Awkward Characters

GlassJaw said:

There's a big difference between awkward and corny.

What you described had nothing to do with creating a character with an interesting quirk or flaw. I really dislike joke names and bringing modern memes and jokes in game as it breaks immersion and is just distracting.

You can joke and have fun at the table but there is a line that gets crossed.

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I absolutely understand where you’re coming from here, but personally I’m a big fan of bringing modern jokes, memes, and references into the game. I always assume player dialogue is only an approximation of what the characters would actually be saying - we speak in English rather than common, and the player of a high-Charisma character may not speak as eloquently as their character truly would - so for me it is a simple matter to extend that principle to the players’ humor. And I think it is appropriate that he characters have shared cultural touchstones that they might reference for their humor that we as modern people might not be familiar with, so our modern references serve as stand-ins for references in the world of the fiction. I think of like A Knight’s Tale, which uses anachronistic music to communicate to a modern audience the feeling of a modern sporting event, to remind them that a jousting tournament would have been for the characters of the film as a football match is for us now. I consider that more... I don’t know if “immersive” is the right word, but more relatable.

Kristmaus said:

Do you enjoy playing with "awkward" characters?

I am usually a DM in other RPGs, but recently I was invited to join a D&D5 party, and I wanted to make a Barbarian Goliath... so, to make it more fun to play, I decided that he wouldn't talk in common... unless it's a "The Simpsons" quote.

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My first concern is how difficult that would be to maintain, but maybe you're very good at conjuring quotes to mind on the fly. If you really, really decide you want to do this, I'd suggest first picturing scenarios from your previous campaigns, but instead replace one of the characters with your own and try to imagine having to come up with things to say on the fly that fit within that restricted glossary.

My second concern is that this "gimmick" (which is what I would call it, rather than awkward) has no interesting or explorable substance to it. I've played with several players who have based their character concept around a gimmick, and they turned out great, but that's because
A. the gimmick was either really interesting or unique, and/or
B. It was only one aspect of their character.

Then, there's C, which should go without saying, but that's actually my third and foremost concern regarding your idea:
C. it had some sort of meaning, in character.

If somebody exclusively quotes, say, Shakespeare, that would actually inform me of something about their character: That they're verbose and likely pretentious, overly educated, or came from some sort of theater. I can respond to it, out-of-character, by laughing or rolling my eyes, but it also gives me something to work with, in character. What does "only quoting The Simpsons" tell me about your character? (It barely tells me anything about you, IRL, and I actually live in a world where it exists.)

TL;DR: Just make a real character. Ask everyone else who's playing about their characters. That might help you come up with some ideas, and it will at least give you a framework for how serious or silly things are going to be, and what level of depth they'll be expecting. The This Is Your Life chapter in Xanathar's Guide to Everything is a great place to fish for ideas or roll a completely random character if you really don't want to put too much thought into it.

TarionzCousin said:

A player in my 3.5 game rolled a 7 in Charisma. She made an urban druid who lived in the sewers under the city full-time.

Her character never bathed and was oblivious to everyone else's reaction to her character's smell. In fact, she tried to be "polite" and shake everyone's hand.

It never got old.

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Okay, that's GREAT socially awkward. (and reminds me of a lot of hippies I met up in NorCal).

In college we gamed with someone who in real life was awkward. His PC was, surprisingly, no different.

It didn't cause major problems either in or out of game because neither he nor his PC were crazy. His PC didn't do silly, stupid things. He just had poor social skills and what might be considered a low Charisma. I don't actually know if the PC had low Charisma. His PC never, ever did anything to intentionally disrupt the party.

In other words, awkward isn't the problem.

Charlaquin said:

I absolutely understand where you’re coming from here, but personally I’m a big fan of bringing modern jokes, memes, and references into the game. I always assume player dialogue is only an approximation of what the characters would actually be saying - we speak in English rather than common, and the player of a high-Charisma character may not speak as eloquently as their character truly would - so for me it is a simple matter to extend that principle to the players’ humor. And I think it is appropriate that he characters have shared cultural touchstones that they might reference for their humor that we as modern people might not be familiar with, so our modern references serve as stand-ins for references in the world of the fiction. I think of like A Knight’s Tale, which uses anachronistic music to communicate to a modern audience the feeling of a modern sporting event, to remind them that a jousting tournament would have been for the characters of the film as a football match is for us now. I consider that more... I don’t know if “immersive” is the right word, but more relatable.

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The trick, I would argue, is finding real world references that support and amplify the in-game experience, rather than ones that pull the players out. It can certainly be a fine line.

As an example, late last year I had a PC with the ability to cast Wish, so I lifted up my hand, said "I Wish...." and snapped my fingers.

One of my AD&D characters had maxed physical stats and 6s for all his mental ones. Bear was a fighter, but a gentle giant type- think of the big stupid goons you’d see on Saturday morning cartoons.

...and he was a bodyguard completely in thrall to the party’s rogue. The rogue had adopted him from a local orphanage, for which Bear was eternally grateful. This let the rogue get away with almost everything, because nobody wanted to go through Bear.

Then the rogue stole the wrong thing for the wrong people. Bear died holding off the city watch at a narrow bridge so the rogue (and the rest of the party) could get away.

I had to miss a couple sessions, but when I returned I found out that as soon as the wanted posters went up, the party delivered the body of the rogue to the authorities, and turned the reward money over to Bear’s old orphanage.

Character quirks cross the line for me when the player intentionally creates complications that the other players' PCs have to deal with, especially if they ruin the fun of the game for other players. Finding loot is fun. Adventuring with someone who insists on destroying the loot is not fun. We had a barbarian PC in our group and the player decided his flaw was that he hated books. As soon as the DM would tell us we found a book or a library, he would start chopping them up with his greataxe. Nobody else in the group found this trait endearing, especially the player with a wizard who sometimes had to waste spell slots on hold person to get him to stop before he destroyed any spellbooks. Eventually that PC went down in combat and nobody healed him so he died.

Kristmaus said:

I decided that he wouldn't talk in common... unless it's a "The Simpsons" quote.

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My question is: if he doesn't understand Common, how does he know what is an appropriate reply?

Unless there is some sort of magical curse affecting him and limiting what he can say, the biggest problem he would have is understanding what the rest of the party is saying. He would probably be able to have a pretty good idea of what's going on when there are physical cues, but if the "face" of the party is negotiating with somebody (or some similar situation in which people are simply talking), I don't think he would know what was going on, and thus wouldn't know what quote to use.

I like the idea of having a PC that doesn't speak Common (I once DM'd a party with 2 dwarves; 1 didn't speak Common so the other dwarf had to translate everything spoken in Common to Dwarven for him), and that was a lot of fun. Having a PC limited to quotes from a modern TV show seems a bit gimmicky to me.

Immortal Sun said:

I once made a were-bear monk called "Obearon". He constantly made bear-puns while talking. The party even got in on it. It was funny for like, 15 minutes. Then it was annoying and we stopped.

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So, you're saying it became unbearable?

Immortal Sun said:

The trick, I would argue, is finding real world references that support and amplify the in-game experience, rather than ones that pull the players out. It can certainly be a fine line.

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Sure, that makes sense. I’m not too much of a stickler for that myself, but like I said, I totally get where you’re coming from.

Immortal Sun said:

As an example, late last year I had a PC with the ability to cast Wish, so I lifted up my hand, said "I Wish...." and snapped my fingers.

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Haha my mind went to “I wish the goblins would come and take you away right now, that’s not hard, is it?! Ehh?!”