Summary

Roleplay is one of the most important facets of anyDungeons & Dragonscampaign, but especially for expert or high-level tabletop players. Newer players may be more flexible or unsure of what to do when it comes to roleplaying, but if you’re serving as the Dungeon Master for a group of high-level players, you’re going to want to make sure you pull out all the stops when it comes to roleplaying.

That’s why we’ve created this list to help you create memorable and exciting roleplay encounters for your veteran table of DND players. Here are the best tips and tricks for creating roleplay for expert players.

Two spy NPCs in DND.

10Map Out Objectives

Vision Board Your NPCs

One of the most important things you can do when it comes to crafting a memorable roleplaying encounter is to make sure that you, as a DM, have a clear vision of what your NPCs' goals are. If winning combat means you defeat all of the enemies on the field, winning a roleplay encounter means that one side or the other achieves their goals.

However, you may’t do this if you don’t know what your NPC’s goal is. Make sure you write out a few notes to yourself of what the party’s goal is and what your NPC’s goal is, so that you feel that sense of push-pull and conflict during the roleplay encounter. This also gives players something to work toward that feels specific.

Three players playing a card game in DND.

9Pay Attention To Alignments

Line Up Your Alignments

Coming up withmemorable characters and NPCscan feel daunting, but that’s why Dungeons & Dragons has tons of in-game rules that you’re able to use to help flesh out characters. Alignments are one great way to do this. Using an alignment to help guide your NPC design is always a great place to start.

For expert players,try picking alignmentsfor NPCs that are in direct conflict with the alignments of your party. For example, if most of the party is Lawful Good, consider using a Lawful Evil or even Chaotic Evil NPC to use in a roleplay encounter. This will create instant conflict between the two groups.

A mirror zone in a DND campaign.

8Craft Unique Mannerisms

Make A Choice For A Voice

Mannerisms, vocal affects, and more are extremely important for creating memorable roleplay encounters. While, of course, you want to avoid stereotypes or broad characterizations, sometimes, a memorable voice is the best thing for helping to distinguish between NPCs, particularly if you don’t have visual aids for your party for the NPC in question.

Before jumping into a complex roleplay encounter, make sure you develop a voice and perhaps one or two physical mannerisms to adopt. If these are memorable enough for your expert players, this will make it easy for them to spot and look forward to future roleplay opportunities with the same NPC, which is great for campaign continuity.

A bard uses Inspiration on a fellow player character in DND.

7Roleplay Unlikely Character Options

It’s Not All Friendly Barkeeps

While there are always going to beplenty of tavern keepersand merchants for players to roleplay with, for especially high-level tables, you’re going to want to consider more unconventional options. This means coming up with characters that players meet in unique circumstances.

For example, rather than have players get information about a town via a tour guide or barkeep, why not have them learn about the town by meeting a stranger who lives in the sewer, or a ghost that haunts their inn room? Finding creative and unconventional roleplay opportunities will keep your game feeling fresh.

Citizens walk through the streets of Waterdeep in Dragon Heist in DND.

6Design Clear Stakes

Are You Sure?

In addition to coming up with clear roleplay goals for both the players and the NPCs in question, it’s also important to verify there are stakes ascribed to the situation. If players ‘lose’ the roleplay encounter, but nothing changes in the world, this can leave the encounter feeling incredibly boring.

For example, if players are engaging in a roleplay encounter with a strict king in order to gain access to a secret library, make it clear to the players that, should they fail, they will be cast out of the kingdom altogether. These types of stakes can make a big difference in terms of roleplay encounters, feeling exciting versus overly drawn out.

Two vampires slaked with bloodlust in DND.

5Take Notes On Player Choices

Something To Keep On The Back-Burner

As players progress through a roleplay encounter, it’s important, as a Dungeon Master, to take notes on the results of the encounter, especially if you intend to bring this NPC back later in the campaign. Having NPCs contain memories of their last encounters with players helps worlds to feel more lived in.

Plus, if you take good notes on the encounter, you might get inspiration for future roleplay or even combat-based encounters down the line. You can use information like this against players, complicating or throwing wrenches in their schemes to keep them on their toes.

Two Strixhaven students studying in DND.

4Roleplay Conflicting Characters

Non-Unified Front

While it’s always fine to just have one character to play in a roleplay encounter as a DM, another interesting way to shake up roleplay in DND is to have multiple NPCs in one roleplay encounter who oppose each other. This can create a handful of interesting opportunities.

First, players can try to use the NPCs' conflicting viewpoints against one another. This rewards careful observation and asks players to accurately understand the stakes and conflict at play. Plus, having three sides to a roleplay encounter can make for a more difficult choice that players might have to make. Do they have to pick sides in this fight? Or, can they somehow play the role of a double agent?

An astral observatory from Spelljammer in DND.

3Don’t Ignore Mood And Tone

Get Immersive

While not strictly necessary, setting up a proper mood and tone for a roleplay encounter can be a huge boon for expert players. Many DMs like to use music or ambient lighting to create atmosphere, and this can be especially important for roleplay encounters.

For example, if you’re running a roleplay encounter that functions like a seance, you might want to dim the lights in the room you’re playing in, or pump in chilling music. You can even use props to help make the roleplay encounter feel more elevated when necessary.

Two animalfolk converse in the Cerulean Citadel in Dungeons & Dragons.

2Restrict Player Abilities

Limit Charisma Spells

Especially at higher levels of play, a lot of player-characters start to get access to Charisma-based abilities that can end roleplay encounters in a matter of seconds. While using Charm Person or other charm-based abilities on lower-level NPCs can be fine for a one-off roleplay encounter, consider placing restrictions on these types of abilities at higher levels.

For example, players might plan to use the Zone of Truth spell on an NPC during an interrogation encounter, only to discover that the room they’ve found themselves in is in an antimagic zone, meaning spells don’t work. This can force players to rely on their roleplay skills rather than spells.

Prismari students at Strixhaven performing in DND.

1Use Repeats

Practice Makes Perfect

Lastly, each time an NPC comes back into the fold of a campaign, it can subsequently make the roleplay encounter far more dynamic. Repeat customers and usages of NPCs are always a welcome boon in any DND campaign, but this is especially important for expert DND players for a few reasons.

First, expert players tend to like to take notes and be rewarded for remembering details. Second, memorable, repeated NPCs help make the world you’re playing in feel more real. Utilizing repeat NPCs can help create dynamic and exciting roleplay encounters over and over again for your table.