You know the phrase “You never know a person until you see how they treat waitstaff”? Character interaction with others is where who your character is comes to light. The morals and philosophies you’ve put into the character come into play during this time. This can be through the interactions and interpersonal relationships with the other characters, non-playable characters (NPCs), and the general world the character is in. 

Character and Character

Character interaction is important for helping build interpersonal relationships, handle conflict, and work on assertive communication. Tabletop games are a group activity, and this helps learn how to get along with other people, no matter how different they are. In our character creation post, we explored what a passive person or a people pleaser setting boundaries might look like. Let’s use a different example with someone who has an aggressive form of communication:

The character Hedge is a mechanic on the group's Galaxy freight liner in a sci-fi game. Hedge has an aggressive communication style and has a difficult time getting along with the captain of the ship. Through their travels, they have had to face different moral dilemmas together, and many times, Hedge and the captain have had a few loud conflicts. All of this anger from Hedge has caused some distance between Hedge and the other crew members. On a particularly long voyage, Hedge starts to feel isolated and lonely. While the other crew members all laugh together and visit each other's stations, Hedge finds themselves doing things alone. There is a character choice here: will Hedge double down and spend the rest of the voyage further in isolation, or will they take a step forward and find common ground?

Group dynamics are important in any tabletop game, but they are some of the most important in therapeutic TTRPGs. In this space, group members will be processing trauma, grief, anxieties, and other vulnerable things. This internal or external processing will need a safe space to be healing and effective for the group members. I bring this up because while characters might have some interpersonal conflict, it’s important that the members outside of their characters feel safe enough to explore these conflicts within the group.

Character with NPCs and the Environment

Non-playable characters are side characters that the Game Master plays to make the world feel more alive. These characters may just be passing shopkeepers, companions that join on a certain journey, or the main villain the characters will face against. This is a moment for the therapeutic Game Master to explore interpersonal relationships between the characters and different types of people and force moral dilemmas onto the group members in the character space. This will allow the different characters to build bonds with each other and work through any conflicts that might arise. Then, group members find confidence in using the skills learned in a safer space with others around them through bleed-out. 

Hedge values their independence and is slowly beginning to make connections with a few crew members, but isn’t to the point of asking for any help or sitting at the mess table with everyone else. During her shift for fire watch, Hedge sees a shadow move around the corner and decides to investigate. When they turn the corner, they see one of the crates of cargo has been busted open and can hear the skittering of a creature on the ship. Unfortunately, the creature has found them first, and a very dangerous creature was smuggled onto their ship without prior knowledge of the crew, and now it is looking at them, hungry. Hedge has a choice: either call for help or face this alone.

These types of scenarios challenge the group members and their characters as well as build character bonds. These types of situations help the characters and, in turn, the group members grow and learn new parts of who they are, as well as develop skills to help them in the future! 

If you built a character after the last blog, what would they do in this situation? What would you do?