How much are your characters like you?

[Arbiter of Wyrms]

I suppose I always have something in common with all of my characters, but what we have in common, and to what degree, varies a great deal. Two of my PC's are both very much like me, at least in my mind, but the two of them are pretty disimilar from one another.

I guess that most of my PCs take a single personality trait of mine and magnify it to the nth degree. In theater, I have always been a bit of a method actor, though, so after playing one PC for a while, I find that their personality tends to show through me in real life, which can be a little weird, frankly.

 

[orsal]

I think my characters are generally "what I would be if I were [...] and somewhat [...]". That is, I'll come up with a few personality traits, traits that may have nothing to do with the RL me, and deliberately adopt them, but beyond that part that I'm deliberate and explicit about, the character will end up behaving a lot like me.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

I voted "20% - not too much like me".

But, to be fair, I simply do not pretend I am my characters in the way that other gamers I know do. There's no identification - I've likened my roleplaying to my character being a close friend that I know better than anyone else at the table, and reporting what they would do in that situation on the basis of that extensive knowledge of their personality.

Since there's no self-identification involved, my characters are neither people whom I would like to be or somewhat-idealised versions of myself.

 

[Darkness]

Like me? Nah. Also, somewhat (or more) sane characters aren't as disruptive and I don't like being too disruptive.

 

[Darth K'Trava]

I don't know if I could actually vote on this poll.... 'Cause it's different for each of my characters. There was one I played who was, for the most part, my personality embodied onto this character. She had a similar attitude and crassness that I have RL. But the rest haven't really been any part of me; or not as blatant as that one character.

 

[X-Marks!]

Inspiration:

New Magic Item: Bell of Curves!

 

[amethal]

I guess that most of my PCs take a single personality trait of mine and magnify it to the nth degree.

That's what I do. Its what I find easiest, because I'm not much of an actor.

However, each PC's back story is very different to my own, so at times they are going to react completely differently to how I would in the same situation due to their very different upbringing and experiences.

Also, I normally play D&D, which is a heroic fantasy game. My PCs are invariably much more heroic than I am. They also normally have less angst. My PCs are where they want to be, and doing what they want to be doing. They believe its better to have a bad day in the dungeon than a good day in the office, whereas I don't ......

I didn't vote in the poll because I have no idea how to translate the above into percentage terms.

 

[shilsen]

I voted "20% - not too much like me".

But, to be fair, I simply do not pretend I am my characters in the way that other gamers I know do. There's no identification - I've likened my roleplaying to my character being a close friend that I know better than anyone else at the table, and reporting what they would do in that situation on the basis of that extensive knowledge of their personality.

Since there's no self-identification involved, my characters are neither people whom I would like to be or somewhat-idealised versions of myself.

I voted the same way, for exactly the same reasons. In fact, sometimes I will actually create a character based on myself for a change. They're usually very entertaining to play, but I doubt that would be the case if it wasn't a rare occurrence. In real life I am exactly who I want to be and get along very well with myself, but since I get to roleplay myself in real life all the time, it seems a waste to do so again when running a PC.

 

[Aust Diamondew]

I'd say 60% of me goes into my characters on average. Usually certain parts of me are magnified other parts are down played and I try to think about how someone would act who lived the life my character had and then I toss in personality traits from other people who I know. Which is obviously my opinion therefore some of me goes into my character from that thought process too. It's impossible to make a character completely disimilar to yourself. At the very least you both proably have 2 arms and 2 legs.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

I try to make all my characters unique. They are nothing like me.