Has anyone played a Conspiracy Theorist character?

[SangoProduction]

So, as we all know, divine magic is just 'belief magic'. You could worship a god, alignment, or ideal. Could even be the Albinism of Pink Chickpeas. It really doesn't matter as long as you absolutely believe in *something* (certain worlds aside) to the point that you screw the laws of reality over enough that your belief becomes reality.

But what if we take that a step further. Has anyone got any experience with playing a verifiably insane character? One that's completely divorced from the reality of their world, and tells reality to take a hike anyway? But if their insanity becomes real....are they actually insane?

If so, do you have any advice for playing such a character? I was actually thinking of making an Alex Jones type character, and just meme the hell out of the game with Enchantment spells / Mind sphere abilities, Illusions, and Conjuration. LITERAL DEMONS FROM HELL! His rants are actually the verbal components for his spells. This sounds like fun. I am also 90% sure that I don't have an explosive enough personality to actually sell it with the character, so I am hoping to get some good suggestions and help from this thread.

[Inevitability]

Pelor = Zarus, authority figure X is in fact a voidmind pawn of the illithid, an elder evil will arrive soon but news of its signs is being suppressed, authority figure X is in fact a shapeshifted demon, resurrection is evil and doesn't truly restore souls...

[Celestia]

I have not, mostly because I lack the IRL charisma to pull it off. However, if I were to do it, one that I've wanted to do for a while has been to play a character who earnestly believes that there is some all-powerful being who controls all of existence, even dictating the actions of the gods, themselves, and this being has a very personal interest in the life of the character. Of course, she'd also constantly mock the cleric/druid/paladin by declaring that their gods are mere pawns like the rest of us and are, thus, not worthy of worship.

[Geddy2112]

Absolutely. I once played my take on Hunter S. Thompson (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter_S._Thompson) and my friend played his take on Glenn Danzig (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Danzig) in the same campaign. The people we paid homage to are certainly out there, arguably insane, and certainly have or have expressed outlandish views that wander into conspiracy theory territory. However, these people are not stupid and have a cult following fandom of their work. You don't want to be written off for your crazy views, you want to be famous for them.

The key to playing such a character is that you can't be too insane to function. You can't be the 3.X insanity spell insane, where you walk around in a constant state of confusion(the 3.X mechanic). You can't have your character be chaotic stupid, or "I jump on the kings table and begin dancing because I am loony" chaotic silly. Consparicy theories are not just believed by the clinically insane, but many people who just see the world for what it really is. This takes your character from chaotic stupid annoying to somebody fighting for the very freedom of all sentient life in your setting.

Your character is not insane, the rest of the world is. Your character can see the world for what it really is. They have cracked the code, connected the dots, found the data they don't want you to kow about. As a character who believes such outlandish things, you need to be able to at least attempt to defend your theory and it should be rooted in some truth. If you play a character who walks around and just randomly screams nonsense, nobody will care and people won't take you seriously. However, if you mention a distinct lack of garlic in a town as evidence that a vampire cult rules supreme, that might get a little more traction. Present your case-has anybody really seen the town's mayor outside during the day? Is coffinmaking something the town is known for? Is there a mirror tax, or a secret mirror tax?! To make a good conspiracy theorist, you need to simply find a mildly unusual thing and then extrapolate the heck out of that information. Take a "don't you think it is a little unusual that ...." and run with it till you have a web of nonsense leading to an eternal black dragon raising a zombie army to kill the king.

A little screaming about werewolf illuminati is one thing, but if you can't back it up with a reasonable(ish) argument how mages control the lunar cycle to keep their werewolf elite in power then you are just bonkers. Of course, your character is not bonkers, that's just a smear campaign the werewolf illuminati is using to silence you.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Pelor = Zarus, authority figure X is in fact a voidmind pawn of the illithid, an elder evil will arrive soon but news of its signs is being suppressed, authority figure X is in fact a shapeshifted demon, resurrection is evil and doesn't truly restore souls...
All of these are true, but the Inevitables don't want you to take them seriously. I should know, I worked at the Catalogues of Enlightenment until I was dismissed for some entirely unfounded allegations of associating with slaadi.

P.S. On an entirely unrelated note, slaadi are treated terribly by the Lawful elite. They're not trying to sink the world into primordial essence, not at all! Slaadi only want you to love them!

[Elricaltovilla]

All of these are true, but the Inevitables don't want you to take them seriously. I should know, I worked at the Catalogues of Enlightenment until I was dismissed for some entirely unfounded allegations of associating with slaadi.

P.S. On an entirely unrelated note, slaadi are treated terribly by the Lawful elite. They're not trying to sink the world into primordial essence, not at all! Slaadi only want you to love them!

Yeah, and Red Fel has paladin levels.

[SangoProduction]

Absolutely. I once played my take on Hunter S. Thompson (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter_S._Thompson) and my friend played his take on Glenn Danzig (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Danzig) in the same campaign. The people we paid homage to are certainly out there, arguably insane, and certainly have or have expressed outlandish views that wander into conspiracy theory territory. However, these people are not stupid and have a cult following fandom of their work. You don't want to be written off for your crazy views, you want to be famous for them.

The key to playing such a character is that you can't be too insane to function. You can't be the 3.X insanity spell insane, where you walk around in a constant state of confusion(the 3.X mechanic). You can't have your character be chaotic stupid, or "I jump on the kings table and begin dancing because I am loony" chaotic silly. Consparicy theories are not just believed by the clinically insane, but many people who just see the world for what it really is. This takes your character from chaotic stupid annoying to somebody fighting for the very freedom of all sentient life in your setting.

Your character is not insane, the rest of the world is. Your character can see the world for what it really is. They have cracked the code, connected the dots, found the data they don't want you to kow about. As a character who believes such outlandish things, you need to be able to at least attempt to defend your theory and it should be rooted in some truth. If you play a character who walks around and just randomly screams nonsense, nobody will care and people won't take you seriously. However, if you mention a distinct lack of garlic in a town as evidence that a vampire cult rules supreme, that might get a little more traction. Present your case-has anybody really seen the town's mayor outside during the day? Is coffinmaking something the town is known for? Is there a mirror tax, or a secret mirror tax?! To make a good conspiracy theorist, you need to simply find a mildly unusual thing and then extrapolate the heck out of that information. Take a "don't you think it is a little unusual that ...." and run with it till you have a web of nonsense leading to an eternal black dragon raising a zombie army to kill the king.

A little screaming about werewolf illuminati is one thing, but if you can't back it up with a reasonable(ish) argument how mages control the lunar cycle to keep their werewolf elite in power then you are just bonkers. Of course, your character is not bonkers, that's just a smear campaign the werewolf illuminati is using to silence you.

Really good advice. Don't mind if I {mwahahaha} take it.