My roommate introduced me to a D&D podcast called Dungeons and Daddies about a group of dorky suburban dads who get transported, along with their kids, to D&D land. Anyway it’s fun, hilarious, the story is well done, etc.
But something they do at the start of every episode is something called Dad Facts. Each player lists off a dad fact about their character, something about their interests or history or personality, that the other characters would have known but “off camera” rather than having all these details RP’d out. After all, your characters in games spend a LOT of downtime together in between scenes, this sort of stuff WOULD have come up.
So, now, just about EVERY RP game I’m in has incorporated Dad Facts, including ones where I and my roommate are the only ones who’ve heard the damn podcast. Some players don’t even know why we CALL them “dad facts”, but they still run with it.
Anyway I recommend it to every RP group. NOT right away, if your characters have JUST met, because some of this shit just flat out won’t be known until after you’ve already had that downtime together.
Some of mine are big and revealing, some are as simple as “Zenrae doesn’t like eating fish” or “Theria only drinks sweet wine and otherwise finds alcohol offputting” - little moments and traits and stuff you want to get out there but haven’t been able to. It helps you flesh your own character out, helps you get to know the other characters better, and helps RP along SO. MUCH. I have used others’ dad facts to help RP in game and I can’t stress enough how fun that is
And I swear in my groups I tried, like, two whole times to coin a term OTHER than “dad facts” but nope. Dad Facts is sticking.
Anyway that’s my ramble for the day
