As the GM I try to immerse my players in the world of Warhammer Fantasy. I also encourage the players to write well thought-out backgrounds for their characters. However, there is one player that has some difficulty with this.

The player in question plays a 220 year old female Wood Elf mystic (the player is male IRL) from the Laurelorn Forest that travel because of a curiosity of the world outside of her home forest. This is not his problem, though. His problem is matching his acting with his background. Or rather, he does not act like a Wood Elf convincingly. When he act he sometimes giggle and is not very secretive about his character to other players and NPCs that you would expect a Wood Elf to be. He also seem somewhat oblivious to this.

I've tried teaching him about Wood Elves by looking trough the their armybook in WFB, but I have avoided being too harsh so as not to come across as dictating how he should roleplay.

What I'm asking for is your thoughts and suggestions on how to handle this.

After years of GMing, I've realized that my game has been the most fun for players the less I tell them how to "correctly" play their characters.

Also, there's nothing wrong with playing a character outside the stereotype for their race. If you want to make this difference a story point (like his character doesn't fit in well with other elves), then that's cool. Otherwise, trying to get him to play his character the way you think every other elf acts will only lead to problems.

I just recently started using my Obsidian Portal site and have now added a ton of stuff to it. Background material, NPCs, maps, handouts, location description... lots of stuff.

It's a great way to give your players something to ponder without using game time on it.

It also supports docs point about not controlling the players. Give them inspiration instead and hope for the best result

When I wrote my first WFRP3 scenario, False Pretenses, I kind of did it to break a bit of the mould of what people think of wood elves and put some ideas in there about how the Asrai there might interact with PC wood elves. My idea fell a little short, but it might give you some idease, and I'm giving it a try again in my next woodsy scenario.

But, my point is, have the PC meet some REAL wood elves. Have an encounter where the party get's its butt handed to them in a combat, or gets cuaght up in a Spites-vs-Elves-vs-Forest conflict where the wood elves have to something that would be typical to them (stealing babies or something and then some bizarre ritual dance), and then have your player be forced to interact with that.

If he's not being a true wood-elf, then call him out on it in game (by having the wood elves and spites ridicule the heck out of him).

Have a little actual racism in the game where he gets excluded by the humans, dwarfs, and high elves so he MUST run to his own kind.

Perhaps he's just a Jedi that is yet untrained

Lastly, in some cases, you're just wasting your time catering to a player who isn't really trying. In that case, just throw in wood elf themes and if he doesn't bite, he doesn't bite. Focus on the players who are trying.

BTW, here are some new themes for you: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=149&efcid=3&efidt=601376

jh

Gallows said:

Gallows,

We need a linky

jh

Emirikol said:

I'll post it. Just need to figure out how it works. What can players do and see and what can guests see and do. If I need to set up pages as being viewable by the public etc. Also I don't know about the contents to be honest. Some of it is copied or written directly from FFG source material, because I'd like to have all relevant information in one place there for the players. It's an awesome tool, but don't want to offend FFG if they think I copied a bit much and them make it public

I had the exact problem couple of years ago, and the player was completely oblivious to the face even when I tried to talk to him about it but it did not have any effect. Finally I just accepted him as he was and worked with, changed his background a bit so that he was “asked” leave the forest because of his unsocial behavior (there are a lot of people in or society (even on this forum ) that are socially awkward and not like everyone else.
Later in the campaign this even enriched the story when the party went Loren a saw how other elf’s treated him.

Note: I did this with the permission of the player and strongly suggest you don’t do anything like this without his agreement.

Thank you for your replies. I might try a new approach thanks to the advice I've got from you.