Create endless interaction between characters by creating connections.
Staring at another player, sweating through the seconds, thinking to yourself "must...roleplay..." is a rough moment. Instead, we want the moments where people are verbally bouncing off each other, and it feels like a real group of people chatting about the dangers of dungeons. Well, a little consideration of the relationships your character has with each party member can go such a long way.
Defining the relationships your character has with those around them is fundamental to roleplaying. If everyone does this with each other, a bunch of individual characters transforms into an engaging team so quickly. First we go to the Strategy Stateroom to boil character relationships down to a single sentence that defines them, providing a quick pregame prompt. Add details, keep it simple, however you want to take it. The components are:
Determine your Relationship Role
Establish your Role Dynamics
Create Conflict and Harmony
That single sentence result? Here's some samplers.
They are antagonistic frenemies defined by their shared love of nature and their conflicting materialistic values.
They are supportive siblings defined by their shared family secrets and their conflicting moral judgements.
Then we go to Moradin's Forge to discuss a simple mechanic for encouraging teamwork in the party. The benefits are that it encourages players to make their characters vulnerable during combat for the greater good, and it shows players how their selfish character behavior actually affects gameplay.
Trust is a powerful force that must exist between great adventurers. This optional rule was designed to represent that trust in and out of combat, and to encourage players to earn each others trust through gameplay.
Earning and Losing Trust
Trust points exist between each member of the party. A character can give or take away one trust point from any other character once per day. Trust points exist on a scale of -5 to +5, representing the level of trust a character has for another.
Trust Effects
Social Trust
Your trust for another gives them greater or lesser influence over you.
The character with the trust point(s) of another has an equal bonus or penalty applied to all charisma skill checks aimed at the character that gave them the trust point(s).
Positive Trust
You can use the trust of your allies to your benefit when necessary in difficult situations. Your allies will immediately respond, without question, to requests for aid. This response is nearly instinctive, without regard for any personal downside.
To use a positive trust point, a character must be within 30 ft. of the character that granted it to them. A character can use a positive trust point to get advantage on an attack roll, or impose disadvantage on a saving throw made against an ability or spell of theirs. The character whose trust point was used gives advantage to any incoming attack rolls made against them, and takes disadvantage on any saving throws made until the start of the turn of the character that used the trust point. Once consumed in this way, the trust point is gone. The character that gave the trust point can give another trust point the next day, if they choose to.
Negative Trust
It’s hard to be effective when working in close quarters with someone you do not trust.
The less you trust them, the wider berth you need to give them when you need to be at your best. A character that has given a negative trust point to another takes disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws when within 10 ft. of the distrusted character. Each negative luck point adds 10 ft. to this range.