Confessions of a Lame Player

[The_Gneech]

I had something of an epiphany at Saturday night's session ... which is that as a player, I make a great GM. :\

Y'see, no matter what character I make, they always "play" the same. My current character is a ftr/wiz/eldritch knight who I originally pictured as a pretty serious-minded, "tall dark silent type" -- but when the time comes to play, I can't resist, he's silly. He taunts the villains, engages in banter with his familiar, and generally cracks wise, Crow T. Robot-style.

That wouldn't be so bad, except that every other character I've run, from the bard to the barbarian, has done exactly the same. The bard, at least, was supposed to be like that.

Now, it isn't a problem when I'm the GM ... my speciality is creating diverse and interesting NPCs that the players enjoy interacting with and gives the game a sense of reality that others may lack. It's only when I'm sitting in front of the GM screen rather than behind that I have this problem.

Is it because I so seldom get to play that I just don't have enough practice? Or I'm so caught up in my own cleverness that I can't shut off my internal Bugs Bunny to play the character right? It's not disruptive to the game particularly ... the other players and the DM are having a great time and often play along; it just annoys me when I realize what I'm doing, but don't have the willpower to shut it off.

Any suggestions?

-The Gneech

 

[diaglo]

Any suggestions?

have fun.

 

[Shallown]

I do the same thing as well. I end up playing the same character who is more or less and extension of me in the game world. I have gone the whole play certain personalities and character types as well. I find now my characters vary only in motivation of why the act a ceratin way.

I think what helps is to set it up as a challenge to yourslef. One of my past characters was for a pick up game at the Local FGS and I generated him using the character gen from 3.0PHB which was all that was out when the game started. I started being like I always was when I realized the Char Gen had stuck me with an 8 Char. I realized hey this guy is an A-Hole. SO my challenge then was to always remember this. He took it upon myself to make sure I never said the right think at the right time. The best I ever did was when one character's family was slaughtered that I walked away from everyone else becuase my smart but socially challenged character knew he would say the wrong thing and respected the other character too much to cause grief. It was a serious challenge to stay this pain in the but dour guy.


What I am saying is it boils down to focusing on one aspect and challenging yourslef to grow from there.

Later

 

[hong]

Y'see, no matter what character I make, they always "play" the same. My current character is a ftr/wiz/eldritch knight who I originally pictured as a pretty serious-minded, "tall dark silent type" -- but when the time comes to play, I can't resist, he's silly. He taunts the villains, engages in banter with his familiar, and generally cracks wise, Crow T. Robot-style.

That wouldn't be so bad, except that every other character I've run, from the bard to the barbarian, has done exactly the same. The bard, at least, was supposed to be like that.

Now, it isn't a problem when I'm the GM ... my speciality is creating diverse and interesting NPCs that the players enjoy interacting with and gives the game a sense of reality that others may lack. It's only when I'm sitting in front of the GM screen rather than behind that I have this problem.

Is it because I so seldom get to play that I just don't have enough practice? Or I'm so caught up in my own cleverness that I can't shut off my internal Bugs Bunny to play the character right? It's not disruptive to the game particularly ... the other players and the DM are having a great time and often play along; it just annoys me when I realize what I'm doing, but don't have the willpower to shut it off.

Come to my arms, brother! Were we separated at birth?

If the other players laugh at your jokes, you don't have a problem. If they stop laughing, you might want to tone it down.

 

[Breakdaddy]

Come to my arms, brother! Were we separated at birth?

Scary
*shudder*

 

[The_Gneech]

Come to my arms, brother! Were we separated at birth?

If the other players laugh at your jokes, you don't have a problem. If they stop laughing, you might want to tone it down.

I don't think we were, I'm pretty sure I would have remembered that.

-TG

 

[pdkoning]

I do the same thing as well. I end up playing the same character who is more or less and extension of me in the game world.

I play with 2 groups of people, some are in both groups, some only in one, but ALWAYS there is something of the player in his character, even if they play different characters in different settings. In my own characters I always see something of myself.
This is not always bad, I even must admit I like it, people who are a bit annoying in real life are usually an annoying character in the game. People who talk a lot and make jokes in the real world, do so in the game. Nothing wrong with that.
Gaming is about having fun together!

 

[sparxmith]

lean against the wall

This is what I did to fix that problem in one of my players. I made him lean his chair back against the wall. Everytime he'd tell his jokes, i'd laugh and say, "Now, that's not what the character would say." And he'd have to bang his head against the wall.

After several weeks of this, he quit.

Gaming that is. It turns out he was getting terrible migraines. The Doctors couldn't figure out why, but he noticed that they always happened the day after gaming. His mother decided that maybe D&D WAS demonic and a gateway to the bowels of El Diablo and now he's a Pentecostal Minister.

Hmmph. Funny how that worked out. You know, I've never strung all those facts together like that. I almost feel bad. To think, I made a scoundrel out of an upright gamer.

---------------------------------------------------------


It would seem that I can't control my wise cracking when I'm posting. Sorry Gneech.

Sparxmith

 

[Len]

Seems like the "tall dark silent type" doesn't let you do enough verbal role-playing. What would happen if you played a character who wasn't so taciturn, but wasn't a wise guy either? Like, say, a paladin?

 

[Henry]

I have a similar problem - I can't play a "foolish" character; I always try to be cautious when approaching a situation, despite how much of a carefree personality I portray.

A couple of times, I've broken the mold - but usually it was when there were other people in the party to take the role of "voice of reason." If I was the only one thinking before leaping, then I took the role whether I wanted to or not.

Currently I play an Psionic Elven Ass. I try to play him assured of his race's superiority, and confident on top of that. My favorite instance yet was watching a halfling wizard PC struggle with trying to pick a cell door with a rusty dagger, until she gave up, and then I leaned in the doorway about 15 feet away, manifested Psionic Knock, and patted her on the head and reminded her I was there to help her out of any more problems. Sometimes it feels good to break type, even if the player wanted to smack me aside the head.