Has anyone else ever gotten in-character in an RPG before?

[druid91]

I mean D&D style coming up with a story of who your character is, why they are doing what they are doing and so on. Because I just started doing that with my latest play-through of oblivion without even really thinking about it. I just started doing it.

He was a mage, arrested by A mythic dawn cult member who had positioned himself high enough in order to get to the emperors son.

When he escaped he through himself back into the mages guild, working to recompile his notes and establish a new identity in which he can practice his magic peacefully, unfortunately he has to work his way back into the arcane university while helping the blades on the side.

Then comes the battle of Kvatch, where he accidentally roasted one of the gaurdsmen, And not to mention his abandoning of a man in what amounts to hell simply to save time.

This is going to lead to him turning to the dark brotherhood, people who don't disaprove of his actions, where what he did was acceptable. And from there eventually making the plunge into Necromancy.

By the time the game is over I want to be using Black soul gems to steal peoples souls, and collecting the bodies of the dead to use as an undead army.

[Domochevsky]

Hum... no. Can't say i have. Or at least i can't remember specific incidents. >_>

[Eldan]

Vaguely, at best. And mostly for Elder Scrolls game, yeah. But it didn't go much beyond "Bastard son of a dunmer noble, grew up in Cyrodiil". One sentence, perhaps. Then I gleefully loot 4000 pillows.

[Comet]

I tend to do this when the actual going in the game is slow or uninteresting. So mainly when I'm running around or fighting filler mooks or something. My brain has nothing meaningful to do so I think about other stuff than the action itself to keep myself interested :smallbiggrin:

And in games with black and white good/evil options, it's fun (though sometimes nearly impossible) to try and come up with a character that has motivation for his evil actions beyond the usual 'I am evil and therefore I do evil things like kick this cat'.

[Daremonai]

Unless you count Neverwinter Nights persistent worlds, not really. I tend to find that the limited number of ways in which you can interact with the world don't really allow much "in-character" activity, unless you're prepared to constantly redefine your character in terms of what the game engine allows him/her to do.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

I know a guy who played through Fallout 3 as the Rail Tracer from Baccano!, and he had an immensely fun time doing it.

[Leecros]

I have a few times...it makes Oblivion more interesting after the first and second playthrough.

[arguskos]

Yeah, I have, mostly in the Baldur's Gate series and the Icewind Dale series. They're just so easy to slip into the Let's Play mentality with.

[Giggling Ghast]

I have a backstory thought up for my Dragon Age character that explains his motivations. I generally tried to play as him during the game. And I scripted out a scene from his childhood for a fanfic I wrote.

[Cespenar]

It's fun to make up rough backstories, relationships and personalities for generals in any Total War game. Spices it up, I think.

[GungHo]

The more meaningful choices I have about how the story plays out and how my guy "(re)acts", the more "into it" I'll get.

For instance... Fallout, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Alpha Protocol, Deus Ex... I get into these and will have definite motivations for why my guy/gal goes down the paths he/she goes.

If I'm on rails and the guy reacts the same way every time I play (Final Fantasy, Ultima, Oblivion) though? Not so much. I don't have near the same personal investment with those.

[Kish]

I've never gotten why anyone would play a roleplaying game of any sort without...roleplaying. It strikes me as pretty much like playing football without a ball.

[Mx.Silver]

I've never gotten why anyone would play a roleplaying game of any sort without...roleplaying. It strikes me as pretty much like playing football without a ball.

I dunno, I've yet to see anyone playing a Fifa game while simultaneously kicking a ball around. Not as standard gaming practice anyway :smalltongue:

[CarpeGuitarrem]

I've never gotten why anyone would play a roleplaying game of any sort without...roleplaying. It strikes me as pretty much like playing football without a ball.
The term "roleplaying game" has evolved, depending on what it's applied to. It doesn't necessarily literally mean "roleplaying game" in this context. Video games tend to give you a character to play, and the fact that you have a character is the RPG element. They also have tended to de-emphasize player choice outside of combat.

[MechaKingGhidra]

Apparently, according to one of my friends that witnessed me playing Valkyria Chronicles, I made for a very convincing commander, especially when it came to moving units with the most minute of change in detail.

But then, I guess I love how sensitive the game can be, regardless of the semi-luck value.

[Remmirath]

Always, if I find that I can. If I can't, I consider it to be a worse RPG for it. That's probably why I have such a problem with some game mechanics; they make it harder to really flesh out your character.

I find it to be easiest with Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale, and that is part of why they're my favourite games.

[Tengu_temp]

When people talk about roleplaying in single-player video games, I can't help but think about those (http://www.uesp.net/wiki/User:Dagon21/Roleplaying_Ideas). Half of which are roleplaying indeed, but you're roleplaying a deluded lunatic who thinks things in the game are not what they really are.

[faceroll]

Only when I'm trollin' on the rp servers.

[Calemyr]

I do all the time, mainly with western RPGs. Eastern ones tend to tell you who you are, so it's largely unnecessary. I find it helps, however, when you have an idea who you are. In Oblivion I am the last Frostcrag, torn between hatred of the Empire that took his land and family and his loyalty to the people within that Empire. In the Baldur's Gate Trilogy I'm the Scion, a man at constant war with the destructive impulses of his bloodline. In New Vegas I am the Jack of Hearts, an ex-boxer, ex-hitman, ex-prospector who keeps returning to courier work because everything else he attempts blows up in his face, only to have even that turn on him in the end. In Neverwinter Nights 2 I'm Argent, the cleric of Kelemvor, fashioned by my foster father into an ultimate weapon against the dead. I could go on, but I see some of you have already started to go to sleep.

It could easily just be me, but I find that doing this makes the game much more interesting. You're not just creating a story, then, you're creating your story, and the game is just the framework you use. And even if you play the same game twice, it doesn't have to be the same story. Every game becomes it's own Let's Play in my head, even if I never put the story on paper.

That's how I see it, anyway.

[druid91]

When people talk about roleplaying in single-player video games, I can't help but think about those (http://www.uesp.net/wiki/User:Dagon21/Roleplaying_Ideas). Half of which are roleplaying indeed, but you're roleplaying a deluded lunatic who thinks things in the game are not what they really are.

Ironically reading those pages were what made me make this topic.

Those exact pages.

[Eldariel]

Mostly in Baldur's Gate Trilogy & Fallout 2 (and Jagged Alliance 2 outside the actual genre). A game has to be immersive and awesome for me to bother. No, it doesn't happen automatically, at least not to me; I have to make a conscious decision to begin really getting in-character.

[Fri]

Yes. When I play mostly storyless games like ice wind dale or temple of elemental evil, I often imagined backstory or characterization of my toons, and imagines how they'll interact with each others in a real game. Most of the time it's more interesting than the game's real storyline.

I don't do that in games with real storyline and characterization.

[Thane of Fife]

I tend to do this with pretty much every game. I find it
significantly increases my interest.

"Hmm, 'Zoomers,' huh? I wonder what Samus Aran thinks about zoomers? Well, they're just walking around, all spiky, they don't hurt anybody, right? As long as you keep your distance. They're kind of cute, really. I bet Samus doesn't mind zoomers, so I'll try to leave them alone."

Metroid Prime: 3: "Disease-bringers!? If I'd known that, I'd have killed all of them back on Tallon IV and Aether! Stupid Scan Visor, why didn't you mention that?! Time for some zoomer hunting!

[Spacefarer]

I don't always with the first playthrough, since game mechanics force me to revise my story too much. But on subsequent playthroughs, always. I find that it helps me play a more consistent character. The first time through I do a lot of things just because they seem cool. Of course, there are always the exceptions on playthroughs, namely the ones where I'm specifically Achievement-hunting.

[Winter_Wolf]

At first I had no idea what you were really asking, but then it clicked. I have in fact done something like this while playing JRPGs back on my old console. Why? Grinding, and generally having no freaking idea what exactly I was supposed to do next, in the days before the internet was useful. Had to entertain myself somehow. Second generation of Phantasy Star III, I had a whole soap-opera crazy thing going on in my head with Ayn, Thea, and the cyborgs. Apparently I deviate quite far afield of characters' canon personalities when I do that.

Also, just remembered, I do that with SMAC/X a lot.

[Yhynens]

I know a guy who played through Fallout 3 as the Rail Tracer from Baccano!, and he had an immensely fun time doing it.

This is absolutely amazing.


"Hmm, 'Zoomers,' huh? I wonder what Samus Aran thinks about zoomers? Well, they're just walking around, all spiky, they don't hurt anybody, right? As long as you keep your distance. They're kind of cute, really. I bet Samus doesn't mind zoomers, so I'll try to leave them alone"

Heh, that's totally the opposite of how I roleplay as Samus. I was doing a ustream of Zero Mission once where I killed literally everything, and played Samus as if she was a violent psycopath with severe daddy issues (so I treated all Chozo statues as if they were my actual adoptive parents.) It was pretty flippin hilarious. I also tend to play Link as a self-absorbed scrub who talks about himself in third person. "You want a piece of the Hero of Time!?" Especially good during three hearts runs where everything can one shot you near the end.

Anyway, I probably do this some in every game I play, looking at it now. I know in Tactics Ogre I had these complicated relationships between all my party members. Who was sleeping with who, etc. When I play Elder Scrolls I don't even think about it, though... I think I just like filling in blanks where the game doesn't give me a chance, so WRPGs don't really do anything for me, since they just limit the options you get by giving you a choice. If my options are only a, b, and c, that doesn't give me a lot of room, but Samus and Link don't say anything so I get to make them all up.