Your Real Self? Or Not?

[Mathew_Freeman]

I tend to play characters that are how I want to be.

For example, my D&D characters tend to be decisive leaders, who make good choices and who carry the other characters along with them. They're effective & capable, they grasp opportunities quickly and they're never afraid to take risks for the greater good.

Now, I'm fairly sure I have some of those traits, but I get to play them much bigger in terms of the characters than I do in real life.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

To me it is a combination of playing myself and trying radically different things. I will use characters to explore different psychological aspects. What I normally do is pick 2-3 things that define the character, with these things often radically different from myself. I then otherwise act pretty much how I would. If a choice ever comes up where the things that define the character conflict with what I would do, I stick with the characters motivations and see where things go. Most times this leads to a place where I can start appreciating the effects of these other choices on life, only once has those choices lead me down roads I didn't think I would ever want to be again.

 

[Chainsaw]

I tend to play characters that are how I want to be.

For example, my D&D characters tend to be decisive leaders, who make good choices and who carry the other characters along with them. They're effective & capable, they grasp opportunities quickly and they're never afraid to take risks for the greater good.

Now, I'm fairly sure I have some of those traits, but I get to play them much bigger in terms of the characters than I do in real life.

Usually true for me too. I'm risk averse in real life, but in D&D my characters can sometimes be pretty reckless. Once in a while I dream up a concept that's relatively independent of my own strengths and weaknesses. I guess it sort of depends on my mood.

 

[Sammael]

I once played myself in a twisted version of D&D (literally).

I've played characters of both sexes. I've played smart characters and dumb characters. I've played meticulous characters and those with the attention span of a fly. I've played ambitious characters and those who lacked any sort of ambition and were satisfied to be led around. I've played evil characters (both comic book moustache-twirling evil and truly evil and vile ones...) and paragons of goodness. I've played deeply religious characters and atheists.

Either I have a multiple personality disorder or I like to explore the world from varied perspectives...

 

[DaveyJones]

My characters are just like me in real life, I'm a total bad-ass

yup. i like to kill people and take their stuff too

 

[evileeyore]

To even think too much about it sounds too much like some kind of really bizarre therapy session.

I just game to have fun. I suppose all of my characters have something of me in them, because after all, that's what I know best. But I don't deliberately make characters that are either like or unlike me, nor do I make characters that I would idolize or use as catharsis either one.

I just make characters I find interesting. Kinda with an authorial perspective. I'm much more the would-be novelist type of player, not the method actor, and certainly not the "D&D as group therapy" type player.

Pretty much ditto for me... with one exception.

I take some aspect of my personality crank it up to eleven and rip the knob off. It makes rp easier.

 

[Atlatl Jones]

It's not exactly deliberate, but looking back over my past few characters, my trend has definitely been to pick one aspect of my personality and twist it hard in a PC, then take it out for a spin.

That's what I tend to do. None of my characters are just "me", but riffing off of me in some way, or sometimes even a polar opposite of me.

Recently I've been playing a couple reckless idiots. That probably has something to do with the fact that, professionally, I have to be thoughtful, cautious, and mindful of the consequences of everything I do. So in play, I deliberately mix up the pot, take ludicrous risks, and base my actions on "what would be fun" not "what would have the best results."

 

[barsoomcore]

I play characters who are exactly like me in every way.

 

[barsoomcore]

Especially the lesbian vampires.

 

[Wormwood]

My resmblance to any RPG character I play varies from dopplegangers to polar opposites and all shades in between.

But upon further reflection, I notice one unifying theme among them all: all my characters are, to one degree or another, comic relief.

Professors, assassins, shadowrunners, vampires or warlocks: they all allow me to cut up at the table and get laughs from my friends.

Which, quite honestly, is my favorite part of gaming. Or having friends, to put a finer point on it