PDA

View Full Version : Roleplayers: Do you play someone you are not?



Vemynal
2012-01-19, 11:11 PM
Hi! First to be more specific about what I mean.

I've noticed that I and several of my friends tend towards certain roleplaying...niches so to speak. But the oddity of it all comes from the fact that each of our "niches" seems to be inverse to how we actually act in our real lives.

Two examples; I tend to love the concept behind playing the paladin class and in fact still enjoy playing it with *all* of its faults. Though I think I've come up with something recently that has the same feel at around a mid tier 2 range =). Playing a "Righteous and holy hero of good" differs from my real life personality in the fact that I'm atheist (sorry if this skirts the religion rule) and I tend towards a chaotic neutral personality myself. I tend to make excuses for my failures instead of "committing to be better" and I will do whatever good or bad deeds will get me what I want. Admittedly I'm rather amoral =/.

On the opposite side of things I have a friend who you could quite easily describe as Lawful Good but he *loves* to play evil characters. In fact, in the last 5 years of gaming with him I've never seen him play a character that wasn't Lawful, Neutral or Chaotic Evil. He loves to play the character who's willing to commit any atrocity necessary for his side to win. And believe me, he's done some messed things O_o.

So my question to you all is; do you tend towards a specific role in your games and is that role at odds with how your real life persona is?

And do you think that this is simply because "we are role playing. you don't play what you are" or that we might be living vicariously through these roles?

This also could apply to the big guy/jock who loves playing the gnome wizard. Or the skinny, "wimpy" guy who loves playing the muscled hero. Though I don't know any examples of that one myself.


Just wondering how common this is outside of my friends since this seems to affect all but one of us. And the 1 exception is my friend who I don't think I could attach an alignment to always playing True Neutral characters.

NikitaDarkstar
2012-01-19, 11:43 PM
Lets see here. I have a tendency to play rogue'ish, highly agile characters, usually either true neutral, chaotic neutral or chaotic good. Even if it's a fighter, it's a dual wielding fighter. If it's a wizard it's a scoundrel wizard (not nessicarily one going for the most powerful spells in the book... just unusual applications.) MY current fighter/bard is probably the one who deviates from the norm the most. He's calm, tends to think things through, actually has survival instincts (yhea.. so the rogue who jumped of the back of a dragon 75ft in the air to land on the back of an enemy short swords first? Yhea, she didn't have much of that.) and is generally just a nice, friendly, good guy. (Neutral Good)

Myself? Well while my characters tend to match my personality decently well (exaggerated, but we do have things in common) we don't have much physically in common. I have some decent raw strength yes, but agility? Yhea you'll see the fridge do back-flips before me. :p

Lonely Tylenol
2012-01-20, 12:24 AM
My first character was a pretty apt interpretation of myself (intelligent, bookish, blunt, sometimes arrogant, always looking at the bigger picture, but fairly short-sighted, and often missing the elephant in the room; Chaotic Good; physically weak, but quite dexterous).

I can and have played characters with physical appearances, attributes, personal moralities, lifestyle preferences, etc. vastly different from my own. This isn't necessarily of a tendency to play people drastically different from my real personality of characteristics, so much as it is a tendency to play a diverse range of personalities and characteristics (I also happen to be a stage actor, though only of the bit-part variety, so this is more or less consistent with who I am in real life as well).

SleepyShadow
2012-01-20, 12:56 AM
Hmm, an interesting thought. I'd like to get some folk from my group to answer this too :smallbiggrin: Let's see ...

1st Character: Excitable dwarf fighter that was very prideful of his beard. Nope, not me. Didn't even have a beard then.

2nd Character: A witty yet socially inept elf fighter/magic-user. He had a bad habit of putting his foot in his mouth, especially around women. Definitely me in my youth, though not terribly spot-on these days.

After that character was retired, I never got to be a player for more than the occasional one-shot adventure someone felt like running. I've been a GM 95% of the time for ten solid years now, so when I get that rare opportunity to play a PC, I tend to make it quite different from myself.

Ziegander
2012-01-20, 01:12 AM
I consider myself a good actor, so my experience may be somewhat atypical, but I don't think I've played a character that I don't identify with in some ways. For example, I consider myself to be of Neutral Good alignment and a generally helpful, nice guy. I'm slightly built with average strength, above average dexterity, exceptional toughness, exceptional intelligence, average common sense (but with max ranks in perception and sense motive), and above average charisma.

I don't think I've ever played an Evil character or a character that wasn't at least of above average intelligence. I've played characters at every spectrum of Neutral, arrogant sellsword brutes, absent-minded genius Wizards, and all sorts of characters in between. My favorite character of all time was a patronizing, misogynist-yet-genius Dungeon Crasher Fighter named Rufus Mallory, an old soldier, turned mercenary, with a chip on his shoulder, whose good conscience often got him into more trouble than he cared to deal with (Fighter 6; Str 22, Dex 13, Con 17, Int 17, Wis 12, Cha 8). But I never played a character that there wasn't a little bit of myself in, and I'm not sure anyone ever really has. I would say that when players play "the opposite of who they really are" that they are definitely living vicariously and doing things in game that they, maybe only very rarely, think of doing in real life but ultimately feel that they cannot.

Alleran
2012-01-20, 01:47 AM
Parts of me almost always bleed through to my characters. Not necessarily to any great extent (though that varies as well), but it's generally going to be there.

The Dark Fiddler
2012-01-20, 06:33 AM
Well, the majority of my characters tend to be good, but I've played my share of neutral and evil characters, and I've played everything from bruisers to casters, tanks to sneaks. Let's see what characters I can remember...

Chaotic Good Crusader
Lawful Neutral (Later Evil) Necromancy-Specialized Wizard
Chaotic Neutral Awakened Cat Sorcerer (I think this bears mention for how strange it was...)
Chaotic Good Rogue
Lawful Good Warblade
Neutral Good Druid

I know there's more, but that's the most memorable characters. 4 Good characters, 1.5 Neutral, .5 Evil; 2 Lawful, 1 Neutral, 3 Chaotic. So, a lot of Chaotic and/or Good characters, which matches my outlook pretty well, I'd say, but a non-insignificant number of other alignments. I should note that this list gives a rather skewed proportion of casters to non-casters, but I've played countless more non-casters and only one or two more casters.

missmvicious
2012-01-20, 06:49 AM
Our group noticed that we were stuck in a role-playing rut, so we started doing some single-session-game RP exercises to get us out of our funk. It's working pretty well, and we already have some great new ideas for characters we want to play.

But, previously... let me think:
Ellywick the Gnome Bard, CG:
My first character, and I almost always played her when I was buzzed on some good alcohol. First session, I tried to set a school on fire. I don't play drunk anymore. I guess that means I played her as CE

Aika the Human Barbarian, CE:
Everyone suggested Barbarian since I like being chaotic. Weirdly, I played her LG. I don't know how that happened. The game didn't last long. I think it lasted 3 sessions.

Eliana the Dark Elf Bard, CE:
I played her as LN. It was an unremarkable campaign that ended badly. I don't remember much about it.

(Can't remember the name) the Goblin Cleric, CE:
I played her so evil. Just so shamefully evil. I did things I'm not proud of in that campaign, but I'm going to say that I probably played her LE.

Linsey, the Wizard, LG:
I've been accused of playing her NN... they're probably right.

Kira, my avatar, the Genasi Swordmage, LG:
She was delightfully creepy, but only seemed evil. She was the closest to in-character I think I've ever played.

I think my habit is to play in a way other than how I intended to play her. IRL I really struggle at doing what I'm told. Maybe that bleeds into my tendency to rebel against alignment restrictions.

Need_A_Life
2012-01-20, 10:29 AM
In short, yes.

Now, apart from not being an orc, elf, vampire, spellcaster or a thousand of other things I think it's part of the charm of roleplaying.

I've played...

A Dark Heresy Guardsman. Apart from being female (random rolling meant that 4/5ths of the group was female) she was basically a barbarian who provided muscle to "them smooth-talkers an' thinkers." She blew an undercover assignment when someone didn't check in with her on schedule, which led to her massacring our best clue :smallredface:
A D&D Vow of Poverty Monk, who was basically a martyr without a cause, hardly a sense of humour and a devout believer.
A D&D misotheistic [hatred of Gods] Archivist, who usurped their undeserved power for his own ends. He was cold, cynical, but well aware that he needed to stay on good terms with the grop Paladin, so I'd prepare rebuttals for the use of every questionable spell he'd see me use.
A Dark Heresy Techpriest, who manipulates events to never have to fight, all the while being a combat monster with a sense of humour so dry you can never quite tell if he's joking or just alien.
A Vampire the Masquerade Tremere, who would do anything to "succeed," in whatever failing he was feeling most guilty over at the time.
A Vampire the Masquerade Malkavian who spent most of his time spreading rumours (true, false or plausible) for his own amusement (note, this was a LARP, so you get better results).
An Exalted Eclipse Caste Solar (in a homebrew setting, where Exalted took the place of deities), who spent most of his time dealing with trade, bargains and social engineering and who spent an entire combat against the avatar of a pseudo-Christian God flipping through the Gods holy book, looking for appeasement rites, contact information or goals (while exclaiming, on my tick, "This book doesn't have any answers!")

I'm an atheist student of theology, viking age enthusiast, who has practiced martial arts and find religion and psychology to be some of the most fascinating topics imaginable.

So, yes, I think I've played people different from myself. The Malkavian would probably be closest to myself, but that was mostly because I expected the LARP to last for a month or two, not going on its second year, so I didn't want to do a lot of work.

Grinner
2012-01-20, 10:45 AM
I remember reading through a couple of RPG blogs where a few atheists reported having enjoyed playing religious characters.

In cRPGs (Elder Scrolls, Fable, etc.), I tend towards heavy melee combatants, so, yeah, you could say that's true about me. I did once play a rogue in Oblivion, though, and had a ton of fun in the Assassin's Guild.

@SleepyShadow: What about your NPCs?

Lifeson
2012-01-20, 11:19 AM
For me, I do and I don't. I find it easiest to make a character based on a facet of my own personality and make different facets that go with it. Kind of like keeping the 20 on a D20, but changing the rest of the numbers, you know?

The character I played most different from myself was a rogue who's only interest was number one. Even then, I still bled through into him, as he'd start playing the white knight around the women he met.

Considering my real-life self is pretty much as neutral good as it gets, I do find myself playing a lot of goody-goody characters, even if the ethics scale gets thrown all over the place. Even had a Chaotic Neutral bard slide into Chaotic/Neutral Good because he believed he was the hero of a story and started to shape himself as such to make it a better story, then actually realized that doing good felt good and stayed with it.

Dienekes
2012-01-20, 11:36 AM
While originally my first character was more or less me, except as an 8 foot tall lizard, I've since developed to playing pretty much anything. I've played idiots, geniuses, atheists, priests, treehuggers, paladins, and villains. Mostly I tend to take influences from whatever book or books I'm currently reading more than my own personality. Except they all end up being sarcastic. In real life I'm a rather sarcastic and pessimistic person and no matter what their personality starts like at the beginning my sarcasm tends to bleed into them by the second or third session, so now I've more or less given up trying to not be snarky.

What I have noticed about my group though is more than personality we tend to take certain roles:
Both me (though I've been stuck as GM for the last several years) and my one friend prefer frontline fighters. Another has to have a guy who has a ton of skill points. Another tends to do just weird or crazy things.

Jeff the Green
2012-01-20, 12:43 PM
I don't play me, mostly because I think I'd be a fairly boring character in an RPG. I'm not adventuresome, I'm a homebody, and when/if there's a cause I care a lot about I much prefer to do work in the background (e.g. PR, organizing, research) to being on the front lines (e.g. protesting). If I were a D&D character, I'd be an artificer or a wizard that never went on adventures, but stayed home and crafted or researched new spells and weapons for whatever cause needed support.

So I play characters that aren't much like me. Holy warriors, suave spies, roguish pirates, or mystic shamans.

There are two facets I prefer my characters to be similar to me, though. First, morality/alignment. I have very strong gut senses about morality, and spend a decent amount of time thinking about ethics. I have a very hard time playing a character that doesn't have some grounding on the lawful/good corner of the alignment axis. I can play a character that is willing to do things for a cause that I wouldn't in real life (e.g. torture, murder) or who believes in deontological morality, while I'm a utilitarian, but I have a hard time even conceiving of what motivates an evil character.

Second, I have a hard time roleplaying stupid characters. I'm intelligent and well-educated, as are almost all of my family and friends, so it's very hard for me to get into a less-than intelligent character. So almost all of my characters have had at least 12 INT, and usually higher.

Kiero
2012-01-20, 12:49 PM
I tend to play variations on me as if I'd grown up in a different place/time. That might be why I can't stand bookish mages and the like. I generally play combat-ready generalists, warriors of some stripe. In real life I'm a lifelong martial artist and upper-tier amateur/lower-tier elite athlete.

Tyndmyr
2012-01-20, 01:17 PM
I frequently play variations of me. That said, I have a very high tolerance for danger and adventure in real life.

CodeRed
2012-01-20, 01:35 PM
I think I do bleed into all of my characters. I am a really sort of flippant person with a free spirit but when sh%t hits the fan I'm always the guy ready to fix things. In some way or another, whatever my char's alignment, either the witty, care-free nature gets expressed or the steadfast one gets expressed (sometimes a bit of both.)

First Character ever was a 3.5 Paladin. LG and devoted to the core and not once did I ever have a stick up my ass.

The next was also a LG but he was a monk. Despite the class being functionally borked (did not know this at the time) he was strong for the power level our group ran on. Took a bunch of exalted feats and used the Stigmata one to save my party on multiple occasions. After enough self-sacrifice, the DM decided to let me have the Saint template.

Those are the best example of my sort of stalwart, steadfast types but I also absolutely love rogues. I mean, everybody loves being the Han Solo of the group - quick with a joke but even faster with their weapon.

Sure, I've done some NE and LE types but they usually end up still expressing one of those two qualities. I guess the two bigs things about my personality are believing in duty but also that life is too short to always take seriously. My NE wizard was fun because though he may be the guy willing to kick a box of puppies if it would make him a buck, almost everything he did was for the hilarity of it.

Deepbluediver
2012-01-20, 01:54 PM
Oh definitely Vemynal.

I tend to think of myself as mostly-chaotic IRL (curious, spontaneous, self-dependent, anti-authority, etc) with a few obsessively-orderly quirks, but in games I love roleplaying as EXCEEDINGLY lawful characters.
My definition of lawful though is more like highly disciplined with a strict personal code of honor. It doesn't even have to be good-lawful; I had a great time playing a lawful-evil mercenary who worked as an assassin.

I think it's that my normal world view is very shades-of-grey-nothing-is-absolute, and it's a lot of fun for me to break loose and pretend to be something very extreme without any of the associated guilt or feelings of hypocrisy (at not living up to my own standards).

TheEmerged
2012-01-20, 02:39 PM
I thought pretending to be someone other than myself was the *point* of roleplay?

No, really. No humor or sarcasm tags here at all. I don't get to actually *play* that often, as I'm usually the DM/GM. When I do get a chance to play a character, I make it a point to create a *character*.

Most of my time playing in D&D 3.0, for example, was as a Lawful Evil (Lawful Selfish would be more accurate) kobold telepath in a monster campaign (other PC's included a gnoll ranger & hobgoblin rogue). The real me is much closer to Neutral Good*, so it was a challenge at times to justify him working with others that didn't fit into his chain of command.

*"The Law is a crutch, and Freedom a chain. I will do what is right."

NowhereMan583
2012-01-20, 03:59 PM
All the time.

Almost none of my characters can be trusted to work on behalf of the party, and their Bluff & Sense Motive skills tend to be through the roof. My last Mouse Guard character spent so much time sneaking around behind the party's back that most of what I did during sessions was pass notes with the GM. In real life, I tend to go with the flow, and I'm pretty sure I'm working with severe penalties to Bluff & Sense Motive.

My characters are often deeply religious. In the past few years, I've played two cult leaders, a missionary, a theologian, a preacher, and a dangerous religious extremist. Both the cult leaders and the theologian were in long-running campaigns. In real life, I have no religious affiliation, but I do find the concept very interesting.

Many of my characters have a lust for wealth and power. In the past few years, I've played a white-collar criminal, a mafioso, a handful of shameless thieves, and five characters with the stated goal "rule and/or destroy the world" (only one of them succeeded, and that was in the post-campaign epilogue). In real life, I scrape by on a grad student stipend, and I'm fine with that.

I frequently play reckless, impulsive characters. This is why my Cult of Tiamat never even got close to world domination -- I adopted Baldrick's catchphrase of "I have a cunning plan" to describe whatever I came up with on the spot. At one point, the GM pretty much summed up the whole campaign (I had somehow managed to secure a leadership role within the party) with, "I think there's a slight plan in your flaw." For many of my characters, forethought was something that happened to other people. In real life, I'm fairly methodical.

My characters generally have some sort of conflicted relationship with "rules" and "society". In an Eclipse Phase one-shot, my character devoted all of his energy to attempting to destroy human civilization, and came pretty close to succeeding. In real life, I'm probably Lawful Neutral.

On the other hand, in the longer-running campaigns, character development usually results in my characters gradually becoming more like me.

Binks
2012-01-20, 04:30 PM
I have noticed that my characters do tend to fall into the 'Face' role pretty easily. 4 party leaders/faces in RL play and only 2 that didn't fit that role (both of which were secondary characters, one a GMPC, the other me playing 2 characters). I am normally a pretty quiet person, so I guess it is playing a type of character who I am not.

That said, my PbP characters tend to be more varied, if only because I've built far more of them and it's easier to RP more varied people in a play by post environment than RL where you're always on the spot.

It has been something I have noticed, however, and thought about. I'm glad to see it's not just me.

kyoryu
2012-01-20, 04:55 PM
I try to. I'm sure some of my personality bleeds through, but I try to give my characters distinctive personalities, drives, and beliefs.

gkathellar
2012-01-20, 06:10 PM
I do my best, but I also play what I'm interested in playing, so my own identity usually comes through some. Most of my characters have some dynamic of Choice v. Determinism inherent to them, because I'm a philosophy student with a passion for existentialism and I can't turn that off. Most of my characters are socially ill-adjusted in one way or another, because I'm a solitary, taciturn person by nature and I can't turn that off either.

I think the best anyone can do is roleplay a character who is only like them in ways they're not comfortable with — you can never remove the actor from the part entirely.

Anderlith
2012-01-20, 06:51 PM
I find that me & my gaming group play aspects of our personalities. I played a soldier that was argumentative & steadfastly loyal, ultimately sacrificing my self for the groups leader (both aspects I have), he didn't have my humorous side & he was kind of a jerk. Another character, a mage aristocrat was steadfastly loyal (didn't get to kill himself though), but was joking & competitive, he also lied a bit.

I have a friend who plays a gruff half orc barbarian who hardly said two words (he's a bit like that in real life) but then he plays an eccentric gnome wizard who sit didn't say much, but the rest of his character's personality was different.

Karoht
2012-01-20, 06:58 PM
Sometimes I play an archetype I can slip into easily. In otherwords, I play a character with similar personality traits and outlook.
Sometimes I play an archetype I have to think about to really play properly. In other words, a character with personality traits and outlook that do not align with mine.
Then there are all the variations in between.

As for class/role, I don't really look at any of those as me. I'm not super smart, but I can play an intelligence based class. I'm not extremely socially skilled, but I can play a social character such as a Bard.

I'm used to a variety of 'jobs' in games, including environments where my 'job' changes rapidly.
Right, so at this moment I'm healing. Uh oh, there's a pack of baddies headed our way, everyone is engaged with other things. Okay, now my job isn't healing, it's battlefield control. Act accordingly.
In games, I tend to enjoy flexible characters that can shift-on-the-fly and react to situations. In life I've been called a social chameleon. Am I an adaptable person in real life? Mostly. Do I play adaptability as my strength? Not always.

Pisha
2012-01-20, 08:24 PM
Yes and no.

A pet theory of mine is that one of the things we do when we play is explore those sides of our personality that, for one reason or another, never get to come out and play. (Which would explain why so many very moral people enjoy playing evil characters - it lets them give free rein to darker impulses that they would never act on in real life!)

So for example - one of my standard characters is the smiling trickster - a physically agile character who's clever, witty, lies like a rug, and - although her heart's ultimately in the right place - tends to look at rules as suggestions, and revels in chaos for its own sake. In real life, of course, I'm physically clumsy, tend to follow rules, and can't lie for nuthin'. (Unless I'm in character. Seriously - pretending to be someone who can lie well makes me able to lie well. It's bizarre.) Playing this role (and I've played her, in one form or another, in at least or 4 games) lets me play around with this aspect that's completely unlike my day-to-day self...

...except that it didn't come from a vacuum. That archetype is in me, it's part of me, I just don't (or in the case of the physical aspects, can't) act on it very often.

And of course, like most rp-ers, I don't just stick to the one type - I like to stretch myself and play characters who are drastically different in one or two key ways. Thing is though, if I really look at them, even those characters have something in common with me. They have to. The only times I've tried to play characters that didn't have anything at all of myself in them... I lost interest. There was nothing to connect to, no way inside their head.

Solaris
2012-01-20, 11:32 PM
Yes and no.

A pet theory of mine is that one of the things we do when we play is explore those sides of our personality that, for one reason or another, never get to come out and play. (Which would explain why so many very moral people enjoy playing evil characters - it lets them give free rein to darker impulses that they would never act on in real life!)

I've a rather similar theory, though I would've stated it in a less charitable light.

Most of my characters tend to be more like me than not, though they tend to focus on a facet or three of my personality rather than the composite whole. I'm, unfortunately, a rather honest person and a terrible liar (despite being a good actor and storyteller, it's weird). I generally play a paladin, fighter, or rogue (focused on the Int-based and Dex-based skills, not Cha-based)/wizard. I'm usually the idea guy and/or the party leader - I look like I know what I'm doing and have forgotten more about squad- and team-level tactics than most people will ever know.
Of course, hardly any of my characters are as ruthless or mean-spirited as I am in reality. Go figure.

USS Sorceror
2012-01-21, 12:09 AM
Well, most of the time I'm on the DM side of the screen, and a lot of villains are what I think I'd be like if I got the chance to be evil. Usually the antagonists I create are conniving, striving towards some great goal, using the "help" to get there (and sometimes letting the "help" think it's the boss). Generally Lawful Evil, though I enjoy a good Chaotic killing spree now and then.

The most recent character I played was absolutely nothing like me: A half-wit half-orc barbarian with an Int of 5 and a Str of 20. Completely stupid, highly naive, and very influenceable (the party took full advantage of this by getting him to rage at the slightest thing in battle). Chaotic Neutral with Good tendencies which is only because of the people around him. He was fun to play.

In reality I'm probably Lawful Good/Neutral with pathetic physical stats and above average mental stats, so yes, I definitely play someone I'm not.

lady_arrogance
2012-01-21, 06:36 AM
Several other posters have already said that something of their selves bleeds over to character - and while I *do not* like players playing themselves, still best characters I've seen played have had something of their player in them.

Like the bleed-over from player gives depth to character. Or maybe because character has something from the player, she or he is more invested playing the character.

Randrew
2012-01-21, 03:22 PM
Role-playing is often wish fulfillment. As a result, I believe that most people play what they wish they could be, what is coolest to them.

My characters are almost always incredibly mundane. I used to joke that while others will want to be the guy with the huge sword or the powerful wizard, I'll play the tinsmith. I figure that this is probably because I really like being who I am, which is to say, a regular person. Or maybe it's just like that I enjoy outwitting and outlasting people with more power than I have. Or perhaps both.

No matter what type of character I play, I end up in a non-magical support role. That's just who I am and I'm happy to do it. Personality-wise, my characters more recently have been less effective than I am as a person. Less intelligent, less aware, less socially capable. It's been rather odd. Of course, I am now playing a character who is the leader of a political movement and a better person than I am. It stretches me to my limits. I love it.

Urpriest
2012-01-21, 03:40 PM
I undergo a bit of evolution generally. Early on with a group I play very careful, intellectual characters who tend to mirror my own personality. Once I'm more comfortable with the group's playstyle I tend to lapse into big dumb characters with silly accents because they're more relaxing to play.

Hiro Protagonest
2012-01-21, 04:17 PM
I basically play myself, but a bit more talkative (still quieter than most) and with heroic skills (generally involving athleticism and combat). One day, if I ever complete a campaign, I might try a different personality.

Morithias
2012-01-21, 06:40 PM
I usually play character with personalities that fit their builds. However all my builds are based around concepts I steal rather than create.

For example my latest build is "Patricia" a Lawful Evil princess who wishes world domination (stolen from princess maker 4).

Another build is "havoc" A warforged monk thayan gladiator, who punches like he was colossal in size (stole from Real Steel).

However the one thing that I play often that I am not....women

A LOT of my character are girls even though I am not one.

Icedaemon
2012-01-22, 08:06 AM
I prefer 'archetypes I have not played yet' or 'have not played a long enough game with yet'. I've made and played rather varied types of characters, some slightly similar to myself but most rather different.

Shoot Da Moon
2012-01-22, 08:10 AM
What about characters who have different sexualities from myself? I have played women before. Different personalities as well.

Dimers
2012-01-22, 11:34 AM
I usually design a character's personality quite differently from mine, but then end up playing with the same mannerisms and my own hard-to-shake politeness, no matter what the personality was supposed to be. The only real exception is someone startlingly dumb -- then I can play 'em the same as I build 'em, and they don't end up much like me at all.

Solaris
2012-01-22, 11:46 AM
What about characters who have different sexualities from myself? I have played women before. Different personalities as well.

I generally avoid getting into a situation where a character's sexuality comes up (except in the lightest circumstances, such as messin' with each other). Heh. The one female character I've made to run with this group was for the most sinister of reasons - young, cute gals get away with a lot more than, say, a burly swordsman.
Oh yeah, and a few of the players are mysogynists whose view of women is not fit for mixed company and whose idea of roleplaying is shouting a semi-witty one-liner as they run a monster through with a longsword. Cue the enchantment-focused bard whose Charisma and social skills are through the roof.

Crafty Cultist
2012-01-22, 03:38 PM
I think most of my characters tend to have some of my personality in them. It's mainly a matter of downplaying certain traits while exagerating others. It makes for a lot of variety, but I can always see a bit of myself in my PCs

Djinn_in_Tonic
2012-01-22, 03:42 PM
My characters all tend to have a *fragment* of my personality in them, but I wouldn't say that they're really anything like me. Nor do I have a specific sort of character I play, although I'll admit I gravitate towards characters who have at least one social skill.

eepop
2012-01-23, 01:14 PM
My characters all tend to have a *fragment* of my personality in them, but I wouldn't say that they're really anything like me. Nor do I have a specific sort of character I play.

Ditto.
I like to explore what it would be like if different parts of me were given a greater impact than I have chosen for them to in real life. Often this goes along with throwing out several other aspects of myself.

Djinn_in_Tonic
2012-01-23, 02:56 PM
Ditto.
I like to explore what it would be like if different parts of me were given a greater impact than I have chosen for them to in real life. Often this goes along with throwing out several other aspects of myself.

Exactly. :smallbiggrin:

Pisha
2012-01-23, 04:21 PM
What about characters who have different sexualities from myself? I have played women before. Different personalities as well.

I've only played a guy once, but it was a ton of fun! (And strangely liberating. You don't really realize a lot of the minor restrictions/behavior modifications women take for granted until you play someone who isn't bound by them.) Sexuality-wise - in any game where sexuality at all is appropriate (in some games and with some groups it really isn't), I've discovered that my default is mostly-straight-with-bisexual-tendencies :) This isn't by design, it's just how the characters all seem to turn out.

Spekari
2012-01-29, 02:44 AM
At one point in time, I used to tend towards Rogues (often of the Chaotic or Neutral Good variety), and in a way I resembled a lot of them: I myself am a pretty low Str guy with Dex and Int being (in my opinion) my two highest scores. And given how Dex and Int are the Rogue's two most important stats with Str being a dump stat... yeah.

Nowadays, though, I've found myself liking Barbarians a lot, which is inverse to me physically.

However, at the same time, my characters often inherit SOMETHING from me personality or appearance-wise, so yeah.

Bagelson
2012-01-29, 07:14 AM
I consciously try to play very varying characters. In our group it's quite uncommon for characters to die, but we do switch around systems every now and then.

A Norse fantasy game - a herbalist and alchemist who really doesn't want to go adventuring, but gets pulled along by mischievous party members.

Shadowrun - a Dutch artist Adept. A bona fide nutcase who kept to himself and only abandoned his esoteric art projects (a mural painting of a fetus, only visible with a hypersensitive sense of smell?) for the promise of paying work to fund his art. Virtually impossible to talk to.

Earthdawn - a very down-to-earth Weaponsmith who spent most of his time keeping the other group members in check in order to reach the common goals.

Norse fantasy again - a completely spineless bard with an extraordinary silver tongue in a setting where talk is cheap and cowardice punishable by death.

Vampire - an absolute monster of a Nosferatu, in the most disturbing sense of the word. Vicious, egotistical and cruel, but also a cunning manipulator and a political power player in a behind-the-scenes kind of way.

L5R - a Lion Bushi obsessively following Honour and Bushido. He will drink the tea knowing it is poisoned if it would be dishonourable to refuse. When the party has sneaked up on the enemy sorcerer he will stand up and call out a challenge before charging.

I've never played female characters, though. I suppose I've seen too many bad examples of guys playing girls.

tahu88810
2012-01-29, 08:29 PM
Sometimes, yes. Sometimes, no.
In real life I'm a misanthrope who wholly believes that all people are worthy of love and respect. I'm extremely introverted, I suffer from social anxiety brought on by low self-esteem, and I have a sadistic streak the indulgence of which is always followed by intense feelings of guilt. I have a morbid curiosity with death, and I will generally engage someone in philosophical debate if there's even a slightest hint they'll respond in kind. I have developed a few "classical" friendships, and see no reason to try to extend myself beyond this in any capacity. Despite all of this, I am strongly concerned with doing what I deem to be "right", at least when I can, and I prefer to be straight-forward and honest in my dealing with others. I am willing to break promises, but if someone actually convinces me to make an oath or vow I will keep those for life- Because, I mean, they're so archaic that they still have meaning, y'know?
I am an aspiring writer, I day-dream often, and I normally end up DMing.

Characters I am playing, or planning to play at the moment, include:
-A charming scoundrel mercenary and hedge knight who commands a regiment of soldiers whom he refers to as his "Brothers". He actually has to specify that they should not commit any serious crimes when he is not around, lest they do so. His primary motivation is money, and he frequently flirts with male clients. On the flip-side, he hardly ever is willing to cast a glance at women unless they have something he desires, or they've enough coin to catch his attention.

-A rotting ghoul warlock who's primary motivations are amassing power and performing twisted arcane "experiments." The notion of "Scientific Method" means nothing to him. The game he's in didn't leave him with much of a plot to follow, but he's the sort of guy who would massacre a caravan save for one child, befriend the child with promises of resurrecting its parents in exchange for information, and then have the resurrected parents fling said child out of a tower window once all is said and done. He's creepy, undead, and probably really insane.

-A middle-aged Paladin who's primary motivation is the protection of innocents, even if it will cost him his own life. He's stoic and serious, but rather lenient on others. He writes poetry. He is willing to consort with evil and fall, if it means he might be able to redeem someone rather than kill them. When he dies, I fully expect it to be in the defense of someone else. And if anyone where to treat him as a hero for that, he would be embarrassed and ashamed.

Characters I have Played in the Past:
-A wandering hedge-knight who's goals were to someday become a landed knight in the service of a King. He insisted on taking his mount into every dungeon, and would often take stupid risks in combat (like choosing to grapple a gnoll near a ledge, even though he could have ended the battle in a single sword-stroke, or disarming himself because the enemy had a cool weapon and he wanted to try to take it from them). He eventually died against a massive earth-water-fire elemental in the dungeon of a despot king when, after the rest of the party had decided to turn invisible and hide, he decided it was a better idea to charge it head on and grapple.

-An awakened cat psion (telepath) who utilized its abilities to ensnare the mind of a minotaur, which it would use to communicate with the rest of the world because minotaurs are a lot less wacky than talking psychic cats. He didn't get much play, but he was pretty lazy and didn't really want much out of life. Replaced the above idiot hedge-knight.

-An affable and handsome wizard with a charming disposition and a love of luxury, who had a habit of casting charm on pretty women and then using his amazing charisma to make it stick well after it had worn off. Sadistic to a disgusting point, and manipulative besides. If it weren't for the fact that many of his charmed and dominated lovers survived, he would have been a serial killer.

-A cool, calm and collected druid who's primary motivation was the continuation of the natural order of things. He also didn't get much play, but he wasn't a very interesting character anyways.

-An honorable Prince turned Knight turned King who, despite to an unwillingness to punish his loyal subjects for seeming "mistakes" and a drive to protect and serve those whom served him somehow managed to not run his Kingdom into the ground during play. He considered his soldiers friends and brothers, and was incredibly vengeful of their deaths, going so far as to nearly execute a noble on the spot for choosing the wrong side in a disagreement which lead to the loss of some royal soldier's lives. He was also incredibly protective of his sister, and several incest jokes were made. In the epilogue the death of his sister combined with his devotion to a religion that considered Kings to be gods drove him to a megalomaniacal madness and sadistic apathy that eventually tore his kingdom apart.

-A Fairest Changeling and Knight of the Summer court. Serious, driven, and more than willing to defend any member of the freehold from the incursions of the Fae. Perhaps the most telling aspect of his character was an event in which, while traversing the hedge, he and his companions witnessed a Fae in the form of a 10 year old boy kidnapping a little girl. His pursuit of the Fae through the hedge led to the creation of a new trod, and left him in tears and on the brink of death due to thorn-related injuries. He would later acquire an iron sword and attempt to best the Fae in single combat in order for return of the little girl. Sadly, we never got that far.

-A Darkling Changeling of the same game known only "The Undertaker". A member of the Winter Court and an oracle who frequently reeked of death and decay and looked like a zombie besides. Despite the outward appearance to even members of his own court that he had no real motivation, The Undertaker was secretly plotting and scheming to take the crown. Sadly, not many people wanted anything to do with him because he was a creep...not that he wanted anything to do with anyone else, either.

-A road-trippin' packless Forsaken who was basically a homeless bum. A gruff and antisocial loner who somehow still managed to get all the ladies, he would eventually meet his match in the form of a cabal of mages whom he died while attempting to keep them from destroying the Nature Spirits of a park in New York City. He was very serious about what he did, and often would attempt to scare away other Forsaken if he thought they would simply get in his way.

-A snooty and over-entitled nobleman who only really pretended to be an adventurer until circumstances forced him to actually become one. Rude to anyone below his station (and so basically everyone), and only interested in himself. He was eventually shot in the head by a bandit while reloading his pistols, and since he was out of fate points...well...The rest of the party rejoiced.

I'd say certain aspects of me certainly bleed through in all of my characters. I don't think I particularly play characters that I'm not. Rather, I tend to take aspects of myself and amplify them, before adding on traits of other people who are not me. So...
Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

Darklady2831
2012-01-29, 08:35 PM
I don't think its abnormal at all for people to tend towards certain character traits when roleplaying.

Personally, In real life, though I try to be good and all, and generally could be considered Neutral good, my world views are very neutral. I'm intelligent, charismatic, and socially introverted.

On the flipside, in the realms of roleplaying, I more often than not play wizards or very intelligent and cunning "Party Leader" types. My characters are also more often than not, evil, or at the very least, neutral.

My characters generally have little regard for religion, like my real life self. And if they do, it's because they can gain something from it. A phobia of death motivates many of my characters, pressing them into necromancy, and other "unsavory" magics.

Samy
2012-01-29, 08:52 PM
I practically always play a very sexually appealing female because I am a very sexually unappealing male. I guess it's my only way of getting inside a hot lady. I mean her brain of course. :D

cattoy
2012-01-29, 10:59 PM
All the time.

The only exceptions being several games over a decade ago when the point was to play yourself, except with super powers.

Grumlich
2012-01-30, 12:04 AM
I play a pretty wide variety of personalities, but I enjoy characters who are jerks for one reason or another. My favorite character is a paladin who means well but he's just a little bit too dumb to get it right all the time. I'm generally considered a pretty nice guy, and my paladin does try to be kind, so I don't think it's really too far from my own personality, though far more outgoing.

I have decided that from now on I'm going to stick to characters who have a penalty in one mental attribute because it's just more fun to play. I don't think I'm a dumb guy, but I suppose I might not know it if I were.

Delwugor
2012-01-30, 12:23 AM
I'd make a real boring adventure character.
Skills:
Programmer +12
System Analyst +10
Driving MiniVan +15
Paying Bills -3
Reading Speculative Physics +7
Watching History Channel +8
Soccer Enthusiast +10
Climbing -5
Enthusiasm for Climbing Rocks +15
Medical Bills from Climbing Rocks +10

Weapon Proficiency:
Keyboard +8

My one good adventurous skill:
Pissing of Management +30

Brauron
2012-01-30, 07:55 AM
I tend to DM more than I'm afforded the privilege of being a player, but I've noticed my own group runs the full gamut:

Player A can slip into any role, any personality. I've seen him play a pyrophobic Russian priest, a civic-minded Roman Centurion, a wise-cracking Elf Ranger/Rogue, a stoic, cigar-chomping Dwarf Wizard, etc.

Player B can do similarly, but focuses on a set of character archetypes: Since he is fairly Lawful Good and an amateur comedian in real life, he tends to shy away from that sort of role in game (though I've seen him play this role in game successfully), favoring morally ambiguous, humorless anti-heroes.

Player C likewise, with a preference for characters with a large skill set. Favors Wizards and Rogues in D&D.

Player D tends to play sneering, obnoxious "comic relief" characters that all inexplicably have a Brooklyn accent.

Player E plays herself. All her characters are "Player E, with spellcasting" or "Player E, with Wildshape," or "Player E, with superpowers." If she gives her character a defined personality or backstory (I tend to request a paragraph of descriptive text) it goes out the window within thirty minutes of starting the first session.

One of my favorite stories of this group comes from a Call of Cthulhu campaign about a year and a half ago. Player C was playing a forensics expert who happened to be gay (I asked each player to fill out a short questionnaire for their character, one of the questions being "Dark Secret?" to which he replied, "Gay and in the closet."). It never really came up during play, had no effect on the game, but it was mentioned once, out of character. Player E was stunned, and asked me after the session, "Is Player C gay?" it was inconceivable to her for a player to play something they themselves are not.

Durmegil Guldur
2012-01-31, 08:23 AM
I'm not going to into character specifics here, but I find that while I can and do play characters who are of a moral/ethical code different from myself, and are definately unlike myself physically, I become far more personally invested in games in which I play characters who do share my own personality and morals. Another thing I find is that I am utterly incapable of playing a believable (one who acts in a way I would consider natural) female character - I just can't do it.

In my group, there are a few people there who are completely incapable of playing against type, but similarly there are a few for whom the opposite is true. We just take these as facts and run with them, trying to make sure everyone has a good time at the games.

Grelna the Blue
2012-02-07, 03:42 PM
None of my characters are me, but all of them have some part(s) of me in the mix. I might be able to briefly roleplay someone with whom I had zero in common, but I wouldn't enjoy it so I wouldn't keep it up.

Many of my characters are heroes. If they are neither lawful nor good, they are usually thinkers who enjoy addressing problems. I find playing unintelligent neutral or evil characters to be boring, although I quite enjoy roleplaying neutral or evil liars and manipulators. I never play characters who are both chaotic AND evil because I simply can't see the fun in it for me and I think they detract from the enjoyment of the other players if played correctly.

Some of my characters have either a dry or acid wit and use the kinds of putdowns I think of saying in real life but never actually do (because I like keeping my friends and my job). A few prefer to go the charismatic swashbucker route. Like me, most of my characters don't care who is leader so long as the decisions are being made in a not-too-stupid way. A few have wanted to be in charge to ensure that the right decisions are being made. And then there was the one who was fine with secretly manipulating events so that no one realized he was the puppetmaster behind the scenes.

Most of them are fairly indifferent to wealth. One wanted to literally own the world because, you know, it'd be a challenge. Plus the rental income might have allowed for expansion off plane.

I think just about everyone has sufficient complexity that they can believably roleplay a lot of different character types and have fun doing so. Not everybody has to. It's a game, after all.

Kalmageddon
2012-02-08, 07:05 AM
I think just about everyone has sufficient complexity that they can believably roleplay a lot of different character types and have fun doing so. Not everybody has to. It's a game, after all.

I agree!

At first most of my characters were exaggerated aspects of my personality, both in positive and negative ways. I have played Chaotic Good warriors and Lawful Evil wizards and I related to both of them in a way.

Then as years of roleplaying passed, I found myself more interested in playing characters that could work as interesting NPCs of the setting I'm playing in, probably a consequence of me being 90% of times the DM.

I'm sure there are still aspects of me inside those characters as well but I tend to view them as something not as close to me as my first ones.

Vella_Malachite
2012-02-08, 08:38 AM
I sort of play people who are like me; I agree that roleplaying is to make yourself who you wish you were for a little while.

There are two things which remain the same about my characters:
Intelligence - My characters are always very intelligent; this one I borrowed from me; I like to think I am intelligent, and also like being intelligent
Charisma - I usually try to be the Face if I can, partly because I'm one of the better improv actors in the group, so coming up with conversations with people in character is something I do well, and partly because I like being the one who can do the people stuff.

Apart from that, I'm usually behind the DM screen, so I'm branching out a bit in this next campaign and playing a different character. I usually play slightly angsty, quiet, cagey characters, but this time I thought I'd try to play an outgoing, carefree character.

The other thing I find is that I play characters I want to use in my writing. Nothing like a good DnD game to really get into someone's head.

Adindra
2012-02-08, 09:20 AM
My characters almost always end up Lawful Neutral :smallredface: by that i mean regardless of what character class or type i play i tend towards doing whatever h have to do (ingame) to survive and turn a profit while breaking as few laws as possible (and ensuring the partys survival of course)

Cloudedguardian
2012-02-09, 12:25 PM
Well, I think I'm gonna agree with the RPing as your "hidden self"
For example, although in real life I am very quiet and polite, (mostly just because I'm sick of getting looked like a freak for saying something that goes over the heads of everyone else) My characters tend to be very snarky, cold, and uncaring. Or insane. Did I mention insane? I LOVE writing characters that are just a little off their rocker XD
But, yeah, I envy some of my characters ability to just mouth off at the people that irritate them to no end and are able toi say "Blast the consequences". I don't have the courage to do that, myself.

SowZ
2012-02-09, 08:15 PM
I try and make my characters very unique from each other. They usually have at least one strong character trait in common with me, (though it changes which one,) but are usually more emotional than I am. They are often 'bad people' but not always obviously so.

One thing I've found is that my characters, even when they are good, are rarely if ever nice. I am pretty polite and friendly, I think.

Ornithologist
2012-02-09, 09:06 PM
In the words of the Guy who I get to GM when I don't want to.

"Your always playing the weirdest possible thing in any given situation"

For example:

A fairy in a sci-fi setting (small w/ wings and everything)
a Paper elemental in a modern fantasy (a book elemental specifically)
A full Body Replacement Cyborg in a High Fantasy (but with Golem Parts!)
An AI stuck in a human body as a spy in a Sci-fi setting (we played this one after the one before and I was feeling like doing the opposite
A caster in a fantasy setting that involved blood magic using a different kind of blood magic than what he thought he was using.
A telepath who can't tune out the noise during a horror setting
Yeti Gentleman with a Bust of Yeti Sherlock Holmes (this was Gamma World, so I did mostly just roll it up. Though the Gentleman, and the Bust of Yeti Sherlock Holmes was mine :smallbiggrin:)


As a follow up, I do notice that all of my characters were mentally unstable, with the exception of the telepath. The fairy had multiple personalities, The paper elemental could not lie(he was a book of truths), In both cyborg cases there were issues with the replacement process, The caster was going crazy because of the blood magic issues, and well Gamma world is Gamma World

Hiro Protagonest
2012-02-09, 09:18 PM
Well, I think I'm gonna agree with the RPing as your "hidden self"
For example, although in real life I am very quiet and polite, (mostly just because I'm sick of getting looked like a freak for saying something that goes over the heads of everyone else) My characters tend to be very snarky, cold, and uncaring. Or insane. Did I mention insane? I LOVE writing characters that are just a little off their rocker XD
But, yeah, I envy some of my characters ability to just mouth off at the people that irritate them to no end and are able toi say "Blast the consequences". I don't have the courage to do that, myself.

What you consider lack of courage, I consider wisdom among those of us not very good at talking.

Othesemo
2012-02-09, 10:02 PM
My characters always have a bit of me, in that they agree with much of my philosophy. However, what differs is how they apply it. I never do anything that I would consider stupid (I justify this by never playing below 14 int). I do, however, vary what I attempt to do according to my character's goals, not mine. My recent characters have included-

LG Monk
CN Rogue/Bard
LN Urban Ranger
LG VoP Paladin
CE Rogue/Assassin
NG Godspeaker (T2 Divine Caster, by Grod_The_Giant)

Whereas I tend towards CN behavior on a normal day. CE if I'm in a bad mood, LE if I'm in a really, really good mood.

Starsign
2012-02-09, 10:59 PM
I usually end up playing characters who are more good or neutral aligned, with a part of myself usually in them. I am physically incapable of playing evil characters to a tolerable point. I usually end up despising the number of things I do and eventually I end up turning against the other PCs and find out that it's the most enjoyable part for me of being evil. As you can see... I don't play evil at all because of that. :smalleek: That and my mood is easily swayed by my characters and the tone of the game. Anything where I play a guy who is really evil, I can fall into depression rather easily.

Basically playing evil for me detracts the fun for EVERYONE involved. :smallfrown:

Now I do enjoy playing non-human characters. As simple as it is to be a human, elf, or dwarf, I prefer the more exotic creatures, minotaurs, undead, and lizardfolk especially :smalltongue:

Mystify
2012-02-09, 11:02 PM
I play a wide variety of characters of all alignments and disparate goals and motivations. This is largely because I create characters for fun, and so I end up with lists of potential characters, and sticking with any one archetype wouldn't let me explore the entire realm of possibilities.
Still, if I do have a trend, its probably towards the sneakier types. The fast talker, the ninja, the arcane trickster, the master of disguise, the vampire, etc.

Esprit15
2012-02-09, 11:04 PM
I tend to have a specific piece of me that I try to put into a character to make them a bit easier to play. My first character that I really got to play I would probably call pretty close to me as far as personality goes. When making a character I tend to think of what part I want in them and what I want different. The only thing that I can't do is play stupid. Average is okay, but I can't do stupid without being excessively stupid. The mindset just isn't there for me.

Inyssius Tor
2012-02-09, 11:09 PM
I don't think I can even conceive of someone I am not. Someone I would look at and say, "no, that isn't me at all."

I am large, I contain multitudes.

Solaris
2012-02-10, 01:18 AM
I usually end up playing characters who are more good or neutral aligned, with a part of myself usually in them. I am physically incapable of playing evil characters to a tolerable point. I usually end up despising the number of things I do and eventually I end up turning against the other PCs and find out that it's the most enjoyable part for me of being evil. As you can see... I don't play evil at all because of that. :smalleek: That and my mood is easily swayed by my characters and the tone of the game. Anything where I play a guy who is really evil, I can fall into depression rather easily.

Basically playing evil for me detracts the fun for EVERYONE involved. :smallfrown:

I'm fairly similar. Any evil characters I make are either intended to destroy the party (low Will saves, low Fort saves? Enter the enchantment-focused, poison-using bard! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAA! Ranks in Perform [Evil Laughter] a must) or with a redemption story in mind.

ghost_warlock
2012-02-10, 01:52 AM
In life, I'm 6'5", shave my head, and work in a mental institute for teens.

Some of my characters:

A 4-inch-long psychic worm that rehabilitates evildoers by dominating them and forcing them to do heroic acts.
A 7-foot-all, 400 lb. wolf-ape that understands little more than rage, violence, dominance, and the urge to mate.
A human paladin|warlock who worships a god of righteous wrath and mind-reading. Punishes enemies that ignore him with blinding radiant attacks but frustrates those who focus on him with his high defenses and evasive teleportation.
A kobold monk armed with a short sword and sling seeking to prove you don't have to be Large-sized to dish out buckets of hurt (and also steal everything that isn't nailed down and will fit into a bag of holding).
An ordinary ghoul infested with an ancient and sentient form of fungus psychically connected to a hivemind of miles of fungal growth deep underground; the ghoul's simple desire to rob graves hijacked by the fungi's quest to stop the efforts of a mad wizard seeking to plunge the world into the Far Realm.

Slipperychicken
2012-02-12, 03:11 PM
My characters tend to pay about as much attention as I do, missing things in conversation about as often. Just last session my Wizard accidentally ruined a bag of holding (which he spent that whole day and 5 OOC hours shopping for) because he tried to put an axe in it. .


Obviously, they have a far higher pain tolerance than myself IRL, wordlessly eating blows which would leave me cursing for a minute or so. Along that line, I detest sleeping in tents, something which my characters do almost every night. My characters spend most of their time in extremely lethal circumstances, risking their lives every day, while for me any uncertainty is stressful and to be avoided.


My characters generally try to be decent people, but compromise when they believe it's for the greater good (letting a necromancer tag along, refusing to bury a comrade's extremely valuable items with his body).


I can't roleplay "charismatic" because I'm simply not that influential socially: I usually roll a die and hope the DM doesn't ask too many questions. If he has me RP it, things generally don't go to well. My characters attempts to make well-worded Wishes (using their own XP, no less) result in entities never mentioned in the theology screwing him over and causing the spells to fail.


My spellcasters more closely approximate my personality: eliminating uncertainty, shouting when injured, sleeping in magical pocket-dimensions, and letting the beefy idiots in the front risk their lives instead.


In video-game RPGs, my characters are absolutely sickening. They help the poor and innocent, but steal their stuff and demand the maximum payment possible, and steadily descend into homicidal rage. By the time the "main quest" is almost over, they start slaughtering indiscriminately out of rage, boredom, or impetuousness.

Skjaldbakka
2012-02-12, 03:32 PM
I have found that in general the characters that I play have some aspect of my own personality in them, which becomes kind of the dominant element of their personality.

In terms of the type of characters I play, as far as a more mechanical viewpoint, I always tend to favor options over power, and while I may not build my character in a completely out of the box way, there will always be at least an arm or leg sticking out of the box.

Kane0
2012-02-12, 06:34 PM
I play characters with a spine. Cause you know, i don't have one myself :smallbiggrin:

Flayerman
2012-02-13, 05:07 PM
It's interesting.

In one of my groups, I tend to powergame a great deal, or try very experimental builds and characters that wouldn't fly in my other groups. This is a group full of powergamers, so it's not too big a deal. My friends in this group seem to think I only play talkative, intelligent, clever True Neutral Magnificent SOBs who can weave complex lies and plans without trouble, and are out for Number One. They think I only play high-Charisma characters. When I started playing a Warforged Binder who didn't understand organic concepts, and he was a bit chatty, they were worried it would be the same, but as soon as he failed his Binding role for the vestige Amon and turned into a gruff, grumpy, and aggressive machine-man, they were all pretty happy with me.

In another of my groups, I tend to play towards traditional heroes. The quiet gunslinger, the paladin - the /hero/, basically. One of my favorite characters is a 40-year-old paladin with grown-up kids and a wife, who does his job because of his faith in the Silver Flame (and since the rest of his family are paladins and clerics, he doesn't have to worry too much) and because he genuinely wants to help people despite being too old for this $#@!. That group tends to think I only play larger-than-life characters, that all I do is play characters who live and die as heroes to the world or are huge villains who could never exist in reality.

In my third and final group, I tend towards heroes ripe for the fall. I tend to play characters undergoing complex moral struggles within themselves, ideas and concepts that lend themselves towards slowly descending into madness or villainy or general evil, or just tragedy. I play characters who are ripe for moral dissent and disagreements with the party, like a Magus who's actively executed helpless enemies (who were obviously evil). The fact that he comes from post-Sauron Mordor (basically) doesn't help that moral dilemma stuff. So they think I tend towards that archetype of tragic, Byronic hero.

And even within those groups, I'll break away when I feel like it. I had a great idea for a Great White Hunter meets Pulp Hero for the third group, and I'm adoring him; I had a great idea for a Ranger in the second group who's very quiet, reserved, and full of cool grace and quiet dignity; and I'm playing the aforementioned Warforged in the first group.

The truth is, I'm a pretty LG guy. I mean, yeah, I'll laugh at a lot of horrible things and feel like a horrible person, but I also know I'd never do any of them, that I don't delight in peoples' suffering, and that I'm generally kind of quiet if I don't know anyone and bombastic if I do know people. I'm a smartass, but I'm not a genius talker who comes up with ludicrous plans; I'm a good guy, but I'm not larger-than-life; I'm occasionally morally conflicted but I'd never kill anybody.

So I guess, really, I don't play anyone I'm not, or anyone I am; it's a complex dance of "what best fits in this party" and "what I have fun playing" and "what I like to write about". If I played people I was, I'd be a mix of the first two groups; if I played people I wasn't, I'd only play the third groups' archetype.

Galileo
2012-02-14, 07:43 AM
The truth is, I'm a pretty LG guy. I mean, yeah, I'll laugh at a lot of horrible things and feel like a horrible person, but I also know I'd never do any of them, that I don't delight in peoples' suffering, and that I'm generally kind of quiet if I don't know anyone and bombastic if I do know people. I'm a smartass, but I'm not a genius talker who comes up with ludicrous plans; I'm a good guy, but I'm not larger-than-life; I'm occasionally morally conflicted but I'd never kill anybody.

So I guess, really, I don't play anyone I'm not, or anyone I am; it's a complex dance of "what best fits in this party" and "what I have fun playing" and "what I like to write about". If I played people I was, I'd be a mix of the first two groups; if I played people I wasn't, I'd only play the third groups' archetype.

That's a damn fine description of me. I consider myself neutral good, but apart from that... are you my clone? Am I yours? Are we both each other's clone?

motoko's ghost
2012-02-14, 08:01 AM
That's a damn fine description of me. I consider myself neutral good, but apart from that... are you my clone? Am I yours? Are we both each other's clone?

You are actually just both clones formed by a group consciousness arising spontaneously from the net, there is no original individual but rather a stand alone complex.:smalltongue:

I like to play either divining wizard and/or gishs and/or rogue-like characters(I like the flexibility) and I've got a soft spot for the changlings, kobolds and warforged (I really like their fluff):smallredface:

dsmiles
2012-02-14, 12:06 PM
So my question to you all is; do you tend towards a specific role in your games and is that role at odds with how your real life persona is?I lean heavily towards my real life personality when I game. Lawful evil dominators.

And do you think that this is simply because "we are role playing. you don't play what you are" or that we might be living vicariously through these roles?Though, sometimes, I choose to play a good-aligned character to get a little bit of escapism.

Jay R
2012-02-15, 04:44 PM
There's one huge difference between me and my characters: my characters spend their spare time practicing their skills or researching magic. By contrast, I spend mine playing D&D.

Wyntonian
2012-02-15, 09:27 PM
This is a passage from Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, on the topic of being a "perfect occlumens", essentially a person so incredibly talented at roleplaying that they can fool a mindreader by pretending to be their character. I find it appropriate to this discussion.

"Identity does not mean, to such as us, what it means to other people. Anyone we can imagine, we can be; and the true difference about you, Mr. Potter, is that you have an unusually good imagination. A playwright must contain his characters, he must be larger than them in order to enact them within his mind. To an actor or spy or politician, the limit of his own diameter is the limit of who he can pretend to be, the limit of which face he may wear as a mask."

I generally play characters I can identify with, but aren't me. My current character, a monk (I know, shut up), who took to the road and eventually became a priest of Fharlaghn. His impetus? He killed a man in a drunken rage with a broken bottle in a back alley while he was drinking, whoring and gambling away the money he was intending to send to his aging parents.

Now, I don't feel like this character and I share much in the way of a backstory, but it is a beautiful sort of stretch to both rock the similarities we share while still accommodating the differences. It's why I play the game, really. That and the face-beating.

Hiro Protagonest
2012-02-15, 09:52 PM
I generally play characters I can identify with, but aren't me. My current character, a monk (I know, shut up), who took to the road and eventually became a priest of Fharlaghn. His impetus? He killed a man in a drunken rage with a broken bottle in a back alley while he was drinking, whoring and gambling away the money he was intending to send to his aging parents.

Are you at least multiclassing cleric and going Sacred Fist?

Wyntonian
2012-02-15, 11:21 PM
Well, it starts at level 1, but I'll consider it. The DM houseruled in full BaB and I have a +10 grapple mod (Imp. Grapple, jotunbrud, Str, BaB) at level 1. I'm the only experienced player, so I'm not being overshadowed by any means. PM me if you have any awesome ideas, though.

Hiro Protagonest
2012-02-16, 06:45 PM
Well, it starts at level 1, but I'll consider it. The DM houseruled in full BaB and I have a +10 grapple mod (Imp. Grapple, jotunbrud, Str, BaB) at level 1. I'm the only experienced player, so I'm not being overshadowed by any means. PM me if you have any awesome ideas, though.

I don't even have the book Sacred Fist is in. I just know that monk 1 or 2/cleric X/Sacred Fist max levels/monk +Y is better than straight up monk.

Jay R
2012-02-16, 11:35 PM
Actually, I'm not sure how much my characters are like me.

I play somebody that it's fun to pretend to be, and that I can pretend to be successfully. On the most basic level, that means somebody I can respect, who does things I think are cool to do, who can do something I can't do, and whose outlook on life is sufficiently like mine that I can enjoy making decisions that way.

My superhero characters all have a Silver Age flavor to them, and my D&D characters are all Good as I define it, though not necessarily as the books do. On the other hand, the DM has (correctly, in my view) announced that my True Neutral thief has just become a Neutral Good.

I can comfortably run pretty much any character who cares about others, is brave, and can be clever. I've never played a really low charisma character, and doubt if I could. (I'm too pushy for that to be fun.)

My best characters have been a 2E elven mage/thief, an OD&D bard, an OD&D paladin, a Flashing Blades rogue, a Chivalry & Sorcery alchemist/knight a Fantasy Hero bard, and a Champions super-heroes who were a Superman-type, a mystic, an energy projector, or a martial artist.

And the one least like me was a Toon character - Ragnar Rabbit, the Hanna-Barbarian.

PhallicWarrior
2012-02-17, 02:16 PM
I'm about 5'8" and 120 lbs, with a decent intellect and endurance but not much else, so whenever I play anything besides a Wizard (Knowledge is Power!) or a Warlord (I love it when a plan comes together.) it's out of character. My recent NWoD character, Quentin "Squirrel" Abrams, gets bonus points for basically being my idealized self.

Well, he started that way, and still has a lot of characteristics I'd admire in people, but he's sort of become the moral center of our group, which I never could be. He's also the only character in the group who's a pure Mortal anymore. Everyone else is psychic at the very least.

I do have to say that (especially in 4th edition, where they took pains to make it workable) playing the mundane badass among all of the spellcasters, priests, and the like who manages to hold his own through sheer grit is an appealing archetype, and one I revisit often. Not sure how this applies to me in real life, though.

Malacode
2012-02-17, 05:34 PM
There's one huge difference between me and my characters: my characters spend their spare time practicing their skills or researching magic. By contrast, I spend mine playing D&D.

Quote for truth. Well, in my case it's Magic, but same difference.
To OP: Well, no, I don't. My first character was me + sorcerer levels, but newb tendencies can be forgiven. He still sees play, and has grown quite a lot from the bland "Attack it with fire!" fellow he used to be. Massive rivalry with the party paladin, who is his parole officer and mentor/father figure. Despises the party Duskblade despite similar temperaments and methods. Trying to conceal his descent into darkness (He's slowly being turned to the side of the Big Bad) from the Cleric and aforementioned Paladin. Little interaction with the Scout, but that should change when he finds out she has a magical artifact he'll want.

He's not my favourite character though, that one has to go to Johanna, who never breaks a promise and will make deals with anyone if it's in her best interest at the moment in time when she agrees to it. Causes a lot of party conflict, but the players are mature enough to deal with it and it's a freeform game anyway, so it's roleplay heavy.

The shift that got me away from playing myself was running a game. Did a weekly game with a roster of about 30 NPCs that didn't change, and that forced me to characterize really well, especially when two or more NPC's were involved in one conversation with the PC's. That game is on indefinite hiatus 'til a player returns from overseas.
An open message to everyone: If you want to force yourself to learn, I recommend this method.

Galileo
2012-02-19, 08:50 AM
You are actually just both clones formed by a group consciousness arising spontaneously from the net, there is no original individual but rather a stand alone complex.:smalltongue:

I knew it! Does this mean if I find the font of all my brother clones, I can create an army?

Wait... what would be the point of an army of NG clones? We'd all be too soft-hearted to actually want to go and conquer the planet, and we'd just end up migrating to Canadia. And their reputation for being ridiculously nice would just increase. So the Canadians would win again. Like they have every war in the past five hundred years.

This evil plot delivered to you unfiltered from my mind. Probably not a good thing.

motoko's ghost
2012-02-19, 11:15 AM
I knew it! Does this mean if I find the font of all my brother clones, I can create an army?

Wait... what would be the point of an army of NG clones? We'd all be too soft-hearted to actually want to go and conquer the planet, and we'd just end up migrating to Canadia. And their reputation for being ridiculously nice would just increase. So the Canadians would win again. Like they have every war in the past five hundred years.

This evil plot delivered to you unfiltered from my mind. Probably not a good thing.

Nah, as the puppetmaster showed us the individuality of the stand alone complex is a large part of it's power, if you could create some sort of communications relay you could probably function as a memetic army via cyberspace or something, you are probably better off going to Canada though:smalltongue:

Seb Wiers
2012-02-19, 11:30 AM
This also could apply to the big guy/jock who loves playing the gnome wizard. Or the skinny, "wimpy" guy who loves playing the muscled hero. Though I don't know any examples of that one myself.


Just wondering how common this is outside of my friends since this seems to affect all but one of us.

I'd expect its very common indeed. One of the pleasures of role playing is accomplishing things you can't in real life, or letting yourself do things you'd normally feel compelled not to.
I expect that for you, playing a religiously committed paladin can be very relaxing, because you don't have to worry about any of the complexities of moral judgement that your atheist beliefs force you to accept in the real world. I tend to be the same way- my characters are very direct and have fairly obvious motivations.

I'd probably also fit your 'skinny, "wimpy" guy who loves playing the muscled hero' mold pretty well. I'm in decent shape, but can easily fit the "skinny computer programmer" mold. I got picked in a fair bit in school because I was the smart kid from the wrong side of the tracks, with no sports skill, etc. I tend to like playing dragonborn, goliath, and similar types.

Solaris
2012-02-20, 12:24 PM
Nah, as the puppetmaster showed us the individuality of the stand alone complex is a large part of it's power, if you could create some sort of communications relay you could probably function as a memetic army via cyberspace or something, you are probably better off going to Canada though:smalltongue:

Bring a friend and you're over twice the current population. Take over!

DropsonExistanc
2012-02-23, 04:53 AM
I used to play very similar (and druid-y) characters every time, but after years of gaming exposure of the kind that can only be inflicted by being in charge of stock at a gaming store, my MO has started to change. I find that my recent characters tend to take on a characteristic that I currently wish I had. Backbone is a good example here :smalltongue:

So while the character will still tend towards good, and will never actively destroy nature, I end up "practicing" personality traits I wish I had. Like a backbone, for instance :smallwink:

Recent characters:
nWoD Hunter: the Vigil wolf-blooded K9 officer

Pathfinder desert elf emmisary cavalier of the Tome (religion focus), my "crazy desert Jihad elf"

And, my most recent travesty,
a 3.5e 5th level dwarven bear-rider refugee, wielding a dwarven greataxe and a spiked heavy steel shield.

All of these (very Lawful characters) are playing with ineffible, unthinking confidence and adherence to a set of principles, at a time when my greatest weakness is thinking everything through until I am frozen with indecision.

Would it still happen if I didn't know I was doing it? I'm not sure.

mcv
2012-02-23, 07:32 AM
Almost all my characters tend to be me in some way. I mean, they may be the opposite sex, more physically inclined, and they're definitely more adventurous than I am, but personality wise, they often end up somewhat similar. Or somewhat bland. With one notable exception.

The notable exception was in a PBeM GURPS game: a barbarian who really had no problem with killing, raping, pillaging, enslaving, etc. He dreamed himself a great hero, and wanted to follow in his grandfather's footsteps. His grandfather was the last great hero (though really just a common brigand raiding caravans and sacking the occasional town). He despised his dad for leaving the heroing business and becoming a caravan guard, and intended to conquer kingdoms and become a great ruler (well, tyrant). He was very misogynistic and generally misanthropic. Great fun to play. His main travelling partner was a reformed succubus who figured sex with this heathen was less evil than tempting any more innocent souls. The barbarian figured having a demon as concubine would make his legend even greater.

Some other examples:

(GURPS SF PBeM) Somewhat reckless purple haired girl with the most bizarre collection of skills (from acrobatics to engineering to battlesuits), preferred to be at the front of the action and do weird stuff there.
(D&D3.5) Druid who struggles with his responsibility over life and death. Started life as a shepherd but let starving wolves eat his sheep. Spends his best spells to heal random NPCs in the street. Has a slightly anarchistic streak and secretly enjoys that he's occasionally mistaken for the son of Zeus.
(Earthdawn) Female warrior, scout and questor (priest) of the passion/god of home, hearth and healing. Fully dedicated to serving the group, keeping it together, healthy, and overcoming its obstacles. Fights the enemies of the group with enormous feriocity, always trying to identify enemies and obstacles, and defeating and overcoming them. Will not hesitate to risk her life for obnoxious, wayward and sometimes outright hostile party members, even though she knows they'll never thank her for it.
(GURPS Traveller PBeM) Very overweight female engineer. Loved to soak in the bathtub with some good whisky. Tweaked the gravity of the ship so it was always a bit lighter where she was standing, creating a sense of vertigo for others around her.


Now that I write this down, they actually seem pretty interesting. Still, during play, I often worry if they don't seem somewhat bland.

Only the barbarian (and maybe the other PBeM characters too) actually had this personality fully developed before play. The others developed their personalities over the course of a campaign. I've also played too many characters to count in loose adventures, and their personality tended to be simple caricatures or completely absent.


In life, I'm 6'5", shave my head, and work in a mental institute for teens.

Some of my characters:

A 4-inch-long psychic worm that rehabilitates evildoers by dominating them and forcing them to do heroic acts.
A 7-foot-all, 400 lb. wolf-ape that understands little more than rage, violence, dominance, and the urge to mate.
A human paladin|warlock who worships a god of righteous wrath and mind-reading. Punishes enemies that ignore him with blinding radiant attacks but frustrates those who focus on him with his high defenses and evasive teleportation.
A kobold monk armed with a short sword and sling seeking to prove you don't have to be Large-sized to dish out buckets of hurt (and also steal everything that isn't nailed down and will fit into a bag of holding).
An ordinary ghoul infested with an ancient and sentient form of fungus psychically connected to a hivemind of miles of fungal growth deep underground; the ghoul's simple desire to rob graves hijacked by the fungi's quest to stop the efforts of a mad wizard seeking to plunge the world into the Far Realm.

Would you say you get a lot of your inspiration from both sides of your work? Especially the first few sounded like they might be.

Aliquid
2012-02-25, 12:27 AM
I’m typically a responsible considerate person, and I try to “do the right thing” in life.

Even so, I often have sarcastic or cunning thoughts running through my head… a dark humor. For example, many years ago I worked in retail, and often I would fantasize about pushing annoying customers down the up escalator… perpetually falling and crashing down. But in real life, I wouldn’t hurt a fly.

So when I play a character, I either play someone who acts out that dark humor, or someone who is an exaggerated version of myself and obsessively does “the right thing”.

jaybird
2012-02-25, 01:24 AM
I like to play Chaotic Neutral characters, though it's 50-50 between the hilarious odd man out and the sociopathic pyromaniac.