To be or not to be yourself...

[robinbloke]

Roleplaying, roleplaying, roleplaying. A central point and focus of my life for many a year, I've played a lot of different characters, some couple of roles that I didn't immediately identify with and wouldn't like entirely in order to try and expand my understanding of that lifestyle, some dark, some friendly, some intelligent and some downright stupid. But what is it all about, the focus of it all?
Blame quisalan for this ramble as it's been brewing for a while waiting for something to spark it off and she's sort of asked the question that I was going to ask once I had enough jibbering before it in order to make it seem like there was some kind of point behind the whole thing. "Good roleplaying" is something thats often argued about, accused of being lacking and lost for want of stats/angst/fun/socialising/friends or whatever, in the end I have come to the tired conclusion that good roleplaying is like a film review, some people will like it, some people will love it, some people will go into intricate detail and rip it all apart piece by piece looking in microscopic detail for errors, some people will state their views and refuse to listen to any others, some will just shrug and carry on.
Opinion, thats all it is, like every other thing on this planet where mind A meets mind B, you're not going to 100% agree with them on ever issue ever, unless you're some kind of clone, because we're not the same sort of people. So there isn't 'good roleplaying' it's not following canon to the letter, it's not ensuring the setting is exactly right, it's not having fun, having the most powerful character, having a angst list as long as your arm or a 200,000 word background, family tree or exacting historical accuracy. None of them. It's what you want it to be, and sooner or later someone will bitch about you not 'roleplaying' correctly, because of any/all or other of the reasons above, and because humans thrive on conflict of one way or another as a means of testing ourselves or justifying ourselves, or maybe just for fun.
Well ramble over, but heres a post jibber thought. When you design a character to play, whats the first thing you think of, and then whats the most important thing for that character? clan/kith/etc? Items? Stats? Generation? Persona? Background? The potential to become ultimately powerful? Survival? Story? Angst? What....?

Now think about your characters you have, and think about your answer? Are you being honest with yourself here or are your characters choosing what they want - or maybe thats last bit is just a getout clause to make you feel better ;)

Comments

Persona.

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

Generally start with what type of person I want to play, and narrow down the rest from there.

Let's see, current roleplaying characters...

Rachael - err, OK, I went through the book and thought 'this is blatantly the most boring Kith, how can I play it interestingly?' And her persona slipped into place from there.

Songbird - OK, OK, so I wanted to play a Ragabash! Again, choosing that part provided a neat framework to hang her character off...

OK, so maybe persona doesn't always come first. Damn you...

Re: Persona.

[wyrdness.livejournal.com]

The book does an exceedingly good job of making Boggans boring and no one usually feels inclined to try and make them better, I would try to but I just can't think of any good ideas without them immedietely being abused constantly for that crappy 'gullible' negative trait :|
However I did do a similar thing when I created Abby (she actually predated her LARP form by several years online) because where I was playing characters and players tended to think of Satyrs as nothing more than mindless sex-crazed creatures incapable of higher thought processes.... So I made her intelligent and only sex-crazed and kinky out of public view. I don't think of any secondary things when it comes to Abby, she's a fully functional persona that frequently does things I forbid her to do and she's done that since character creation.
Actually all my character creation processes start with a proto-idea which usually settles on a clan/ kith whatever first then I build up a personality on that. I'm constantly being told I do character creation totally wrong, but I need a structurual idea to work on first and then if they don't fit I can change them later.

umm, sorry part of this post was for Sarah, part for Robin - I'm just too lazy to sort out which bit goes where ;)

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

This puts me in mind of the old "I'm only playing my character!" claim, usually given by somone after they've gone and well and truly screwed up someones evening.

My reaction to that is; "Then why do you enjoy playing a character who takes pleasure in the game away from other players?"

The pleasure of the overall group is of greater importance than the enjoyment of any one individual. Anyone who isn't prepared to acknowledge that would never be welcome at a a game I run.

[jonnyargles.livejournal.com]

Wait a minute, Mr Right-Wing Wade, this sounds suspiciously like Utiliarianism.

For Robin: I look at myself, look at aspects I want to explore further - either as an extension of my own personality, what would happen if I let this aspect of me spiral out of control, or as something that I am unable to truly empathise with, as if playing the character would help me understand what that's like from the inside.

Of course, sometimes that all goes to the ponies and I just get a cool idea from nowhere.

[quisalan.livejournal.com]

True, but surely you make sure your concepts adhere to that?

I hate playing powerful characters or PC killers. I just won't do it. I tend to play characters which are less powerful than the norm, but slightly offbeat and competent in their own (tangential) ways. And I get more fun out of doing that.

For example, I can only think of 1 other person's PC that I'll killed in 4 years of roleplaying; and that was done by a Risen with a hatred of vampires.

Shade made have died from his interaction with Leonie, but that was his choice and the combination of a number of PCs and factors - ie roleplaying.

I enjoy characters who cause chaos and trigger events, but that's different to ruining people's evenings.

And in answer to Robin's point, I think one of the things I most enjoy is moving on in the character, getting somewhere. Often that seems to be based around some sort of idea of hope, success or redemption.

Seems to be a theme with me.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

I play characters who may best be described as 'losers'. They may be tuogh (K de C isn't a pushover, by any means), but he's crippled by his own blind spots and inadequacies in other areas. I find that good fun.
I can't understand the mindset that just creates tough characters for the sake of it - the pleasure for me is in laughing internally as I watch this dipshit I'm playing get it wrong yet again.
This doesn't mean I play fools, by any means. They're as smart as I can make them, by and large (I play for a degree of intellectual challenge), but they're weakened (and ultimately destroyed) by their own misunderstandings of the world around them.

[robinbloke.livejournal.com]

Deliberately making "bad" choices based on a characters blind spots is a wonderful thing to do in play :)

*smiles*

[zenmeisterin.livejournal.com]

Ahhhh subjectivity. Where would we be without the spectrum of thoughts and opinions that comprises humanities dealings? Actually, we'd probably be a lot less interesting as a species. But anyway.

I don't tend to 'design' a character for play. A concept or idea will usually leap out and grab me by the throat. A concept/persona first. Then I work out possible permutations to fit the chronicle and from that, things like Splat, powerz and background story will tend to spill forth of their own accord. Often the end character is the result of a massive evolution from the original idea. Sometimes it ends up so different, it's an entirely different character and I keep the original idea for something else.

The most important thing to characters of mine ICly varies. Some of them are obsessed with their own ideas. Some don't give a flying monkey about anyone or anything. Some of them want all the cool powerz and toys. Some of them are wrapped up in their Splat. Some of them just want to have fun. OOCly I find it's about the story and having fun while doing so. This might mean having a lot of kool powerz, screwing people over, angsting to hell and back (though admitedly that doesn't interest me so much), interacting with others or whatever. So I'm going to be unhelpful and say "All of the above" to a greater or lesser degree.


You know what? I'm going to go off now and write my new Cam Commandments. Rules I'm going to stick to and to hell with what anyone else thinks of them. I'm sick and tired of the half-assed melange it's all become as people try and bash each other round the head with what *they* define as good RPing.

[omentide.livejournal.com]

My characters tend to spring, fully armed, out of my head. Different characters grow from different seeds. Life-history is always important to me. With a vamp, for instance, whatever it was prior to embrace will determine nearly everything else. Including Clan (though it may be the 'wrong' one).

Except when I play pre-gens. Which I do rather a lot. Playing pre-gens is a good way to get away from one's own obsessions. One of my favourite TT characters came out of the back of the book (and is no longer recognisable as that character).

And there's one aspect of what I consider 'good' roleplaying that no one has mentioned (though Davywavy has touched on it). Making the game fun for other people. Maybe not as selfless as it sounds. A character created with that aim in view tends to get very involved. Have plenty to do.

[emperor]

I'll talk about characters I play as a PC, rather than NPCs I generate as a GM (although I do the latter much more than the former, it's a different process). The most recent example is actually at least sketched out at http://www.principate.org/amber/clare1.html, and I think it's not a bad example of how I work - I start off with a vague idea or two, and then flesh out the character's character first, then thinking about how it might fit into the system/scenario. Often I like to read some background first, to get my imagination going - I re-read some of the original Amber series before thinking about Clare, for example.