Playing An Insane Character-And Not The Good Kind of Insane

[Leliel]

Well, Ivan Emmerich, my PC in a Cthulhu Tech game, is, for lack of a better term, nuts. And not the good, "Freakazoid" nuts, or the better "Belkar" nuts, but the real-life, can't-function-in-society-as-a-normal-person nuts.

To be completely fair to him, his disorders are relatively mild (General Anxiety Disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), but he's at the point where he's creepy enough to scare people away from him. The fact that he's also an abnormally powerful telepath with an alien symbiote in his right hand may also have somthing to do with it as well...

So, how do you propose I protray him?

[Canadian]

He should do what all crazy people do. Soil themselves and then ride around on the subway all day long harassing people for spare change while wearing his tinfoil hat. Talk to himself and have spasms. Pull odd pieces of garbage out of his pockets and examine them. Drool. Isn't this what every crazy person does?

[allonym]

Well, there's lots of things you could do. And some strong research into OCD and general anxiety disorder could get you lots of good ideas. But I strongly suggest you not try too hard to portray it. If you focus on every, or even many, aspects of your character's insanity, you increase the chance of making a mistake, making your portrayal seem silly or inaccurate, you increase the amount of work you have to do, and, most importantly, you hog attention and time. While being insane should, obviously, be a handicap to your character, you should be careful to avoid being too disruptive to the game and taking time away from other characters.

To this end, I propose that you pick a handful, say, three strong traits you want to display your character's condition, such as, say, counting the number of fingers total among a room's inhabitants, perseverating speech (say the same thing, perhaps in different ways, many times), and fiddling with the buttons on his cuffs. Try to find ways to work these into general roleplay without making it seem like you're making a special effort to do so, and when it goes down, make a point of worsening of symptoms, like the buttons of the cuffs popping off and running out of numbers for Cthulhu's 'fingers'.

[Lert, A.]

So, how do you propose I protray him?

Things like counting and recounting bullets, cleaning any weapons, gear, etc.

Likely will try to find his own space, in quarters, an office or whatnot. Sits with back to a wall or tree, never towards a door. After a teammate speaks he stops to think about it while giving the speaker a measuring look to see if there is deception, then walks away or carries on in the conversation as if nothing happened.

[woodenbandman]

Watch episodes of the TV show Monk. The main character has OCD, and Tony Shaloub is excellent at portraying this.

[KevLar]

To be completely fair to him, his disorders are relatively mild (General Anxiety Disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder)
Yes, they are mild. You probably know people who have General Anxiety Disorder (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_anxiety_disorder), only no one has diagnosed it yet. It's entirely possible to pass your entire life without seeking help, because it just isn't obviously "strange": in modern societies, stress is part of the human condition.

In fact, maybe if the scientific community was focusing on finding a slightly better way of life, it would be infinitely more effective than what they're doing now, which is inventing new names for medical conditions every couple of years. (Give psychologists a day off, gather the economists, lock'em up in a dungeon and leave them there until they finally admit that they're doing it wrong.)
[/rant]

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsessive_Compulsive_Disorder) is way more obvious. Still, remember that about a century ago, a condition like that would only classify you as "mad" if it was very, very severe. Otherwise, you'd either pass off as "weird" (if you were a normal person) or "eccentric" (if you were a rich person).

For more info, just follow the links, eh?

[small pumpkin m]

Clean things, not necessary everything, some things can be completely dirty and unhygienic, but choose some things which have to be extremely clean. Complain when people touch and especially move your tools. Develop tics and tells like the way the Tennant doctor seems to pull on his ear, or maybe the way Tekeshi Kitano twitches the right side of his face, although that's a physical motorcycle accident thing. Find some you like to count, and count them, well, obsessively. Repeat basic actions.

Arrange your dice in patterns, either by shape or by the number on the top.

These are all OCD, I don't know much about General Anxiety Disorder.

-Edit, as allonym said, it's probably a good idea to choose a couple of things and stick to those, as opposed to trying to do everything, it's less scene hogging, simpler, and in the case of OCD, completely appropriate.

[bibliophile]

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/campaigns/sanity.htm

The above site should be extremely helpful. It has info about all kinds of real mental problems, ways of putting treatment options into a game, all kinds of useful stuff.

[Lert, A.]

In fact, maybe if the scientific community was focusing on finding a slightly better way of life, it would be infinitely more effective than what they're doing now, which is inventing new names for medical conditions every couple of years. (Give psychologists a day off, gather the economists, lock'em up in a dungeon and leave them there until they finally admit that they're doing it wrong.)[/rant]

I am a psychologist. Multiple doctorates.

I would agree that "inventing new names" is not beneficial, but providing names for disorders that do not fit into existing profiles is beneficial. Besides that, why blame us for not being able to fix peoples problems when everybody wants to live their lives however they please and nobody dare tell them that - to use your words - they're doing it wrong. If people actually listened to good advice instead of insisting that they know best and blaming others for their problems maybe that would improve their quality of life.[/grumble]

Of course this would not apply to psychiatrists who are money-loving quack whores.:smalltongue:

EDIT: Oh right, the OP....

People are often "crazy," but rarely "insane." It is a matter of degrees, whether one can connect to others and to situations or are in some way deficient. If you just play the character as someone who sometimes cannot quite understand the concepts provided but goes along with everyone anyways, you have a good base. Until he goes completely bonkers which is pretty much a given.

EDIT EDIT: By the way, I don't try to sound cranky on the subject. My specialties are in criminology and aberrant behavior, and I often don't get along well with the office types. I just get a bit annoyed when people try to say that people's problems come from other people not fixing the problems that the person in fact did create.

Yes, I like to break peoples brains. It is a hobby.:smallbiggrin:

[Iku Rex]

Watch episodes of the TV show Monk.
Sample: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=EGBopkc4geA

[KevLar]

why blame us for not being able to fix peoples problems when everybody wants to live their lives however they please and nobody dare tell them that - to use your words - they're doing it wrong.[...][/grumble]
Don't grumble. :smallsmile: I wasn't blaming you people at all*, I was blaming the right people.
*Waits for an economist with multiple doctorates to announce himself and grumble too.*

Consider my rant a reference to the famous Martin Luther King speech "in a world like this, I'm proud to be maladjusted", nothing more.

*except perhaps the "money-loving quack whores", and specifically those in the research department AND, at the same time, in the payroll of pharmaceutical companies. These people literally invent diseases instead of inventing cures.

[Lert, A.]

Don't grumble. :smallsmile: I wasn't blaming you people at all, I was blaming the right people.
*Waits for an economist with multiple doctorates to announce himself and grumble too.*

Consider my rant a reference to the famous Martin Luther King speech "in a world like this, I'm proud to be maladjusted", nothing more.

*patiently awaits economist to enter*

It's alright. I'm very... unconventional as a psychologist.

[charl]

Don't play him humoristically. Insanity is not really fun at all, so show that. Others may or may not laugh at him, but he doesn't enjoy a moment of it, not really. His actions are driven by dark emotions, fueled by desperation to hold on to the last of his humanity by any means necessarry. It is not a happy thing. It grinds away and erodes his personality, but at the same time letting go would be even worse, and deep down he knows it. Portray that.

Insist on acting out whatever compulsion you may have, and if you are prohibited from doing this, then the anxiety comes into play big time. You can't relax, how could you? Relaxation would mean losing control, and losing control would be the end of the world as far as you are concerned. You can't breathe properly, everything reminds you of how stressed you are. You try not to think about it, but in doing so you just remind yourself of how anxious you are. Can't sit still. Feeling restless. Why won't they let me do my thing? I must do it, otherwise I can't function. Nothing can function. I need structure.

Something like that I would imagine. Try to think like someone with the disorders would (but not too hard!), but don't overdo it.

[shadowfox]

The first thing to consider is the following: you're only classified with a mental ailment if it's serious enough to hinder your day-to-day life. So, just because your character likes his quills set up in a certain way doesn't mean that he's "full-fledged" OCD. If you've ever seen Matchstick Men, you could take a page from Nicholas Cage's character (when he opens or closes something, he needs to do it three times and count it aloud, for example). Or, maybe, he has to grip the doorknob in an exact way, and if he doesn't do it correctly, then he needs to start over, doing it over and over again until he achieves the "perfect" way for him to open a doorknob. Maybe he's obsessed with symmetry (his clothes have to be exactly a certain way, things he carries on his back needs to be even on the left and right side, etc.).

As for General Anxiety Disorder, well... Having no better source at the moment, this is a short description of it from Wikipedia:

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is an anxiety disorder that is characterized by excessive, uncontrollable and often irrational worry about everyday things that is disproportionate to the actual source of worry. This excessive worry often interferes with daily functioning, as individuals suffering GAD typically catastrophise, anticipate disaster, and are overly concerned about everyday matters such as health issues, money, death, family problems, friend problems or work difficulties. They often exhibit a variety of physical symptoms, including fatigue, fidgeting, headaches, nausea, muscle tension, muscle aches, difficulty swallowing, trembling, twitching, irritability, sweating, insomnia, and hot flashes.

In short, I guess you could say that he'd be a pessimist... Like Marvin in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series (the best 5-part trilogy to ever be released!). Just take a worry, and blow it a bit out of proportion, and you seem to have GAD, although the difficulty in controlling the worries are also linked to physical symptoms.

Actually, some of this is reminding me of Asperger's Syndrome...

[xanaphia]

(Amateur) economist here.

I think that what KevLar said was that most economists support capitalism, which causes stress. That's what this rant assumes.

Economics is about all sorts of things. Macroeconomics covers what groups of people (e.g nations) do, why, and what they should do. If you want to know why interest rates are normally positive, ask a macroeconomist.

Microeconomics is the study of what one person or artificial person does, why, and what they should do. If you want to know what prices your products should have, ask a microeconomist.

Capitalism is supported by most economists because they have complete and perfect reasoning as to why capitalism makes people on average get more of what they want. That's all they say. They don't say that it makes people happier, they just say it gives them more of what they want.

If you like being in a small community, which doesn't change much, then you would have loved living in the Stone Age. Capitalism doesn't say that people will be happier, it just says that they will have more of what they want.

Capitalism is wonderful. Capitalism is complete freedom to do what you want, provided no-one else is physically hurt. All of us with computers: that wouldn't have happened without capitalism. Cheap, fast food? None without capitalism. World of Warcraft? Never without capitalism.

Don't blame the poor economists for anything bad about today. Remember that now is the most peaceful, rich, and caring time in human history. The world is on average getting better slowly.

The credit crisis nowadays is not caused by failed economists. It was caused by failures of governmental control on banks. The banks basically lied about how much capital they had. Not capitalism's fault.

In Africa, people, children and women and refugees, can work in sweatshops and make money. The hours are long, the conditions are bad. But the people are doing it voluntarily. Sure, it'd be nice if they got higher wages, but obviously it's better than nothing. It is voluntary. That's the founding principle of capitalism. It makes you get more of what you want.

In Communist nations, various prices are controlled by the government. This could be wheat, doctor's services, or what car you can get. If you can't get fired, then why work hard? If no-one works hard, everything sucks.

That's one of the problems with public schooling. It is very hard to fire a bad teacher, thus why would teachers bother? Public education in America gets enough funding to send every child in America to the expensive private school in my city, and trust me American schooling is a lot worse than that.

In conclusion:

Capitalism gives people more of what they want.
The world is geting better, thanks to capitalism.
Economists generally support capitalism.
People blame them for supporting a system which occasionally fails.
It's not fair.


Thank you.

[Brother Oni]

*except perhaps the "money-loving quack whores", and specifically those in the research department AND, at the same time, in the payroll of pharmaceutical companies. These people literally invent diseases instead of inventing cures.

While I'm not a 'money-loving quack whore', I am in a research department* of a pharmaceutical company and I draw umbrage at your implication that we sit around inventing diseases. :smalltongue:

I'd like to point out that from the initial diagnosis of a disease, to determining suitable chemical entities, developing them into a usable state, taking them through clinical trials and finally putting them into the hands of patients can take anything up to 15-20 years.
Some of us work hard at trying to make cures for things.:smallamused:

*Well a pharmaceutical development department, but to the layman, it's the same thing. :smallbiggrin:



Anyway, with regard to the OP I recommend what another poster suggested and only focus on three or so traits to portray, otherwise you may end up overshadowing the other players, who may decide to put a bullet into your character's head to put him out of his misery since he's obviously that insane.

[PinkysBrain]

The everything has to be clean OCD is a bit played out ... the symmetry one is a barrel of laughs in Soul Eater (an anime).

[Fishy]

Capitalism is complete freedom to do what you want, provided no-one else is physically hurt.

Capitalism is economic liberty. Not to be confused with social liberty.

Furthermore, turn on the nearest tv and watch a commercial. Are we getting what we want, or are people making us want what they make?

Furthermore, go learn about debt-slavery, and the literal kidnappings that happen in the third world.

Capitalism is great, but it's not *that* good.

But yeah, OP. Play up the power of routine. It might get a bit boring to describe your character going about certain actions in the exact same way, but when the cultists are burning down the building, and you can't open the fire-escape door because it doesn't have the right kind of handle, the payoff is awesome.

[Learnedguy]

Well, the compulsive disorder is easy to characterize. Just study up some famous person with that disorder and emulate him (for instance Howard Hughes).

For instance you could bring some napkins with you to the play session, and then when you talk in character you should be almost manically cleaning your hands with them. When you got into a filthy room you might cover your mouth and nose with them and so on. Furthermore you for example be manically obsessed with counting the loot and other things. Make lists. Throw away the lists. Make new lists and so on. Ask at random if some party member still carries X item.

What goes for the general anxiety disorder, I suppose you could characterize it as a fear of the unknown. Don't ever dare do anything on your own, always demand that someone else stays with you, avoid dark places like the plague if you can help it...

Actually, in this case I think you'll actually get a bigger trade off if you annoy your co-players somewhat. Don't cross the line though, know when you have to sacrifice character for playability.

Anyway, it's not important that you play your madness out realistically as long as you play it out believably:smallamused:

[Prometheus]

In fact, maybe if the scientific community was focusing on finding a slightly better way of life, it would be infinitely more effective than what they're doing now, which is inventing new names for medical conditions every couple of years. (Give psychologists a day off, gather the economists, lock'em up in a dungeon and leave them there until they finally admit that they're doing it wrong.)
[/rant]
Woah, woah, woah! Who say economics and psychology had anything do with science! :smalltongue:

Seriously speaking though, these guys have fields where it is hard to make any progress in AND on top of that they have an infusion of politics mixed into their research grants. Most of what we know about psychology has come from biology. People wonder why I prefer physics.

[TheCountAlucard]

Ask at random if some party member still carries X item.

Did... did ya get that thing I sent ya? :smallbiggrin:

[hamishspence]

From the Fiendish Codex 1 onward, unusual forms of insanity have become conditions that can be bestowed on the players, in the forms of the obyrith Form of Madness ability.

Add in Dragon Magazine and MMIV, and you have a pretty impressive list. Elder Evils has one too.

[Tacoma]

Repeating things back that are said to you is an interesting one, but I'm not sure it fits with the two types of disorder you told us. I'm talking about when the DM is describing something, pick a word he says right before his pause and when he pauses, say that one word back with great seriousness and gravity. Perhaps throw in a number as if your character had counted the things.

DM: The fog swirls around the gaslights lining the street
You: Fourteen gas-lights.
DM: *Bewildered*
Players: Huh?
You: I counted them.

Would be hilarious.

[Darth Stabber]

So What is Belkar's Psychological malfunction. Anti-social personallity disorder. I've played a Belkar style Bat **** character before and it seems like it might be fun, but it really detracts from roleplaying. Genuine forms of crazy would probably add to the game as opposed to detract. May have to make some sort of nuerotic character in the near future

[Tacoma]

I always assumed Belkar was just a violent selfish jerk. You don't have to be insane to be Belkar ... that said, if you define insanity as abnormality, we're all a little insane because we have such variation in humanity. If you broaden the scope of "normal" to include all the wonderful things people do that we can accept, a lot of really weird people get edged out of being insane.

[Darth Stabber]

Given Belkar's complete lack of Empathy, and remorse it seems as though he would suffer from one, and given that owls wisdom clears up his malfunctions, he may just have some kind of mental deficiency that a lack of wisdom exacerbates.

[Tacoma]

Serial killers can be wise and intelligent too, ya know. The lack of empathy or whatever other disorder is separate from the other aspects of the mind. We really narrow it down by shoehorning everything regarding the mind into three statistics. Insanity falls outside all of them, really.

It's like saying that you were born with a nonfunctioning leg. But if you just had someone buff your STR, or DEX, or CON that limb would suddenly start working. That doesn't make sense because the cause of the deficiency lies not in a lack of STR, DEX, or CON but in a specific system failure.

[Darth Stabber]

I am refering to a specific oots comic namely http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0058.html where owl's wisdom temporarily cleared up Belkar's Violence issues, lack or empathy, and other such stuff.

[Nahal]

<snip>


Capitalism gives people more of what they want.
The world is geting better, thanks to capitalism.
Economists generally support capitalism.
People blame them for supporting a system which occasionally fails.
It's not fair.




I'll keep the counterpoint brief and move on to the response to the OP to avoid angering the gods (er, mods).

I'd argue that you can be upset with the financial services sector and economic forecasters, because the former got itself into a frenzy over products that were suspected to be unnecessarily risky and a significant portion of the latter were effectively blinded by historical arrogance. Fer Chrissakes, rating agencies' models didn't even allow for a decline in real housing prices prior to the crisis!

The problem with assuming that capitalism is awesome is that markets don't always self-correct, and at times you need to subordinate free-market principles for the sake of righting the economy (when a boat capsizes, you can't get anywhere by staying the course).[/rant]

@ the OP:
I agree with the people who have been suggesting you pick a couple key symptoms and use them to define the character's social interactions. I'd emphasise specific triggers and responses, just so he's not a quivering wreck the whole time. They don't even have to be obviously related (for example, spiders cause him to recite multiplication tables); worst case you can blame them on the alien symbiont messing with his brain.

[only1doug]

Well, Ivan Emmerich, my PC in a Cthulhu Tech game, is, for lack of a better term, nuts. And not the good, "Freakazoid" nuts, or the better "Belkar" nuts, but the real-life, can't-function-in-society-as-a-normal-person nuts.

To be completely fair to him, his disorders are relatively mild (General Anxiety Disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), but he's at the point where he's creepy enough to scare people away from him. The fact that he's also an abnormally powerful telepath with an alien symbiote in his right hand may also have somthing to do with it as well...

So, how do you propose I protray him?

OCD isn't necessarily obtrusive into a game, a friend of mine has OCD and cannot leave his flat without checking that everything is off (sockets, taps, gas, etc) and has to triple check the door lock. Sounds bad? well, i don't envy him but it only impacts his life 1/day and nobody notices it at work.

Pick an obsession, something interesting but not too intrusive and NEVER forget to do it (even when there are important things to do).

Suggestions (pick one):
whenever leaving a car, taxi, coach etc you HAVE to check down tha back of the seat cushions in case you dropped something important.

when passing a notice board you HAVE to check all posters for important information, even if you last read that notice board only 5 minutes ago.

the chosen OCD should be noted on the character sheet and the GM made aware of it.

GAD: I'd limit the GAD to subtle hints, Fidget whenever waiting, at planning sessions always look for where things can fail, if no obvious flaws can be found then point out the possibilities of extremely unlikely events ruining things.

example:
so we just walk to a cashpoint and withdraw money? what if the machine is empty? what do we do if it eats my cashpoint card? what if someone mugs me on the way back? what about if there is an earthquake and the machine is swallowed into the earth with my card in it. what are our plans in the event of a flood?

[zakk2to2]

ocd and nervouse? have him count out loud the ways verius objects around him could be used to kill him then reverse it to how he could use it to kill.

or because he is a strong telepath have him talk about what he reads in other peoples minds and says how they could have done it better and in a more orderly fashion.