Hey tg! I'm a brand-new DM, only been playing since January, so far, so good I guess. Now that my players have kind of gotten the rules down and everything, I'm trying to focus on them getting into character and staying there.

Now, obviously when rolling and whatever, in battle it's hard to stay in character, what with the telling me what attack their using, who the target is, blah de blah.

But for the rest of the time, I want to encourage them to get into their character. So far, not being in character hold the punishment 1d8 zombies. It's not really helpful most of the time.

How can I get them to get into character, and get them to stay in character? I really want them to do this, because I think this will make the game a lot more fun. When I was 9-13 I LARPd a sort of mix between DnD and Final Fantasy (no costumes or foam swords, just running around my friend's back garden) and we got into characters so deeply! It made everything really real for us, and I want that for my players.

So... tips, please?