Character Personalities, advice/suggestions wanted

Ginnel

Explorer
Ok, I have a problem, I play a certain type of character a lot of the time a bolschy oppionated outspoken type, sometimes more in the background, sometimes more of a leader, sometimes a romantic, sometimes someone who just likes making stuff explode.

I've tried a bumbling character once, I've played a stupid well meaning character once or twice.

What I'm after is personalities I can portray, I don't give a dire rats arse about what spells/powers/bobbins the character can do.

The kind a find really difficult is the quiet silent type, as I often like to get a point across to the group, I'm thinking for my next one I'm going to go with a half insane character who burbles alot of random about them and they but has some pills which bring him moments of clarity.

Anywho thats about it a list of suggested personalities to play or your own experiences of "playing to type"
 
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ProfessorCirno

Banned
Banned
The two archtypes that I personally enjoy seeing with the whole "strongly portray their ideas" would be the, excuse the wording but I can't think of a better way of simplifying them, Punisher-esque and the Rorschach-esque. Only downsides with both that they can occasionally have some very high potential conflict with parties who have evil members or who don't go far enough to get rid of [enemies]. The Rorschach-esque character would have quite a few more problems there, what with the no compromising and all. This may be a bit challenging as, and again the second one most of all, they would really require you to REALLY back up those opinions and ideas and refuse to back down from them.
 

Ginnel

Explorer
The two archtypes that I personally enjoy seeing with the whole "strongly portray their ideas" would be the, excuse the wording but I can't think of a better way of simplifying them, Punisher-esque and the Rorschach-esque. Only downsides with both that they can occasionally have some very high potential conflict with parties who have evil members or who don't go far enough to get rid of [enemies].

My Current character's personality, is more punisher-esque, one of kill them all (blahblah..background...blahblah...village wiped out) this is leading to a nice amount of party conflict with the groups having captured goblins, halflings and necromancers, particularly with the party's Paladin (tiefling trying to redeem his race) and his "apprentice" an infernal warlock (tiefling who is all about the power) who he is trying to keep on the straight and narrow.

I can see my character dispatching creatures others wish to interrogate/imprison and sometime in the near future killing them even though there is a request for them to be kept alive, will be interesting to see the fall out of it.
 

Mallus

Legend
The Rorschach-esque character would have quite a few more problems there, what with the no compromising and all.
How does that work for you in a game typical rooted in cooperation and compromise? D&D + Rorschach seems like a terrible combination, at least at first glance. Unless the the entire group was on board with the character...

Anyway, I like to start with a basic character theme that can be stated in a sentence or two, which usually aren't based around personality types (they're usually more situational). Here are two recent examples:

1) A doctrinaire Communist revolutionary peasant martial artist in a fantasy wuxia movie. ("Cloud Strike", warblade/swordsage apparatchik of the Central Comittee of Zu Mountain, master of the People's Chi)

2) An obese Dragonborn paladin/poet with more than a dash of Don Quixote, chastely in love with human woman that's kept apart from him not by his delusions, but by the very real differences between reptilian and human reproductive biology ("Sir Hoon Huring").

I try to make character with strong, entertaining personalities that don't require intra-party conflict --though that inevitably happens from time to time.
 
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VanRichten

First Post
One of the greatest personalities I ever played was an ogre named Boneless. The name comes from the fact that in his language he was called "spineless" by his mother and cast out of his family. Though losing meaning understanding in translation it came out in common as Boneless.

He had an intelligence of 7, for which I intentionally lowered despite what I rolled. A fighter by class, chaotic neutral by alignment.

A common theme of this character was his obvious lack of intellect. In fact when meeting people he would ask "Are you friend?". If they answered "no" he would kill them outright, because "not-friends" as he put it were bad. If you said "yes" then you were friend for life, and then he would say "If anyone hurt you I eat their face." So his life was a very black and white outlook on things.

He liked to sing, although if you can imagine an ogre singing. He had a greatsword and a pair of boots of striding and springs that the wolf man gave him. The story of the wolf man which told his companions came from when he was walking through the woods and saw a man in armor fighting a "puppy" (a dire wolf). Seeing as the man was being mean to the "puppy" he decided to smack the man and tell him he was being bad. Unfortunately he his so hard the man, wounded from battle, fell dead. Boneless slowly approached the "puppy" to see if he was okay, because he wanted to pet him. That was when the "puppy" turned into a man, a druid to be exact. In thanks for Boneless saving this man's life he gave him the sword that was on the fallen foe, and his boots. The "Wolf Man" told Boneless the boots would ease his travel, and the sword he could use to defend himself should anyone attack him. Happily accepting of these gifts, Boneless and the "Wolf Man" parted ways.

He even talked about his worship of "The Moon Lady". "The Moon Lady" was actually a priestess of Luna who came across Boneless while she was out on a vigil. Boneless was out late and was hungry, and smelled food so he began to head that way. Unfortunately this headed him to a village, where he was driven off by the local militia. The priestess came across the big lug, laying out in a open field, not far from the village. Curious she approached noticing his wounds, a she felt no evil from the creature and decided to heal his wounds. Upon opening his eyes he looked straight up seeing the priestess. The moon was fully, and was directly behind her head and seemed to form a halo about her. No one in his life had ever been so nice to him before, so Boneless in his logic figured this must be some kind of god. From that moment forward he worshipped the woman he called "The Moon Lady". Though he never saw her again, every full moon he would go out in an open field and sing to her, in thanks for saving him that very night.

This character was a combination of comic relief, a voice of wisdom to his party, and even a point of common sense. Comic relief was obvious, but the wisdom to his party was found in his simple view on things. The common sense came from his actions. He spoke with action not necessarily with word, and playing him almost child like was fun. Low intelligence characters are easy and fun, they believe they can do anything because they don't know otherwise.
 

Dannyalcatraz

Schmoderator
Staff member
Supporter
The kind a find really difficult is the quiet silent type, as I often like to get a point across to the group...

Start with watching the old Clint Eastwood Westerns- his "Man with No Name" character probably has fewer lines of dialog in 3 films than some of the supporting characters in a single film. Look at Shwarzenegger's performance in the first Terminator film- again, no wasted dialog.

Practice saying with one word what you'd normally say with a sentence...especially emphasizing the "gruntier," choppier words. "Yup," "Nope"/"Naw," derisive snorts and a piercing stare are your friends.
 

Mallus

Legend
Start with watching the old Clint Eastwood Westerns- his "Man with No Name" character probably has fewer lines of dialog in 3 films than some of the supporting characters in a single film. Look at Shwarzenegger's performance in the first Terminator film- again, no wasted dialog.
The trick is that a lot went into making The Man With No Name's lack of dialogue cool; the scene set-up, the other character's dialogue, etc. That's hard to pull off in a campaign, it depends on everyone else actively playing along (DM & fellow players) --then again, I've found 'group support' is usually required to make truly memorable characters.

The uber-tough "man of few words" is the hardest archetype to pull off in an RPG, IMNSHO. Doing so is a real challenge.
 


Foxen

First Post
Hehe.

One of my favorite characters was named Ran, after the "devil" in tongue of a different race...not to mention he had the mark of "Ran" on the back of his neck. He too also had an Intelligence of 7, and constantly mispronounced just about every name, every racial phrase, and what nots wrong...almost ALL the time. He would make up his own names for NPCs, and constantly do some of the most stupidly innocent ignorant naive acts...like sticking his blade into a blue flame...which enchanted it (the DM actually planned it ahead of time and was kinda laughing when Ran was the only one who came out with a magical blade)... Ran also believed and worshipped just about every god he came across, donating money for blessings and often getting gipped in the process....he was very fun to play.

One character idea I wanted to try after reading the Warlord 4e class....was the loud mouth middle-aged drunk....who kinda hangs out in the back of battle...yelling and slurring orders (Commander Strike) to his comrades giving them boons here and there for combat but RARELY actually engaging in combat...he seeks booze, women (always failing), and more booze...and more often than naught gets the PCs into trouble with his loud (often idiotic mouth). Over the course of the campaign though, it would be cool to sober him up as he faces the demons of his past...like how did he end up drunkard, and why does he not deal with real life, etc. and eventually becoming the warlord that he was destined to be!

Fox
 

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