Problem with MY role-playing.

[The J Pizzel]

I finally get to play a character while another in our group DM's. I've been playing DnD for a while and every now and then I get to play a character. The problem is that they all end up having the same personality no matter how much I try to create a new one. I usually play a Chaotic Good or Neutral Good because I love being an overall good hero, but I like to usually be kinda crazey and fun-loving. So anywho - I decide i'm going to try something new.

I make up a level 3 Tiefling Wizard. Dark skin, yellow eyes, obsessed with power, kinda rude, wears dark clothes and a crimson red cloak, keeps the hood low...ALRIGHT YOU CAUGHT ME....I'M MODELED HIM AFTER RAISTLIN. The problem is that we've played 3 sessions now and I somehow resort back tot he fun loving crazy guy. Its like I just can't get the personality i'm picturing.

2 questions: 1 - do any of yall have that problem.
2 - how do yall get prep for getting in character for a PC that doesn't have the same personality as yourself.

[Lapak]

2 questions: 1 - do any of yall have that problem.
2 - how do yall get prep for getting in character for a PC that doesn't have the same personality as yourself.

Small trick that I use as a DM when I have to keep the personality of several different characters seperate and consistent:

What does he sound like in your head?
You don't have to try to imitate his voice out loud, but create one for him that is distinct from yours. Whenever you're going to speak or act in character, think in his 'voice'.

The act of thinking "I'm going to make a rude gesture and laugh at the villain" in a whispery, gravelly voice actually is enough to make me stop and realize that the man whose voice that was wouldn't do that. He might make a quietly mocking remark about the villain's chances, but he would be grave, not flashy.

[Gamebird]

Most of the players I know play one personality, ever. That is, their many characters have the same personality. There might be some surface differences, like this guy hates orcs or that guy uses an ax - but by and large they're the same person. That's pretty normal. If you enjoy the game anyway, then more good to you.

I can't really use myself as an example, because I tend to be more of a "same personality, different character" sort of person for most of the games I play (this being because they're with the same DM, who seems bent on penalizing players for having anything other than a ruthless-practical outlook).

But a friend of mine played four very different characters:

The latest one is a cowardly, scheming wizard. And he's really cowardly. I'm always surprised when a monster attacks his character and the character flips out, screaming ("like a little girl" according to the player), hiding behind other characters and choosing to flee or withdraw instead of fight.

He's also played a gruff, dumb, polite slugger, who was very brave and a bit selfless. He was protective of his friends and usually very quiet and a bit laid back. His answer to most conflicts was fighting, once he was sure there was a conflict.

Another character was an urbane, sophisticated romantic sort, very loyal to his boss and authority figures, but spending a lot of his time championing the causes of those mistreated by authority and trying to find ways, within the law, for them to get justice (or at least compensation).

Another character was a soft-spoken healer who shunned combat altogether and was very kind, sort of soft-hearted and a bit stubbornly naive.


These were very different characters. You wouldn't confuse one for another, even if they were all wearing the same clothes. They were defined by what choices they would make, how they made them and why they always picked certain answers over others.

They also each had some key descriptive features that set them apart from one another. The cowardly wizard is a frail elf, the slugger was a broad-shouldered meathead, the urbane guy was a Hispanic suit, and the healer was a casual/slacks sort of guy.

I think it helps a lot to write out a three or four sentence description of your character and consider what about that description sets him apart from other characters you've played.

[valadil]

When I make a character I usually try to have it capture an aspect of my personality and go from there. So an example would be a character who is like me, but willing to actually go through with all the evil stuff I think of and chuckle about. Or the character would be the intelligent tactical fighter. Sometimes I stray a little too far from myself and can't really connect with the character. Then I just end up playing poorly. But when a character works out, usually its just a shift to a different part of my personality with the volume turned up.

I often have trouble starting a new character out. Because of this I hate starting new games. You're supposed to introduce your character when you haven't entirely figured out who he is or how you represent him. It just feels awkward to me.

The best advise I can give for improving your ability to play a character is to write out a back story. And I don't just mean to write out some biographical factoids about where your character was born. Write out some scene that happened in the character's past. Dialog is important here - it establishes how your character speaks and represents himself. What's nice about writing out this sort of scene is that you aren't actually playing it. You can experiment with things and you can take your time. Most importantly, the other players won't see you doing this. It's like you're roleplaying the character, but you have as much time as you want for coming up with in character responses. And you get to be your own DM during these scenes, so you can make sure that your character is in the spotlight. Then, when it comes time to start gaming you've already played around with the character and gotten inside his head.

[ExHunterEmerald]

My character concepts start with a feel, and then go to a theme. I work out a story and design the PC to match it. I write out more as I go and it sort of becomes a perpetual machine. The personality sort of writes itself out as my character designwork progresses.

Hope that sort of helps.

[pestilenceawaits]

"snip"

I was in the middle of typing almost the same thing. I always find writing a back story helps me define the character. and one other thing don't sweat it too much if you enjoy the wacky characters it really isn't a problem if they are all that way.

[The J Pizzel]

I know there's nothing wrong with me playing the character i'm most comfortable with, and that comes most naturally to me. Its just that usually i'm a DM and I can come up with TONS of different personalities on the spot. The limping barkeep who mumbles and talks of nothing but politics, the gittery gnome alchemy salesmen who walks on stilts and thinks the gods are walking around daily...I can come up with these on the fly and remember how I played them, and enjoy playing them consecutively. But when it comes time for me to play a character, I always end up with the same personality. Its not a bad personality, its just getting repititious. I want to portray someting different and I just always resort back to the damn fun crazy guy.

[Tormsskull]

I know there's nothing wrong with me playing the character i'm most comfortable with, and that comes most naturally to me. Its just that usually i'm a DM and I can come up with TONS of different personalities on the spot. The limping barkeep who mumbles and talks of nothing but politics, the gittery gnome alchemy salesmen who walks on stilts and thinks the gods are walking around daily...I can come up with these on the fly and remember how I played them, and enjoy playing them consecutively. But when it comes time for me to play a character, I always end up with the same personality. Its not a bad personality, its just getting repititious. I want to portray someting different and I just always resort back to the damn fun crazy guy.

Well, PCs get a lot more 'on screen' time than an NPC does. As a DM when you make an NPC you don't really need to know a whole lot about them. You get a sentence or 3 three your head that explains then and you can RP with the best of them.

However, as a PC the spotlight is constantly on you. To not be repetitive as a character you have to get more in-depth with your character. Instead of just making a surface personality, dig deep.

If you want to try to play a less crazy fun-loving, start taking everything very serious. Make your character more about tradition & laws and rules that don't make any sense. Give him some taboos and odd activities that he engages in (maybe he always faces a certain direction when he sits down/sleep, maybe he eats a certain food raw, maybe he refuses to wear a particular color).

Give him some of these oddities and don't be cheerful. Be stern, be direct, and be serious. When someone does some that is funyy, raise the eyebrow and ask how telling jokes helps you finish you mission faster. Sigh a lot when people are inefficient.

These are all just suggestions but do stuff like them and mix it with other things that you can think of. That way you can change your character to something different than you usually play.

[Telonius]

"Getting into character" is hard to do well. There are already a bunch of good suggestions, but I'll put in mine. Part of your problem may be in how you're describing him. Yeah, he's a tiefling with a hood and so on, but that's just superficial, what he looks like. Apart from "occasionally rude," none of that really tells me what the person acts like. You won't be able to play the character well, unless you know who the character is. Try coming up with some personality descriptors. "Occasionally rude" is a start. Is he friendly? A know-it-all? Does he find enjoyment in reading? What does he love? What does he hate? What does he fear? (That's the kind of thing that the director means when he screams out, "What's your motivation?!") Write all of this stuff down as you're thinking of it.

When you have some of that stuff down, and you have a good sense of what the guy is about, think about how all of that stuff interacts with each other. And then, try to figure out some logical reason that your character would be like that. It doesn't have to be some epic tale, but it should make sense.

If what you come up with is something like, "Despite being miles from anywhere and having no actual weapons available to train with, Waldo the Wild was able improvise a bow and thus acquire the skill set needed for a Ranger because he's got a high Dex," you need some more work

"He hates orcs because an orc raid killed his family," might be a cliche, but it's logical. Not much detail there, but it's a start. What happened to him after the orc raid? What effect did this have on him?

"Waldo was left alone in the woods as a child of 12 when an orc party raided his family farm. Out of fear, he stayed away from civilization and anything that moved. In the course of this harsh life, Waldo became much nimbler than the average child, and quite self-reliant. He eventually encountered a tribe Wood Elves, who took pity on the boy and saw a potential ally. Waldo distrusted them at first; though he would never admit it, deep down he was afraid these new friends would be taken away from him, just as his family was. Grudgingly he accepted their help, reasoning that the best way to protect these friends was to find and destroy all of his enemies first. The elves trained him as a Ranger, and he's now ready to become a scourge of all goblin-kind." - Now you're on the right track.

You can also work this backwards; coming up with the backstory and then figuring out the personality from the story is also an option. Personally I find that to be a little bit harder. Starting from the personality gives you some room to invent more of the character's past as you find out more about them, without changing anything major about the character or the way he's played. Starting from the story (and doing it really thoroughly) can require setting a whole lot more in stone before the story starts, and can leave you with less flexibility.

[valadil]

Well you have to keep in mind that there are different characters that you play for PCs and NPCs. An NPC has to be a caricature of a character. The PCs need to recognize it, see it what is, interact with it, and move on. (At least for the sort of NPCs you come up with on the fly.) PCs on the other hand, need staying power. In my opinion you need a PC that grows somehow over the course of the game. Overcoming a prejudice or working towards some goal (often revenge) are some common developments for PCs to shoot for.

Anyway, it sounds like you're a perfectly capable roleplayer if you can come up with and then play all those NPCs. You're probably just thinking about the game in terms of NPC type characters as opposed to full fledged PCs. Clearly you know that the gnome on stilts doesn't work as a player character, or else you'd have played it by now.

I'd suggest trying the antithesis of the damn fun crazy guy. I mentioned playing an intelligent tactical fighter earlier. When I played that character it was in response to two things. Firstly, usually I play a mage. I don't know why, I just always end up playing them. And second, I'm usually the group's comic relief. The intelligent fighter ended up being the opposite of what I usually do, but I managed to retain enough of my own personality with him that he was still fun for me to relate to. I get bored of the dumb brute thing pretty quickly, so making him smart was nice. It also made the character unique (at least for the characters that that particular group had seen). I do like doing comedy in games, so I just made sure that my character played the straight guy. He was always the one reacting to all the weirdness around him and he was always setting up everyone else's punchlines. I was still able to channel whatever comedic energy needed to come out, but I also played a character that was very different from my standard.

So yeah. Either try thinking in terms of characters who will develop over the course of the game (sometimes I even pick a development I want to play and build the character around that) or do the exact opposite of your standard, while remaining true to a character you can enjoy.

[Fax Celestis]

Your problem is that you don't have a reason for any of these characterizations. Why does he hide his face? It could potentially be because he's ashamed of his heritage. Or it could be because he's been prejudiced against because of his heritage. Different reasons provide similar results, with differing reactions.

Continuing the above example, if he's ashamed of his heritage, then he'll become quiet and withdrawn when confronted with it and possibly even shun other members of his race. His rudeness may be because he doesn't understand interaction and performs social faux pas' without really knowing that he's doing so; alternatively, it could be because he's frustrated with himself and lashes out at others because of his internal self-loathing.

However, if he's been prejudiced: it'd be quite the opposite. He'd be rude because he developed arrogance to defend himself against the prejudice, finds close friends amongst others of his race, and perceives himself surperior to others.

So your fundamental issue that needs resolving is: Why is my character the way he is?

[silvermesh]

I would just peruse the GitP Gaming section for loads of personalities help... here for instance:
Emotional Responses

He's talking about NPCs, but the very same things apply to PCs, even moreso.

[Thomas]

2 questions: 1 - do any of yall have that problem.
2 - how do yall get prep for getting in character for a PC that doesn't have the same personality as yourself.

Nope, and no prep. I'm telling other people how this character I came up with acts. It's nothing to do with me, essentially. (I'm a gamist, not a simulationist. They're characters, not persons, they've got personas and characters, not personalities, etc.)

Most of the players I know play one personality, ever. That is, their many characters have the same personality. There might be some surface differences, like this guy hates orcs or that guy uses an ax - but by and large they're the same person. That's pretty normal. If you enjoy the game anyway, then more good to you.

I see that a lot in MUSHes. I honestly can't keep half the characters separate in my head, and keep mixing up who I did what with, because they just feel like the same characters. It's pretty sad in a game where all you can do to begin with is act your part. (It's also a little jarring in some cross-gender character cases. There's a lot of characters who can't, if you remove all references to their gender from the text, be identified as the gender they're supposed to be... they just feel like the player's own gender. That's not a problem with assuming the role of a member of the opposite gender so much as it's a problem assuming any role at all.)


Anyway, jpbooth, what you want to do is distinguish your character through actions. That's the only bit anyone else notices, and it's the most important one. Think about how your character would deal with specific situations, and stick to those behaviors and predictions. Eventually, it'll feel like a consistent personality that works on its own. I know I get so deep I can't just decide to change my character in some way - the evolution has to happen in-game or I just end up going back to the character's established behaviors.

Also, unless you're really good at improv acting, think up all the questions someone would ask about your characters, and think up the answers.

And while I'm a fan of modeling characters after other characters (it's an easy way to do initial characterisation), never only use one model. That's too recognisable. Mix it up. If you're using Raistlin, add someone else, too. Maybe Richelieu, maybe Saruman... but more than one example character.

[The J Pizzel]

OK - here we go:

My name is Lucius. My lineage has somehow been tainted by the wickedness of the abyss. Avert your eyes if you must, but I will suffer neither ignorance nor arrogance. I am Tiefling, as is my brother Slevin.

We were raised by our adopted parents in a well to do community that were strict followers of Heironiess. When word got out that we were...different...well, you can imagine how it went. My brother, who looked much more abyssal then myself got the worst of it. For he was born with dark skin, red glowing eyes, a tail and horns. I was only cursed with dark skin and yellow eyes. Our troubles began almost imediatly following my 15th year. Upon leaving a general goods shop for our father, some bullies began tormenting my younger brother. In a fit of rage I yelled out a word of arcane power. A small blast of force erupted from my hand and struck the futile human in the chest, knocking the breath from his lungs. Regrettably, it also knocked the life from his body.

When I came to I was on the edge of our pasture while our house burned. I came to with a jolt and looked around for our parents. My brother, sensing my anguish, pointed beyond the smoke of our house and drew my vision to a small mob holding pitchforks, spears and knives. I began to openly weep; however, when I noticed what was lying on the ground near the mayors feet: a pile of wood, several hammers, and a pale of large metal spikes. My deepest fears had come to pass. As if reading my mind, Slevin said the words that still haunt my dreams today: "brother, the humans have trapped our parents...now we are truly alone".

For the first time in my life I accepted my heritage. My eyes began to glow a deep yellow, my brothers red. As I stood up, my brother darted off to the house. By the time I was to my feet Slevin was near the back wall. To this day I've never seen Slevin attempt such a daring feat...in a display of agility that a bard will sing of one day, he ran up the pile of fire wood, leapt to the "A" frame hang rod we used for cleaning game and catapuleted himself to the roof of our house. It was his proudest moment. As he dove headfirst down the chimney I threw open the back door. To our astonishment, the fire didn't harm us. We found our parents against the front door of the house. My mothers nails were dug into the wood. I wept again as I saw their burnt, charred bodies. We pulled them out the back door and carried them until we collapsed from exhaustion.

We buried them with that dignity we had and set off alone. Slevin adapted to the ways of the street and I learned the arcane ways of the magi. It has been seven years since the horrid day. I have learned that not all humnas embrace such ignorance. Therefore I try my best to not hate all human kind. But I do despise intolerance. I loathe ignorance and I will purge it from those who attempt it. I am not ashamed of my heritage anymore, I embrace it. I respect those who are unfamiliar with such things therefore I attempt to avoid occurences where trouble would rise when concerning friends. But I will NOT be judged by it. And if you do decide that I'm unfit to breathe your air, check behind you...because by the time you finish you first insult, you will be drawing your last breath, looking into the red glowing eyes of Slevin.

What do yall think?

Edit - I just went back and read it....holy crap...I made Drizzt. I swear I didn't to that on purpose. I'm disgraced. Screw it...I like it anyway.

[PMDM]

It's fine, and more than enough to run a game. Remeber that not everything is backstory, and a good portion of fun is watching your character mature.

[Lord Iames Osari]

... "Luscious"? Are you serious?

Edit: Not trying to put you down, it's just that that name practically begs to be made fun of. As a DM and a player who's had character names made fun of, I can tell you that it isn't fun.

[Stormcrow]

In a very truthful sense the majority of characters are elements of ourselves we feel unable to live out in our day to day lives. Some people play murderers and theives to sate their subconcious urge for cruelty and crime while other people play Paladins because they feel that way inside but don't feel they can live out this life in practice within our society.

The best way to get in character is to consider your characters motivations for the hours leading up to the session, the rude teifling for example. Why is he rude? How does he feel about the stigma related to his heritige? Does he enjoy the company of other people? Is he only rude to people he feels are being racist towards him? Its possible to be a psychotic killer and still be fun loving sometimes. :D

[Avenger337]

... "Luscious"? Are you serious?

Edit: Not trying to put you down, it's just that that name practically begs to be made fun of. As a DM and a player who's had character names made fun of, I can tell you that it isn't fun.

I thought that at first, too -- but actually, I'll bet you anything he was going for the other pronunciation; i.e, "loo-see-yus" rather than "lush-ous." If that makes any sense.

However, you might want to change the spelling of it a bit, so as not to make your DM and fellow players think of, oh, I don't know, flowers, and food, and prostitutes.

[Fax Celestis]

The "other pronounciation" you speak of is "Lucius".

[Viscount Einstrauss]

I know what you mean. If I play a game long enough, my PC will start to pick up my own personality traits. The fact that you keep gravitating towards chaotic good/neutral with those specific features speaks volumes about yourself.

Incidentally, this is the same problem you'd have if you were an actor. So, every trick you've ever heard for acting applies. I use the motivation trick in both acting and D&D. That is, I consider their lives up to that point and why they've made all the choices they have. Inevitably, their morality and personality ends up very different from your own since they've lead very different lives. The trade off here is that every single character will still share some traits with yourself, since their thoughts and moods prior to the very beginning of their backstory are ultimately your own. But that's not so bad when it's a heavily warped version altogether.

[Diggorian]

jpbooth, this guy doesnt sound like a sullen, cloaked Raistlin type. He seems like proud survivor,

"But I do despise intolerance. I loathe ignorance and I will purge it from those who attempt it. I am not ashamed of my heritage anymore, I embrace it. I respect those who are unfamiliar with such things therefore I attempt to avoid occurences where trouble would rise when concerning friends. But I will NOT be judged by it."

This guy seems like he would walk around with his dark head held high and bright yellow eyes flashing in defiance. Unduly victimized for something that isnt his fault, Luscious seems to dare the world to try to hurt him again.

Some where inside you are similar feelings to the kind this PC shows. The best way to get into character is to make Luscious the outlet for those feelings, which you may not choose to dwell on normally. It can be cathartic as well as entertaining.

My hobgoblin character (and avatar) had his clan become corrupted, was forced to kill his only mentor, lived alone turning to banditry, was treated like an "orange orc", enslaved by dwarves, had to nearly die to prove his worth, travels the world alone seeking to redeem the very clan/family that turned him out. He is essentially the frustration I have over the personal and racial prejudice I've experienced in my own life.

Our group uses allegiances to better (than alignment) reflect personality. The Hobgoblins are, in order: Excellance, Honor, and Self-defense. What would Luscious' be?

[The J Pizzel]

Hells yeah - thats what I was looking for....tis Lucius that I am.

Diggorian - thanks the input. I wear the cloak over the head and keep my head down for as not to rise suspicion for my friends. Not so much because I'm ashamed or think that I'm less than anyone or even frightened. If trouble breaks or when in the wild, I usually take the hood off. Thanks for the reference.

[TheOOB]

One thing I've learned over time. You characters will always have elements of your own personalities and the personalities of others. Instead of trying to hide it however, you should embrace it. You might, for example, have a character who shares many traits of Indiana Jones. Inside of trying to hide that fact and do a bunch of un-indi things to hide your characters "source" per say, which just makes your character silly and inconsistant, act up the part. Your fellow players will love your character for the same reasons you love the character you based it off of. It will be rare that your character still won't manage to be unique, imprints of your own personality and other personalities characters you like and characters you've played before will linger, making your character unique, yet still contain the essence of the character your basing your own off of.

[mikeejimbo]

I find that the best way for me to play a different character is to try and play the same one. I usually play a mostly selfless healer who is a bit shy and generally stressed that he feels the whole party's survival rests on him and that they'll blame him for anything that goes wrong, yet when everything goes smoothly he gets no respect.

So I actually TRIED to play a character like this, and I turned out to make a character who is a bit disdainful and offensive at being accused of things and threatens to leave.

Also, that's just for Pen and Paper games. I also play in Forum-based RPs (Not here, though I would like to get into on), and those characters always turn out paranoid and crazy.

[Deus Mortus]

I actually like to pull together a whole new psyche for characters, I do this alot when I need to model facial expressions for my 3d models, it takes a lot of time (sometimes I spend a month of purely thinking about different ways I can nuance a personality before even starting to model), but it's really worth the effort...

[Thomas]

Not trying to put you down, it's just that that name practically begs to be made fun of. As a DM and a player who's had character names made fun of, I can tell you that it isn't fun.

Heh heh. One of my players named his character (from a nordic-celtic-germanic culture) Wiglof, because it sounds funny. Turns out Wiglof is the name of a person from Beowulf's legends...

'course the other player's character is named Carlos, but I'll be changing that soon enough...

In a very truthful sense the majority of characters are elements of ourselves we feel unable to live out in our day to day lives. Some people play murderers and theives to sate their subconcious urge for cruelty and crime while other people play Paladins because they feel that way inside but don't feel they can live out this life in practice within our society.

Psychoanalytic pap (sublimation etc.). That's just unprovable supposition, and not a little annoying to people who play villains or anti-heroes.

This is the same theory and logic that literally says people become surgeons to act out sadistic urges by cutting people, and become plumbers to indulge anal retention and the urge to play with crap.

[ExHunterEmerald]

Yeah, I don't play someone evil because I want to go around kicking puppies.
Lucius sounds like the type who's torn between attempting to be tolerant, and an inability to do so when others can't. Maybe someday he witnesses a hate crime and snaps.
From reading, I see him as confident and unshaking--if someone slights him he'll quietly acknowledge their complaint, and then send them hurtling with a blast of force. Speak softly, and carry a big stick--staff.

[silvermesh]

The only change I would make:
I would make a personal note as to where the characters outsider heritage comes from, and how far back in the family tree it is. The character doesn't have to know, but a birth story is always good for you to have for flavor. it helps you flesh out who he really is. did his mother die in childbirth? or did she just give them up out of shame, as she knew what they were and feared what they might become?

[Telonius]

Psychoanalytic pap (sublimation etc.). That's just unprovable supposition, and not a little annoying to people who play villains or anti-heroes.

This is the same theory and logic that literally says people become surgeons to act out sadistic urges by cutting people, and become plumbers to indulge anal retention and the urge to play with crap.

I generally agree, though Stormcrow is right in one sense. Since I'm the creator of my character, there's part of me in it. I can't play it if I don't know it, and knowing it involves understanding people and what motivates them. I'm not a Freudian myself, but even in the Freudian sense RPing could be seen as an educational and healthy exercise. In creating the characters, you learn about human motivations. You bring the subconscious motivations into the light of conscious rationality, and therefore grant the individual awareness of (and control over) his own motivations.

I definitely don't agree that all people write (or play) villains in order to satisfy some subconscious urge (though some probably do). It's possible to write or play a villain by conscious choice, though to play any character really well you have to accept the consequences of the motivations you assign to them.

[Quincunx]

Theme music helps to get into the mindset of a character, especially if you go a bit outside your usual taste in music. Set it to repeat a few times just before the game session. Deus Mortus' advice on facial expressions also seems sound.

(a gnome charges/stumbles through the conversation, with REPENT! spelled out on each stilt leg)

What's your new guy going to say when a potentially funny situation arises in the game? Sure, you know the quips, but will he wait for someone else to be clever--or immediately be annoyed that nobody else is so clever--play the 'straight man' to someone else's quips?

(closely followed by a three-inch-tall black hooded robe with a skeletal tail and a pack of Post-It notes. *scribble scribble*stick* SQUEAK. CONVERT! reads the note on jpbooth's instep)

*The Death of Rats, from Terry Pratchett, as played by Ozymandias the Elder: Priest of the Left Side of the Left Side of the Left Side of the Great God and Pharaoh Nanotoknonnen.