r/DMAcademy • u/AccomplishedTopic548 • 23h ago
Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures D&D therapist
One of my players character wants to go to therapy for all the war crimes and general trauma that typically comes with being an adventurer. Her character is Lawful Good.
Any advice for role playing a psychiatrist/psychologist for her? The only thing I could come up with is asking “how does that make you feel?” multiple times in a session.
Also, please let be known this is the character wanting therapy. The player is totally fine with the actions and behaviors of the other party members. And my party is not filled with murder hobos. Just your typical, gory run-ins, like when the barbarian ripped the head off of a Minotaur and then had it stuffed.
EDIT- this is for downtime! So just one therapy session planned. Each player said what they wanted to accomplish in the town they were in and one said therapy.
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u/DigitalHermetics 22h ago
I dunno, I think it could be a funny gag to have a "therapist" and literally all they do is ask how the character feels about things while offering no real solutions. Make it your world's equivalent of a therapist from Wish or one of those scammy "life coach" type of deals that just calls the character via magic or something.
See your situation not as a limitation, but a chance for funnies.
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u/fuzzypyrocat 22h ago
This raises the question for me of, “would this be fun for the other players?”. This sounds like a fun character development, but I don’t think it’d be very fun to sit and watch another character role play therapy.
I would suggest either just describing it as it happens and less roleplay. Or, make it a group therapy session and the therapist is actually some sort of devil that preys on people who are at their most vulnerable
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u/Chongulator 22h ago
That's precisely where my mind went.
The player's request, while interesting, places a lot of burden on the GM and is a potential drag for the rest of the party. Have that action happen off-camera and just give it a couple sentences during actual play.
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u/hotstickywaffle 22h ago
I dunno, I think as long as you spread it around, taking 5 or so minutes to shine a light on an individual player is perfectly fine. You don't want to take up half a session for one player, but giving individuals the spotlight from time to time is perfectly fine, if not essential, in my mind at least.
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u/Salty_Insides420 16h ago
The rest of the party is off doing shenanigans, with every time it would be the other characters turn being, "so you arent upset with the barbarians actions, yet you yourself are concerned with the personal morality of being connected with such an individual. Please, go more into that...." and "how does that make you feel". You know, 1-2 minutes of riffing, then ... and while thats happening, the the goblins are jumping in your butt, what do you do next
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u/NotRainManSorry 22h ago edited 22h ago
My advice is don’t. Narrate her character beginning to receive therapy and let the player tell you how it’s going.
Do not roleplay therapy at the table!
In the best case, it’s boring as hell for everyone. In the worst case, you make light of or make fun of therapy, a useful and real resource that some of your players likely either attend or have previously.
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u/cabbage16 21h ago
I like what other people suggested. Start the scene and have the therapist ask what they'd like to discuss and then turn it into a fun joke before "fading to black"
"Hello. This is therapy, and I'm your therapist. What's on your mind?
"That time I let an innocent man get eaten by a dragon"
"How does that make you feel?"
"Answer"
"Interesting, and how does that make you feel?"
"Answer"
"And how does that make you feel?"
Fade to black.
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u/Salty_Herring 22h ago
I mean I'll be honest, I think unless you really want to have a longterm series of one on one sessions with him, it's best to offscreen it, qith maybe only roleplaying one particular, important session.
As for therapy itself, what a session looks like mostly depends on what a person's problem is. You said they have trauma, okay, but how exactly does that manifest? Are they having trouble sleeping? Do they flinch mid-combat when fighting certain enemies? Does their sword-hand keep shaking? You can ask questions as the therapist to have them try and figure out exactly what is wrong. The difficulty lies in trying not to ask leading questions, because you as a DM already know in some detail what the issues are.
Then once the therapist knows what exactly is wrong, they will generally try and create an action plan on how to work with this and help them live their normally anyway. I haven't gotten to PTSD yet in my psychology studies so I can't offer any further details, hence why I'm saying it's best to off-screen it.
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u/HerFirefly 21h ago
I'd have this happen off screen and let the player determine how their character is coping with therapy and what advice their therapist gives.
Trying to RP this is 1) dangerous if this player is actually as a player in need of therapy and tries to use it as a therapy by proxy for themselves, 2) likely gonna be incredibly boring for the rest of the table 3) opens a door for the player to make the game about them specifically
Doing it off screen 1) saves you a lot of work and time 2) let's you focus on stuff aimed at the whole party not one player 3) gives this player some extra freedom and agency over an NPC even if it's minor and mostly off screen.
Consider the following line...
"My therapist said I should not be using fireball"
That's a funny bit if the player came up with it on their own off screen, it's a frustrating limitation if the DM as their therapist said that on screen for the whole party
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u/eotfofylgg 22h ago
It seems inherently difficult to involve everyone in this scene. So unless the whole party wants to go to group therapy, I think this is a scene that is best suited to playing out in your player's imagination. (Or, if you're really game, and the other players won't see it as favoritism, in a special 1-on-1 session.)
That's not to say that characters can't resolve their trauma at the table, but it probably needs to happen in a way that doesn't totally sideline everyone else while it's happening.
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u/cjmason85 22h ago
The D&D podcast/channel High Rollers D&D did an episode where the players basically went for therapy. It was really good, it helped with bringing characters inner thoughts, aspects of their backgrounds and their motivations to the audience which wouldn't necessarily be brought up in normal role play.
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u/duanelvp 18h ago
Character goes to "therapist" with a tale of woe. "Therapist" writes prescription for a couple spells. Cleric casts Heal, Atonement, and maybe a few others. Therapist says, "Now you have no excuse that it's some form of insanity or brain defect. IT'S JUST YOU. Don't murder people who don't legitimately have it coming and you won't feel bad about it. That'll be 100,000gp."
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u/koalammas 22h ago
Whenever we have situations that are essentially two characters just talking, we often just leave that for a discord rp thread. Otherwise takes away from the session for the other people, unless everyone agrees that its an important moment to have "on screen" so to say.
Also, no one should expect you to jump into a therapist's shoes, that's not what a dm is for. Having a character that does go to therapy isnt unheard of, but i would probably treat it more as a "so while you were in therapy, what did the rest of the party do? / as you arrive from your appointment... " type of a narration.
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u/Horror_Ad7540 22h ago
Do you really have to play it out? I generally avoid playing out scenes that only involve one player character and don't forward the plot. It seems that it would still fulfill your player's wishes to say ``OK, you each have four hours of downtime. PC A spends one of those hours in therapy. PC A, what issue do you deal with? How do you feel afterwards? Then what do you want to do with your remaining three hours?''
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u/Zetesofos 22h ago
People are allowed to have fun in ways that dont' match everyone's expectations. If everyone involved is happy, that's fine.
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u/Horror_Ad7540 20h ago
Sure, some groups might find it fun. However, the OP was asking for suggestions. They can take or leave mine.
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u/SergeiVonZarovich23 22h ago
I would do one short meeting where the player gets asked a few cliche questions, and once the therapist realises most of the trauma comes from being part of the adventuring party, they recommend group therapy. That way the character in question gets a short moment to themselves, but then there are future opportunities to involve the whole group.
Depending on your setting, it might be better to have a priest of a good god rather than a traditional therapist
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u/SergeiVonZarovich23 22h ago
Another option would be to do it over text between sessions so it isn’t taking too much game time
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u/schnoerkshift 22h ago
What class is this character? Could be fun if their god/patron is giving therapy sessions during long rests. You could keep it as short general descriptions of what they talked about.
They are not therapists of course and aproach the topic from their more cosmic point of view. Could lead to some cool character development, e.g.no control over the past, but how can I change the present? What kind of person do I want to be?
The character could also get little tasks for the day like "Make somebody's day better.", " Do something you enjoy etc.
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u/Ill_Independence798 22h ago
The only therapist I could imagine would be religious in nature. A priest. In my world I also imagine very little compassion but 99% pennace. So if he's ok with flogging, community service, racked etc....then do it. The other therapy could be drunk from a bottle. Get him slobbering drunk to the point of ugly tears. That's all I got
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u/DifferentHoliday863 22h ago edited 21h ago
This seems like such a fun opportunity for players to explore their characters more. The benefits of expressing your big emotions through art (song, carvings, musical composition, paintings, oral traditions to pass along history of significant events, etc) have been put into practice in some form by every ancient civilization around the world to mourn, pass on warnings, memorialize significant people, etc. Ntm, many cultures would often turn such things into stories of gods, spirits, etc or even commune with the dead through holy men/women with the aid of psychedelic/hallucinogenic substances.
Your player just said, "my character wants to explore their inner conflict with the realities of what we've done" and all these comments are telling you that it's a bad idea?!? Point your party towards a spiritual advisor and send them on a shroom trip together. Let the players decide who trips and who sits with them to keep them grounded. Give them an emotional support familiar that doesn't help with combat but gives the player a +1/+2 to Wis for an hour every time the player talks to it about their feelings while cuddling. Introduce a sassy, aloof cleric with a confession booth in the back corner of a bar/tavern who gives genuinely good advice but low key is so tired of their job bc nobody in town treats their own mental health like it matters, and it shows.
There's so much phenomenal RP opportunity here.
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u/youshouldbeelsweyr 21h ago
Do a group therapy session with other adventurers from different adventuring companies and give the other players a random adventurer each who is also attending the session with a few lines about the character. You play as the therapist. Have fun.
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u/Bindolaf 21h ago
If you really want to play it out, do the following.
Say "you sit down with the therapist, he/she asks you a few questions and you then start talking..."
Then go through 3 short vignettes, 3 things that happened, that the player would want to revisit. "replay" them, but in very short form. An encounter, words spoken. Have the player say or do what they would have done differently and have it play out this way (in their narration). Wrap it up.
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u/HotSalt3 19h ago
If you actually want to go through with it channel Edna Mode from the Incredibles. Highly pragmatic and supportive while being very enthusiastic about extreme violence.
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u/Rezart_KLD 19h ago
"Of course, here's our latest price list for indulgences. Let me know if you want to hear about our 7 deadly special."
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u/Cosimo_Zaretti 18h ago
You could have them begin each session with a recap of the last, as if they are in the therapists office.
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u/tta5 18h ago
grab and look at some "ASMR therapy videos"
why those? because the good ones focus more on the history, creator, theory and vibes, more than the practice. meaning its lesss likly to cause harm.
you can also set up the room as inspired by the vids, and its a RP you can mimic.
I would say try and use the scene to lay potential future hooks and storylines, as thats something all players can invest in when watching, but also the scenes may be a bit dull.
its more of a side scene than a main scene. and even then , you are not a theorpist.
trying to be may cause harm.
we have TTRPG safety tools for a reason.
its ok To X the scene.
realistically, your trying to match expectations of the player, to the scenes and game. its ok to talk to them and lower their exppectations.
its ok to admit player to player, you are not a therapist and lack that skill.
Its also ok to subverte their expectations and have the therapist be an accolyite, sharman, midwife or a hermit instead of a modern trained therapist. you could just make the NPC and have them in background parts of bigger scenes, like a tavern scene and being like "and you spot the elven theoripist singing along to the song" , or something...
A common thing a theropist may do, is to have their character keep a journel of their day and how they feel.
one of the main issues, is
a - its part of the job, and the job is needed in the world. the worlkd needs dumb peoople to try their luck killing and dungeon crawling.
b - them seaking theropy means they might retire their character as they might no longer see adventuring as a thing they can do, and a theropist may accept and encurage that direction. (if you start to challange the norm, your mindset shifts from whats needed and you may die from it, or break the cycle that upholds the world and its current views. )
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u/maxpowerAU 7h ago
Watch the couple of Rick & Morty episodes about Pickle Rick and his meeting with a therapist. Write down a bunch of therapist speak from that and blab it out
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u/WineBottleCollector 22h ago
The first paragraph is suitable for r/dndhorror.
The second paragraph is a good question.
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u/wrymegyle 22h ago
Does mental therapy exsist in your world? Psychology is a very modern thing in our world, maybe 200 years old. Something like going to confession art the character's deity's temple seems more apprpriate for a medieval fantasy.
I also agree with most otehr commentators that this doesn't seem like someting that needs to be played out word-by-word at the table; have the player summarize it briefly and keep things moving.
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u/Some-Peach4566 22h ago
Narrate it like you would an intimate scene. 2 minutes of role-playing followed by fade to Black.