
Throughout the clip, Dwight does not get what he wants. He has to keep trying new actions. He starts by trying to sell Jim on the paper. When that doesn’t work, he tries to expose Jim for not taking the call seriously (“Really? That’s your real name?”). After he loses his temper and all control of the situation, he tries to plead with Jim to give him another chance.
When an actor gets a script, they’ll sit down with it, divide each scene into chunks (called beats), and answer these questions for each one: What do I want, and what am I willing to do to get it?
While tabletop RPGs don’t have a script, anyone who plays a character can still take some time to think about this concept before they approach the table. In every session, your character should have an objective and several actions they can take at any given moment to clear that objective.
Here are some things you can try when building your character:
Give your character something they want right out of the gate.
Every single one of my best characters have started from a singular point: what does this person want the most? Every single one of my worst characters, like Tinna, never had that question answered in the first place. Don’t wait for your GM to hand you a hook. Your character was a person with hopes and desires before they stumbled into this adventure. Define them.
The personality fields on the D&D 5e character sheet can help us come up with some objectives. The 5th edition Player’s Handbook has more information on them, too, and a sample set of personality traits for each background.
I always zero in on the “bonds” and “ideals” segments of my sheet. Ideals are principles your character believes in, like “justice” or “freedom.” Bonds are your relationships with other characters. They’ll help, but they’re not full objectives.
Your character’s objectives should be things they can actively seek out at any given moment.
Remember what I’d put in Tinna’s personality section? “Life isn’t fair, but I want to try and make it that way.” That’s a great ideal! But Tinna’s not going to walk into a bar and proclaim, “I’m here to make life fair for everyone in this bar.” People don’t act like that. That ideal probably won’t come up unless someone’s getting cheated out of their money.
If I ever play with Tinna again, I’ll give him another bond: he’s been separated from his sister. From there, his objective will be to find his sister. That’s something he can start working on the second he steps into any location.
Come up with some verbs that will help your character achieve that objective.
Now that you have an objective, it will inform the actions your character can take. There’s some criteria for this:
Actions are verbs that can be done to someone else. Most of the charisma ability checks in D&D are excellent examples of actions: Persuasion, Intimidation, and Deception. Although as action verbs we’d call them Persuade, Intimidate, and Deceive.
Most of the time, a character can make any one of these three checks and get the same result. The getting there, however, is wildly different. This is called subtext.
A bard drapes her arms around the man and whispers in his ear, “I’m sure we can come to an agreement.” Persuade.
A barbarian stands in the man’s way, arms crossed, nostrils flaring. He spits at the floor before growling, “I’m sure we can come to an agreement.” Intimidate.
A rogue extends their right hand to the man. Their left, behind their back, is curled around a poisonous dagger. The rogue shows their teeth when they smile and say, “I’m sure we can come to an agreement.” Deceive.
All three characters said the same thing. All three characters want the same thing. But they all played different actions, giving the scene more nuance and making it more fun.
Your ideals and personality and flaws and alignment can all inform these actions. A lawful monk like Tinna may not want to intimidate or deceive, but he may try to persuade the local guard to give him the town’s travel records to find if his sister had been there. Maybe he’ll regale the locals with stories of his childhood to make them more sympathetic to his cause.
With your handy new list of verbs, never get caught off guard again! When the GM asks you what your character is up to, you’ll be prepared.
Figure out which actions to use and when.
The bard’s seduction falls flat on a man who has no interest in women. Tinna can’t seem to persuade the by-the-book town guard. Dwight Schrute is incapable of placating the flappable Buttlicker. What next?
When you’re coming up short, it may be time to change your action.
Actors change their action in a scene all the time. A scene wouldn’t be interesting if a character got what they wanted the first time they asked. Imagine if Buttlicker told Dwight, “Sure I’ll buy your paper,” and the scene ended right there.
If your roll doesn’t go the way you wanted, or if the party doesn’t agree with what you want to do, or if the character you’re talking to just won’t give you what you want, it’s time to try something else. If all else fails, there’s one last action you can try: deferring to another player character. Let someone else try something! This is a collaborative game, after all.
You don’t have to speak to play an action.
The main difference between a staged performance and role play is that role play is unscripted. There’s nobody telling you when to talk and when not to talk. You want to make sure everyone in the group gets the chance to do the things they want to do. If you’re playing too many actions, it means your other players aren’t getting to play any.
At the end of the day, tabletop role play is about the story you’re telling. Will playing a verbal action make the story more fun? Is it better for the story if Tinna asks the 600th bartender he meets if they’ve seen his missing sister, or if his bard companion secures her first gig at the tavern?
Even if you’re not speaking, you’re still at the table. You can still stay in character and play actions. Listen. Stay engaged. Use body language to convey what you’re up to. If your companion is trying to intimidate someone, back them up by crossing your arms and puffing out your chest. Roll your eyes at a ridiculous NPC. Have an opinion on what’s going on, but don’t be distracting.
Look at Michael Scott in the clip from The Office. He’s present, but he’s not the main focus on the scene. He may have a couple of lines here and there, but the majority of his actions are played without a single word. Look at the stink faces he gives to reprimand Dwight.
You’re playing a game with a whole bunch of people, so you’ve got to be mindful of that. As an actor, it’s about not upstaging your cast mates. As a member of the table, don’t upstage your fellow players!
Let your character grow.
Your objective isn’t static, and you should have more than one. Just because Tinna’s sister is missing, it doesn’t mean he can’t be embroiled in the local politics of the town or on a second quest to find an esoteric magic item.
Maybe Tinna will find his sister only to realize she doesn’t want to come home. Maybe it never was about his sister at all, but about his desire to have a family. Maybe the real family was the friends he made along the way. Who knows?
It’s your game! You’re playing it with other people! You’re going to learn and grow. Let your character learn and grow with you. That’s half the fun of role play.
Action and Objective are fundamental acting concepts, but they’re hard to get right. They’re even harder when you’re improvising. But these tools have helped actors build engaging and dynamic characters for years. You don’t have to sit down and analyze every possible situation your character would be in for potential objects and objectives. For all the work that goes into making a character, role play is still supposed to be fun. But if you ever find yourself in a bind, and you don’t know what your character would or should be doing, remember action and objective.
What do you want, and how far are you willing to go to get it? Let the answer surprise you, and the rest of the table!
Further Reading
Acting is Action — A more in-depth post from Backstage on action and objective and making positive choices.
Acting Stanislavski — An excerpt from a book about Stanislavski’s techniques. Includes some exercises to get you thinking about action/objective.
The Actor’s Thesaurus — A regular thesaurus might do just fine, but this is a fine compilation of action verbs. Flip through, pick one at random, and let it rip!
This post was written by Leon Barillaro and reviewed by Caroline Amaba.
