Over here, one of the Jason’s poses the question “What is your ‘Thing’.”
What he means is… well, he gives examples rather than spelling it out, but the sort of thing that you do with characters to sort of make them feel really comfortable to you.
And it’s weird. I can think of the “thing” for like, everyone I game with. I couldn’t really think of mine.
Like… okay:
Dave tends to gravitate toward support-role characters, generally. Bards. Medics. Fawning, enthusiastic, cat-girl rogues.
Margie likes to have the means to figure things out — by that I mean, the means to acquire all the pieces of the puzzle — or even just most of them — she’ll handle putting them togehter herself. 🙂
Jackie characters are totally secure in their convictions, which leads them into trouble when they encounter other views.
Randy likes to see the oncoming weather forecasts and get people organized in time to batten down all the hatches. (And he likes to be able to get around quickly.)
With Lee and De… I’m not sure I’ve played enough games with them to see patterns.
And I puzzled on mine a bit. In fiction, I explore (repeatedly) the cycle of mourning that surrounds traumatic loss, but I don’t really think I do that with my roleplaying characters. Dunno. Maybe Jacob, at least originally.
Looking at patterns:
I play a lot of face-men types — bards who focus on storytelling; rogues focusing on the con-men aspect coupled with some showy skills; the ‘disguise/infiltration’ expert in a spy game. Maybe that’s my thing, but that feels more like a delivery system than the virus. Hmm.
Okay… taking it further…
I had to play a cleric in one game, so I made him the Boss (at least in his own mind) to give me a means to achieve the face-man fix. In the Champs game I played a long time, my horrible-charisma martial artist still became the team leader — his TV interviews were a delightful horrorshow.
There are very very very few characters I’ve played who weren’t geared to be ‘the one who speaks for the group’ — if not the leader, then at least the diplomat. The ones that weren’t that — I generally didn’t enjoy, long-term. (Though they might have been very very fun, short-term.)
So… what’s your type? (And did I guess right on the one’s I guessed?)
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I think that one characteristic I tend to repeat is playing my characters as intelligent as I can (given my limitations in RL). I seem to suck at playing the bumbling doofus when I’ve made the rare attempt in the past and didn’t really enjoy the character. Otherwise I have no problem bouncing around between good & bad, physical or scholarly, warrior or wizard, etc.
Dave tends to gravitate toward support-role characters, generally. Bards. Medics. Fawning, enthusiastic, cat-girl rogues.
Yeah. Art imitates life.
I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use …
I think, in part, that as a character, I tend to play off other characters (PC or NPC) than the problem / situation / opponent. My characters tend to be supportive to the goal, as you lay them out.
The other, integrated “thing” tends to be the alienated loner (cough) who is seeking meaning, identity, and acceptance (cough cough).
I think the other “thing” is that I tend to be a good guy. I can play a bastard (and can do things that I would not do in real life), but for every Osato, I’m much more likely to be a Dag. Shishiko, for all her being a chaosbringer and thief, was sweet (and probably the most fun character I’ve played in a decade). Even Punishment, though damned angry, was a trying to be a good guy, um, gal, ah, Noble.
And I tend to write the same was as I play. So there you go.
Quinn was that but he was an engineer: organized, methodical, logical.
Others: a self-assured Prince, a zealot with a wide (controlled, usually) cruel streak, a Renaissance Italian noble/artist, a soldier among samurai and eccentrics, a ruthless but loyal rogue, a fanatic elf commando desperate for the acceptance and admiration of his people, an artist/artisan gentleman tourist, the posthumous son or clone of the world’s greatest superhero.
I’m of the And Now For Something different school. Don’t like playing someone really evil for very long though.