Your Real Self? Or Not?

[Ed_Laprade]

For me, it was the early advertising that formed my general playstyle: "Have you ever wanted to be a Great Wizard? A Mighty Warrior?" &etc. So most of my characters have been a version of uberme, killing things and taking their stuff!

 

[Desdichado]

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.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Some are very much like me, others are not at all. All my characters do have some of the same traits that are definitely extension of myself. Almost none of my characters drink at all, even the dwarves. The only time I ever broke this was early in my D&D experience, when I had a character (big, strong barbarian) who drank too much and was basically an alcoholic, which I played as comedic. He'd get piss drunk and then crouch down next to the camp fire and start crying about how he was a failure at everything.

While only ~half or less of my characters are outright perverted or extremely interested in sex, I've never played a chaste PC, and never will. Few have been much into promiscuity and one night stands, but also none would ever consider waiting till marriage, again just like me.

Even my most goody-two-shoes characters are deeply hesitant if not vigorously opposed to helping out people who got into their current mess through brazen stupidity. Most would probably enjoy reading the "Darwin Awards."

I've never played a bully, and many of my high str type characters end up in the role of the "bully fighter," quick to anger when the powerful is terrorizing the weak.

I'm not a religious person, and even my clerics who have deities are often accused by other players of not acting particularly pious or devout. It's just hard for me to roleplay.

So, there's a fair number of themes and outlooks that unite my characters and are shared by me. Including a bunch more I can't think of at the moment, I bet.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

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.

I currently play a huge, tough, tactless half-ogre (which is basically me), with an Intelligence of 5 (which isn't).

I also play a gruff, tough, smart dwarf (which is basically me, except for the short part), with an extreme paternal streak (which isn't).

Former characters have flipped other strong personality traits of mine: adherence to logic over emotion, high respect for privacy, tactlessness, an unwillingness to schmooze, laziness, and loyalty.

The one trait I haven't been able to effectively flip is my (unwanted and unintentional) tendency to lead. I just can't get other players to step up and take the reins and help move things forward (or even sideways, though I prefer forward).

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Former characters have flipped other strong personality traits of mine: adherence to logic over emotion, high respect for privacy, tactlessness, an unwillingness to schmooze, laziness, and loyalty.

Yeah, those traits are all ones I and nearly all my characters share, though I don't know how many of them could be called lazy (which I am). My most diplomatic PC ever was blunt and to the point, and didn't sugar coat things or beat around the bush at all, much to the horror of some of the other players relying on me to be the party "face." Really...it was the best I could muster....

The one trait I haven't been able to effectively flip is my (unwanted and unintentional) tendency to lead. I just can't get other players to step up and take the reins and help move things forward (or even sideways, though I prefer forward).

While I enjoy tactics and serving as tactician (100% rating according to the online test), my unconscious urge to do so makes it difficult to ever play dumb characters. I tend to make sure my PCs all have either good int or wis to justify their insights. Another problem is that while many groups grew to like me providing tactical advice, and several even constantly asking me for it on their own w/o me offering, some do not. And in those cases, I tend to...give the advice on what they should do anyway... Which always turns out bad...

 

[WayneLigon]

I build characters like I'd build a character for a novel. There are going to be certain things I want to play, then I build on that skeleton. I might or might not go out of the way to play a PC that's like or nor like me; some points of his personality are going to be similar, others might be widely different.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

While I enjoy tactics and serving as tactician (100% rating according to the online test), my unconscious urge to do so makes it difficult to ever play dumb characters.

I'm actually only a fair tactician (as a player; I'm worse as a DM, but consider that a good thing in a weird way). There are at least two players in our games who are significantly better at 3.5 tactics than I am. I justify my half-ogre being tactically sound -- only in his own behavior, not in directing others -- by shrugging and rationalizing that if a wolf in a pack can behave in a tactically smart way, so can a relatively genius warrior. (Intelligence 5! Hoo-ah!)

But by "lead," I was actually talking about moving the adventure along. You know, "Okay, so we have two potential leads: Bob the Rogue, why don't you go scout out the evil noble's mansion; Diane the Bard, why don't you hit Tavern Row and see what you can find out about the king's missing niece."

I am always the one who ends up in this role, even when I deliberately try -- as I did with the half-ogre -- to create a PC who is indisputably not suited to it. It doesn't help that I have control freak tendencies, but I have succeeded in curbing them for long periods of time, and the other players still wait for me to push things along.

 

[El Mahdi]

Myself in another guise

I have to be honest, I play myself in another guise. When I roleplay, it's more "how would I react, if I were this character, with this characters background, race, and history?", than it is playing someone completely different. I think I'm still learning who I am (a never ending journey), so that coming up with a completely different psyche is a little outside of my abilities. I have immense respect though for roleplayers and actors that can completely get into the mind of another character, shedding themselves as they do it. That is high perfection of a very subjective and complicated art. Kudos to those who can.

 

[RFisher]

I don’t think I have the ability to really play a character completely different from myself. I’m not that self-aware or talented.

On the other hand, I don’t think I could ever take the life of another human, but I’ve played characters who are cavalier about doing so. I’ve played characters who are much more confident than me. I’ve played characters who take bigger risks than i ever would.

 

[Jack7]

On the other hand, I don’t think I could ever take the life of another human, but I’ve played characters who are cavalier about doing so. I’ve played characters who are much more confident than me. I’ve played characters who take bigger risks than i ever would.

That's an interesting observation RF from my point of view for the opposite aspect. In my real life I've taken a lot of serious risks, nearly been killed on several occasions and have suffered some severe injuries as a result. (My buddies used to call me "suicide." When you're a kid you don't think much about the consequences of such things, you get older and find it harder to move your skeleton around, and your wife says, "see there, I told you so..." and you start thinking kinda differently about your past. Still, it leaves you with a lot of good stories for the kids and grandkids and some fond memories.)

And whereas I always tell other people, especially in training, always be prepared, don't take risks without careful analysis and gathering all of the Intel you can, reconnoiter first then act, and so forth and so on (and I really believe that) - I have in real life often broken my own rules of operation and behavior.

But with my characters, in playing characters, I almost never take on any risk without trying to mitigate the odds as much as possible in my favor, no matter what I'm fighting. (I'll fight anything if necessary, but I want to fight with advantage and in such a way that my opponent does not anticipate my actions.) Yet in real life I'm much more impulsive. (Though that has changed some over time, because I'm not as young, fast, or reflexive as I used to be, and so I'm more cautious about survivability, or how to weight risk in my favor.)

I've never really realized it before because nobody has ever made me think about it in quite that way but over time I've become more like my characters. More like the way they've always operated. I used to be hell bent for leather at any worthy risk, now I'm more like, if I'm going into hell then I'm coming in through the back door nice and quiet. Sure, it'll take a lot longer but then again they won't see me coming.

I wonder if the way I played was always something sitting in the back of my mind as a sort of "psychological governor" or restrictor saying, "think about this a second boy before you start bleeding heavy again."