robinbloke | To be or not to be yourself...

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 ;)