It Just Isn't My Style

[Warren Verona]

Okay, so We've been through "Interesting Challenges", and thank you to all those who volunteered their opinions and thoughts.

So, lets move on to another question: What (if any) type of character do you shy away from? Be it out of distaste or a feeling of just not being able to "get it right".

Again I'll start it off.

As a ST I've dealt with every type of personality out there and strived to bring that forward for my player's enjoyment. So, I can say honestly I think I've pretty much done it all, from The Crusader's slapstick antics, to Sephiroth's uber cool bad assness.

As a player however, while making a character there is on type of character I've found that I do not do welll at RPing at all.

Women.

I'm not one (I don't think) so I feel it's very difficult for me to get across the feelings, moods, and mannerisims. IMO opinion the two (men and women) are very different, physically, emotionally, and mentally. I'm not saying that one sex is better than the other of course, just radically different in a lot large and small ways. As a man I find it hard to "see things from thier perspective", and RP it properly.

It's not to say that I wouldn't try, I have to run female NPC all the time. It's RPing them as a full time character would seem quite difficult for me.

So, that's my handicap.

[Emily Williamson]

I have a pretty strict limitation on what I can play, which is weird considering I ST so much and should really be able to NPC everything.

I can't play evil. I can't play someone who just simply isn't nice, who's totally cold and uncaring and self-centered. I just can't get my mind around them, possibly because I don't truly believe that people like that exist (yes, yes, I know, let me be naive, I'm 17).

And then, of course, there's my problem with keeping characters heterosexual. Or homosexual, for that matter. I just do not know how you can simply not find one of the sexes attractive at all. I just don't get it. I have this strange subconscious prejudice that everyone is just a repressed bisexual, because I simply cannot picture any other way to be. So if a character isn't repressed, she (or he) has to be bisexual.

Ah, yes, not very good, I know.

[Neil Preston]

Nothing.

I have yet to found a depth to which my mind can not plunge, nor heights it can not soar. It comes from STing for a very long time and wanting to do the best job possible.

True Evil is tough, but I got there by studying, of all people, Selena, Black Queen of the Hellfire Club (Marvel Comix: X-Men in the early 1980's). Usually my evil people have motivations that are understandible (abused, self-delusions, fanaticism, ect.)

Women are tough (because I'm not one), but I consider that a work in progress. I've done a few and Stormwarden is my latest effort.

My greatest difficulty is with those anarchistic, chaotic personalities. My mind has his ordered bent that's tough to get out of. It takes work.

[Doctor Nova Madigan]

I would be completely unable to play a macho man combat monster. It's not that I don't understand them, it's that I cannot stand them.

[Doctor Nova Madigan]

Quote:

Originally posted by Neil Preston:
Nothing.

I have yet to found a depth to which my mind can not plunge, nor heights it can not soar.

Yeah, well, you play Jager, so 'nuff said.

[Hugin]

Well, it depends.

In real, person to person roleplaying? Can't do women and have trouble roleplaying anyone with a sexual nature. Guess I'm just too inhibited. Though I'm getting over the latter.

Here? Fuck it, I can do anything. I don't have to do voices so I can do a woman. I don't know how the fuck to roleplay a woman so I don't think I'd ever do one well, but I can try.

Addendum: True evil is easy as pie. Best way to do it I got from Mick Foley's "Have a Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks". To paraphrase; No matter how deranged or evil the heel is, in their own mind they are always justified, they are always in the right.

[Timeslip]

Gods, I just don't know.....

As Carver will tell you, I've played a hell of a lot of different concepts, and have managed to breathe life into most of them.

There was Gunther, my nasty evil mercenary with his nasty evil glaive; a fine fellow who lured his sister's husband into the deep woods on a hunt for goblins, slaughtered him in cold blood and blamed it on the goblins.

There was Talisen, my true-believer paladin, who managed to transcend lawful-stupid and really become both three-dimensional and a paragon.

There was Prisca: a completely free-spirited and entirely too-cute hybsil (think 3'-tall antelope-based centaur), who nevertheless proved to have what it took when it counted.

There was Sarah #1: an utterly guilt-ridden Gangrel who found a faith that she never knew she had, who managed in her way to bring brightness to one tiny corner of the World of Darkness.

There is Sarah #3: same girl, different world, who resented and envied her werewolf kin so much for what she would never have that she sought out the vampires and demanded the Embrace.

There was Toshiro, who held honor dear but learned that it need not trump friendship...or, indeed, love.

There was poor little Wilcolm Willoughby, a halfling fated to become a paladin whether he particular felt brave or not (most often the latter, with his battle cry of, "oh bother.") From his background:

Quote:

I can't understand it.

Everything was going so well. The fur on my dog was just starting to grow back. I had just gotten my new hand-illustrated membership placard into the Oglethorp Township Horticulture and Flower Club -- complete with personalized monogrammed work gloves, an outstanding weeding hook, and the first in a series, of strange, but very impressive ornamental limb-shaping bulletins.

Then, the rock hit me on the head.

The next thing I know, there I am, looking up at the newly vacated spot on the parapet of St. Barberry's Yondallan Church, with this amazingly vivid image of me somehow perfectly filling the space previously occupied by the aforementioned rock. This astounding idea that I was somehow a principle and integral part of the defense-works of good old St. Barberry's…and by extension, of the Yondallan Church and even Yondalla herself. Apparently, I called for a priest, who quickly seized upon what must have seemed to be a divinely provided opportunity by swearing me into the order in what must have been one of the most hastily organized events in St. Barberry's history, this being a church that can, and has, taken the better portion of a fortnight to accomplish the blessing of a newly-donated rain barrel.

For something that might have been a few days, or a month, or maybe a very intense afternoon, I was shown how to strap on a very expensive shirt of links that I apparently purchased with little reluctance, how to hold an enormously outsized pig-sticker of a blade (also apparently paid for at no small cost from my dwindling purse), and a variety of other tasks somehow integral to me filling the space vacated by that 30-pound piece of stonework.

My poor dog was similarly accosted, having been pressed into hasty service as what would be my loyal steed, and out the door the two of us were ushered, sent to defend home and hearth and wrest power from the wicked and take pity on the downtrodden and otherwise be an earthly representative of the goodwill of Yondalla. And I'm quite certain – nearly so, at any rate – that it all made perfectly good sense at the time.

If only now I could quite understand why….

There was Garvin the Mad, a randy swashbuckling centaur who just happened to believe that he was really human (to the point of not seeing his hind quarters).

And there's the various folks you all know from here on the boards: Timeslip, the Portent; Sandcaster, the Pragmatic Hero; Thoughtwave, the Calming Center; The Crusader, the Loveable Idiot Do-Gooder.

I play to themes, but those themes are very varied. Gender - and sexuality - hasn't been much of a barrier to me, simply because I've been on both sides of the gender fence, methinks. I'm honestly not sure what I can't play, though there's likely something out there that qualifies.

[Singularity]

Women. I can do enough to do a basic NPC or, sometimes, a long-term NPC, but any attempt at a female PC just fails for me.

[Wizard]

There aren't any that I'd shy away from. If the concept is interesting enough to catch my attention then it's interesting enough to play.

As far as whether I can play women... I've done it but you'd have to ask a woman what she thought of the role play.

[Velvet]

I'm working to stretch my boundaries, and my character here is an effort in that direction. I've never really played an overtly sexual, or physically captivating character. I've always been more interested in what's going on in their head and why they do what they do.

In D&D I've played a tiefling ranger/rogue/pirate wench, an elven paladin (my first and only, abolutely adored her and "retired" her for now at level 30), an outcast drow mercenary, and a half-elven sorceress. I've played light- and dark-side Jedi in Star Wars, and a brass-bound Mandalorian. Shifter ranger in Eberron, fire caste soldier and lunar huntress in Exalted; arrogant Tremere, shifty Ravnos and inhuman Tzimisce in Vampire, etc.

I've played all across the range of "alignments" but nearly all of my characters have been female: even the pencil/paper Aberrant character I have is female- a very insecure, uncertain telepath. I have a hard time playing "cold and calculating" or "primal and instinctual" because I really love people and those are somewhat alien concepts to me... but if the concept is interesting enough, as Wizard said, I'm willing to give it a shot.

[GDP_ST]

As an ST, I can portray anyone. It's strange: I can even portray women convincingly enough to weird my wife out (body language and all. Picture a six-foot four ex-bouncer weighing in at 225lbs playing a spoiled runway model convincingly. It weirds ME out sometimes.)

As a PLAYER, on the other hand, I tend to gravitate to intelligent, compassionate, anti-authoritarian, philosophical, and very aggressive-when-provoked types. They almost certainly are combative, but not he-man 'combat is the be-all and end-all of my existence' types.

They know how to think, and can turn off their compassion and empathy to apply ruthless logic to a tactical situation, and to a lesser extent a strategic one.

In short, when I'm a player, I tend to play myself in a different mold. Probably because I spend so much time ST-ing that I relish the chance to be myself for a change. No, seriously.

[kestrel404]

Out of everything, I have trouble with Lawful Good. I can do a very convincing Lawful Innocent, or Lawful Stupid, but actually playing a convincing 'compassionate and intelligent within the rules' character just stumps me.

On the other hand, I seem to be perfectly in tune with the entire evil end of the spectrum. Actually, for one-shot games among my friends, I more often play a villian NPC than I do one of the PCs.

And, like many of the men here, I cannot portray a decent woman. Even Dorothy is difficult for me, and I'm not sure how 'convincing' she is beyond simply being a teenager.

[Vixen]

As an ST, I tend to run a lot of different characters, but without much emotional investment in them. As a player, I don't really get into my character unless there's an emotional investment there, and there are certain things I just click towards more than others.

Most of my characters tend to pop out of semi-recent transformative events - something that has changed them physically, mentally, or emotionally, cutting them away from who they were and settign them on a path to what they'll become. I don't think this is really a desire for sharp, drastic change in my life subconsciously manifesting itself - I think it's got more to do with me just wanting a workable hook for a character.

I tend to both sides of the gender spectrum, and it's other people's calls whether or not I do a good job portraying characters outside my gender and/or own experience.

One thing I do shy away from are people who I don't find admirable in some way. In a weird sense, I need to be able to look up to the character - so most of my characters do tend to be either (what I consider) virtuous, or skilled and competant and experienced.

On a meta level, in superhero games I tend towards either bricks or 'mages' - doing hideous amounts of lethal damage in a supers game isn't appealing to me, since it's difficult for me to knock over a building without picturing the ten dozen people screaming for their lives inside.