PC vs. PC conflict

[jmucchiello]

But I do not agree with your last comment. It's ALL personal. Anybody who doesnt take it personal is just really good at supressing their emotions.

Many professional actors (though not all) really try to tap into their own personal feelings in order to play the role more effectively. But ALL actors are emotionally affected by the drama they create. Same goes for fantasy roleplayers.

Well, that's unfortunate. In games I'm involved with two players will come into the game (not on purpose) with opposed personalities. It's fun to watch the interplay. Both players know that in-character is just that part of the game. In another game, one player would constantly try to ignore one player or override his decisions without explanation. The DM merely smiled whenever this happened (since the player gave him a background story). Then we went into the dwarven mine and that character became very withdrawn. The character he had been ignoring or overbearing toward was a dwarf and nobody had picked up on the fact the character had a deep prejudice about dwarves because the player didn't just come out and say "I hate dwarves." Instead he played the prejudice. (I do believe the player let the dwavf's player in on it after the second session just so he would know not to take it personally.) It was really well played. And once it became obvious we could see how well he had been playing the character up to that point. A few sessions later we finally got to hear from him in-character about why he didn't like dwarves. It actually turned out he was just a touch xenophobic and his distain for the half-elf wasn't as noticable. But in retrospect he had done similar things to the half-elf as he had done to the dwarf.

I've wandered. In any case, two characters can have deep rooted dislike for one another and still play at the same table when it's done maturely. I can't agree that it's ALL personal.

Joe

 

[Tewligan]

Many professional actors (though not all) really try to tap into their own personal feelings in order to play the role more effectively. But ALL actors are emotionally affected by the drama they create. Same goes for fantasy roleplayers.

"No, not Black Leaf! No, no! I'm going to die!"

 

[reapersaurus]

But I do not agree with your last comment. It's ALL personal. Anybody who doesnt take it personal is just really good at supressing their emotions.

Could you explain your approach on this a bit more?
Cause that sounds like a scarily tight identification between player and PC.

 

[cybertalus]

In any case, two characters can have deep rooted dislike for one another and still play at the same table when it's done maturely. I can't agree that it's ALL personal.

Perhaps, but how much fun is this dislike depriving the other players of?

I just quit a gaming group after six and a half sessions because of all the in-fighting. I'd taken my concerns to the DM, and let the other players know both in character and out that I wasn't happy with the arguing, but nothing changed. If anything, the two players/characters who seemed to be the source of most of the trouble became more troublesome.

To the original poster: I don't have an answer to your alignment questions, but I applaud any attempt on your part to nip character conflicts in the bud.

 

[jmucchiello]

Perhaps, but how much fun is this dislike depriving the other players of?

I just quit a gaming group after six and a half sessions because of all the in-fighting.

Well, there was no infighting. Just an undercurrent of dislike. The xenophobic character would not talk directly to the dwarf unless it rediculously impractical not to. (IOW he never said, "Tell the dwarf I don't like this inn.") He would avoid situations where they had to go somewhere without a third member of the party. There was no fighting. No overt conflict. And in a combat situation if the dwarf needed information only he knew, he gave it gladly because keeping the dwarf alive kept him alive. (The dwarf was a front line fighter and xenophobe was a bard.)

So you see, we weren't deprived by this. All in all there was a net gain from it. It added extra dimension to both characters because interactions between them existed on level outside of the main storylines.