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Old 03-05-2003, 11:27 AM   #1
OnyxFlame
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Most of my chars have something in common with me, mainly because there's certain types of chars I avoid playing because they're boring. It's not that I can't play something completely opposite to my personality, it's just that I don't find most of those possibilities interesting.

I've played manipulative bitches. I've played helpful but paranoid mages. I've played lazy storytelling fighters. But I just can NOT play a char who isn't very social, because it bores the crap outta me to just sit in a room alone, even if that's what my char would do. For this reason I don't tend to play evil thieves and assassins either.

It's also hard for me to have a char without a twisted sense of humor. I just adore teasing people and cracking the occasional dirty joke.

And because I'm so social and like to joke around so much, I tend not to play the bad guy type chars because they wouldn't be believable anyway. Sometimes my chars end up intimidating because they're powerful and have powerful friends, but not because they're mysterious or sadistic or anything. In fact it could be argued that threats are more effective when rarely used.

But generally I play the nice, helpful, overworked mage who tries to honor all her commitments and see justice done, no matter how much she bitches about random events along the way.

How about you guys?
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Old 03-05-2003, 11:55 AM   #2
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Old 03-05-2003, 04:03 PM   #3
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I have fun playing various types of characters. On one game I played (it died several years ago) I played a dwarven druid (good aligned) so believable that when that mud died and I chose to play an evil character my old nemesis couldn't picture me playing an evil character.

I have fun exploring various races and classes and pushing my limits. I have played loner characters who finally find a friend/love.

My main style is having a character that does interact in some way and develop them from there.
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Old 03-05-2003, 06:14 PM   #4
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Old 03-05-2003, 08:56 PM   #5
Maia
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Question

I feel the same way, Dulan.

For starters, I believe the whole "good vs evil" duality to be hokum.  Does anyone IRL actually consider themselves to be evil?  Very, very few would, I suspect.  I think we tend to label as "evil" those whose attitudes and actions differ markedly from our own.  As humans, we all perform actions we are proud of and those we are not so proud of.

In the words of Edward Falconer,  "it is not so much the actions of characters that are important, but the motivations behind them".

And there lies the real reason why I avoid the "good" and "evil" stereotypes.  I just don't find acting good for the sake of being good (or evil for the sake of being evil) all that interesting.  Creating a character's history, value set and personality which enable me to determine how he or she would react to a particular circumstance, to explore his or her motivations - there for me lies the beauty and interest of role playing.


I tend to play characters that are essentially me, since this lays down a solid foundation for believable roleplay.  But, because of their backgrounds or environments or just a few personality quirks I introduced out of curiousity, they differ enough from me to enable me to feel like I'm exploring someone else's brain.  Because if I'm just going to be me, I might as well stay in the real world, right?

It's similar to my preference in gameworlds.  I most enjoy worlds that are very realistic, that is, in most regards they work just like RL.  For me, this makes the experience much more believable and immersive, so I feel I can more deeply experience those aspects of the world that do differ from Earth.


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Old 03-06-2003, 12:07 PM   #6
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Well I didn't mean good and evil as in literal alignments and stuff, since DM is really cool not to have those heh. But play long enough and you'll notice people that most consider good and people that most consider evil, as well as the occasional confusion between the person's friends who think they're good and their enemies or random people who think they're evil.

But yeah I don't like to play goody goody 2 shoes types any more than I like to play the steal-your-mother's-dentures types. I like to be mostly helpful but sometimes bitchy and disgruntled or manipulative. My chars come up with "evil" plots now and then to advance towards their goals and so on. And I've had chars who try to do good and noble things and are criticized for it.
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Old 03-06-2003, 02:51 PM   #7
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Old 03-07-2003, 04:46 AM   #8
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Angry

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Old 03-07-2003, 10:35 AM   #9
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Exclamation

Personally, I have no problem playing any type though I still have something of myself in every character I create. I've played the evil and misunderstood magic user, the lonesome ranger in the lush forest, the sweaty blacksmith, graceful noblewoman and so on...
My longest living character has been alive for more than two years and I happily admit that both the character and myself have evolved since he was created. I've learned a lot about roleplaying, scheming, backstabbing (literal), diplomacy as well as I've put parts of myself into the making of my favorite character ever.
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Old 03-07-2003, 12:28 PM   #10
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Old 03-07-2003, 09:12 PM   #11
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Believe it or not, this is actually a question that comes to light every couple of months or so on these forums or the forums at The Mud Connector. Saying that threads such as these, where players define the character "types" that they enjoy playing is not only a pet peve of mine, but a mindset that I think is adopted far too often. It's also one that, all things considered, has a truly negative impact on any intensive roleplaying environment.

The neccessity for a player to define a character "type/style" is one that's been handed down from Gygax and his team at TSR who created the original and advanced Dungeons and Dragons systems. The noble warrior, the furtive thief, the stoic mage--archetypes that appear in novels from Tolkien to Jordan, in video games and table top settings.

In table top settings, the class system is actually somewhat appropriate. It allows a group of players to specialize into various areas and go off on amazing adventures. The plot of a tabletop RPG is focused upon this journey, this adventure and the physical and emotional impact it has on the characters who travel it.

Online environments are completely different. With the majority of roleplaying MU*s that I've experienced, a developing storyline is only a part (sometimes major - as with Wes Platt's worlds - and sometimes very minor, as with the RPI Xyllomer.) The rest is the task of both administrators and players to create a living, breathing world. In a table top, fantasy RPG it would be ridiculous to chronicle the life of a blacksmith who sits all day by the forge and tinkers. In an online, fantasy world this is entirely appropriate.

That said, as a roleplaying administrator and creative director, I strongly urge my players (and for that matter, all players) to stray from this notion of creating a character type. The good vs. evil argument (which is another post entirely) aside, characters are far more interesting when built up from a set of values and experiences rather than constructed from an archetype down.

Start with the small details - your character's favorite food, musical tastes, weather. Begin creating a personality, add in background events (which should always be more mundane than the events experienced in-game) and adapt their personality to show how these past events have influenced their current position.

How your character acts and the profession your character takes should always be the last part of your creation process. Everything else about them - their set of values and experiences - should dictate these; not the other way around.

For those of you who like to take roleplaying from a mere hobby to a method of gaining personal insight, I'd suggest you take a look at the Aristotelean concept of eudaimonia. It may prove incredibly valuable to your character creation process.

Best,
Edward Falconer
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Old 03-08-2003, 12:11 AM   #12
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I agree with Falconer. Only I tend to work out who my parents are, then who raised me, who my friends were in my childhood, how I acted, how I act now, what I like/don't like. In that order.

I enjoy playing char's who'll be involved in politics. How they're involved in politics is completely different everytime. I've had people who'd collect rumors and sell them, I've had people who would just do whatever they're told and not think for themselves. All sorts really. However I always die.......

I tend to play the char's no-one notices. I'll rarely be in the spotlight, but more be like the person that just stands in the background and helps leaders pull of their plans.
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Old 03-08-2003, 08:28 AM   #13
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I find it extremely useful to sketch out a rough outline of the personality I plan to play, e.g., slightly insane paranoid, eccentric genius with delusions of grandeur, angsty manic depressive, or unmotivated slob with a big mouth. The concept of personality type is completely orthogonal with respect to profession or class (assuming class is even a valid concept on the MU* in question).

I think you're mistaking using the concept of character personality with rehashing tired cliched archetypes, which are generally a combination of personality and profession.
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Old 03-08-2003, 03:10 PM   #14
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This is an excellent place to start - concentrating on the various personality quirks that will begin to define your character. Characters with reasons behind these personality traits are infinitely more interesting than those with just the traits themselves.

Consider, for example, the character of Hamlet. You could certainly start by brainstorming a list of personality traits: eccentric, drowning in melancholy, suicidal, unable to form true bonds of intimacy. But when you begin to add the motivations - the experiences and life events that have shaped these traits - immediately the character takes on an extra dimension and gains a prop of personal history to use in present and future roleplaying scenarios.

No. These cliched archetypes are simply an exaggerated example of characters built on expressed traits rather than internal motivations.

A reference that may be of help is acting trainer Constantine Stanislavski's book An Actor Prepares. I've included a link to amazon.com's description and ordering information for those who are interested.



Best,
Edward Falconer
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Old 03-13-2003, 06:10 AM   #15
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Ahh... a trip down memory lane.


Just kidding! (couldn't resist)
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Old 03-13-2003, 11:24 AM   #16
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The purpose of this thread wasn't to drown in stereotypes, but to figure out what personalities people like to play, and how similar they are to the personalities of the people who play them.

I do tend to play mages most of the time, mainly because I prefer the mechanics, and because on the mud I play mages have more opportunity to be social than fighters. But any of my char personalities could work equally well with fighters, if I happened to want to play one. I don't think a mage's personality should be different than a fighter's, just because one's a mage and one's a fighter, and that wasn't what I meant with this thread anyway.

When I create a char, I do at least enough of their history to explain how they got to where the game dumps out newbies, and develop it more as time and circumstance allows. Then I figure out how my char reacted to events in their history, and how it flavors their interactions in the world today.

For instance, my current char is an attempt to take the old orphan thing and make it fresh and nonstereotypical. Very few people actually know her history, but it flavors everything she does. She's not the pity-me orphan, she's more like the ask-me-and-I'll-blow-you-up orphan. She tends to go back and forth between trusting no one, and wanting so badly to find companionship that she'll do almost anything. Sometimes she's overly grim and pessimistic, sometimes she's bouncy and jokes around in order to hide her true feelings. She tends to baby her close friends and give them teaching and such, but she's extremely evil and ruthless to her enemies. It takes a long time for her to truly care about someone and trust them, and sometimes it never gets past the you're-an-idiot-and-you-suck-ass stage. She's pretty nosy, but she likes to have secrets and will faithfully keep others' secrets unless she believes it necessary to reveal them in order to keep someone she cares about from dying. And yet she condoned the death of her cousin (another PC), her last living and accessable family member, because of what he'd done.

So I don't think I get too much into stereotypes. In fact my chars tend to be complex to the point that different groups of people will see totally different aspects of their personality.
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Old 03-13-2003, 02:10 PM   #17
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Exactly.

This is an approach that I've seen a multitude of players take, and it seems to be one that works. Often times, the flash of satori that helps a player to develop their character's background is spurred and assisted by the interactivity on a MU*. On the other hand, this can be an excuse and an escape for players that often results in either melodrama or an unconvincing character. Take, for example, a character who has not charted out a personal history and has verbally assaulted a character of a higher rank (because the player has defined their 'personality' as subordinate.)
When arrested or questioned by the authority, the player decides that their must be reasons why their character is in trouble and creates a scenario where the character suffered abuse in the past which is the reason for being a subordinate. The result is melodramatic and contrived - I've seen it happen multiple times on the three RP MU*s that I served as an RPA on and I'm comitted to having my players avert this with The Cathyle Project.

How? There's a plethora of methods that the administration of a game environment can take to ensuring that the characters in their realm are well thought-out ahead of time. The traditional (and simplest) method is to install an application-based creation system. This works well - it weeds out players based on stereotypes and ensures that they are creating a character pertinent to the thematic information provided. It also can have negative side-effects, from a diminished playerbase to what newbies (both to the game and roleplaying in general) will describe as an 'elitist environment.'

So there's other methods:
1) Ensure that you have provided plenty of thematic information on your website, within helpfiles and other foyers accessible to new players. Give a history, show varying factions and organizations, emphasize what makes your theme specifically different from the stock. For reference: Armaggedon RPI, Outremer MUX and Wes Platt's Join the Saga worlds all do an outstanding job of this.

2) Incorporate this thematic information into the character creation process. If you aren't using an application-based system, it's neccessary to weave thematic documents into the creation process. This also makes the process of learning about a world interactive - a technique that always builds player interest - especially if they feel that the information gleaned from reading will help them make better choices for their character.

3) Provide them with an instant roleplaying opportunity. Whether this is by flagging willing players as RP/Newbie emissaries, having a staff member contact the new player when they enter the game, or placing characters in an RP-intensive area/room when they begin, the intial RP scenario is invaluable. It allows new players to ask questions (both IC and OOC) and provides an example of the RP atmosphere that they're expected to fit into.

I apologize for side-tracking.

This thread might be better named: desribe one of your favorite characters. And no, it isn't a matter of simple semantics.
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Old 03-13-2003, 07:10 PM   #18
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Old 04-07-2003, 05:17 AM   #19
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I play serious (or so i am told) characters only. While we have align imped, i do actually look little at it (mostly eq). I play calm and resourceful guys mostly. Rarely really angered and even when do usually calm down fast. OH, and their lazy and love to talk (and argue according to some).Due to that their fairly social and deal with others with respect, unless the person has done something my char disapproves.
    Where they mostly differ. One takes bride in his abilities, and likes to challenge other players, he is also slightly paranoid about losing. Another likes to be cryptic; give help in the forms of hints, riddles and counter questions. He hates not knowing about things, and feels great satisfaction about knowing things most dont.
  As of background, i make them related to the realm. Never royal, however also not bakers etc. They have natural wish to adventure. That does not mean necessary like take your stuff and leave home, mostly actually forced due to some (bad) events.
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Old 04-07-2003, 06:16 AM   #20
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I love RPG's and I played many.My style is quite clear:my chars are good mages.The thing that made me post here is that the discussion has started in a certain way and it became about good vs. evil.I have some words to say about this:there IS good and evil but the most important thing is that a character should be able to get from evil to good ONLY by redemption.The classification of good or evil chars should be done by the way they perform they're deeds and if a good char has done ONE evil deed he/she/it should automaticly become evil
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