How do you roleplay big changes on your characters?

[DaOldeWolf]

There are many ways a character can end up changing, maybe they acquired a template like lycanthrophy or vampirism. Maybe the char was reincarnated into a different species. An ítem changed his outlook (alignment) or changed genders. Whatever the case, how do you like to roleplay big and sudden changes on characters? Does it affect their identity? If yes, how do you roleplay that?

[Tanarii]

By making all my decisions for my character in the fantasy environment (aka roleplaying) with the new capabilities and personality changes in mind.

[Draconi Redfir]

my character recently found out she was pregnant

i don't think she's changed too much since then, she was already more of a spellcaster that stayed in the back lines then anything else, so she's probably just going to be doing more of that, trying not to take any unnecessary risks and the like.

The child IS a halfbreed though, and she's worried neither race will treat it very well, so she's going to start asking around to see if anyone knows any ways of turning it into a full-blooded member of either race just to increase it's odds of survival. Preferably her race, but if the other is the only option, then so be it.

Out of character though, i got myself a small pocket-calendar and have been marking the passing days along with other events such as when we enter / leave a dungeon, just to keep track on how long it's been.

[Hand_of_Vecna]

It depends a lot on both the players and the game in question.

In most games though you are playing the role of a character, your character's psyche and relationships are not the central focus of the game the focus is on dungeons, or missions, or protecting the city.

I find that in these games players (including myself) tend to have their characters be uncommonly good at rolling with the punches. Radical bodily changes that most media would treat as traumatizing and have lead to a crisis of identity tend to just happen and we move on.

Some might call this out as poor roleplaying, but the characters being represented are special. They're either uncommonly well trained or rare prodigies. Outside of Call of Cthulhu we rarely question characters being unaffected by gore or being able to punctuate deadly combat with action hero quips. The average starting adventurer is often a near impossible stoic capable of unemotionally regarding near deadly wounds and more than capable of holding off their concern about how being a vampire will change their relationship with their father until after they've saved the world.

In something like a many whitewolf games how these issues are dealt with could be the primary focus of the game, though even there the newly changed often have more pressing issues. In WW games there tend to be pressing demands from the community even on the newly turned, characters who can't deal with it are often depicted as cautionary tales. Though WW tends to depict everyone as suffering and makes this a central pillar of the game world, the elders Vampire tend to be models of stoicism as any outward showing of their inner turmoil exposes a weakness for their rivals to exploit. Young coutaries (sp) are often tasked with cleaning up problems from other vampires engaging in vices this sometimes includes other young vampires who have tried to check out because they couldn't handle the combination of the night to night demands of the community and their own struggles with the changes to their body and mind.

[hymer]

I had a rogue who changed alignment via cursed item from LE to CG. I had him go through a transition period of several months, as his personality rebuilt itself according to the new alignment. He was effectively going through his teenage years again, emotionally speaking.