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Bartmanhomer
2016-04-27, 02:31 PM
Hey everybody I just though of something. What if the PC that you played as yourself and the NPC is that people you know in real life? Also there's so many people around the planet Earth including famous people (Dead and alive) that you'll use and fits in the roleplaying. So what do you think about it, Is it a good idea or bad idea? Tell me your opinions about it. :smile:

SirBellias
2016-04-27, 02:42 PM
Hey everybody I just though of something. What if the PC that you played as yourself and the NPC is that people you know in real life? Also there's so many people around the planet Earth including famous people (Dead and alive) that you'll use and fits in the roleplaying. So what do you think about it, Is it a good idea or bad idea? Tell me your opinions about it. :smile:

To be honest, I'd rather just deal with the people in real life, if I'm doing it about the people that I know. If you're doing a historical game, I could see it working, if you allow for altering the time line somewhat. If I'm going to roleplay myself, I'd rather it be in extraordinary circumstances, instead of just normal life. It would, however, allow for some interesting recursion...

It is also good to bear in mind that if people find out that you've been spending hours of your life pretending to do things with them, it could get awkward.

LibraryOgre
2016-04-27, 05:45 PM
Hey everybody I just though of something. What if the PC that you played as yourself and the NPC is that people you know in real life? Also there's so many people around the planet Earth including famous people (Dead and alive) that you'll use and fits in the roleplaying. So what do you think about it, Is it a good idea or bad idea? Tell me your opinions about it. :smile:

Playing yourself was one of the core conceits of Villains and Vigilantes. We tended to play "origin stories" and, because we were kids, they were odd combinations of revenge fantasies ("I can totally use my powers to kill that science teacher I hate!"), sex romps ("I'm going to get all the girls!") and dumb****ery.

Âmesang
2016-04-27, 06:01 PM
Honestly? I think I'd just stick to playing Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar. Would definitely prevent any awkwardness while still letting you communicate with famous historical figures such as Shakespeare, Buddha, Rabindranath Tagore, Aristotle, Michaelangelo, and even Short Round.

"I think Indy's on a quest!"

Thrudd
2016-04-28, 12:19 AM
Not sure if this is what you mean, but I once used the cast of the WWF(E?) in a Feng Shui game, because one of the PCs was a disgraced pro-wrestler trying to reclaim his title. He was invited to WrestleMania or somesuch big event, where snipers planted around the arena tried to assassinate him while he was in the ring, and most of the WWF was paid off to also try to kill him and make it look like part of the show (somebody really wanted him dead). Luckily, his friends were there to fight the snipers in the rafters, while he got to beat down most of the wrestlers in the ring. OF course, the Hulkster came to his aid, too, in an awesome tag-team. Even though the whole thing was a set up, he still took away the championship belt and made it his signature weapon.

Storm_Of_Snow
2016-04-28, 02:59 AM
I've used names of people I know when needing an NPC name in a hurry, but they're completely unconnected with the person they're named for. Otherwise, no.

JoeJ
2016-04-28, 10:30 AM
If I'm running a modern or historical game I'll use real people as NPCs if they're notable enough that excluding them would affect verisimilitude. So, for example, in my World War II superhero game FDR is president of the United States, Earl Warren is governor of California, Fletcher Bowron* is mayor of Los Angeles, Winston Churchill is prime minister of the UK, etc. That doesn't mean the PCs will necessarily ever meet those people, but they'll at least hear about them from time to time.

* How can a guy have this name and not secretly be an archery-themed superhero or villain?

Kami2awa
2016-04-28, 11:37 AM
I've had HG Wells and Howard Carter show up in Call of Cthulhu games. It's a good opportunity to do research into their character (you often find out some surprising stuff).

Kid Jake
2016-04-28, 11:38 AM
I've actually been tempted to use Paul Reubens in the follow up to my Mutants and Masterminds campaign as a villain capable of animating anything he can see. Considering the way his T.V. career originally ended, it seemed like a decent villainous origin: bitter and disgraced children's show host gets hit with super gas and tries to reclaim the lavish lifestyle he was once accustomed to through force of arms.

Evil PeeWee: "Well hello there Mr. Bank vault, would you be so kind as to open up so that I can steal all the money from inside you?"
Bank Vault: "Aww shucks Mr Reuben, it'd be a privilege."
Security Guard: "Freeze right there!"
*Various furniture, stationary and the guard's own clothes begin screaming as they bludgeon him to death.*
Evil PeeWee*turns to imaginary camera*: "He said the secret word!"

Not sure if it would come across as awesome as it sounds in my head, or if it'd just be silly though.

Âmesang
2016-04-28, 02:35 PM
Any chance you could have him say, "He ruined my new jacket. Kill him a lot!"

AMFV
2016-04-28, 03:10 PM
Hey everybody I just though of something. What if the PC that you played as yourself and the NPC is that people you know in real life? Also there's so many people around the planet Earth including famous people (Dead and alive) that you'll use and fits in the roleplaying. So what do you think about it, Is it a good idea or bad idea? Tell me your opinions about it. :smile:

It's typically a bad idea, right around the point you need to decide on stats.

Now something that could be a really fascinating thing is playing as yourself in a sort of alternative reality. Basically you're playing as yourself in a world that is like ours but different somehow (doesn't really sidestep the stats thing but it's kind of interesting).

Geddy2112
2016-04-28, 03:21 PM
A good majority of my characters are based on real famous people, and some characters from fiction. While I try to keep to the integrity of the person I am putting into a ttRPG, it is rarely verbatim.

Kid Jake
2016-04-28, 04:05 PM
Any chance you could have him say, "He ruined my new jacket. Kill him a lot!"

It'd pretty much be a certainty at some point. :smalltongue:

Jeff the Green
2016-04-28, 04:20 PM
When my brother's partner gets back from England this summer, I'm going to be running a campaign where the world has suddenly started working on D&D rules, the players have gained various powers (in part random and in part based on their real life personalities*), and a certain presidential candidate has declared himself Lord High Priest-King of the US. Bill Clinton will also make an appearance as a dirgesinger (playing a saxophone, obviously) who's animated the corpses of Abraham Lincoln, JFK, and Richard Nixon. No real political stuff (though we all have roughly the same views so it wouldn't be an issue), just taking the piss out of everyone.

I'll also be running a more serious campaign using the Dresden Files rules set in 1920s New Orleans, with Huey Long, Marie Laveau (with her life extended by Voodoo), and Louis Armstrong featuring prominently. I think my brother is going to be Ragin' Cajun Jim, a washed up old boxer who dabbles in hoodoo and his partner is going to be a rugaru.

My brother and his friends once played a d20 modern zombie game starring themselves. They actually went around to a lot of the places in town they were at in the game, though their characters were much bigger badasses than they are in real life.

So, yeah, I think it's fine. You just have to be careful not to insult anybody who's there or their loved ones. (I was thinking about including my aunt and grandpa in the first game as two of the antagonists, but I'm not sure how my cousin would take it.) Also, there still should be no "your character wouldn't do that" from the DM, even if you know they wouldn't really charge the zombies with a machete in real life.

*Classes are assigned randomly with pre-made character sheets, but each person gets a special power. My brother, who sings wonderfully, gets bardic music. His partner, who is tiny but fierce, gets to shrink to diminutive while keeping her Strength. My cousin, a stoner, gets a magic bong that produces a stinking cloud effect. And their roommate, a partier with an iron liver, gets to heal and buff by drinking beer. Like I said, not serious.

PersonMan
2016-04-28, 05:00 PM
I personally don't like it, for the same reason I don't like playing other peoples' characters or using other peoples' settings - I get worried about playing it right, and feel hemmed in, rather than being able to just create a completely new entity.

scottcrowan
2016-04-29, 02:15 AM
Yeah!! Even I am also agree that the characters should play real person role. It would create a drastic interest in story.

Knaight
2016-04-29, 05:20 AM
If I'm running a modern or historical game I'll use real people as NPCs if they're notable enough that excluding them would affect verisimilitude. So, for example, in my World War II superhero game FDR is president of the United States, Earl Warren is governor of California, Fletcher Bowron* is mayor of Los Angeles, Winston Churchill is prime minister of the UK, etc. That doesn't mean the PCs will necessarily ever meet those people, but they'll at least hear about them from time to time.

* How can a guy have this name and not secretly be an archery-themed superhero or villain?

This is still less unfortunate than August Spies (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Spies) not being involved in clandestine work. It's a waste of a great name.

FlumphPaladin
2016-04-29, 07:21 AM
We did that once. One person would leave the room while the others would create a character sheet based on them by consensus. It was going to be a weird-fiction survival game, if I remember correctly, set on a vacation to Aruba we'd won. Not sure if it was our true-to-life stats (nobody had anything higher than a 12), me trying to convince our GM that I could speak Dutch, or the fact that one of us almost bit it during the first combat (tentacle monster/s enveloping the building), but we moved on to something else the next session.

Honest Tiefling
2016-04-29, 08:49 PM
Is it just me, or would assigning alignment to yourself and your friends get really awkward, really fast? "Lawful, eh? Where's that money you owe me?" "Why didn't you make yourself good aligned!?" "Why did YOU make yourself good aligned!?" "Did you just write down Chaotic Evil to annoy us?"

Jeff the Green
2016-04-30, 01:12 AM
Is it just me, or would assigning alignment to yourself and your friends get really awkward, really fast? "Lawful, eh? Where's that money you owe me?" "Why didn't you make yourself good aligned!?" "Why did YOU make yourself good aligned!?" "Did you just write down Chaotic Evil to annoy us?"

Maybe, though it might be fun to put it to a vote. I really don't think I'd use alignment in such a game; playing without it is entirely possible.

Honest Tiefling
2016-04-30, 01:20 AM
Maybe, though it might be fun to put it to a vote. I really don't think I'd use alignment in such a game; playing without it is entirely possible.

You, sir, either have much better or much worse friends then I do to suggest voting on it. Or a splatter-proof living room.

Jeff the Green
2016-04-30, 01:27 AM
You, sir, either have much better or much worse friends then I do to suggest voting on it. Or a splatter-proof living room.

I mostly play with brothers and cousins, so there's more wiggle-room for teasing. We'd expect to be voted Chaotic Evil, Lawful Boring, and Chaotic Stupid.

Honest Tiefling
2016-04-30, 01:46 AM
So, how many broken bones between all of you? Sisters, unfortunately, have their punchy bits located closer to my squishy bits then I think nature should have ever allowed.

Through on historical people, I'd be more worried about people forgetting the game to have historical debates.