How would you design a character that know's he is a character?

[dj543210]

How would you design a character that know's he's a character in a roleplaying game? What class/race would you make him/her and what would his/her backstory be?

[Kelb_Panthera]

When you say a character that knows he is a character in an RPG, do you mean one who genuinely knows or one who just believes that they are such a character?

In both cases it comes mostly down the role playing. The mechanics aren't really an issue. After all, knowing you're in a game and knowing the rules of that game are two different things.

[Coidzor]

I'd start by playing White Wolf's Vampire: The Masquerade and putting together a Malkavian.

Failing that, Red Mage from 8-Bit Theater is a great model.

I'm sure some of the threads about what rules could he determined and studied by people within the game universe could give some further ideas, but I don't recall any thread titles to rustle up any links offhand, sorry.

[Zanos]

I would first take some courses on how to evade high-velocity paper objects, and make sure my car has a full tank of gas.

[Krazzman]

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/7/71/Wade_Wilson_(Earth-TRN353).jpg/revision/latest?cb=20140125170920

It's basically all in the roleplay.

[Heliomance]

Honestly they'd probably have to have ties to the Far Realms to provide a reasonable explanation for something like that. Otherwise, it could only possibly work in a straight-out comedy game where no-one is taking anything seriously, in which case it doesn't need any justification.

[Lord Raziere]

Well you can either go with the comedy route or the drama route. The character can either treat it all with a smile and a wink, cracking jokes and generally being fourth-wall breaking in a silly manner....

....or they can slowly go insane from knowing that that they don't truly exist, that their world doesn't truly exist, that their existence and purpose are hollow, made to serve cthulhu-esque beings who only put hm there to entertain themselves, and then cursed them to be aware of all this just for fun, spiraling into depression and sociopathy until they snap and kill everyone just to spite the cthulhu-esque entities out of their game while laughing maniacally that they will no longer be a toy.

Either one. :smallbiggrin:

[flappeercraft]

How would you design a character that know's he's a character in a roleplaying game? What class/race would you make him/her and what would his/her backstory be?

I would make him insane, impulsive, etc as he knows there is not too much downsides if he dies as he is only a character from a game. Well so sorta like deadpool

[dascarletm]

....or they can slowly go insane from knowing that that they don't truly exist, that their world doesn't truly exist, that their existence and purpose are hollow, made to serve cthulhu-esque beings who only put hm there to entertain themselves, and then cursed them to be aware of all this just for fun, spiraling into depression and sociopathy until they snap and kill everyone just to spite the cthulhu-esque entities out of their game while laughing maniacally that they will no longer be a toy.

Either one. :smallbiggrin:

Now I'm thinking about whether or not I'm just a RPG character to some other being....

Dang it.

[icefractal]

I would first take some courses on how to evade high-velocity paper objects, and make sure my car has a full tank of gas.As Zanos alludes, this concept may not be happily accepted by the rest of the group. For a comic/gonzo campaign, it seems fine. But for a serious one, it potentially undercuts everything the other characters do or care about. Because either your character is just insane, or else the world is false, and their goals are all pointless.

But assuming this is a campaign suitable to the concept ...
I'd still need more info. Does the character know the rules of the game? Or simply that it is a game? At what age did they discover this? Because I can see such a character intentionally trying to optimize themselves, but that's only if they know how to do that and have the opportunity.

[Gruftzwerg]

IMHO, when you talk about a character who really "knows" and isn't some kind of idiot, running across the street, than it needs to be a class of high intellect and education/research. From the base classes only wizards come into my mind.
And the prestige class that would fit best would be a "Fatespinner". What would be better as, to know that all fate is about dice rolling chances?!

[Florian]

How would you design a character that know's he's a character in a roleplaying game? What class/race would you make him/her and what would his/her backstory be?

Look at Deadpool the comic, not the movie. This is all about breaking the "forth wall", so interacting with the game as a game.

For fun, I´d make the character a Human (Deep One) Cleric (Elder Mythos Cultist)/Wizard (Elder Mythos Scholar)/Mystic Theurge that has seen through the deception that "reality" really is....

[Duelpersonality]

I'd start by playing White Wolf's Vampire: The Masquerade and putting together a Malkavian.

Way Back When, I did just this. Only he was sure he was a D&D character, so his understanding tended to be pretty skewed. Lots of fun, though.

[trikkydik]

Regardless of class/race/level
The character would be completely delusional.
He wouldn't be able to distinguish reality from illusion.
How can anything be real when the guy is aware that he isn't real himself.

It's like that Jim Carey movie, the Truman show. (I think that's the movie.)

He'd be totally unstable.

[GrayDeath]

Read this, it answers it from an almost exact pov.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8096183/1/Harry-Potter-and-the-Natural-20

[Barstro]

I would make him insane, impulsive, etc as he knows there is not too much downsides if he dies as he is only a character from a game.

I think just the opposite. He exists ONLY so long as the game continues. He does not have an afterlife if he knows that no player will play him in one.

Part of the issue is that there is not a whole lot of difference in the game between characters being themselves and characters knowing they are in the game.

Of the few changes;
Character knows there will be only one random encounter on a trip.
Character knows that someone outside of the party who has a name is important.
Character knows when he is being railroaded (and probably goes along with it).
Character knows he has a 5% chance of doing the impossible every time he tries (assuming that's how your DM plays things).
Character will change fighting style after figuring out enemy's AC (yep, time to power attack).

Best I can come up with is, since talking is a free action; when character is on the verge of death, he begins to recite all known literature in order to stay alive.

[Tohsaka Rin]

Make whatever class character you want, backstory is another thing.

Which is: S/he's an understudy for the Order of the Stick, and is just waiting for a main character to die, before s/he gets their call in.

...There's some hilarity about missing a call here, but for the lift of me, I can't think of a non-spoilery joke. :smallwink:

[Nyaa]

what would his/her backstory be?

My name is Jihan Han. A poor guy who got this weird power called <the gamer>. (http://www.webtoons.com/en/fantasy/the-gamer/ep-1/viewer?title_no=88&episode_no=1)

[Jormengand]

Well, OotS is actually a pretty good indicator of how to do this. Characters who talk aloud about feats, skill ranks and proficiency as game constructs rather than talking about stuff they can and can't do, for example.

[Name1]

I'd make him have his first level in Commoner, and after he realizes what he is IC (or well, in his background), he should be as optimized as possible, because it would make sense for him to be that way.

[dascarletm]

Does the character have control over what build choices he makes, or is he constantly cursing and critiquing the "player" who keeps screwing him over?

"Oh, great Skill Focus (Profession (Sailor)), and this isn't even a seafaring campaign! Someone must have a fetish for parentheses."