Characters: What keeps you?
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@Misadventure said:
A combination of players who are patient and interested in discovering what I've made in my character, and events or discussions that evolve that character. The same for those I play with.
Seconded.
I like it when people are intrigued by my character, and I try to make them distinguishable and interesting. I enjoy it when people adore my character, or when they are shocked, appalled, or angry with them. I like very realistic, real-world interactions where people aren't just nodding their heads and shrugging and thinking about that really cool movie they saw last night, but are deeply invested in my character's words and deeds.
I also like it when I personally like the character, whether they are good or evil; I want to be sympathetic to the good ones, or amazed by their tenacity and evil.
I re-use characters that I like and that people like.
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One of my characters was a German Vampire Princess who had existed since the Baltic Crusades and played an instrumental part in instigating the conflict between the German Order, and the Lithuanian dukes. '
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Outwardly she appeared to be a scatterbrained, ditzy spoiled Princess, but was actually quite cold, manipulative, and calculating underneath, and was capable of tremendous acts of sadism. Which, by the way, some people enjoyed. Their characters were her adoring servants.
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She was also capable of towering fits of screaming, wide-eyed, berserk rage, although it would take an immense amount of frustration to bring her to that point. Seriously. She shrugged off little things like being gravely wounded and would let people attack her without responding, most of the time.
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I tremendously enjoyed playing this character. It was such a rush to have her looming over a small, scared character - male or female - like some kind of evil goddess, exerting her power and majesty. She was a truly Majestic character, and people seemed to recognize that.
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She would dominate people twice her size - one of her favorite pets was a male anthropomorphic black panther who was easily many heads taller than her and bulging with muscle, but would yield to her instantly.
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Another was a Communist African (product of Soviet Intervention in Africa http://www.jstor.org/stable/160717 ) Fighter Pilot who was abrasive and naturally competitive, and was not happy unless she was displaying her superiority or showing off. She was quite serious most of the time, sharp, and businesslike, but would occasionally tease others with her dry wit.
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Inwardly she was quite nice and caring, and liked to protect others. She would fight until she was killed for someone she liked or cared about. People liked her because they enjoyed her motherly nature, or so they would say. Her claim to fame? She showed up in the "Tasteless Descs" section of old WORA once, although I believe I posted her there myself. XD
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I enjoyed playing this character because so many people felt safe and calm around her. They were also entertained by her dry wit. I ended up with a lot of people tightly attached to her, and I, in turn, enjoyed taking care of them and making them feel happy.
EDIT:
Oh, and before you ask, I did not just play evil white people and good black people.
Case in point:
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a shy white Irish spearmaiden who preferred bartending to fighting. Yes, she was really Irish - in the Anime world, Irish people have blue hair.
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I violently repelled the Fenian Fighter bullshit stereotype of Irish people having hot tempers by playing her as someone who was soft-spoken, feminine, and gentle, not to mention elegant and beautiful.
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a blonde-haired black African swordswoman who was always looking to chop someone to pieces. There are actual black African people with blonde hair in real life.
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She was actually a lot of fun to play because the things she enjoyed most of all were getting very angry, and hewing people up with her sword. She had a very "Yosemite Sam" - type personality in that her violent rage was actually funny to watch, and most people found her amusing rather than threatening. "I'll hack you to bits, ya stupid little shrimp!"
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Even bumping into her by accident would make her want to kill you. In this respect, she was rather like a Samurai, if in some fucked-up parallel reality, most Samurai were lush, full-figured African women with oddly-colored hair. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiri-sute_gomen
Also, I don't know as you could call the German Princess 'evil'. She was merely sadistic and zealous about imposing her will on others.
So, would you guys like to play with either of them? Why? Why not?
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@Cirno They sound like caricatures with personalities borrowed from anime, with the same amount of hysteria and unrealistic extremes. More power to you, but as you laid them out I doubt I'd enjoy playing with them, for the same reason that I don't enjoy most anime. It's like taking a realistic personality and putting it through a meat grinder.
I like immersion when I play, and I need a grounded connection with reality in order to get that immersion. It's the same reason why I don't enjoy WoD games where all the supernatural stuff is out in the open, displayed like dirty laundry.
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@wanderer said:
@Cirno They sound like caricatures with personalities borrowed from anime, with the same amount of hysteria and unrealistic extremes. More power to you, but as you laid them out I doubt I'd enjoy playing with them, for the same reason that I don't enjoy most anime. It's like taking a realistic personality and putting it through a meat grinder.
I like immersion when I play, and I need a grounded connection with reality in order to get that immersion. It's the same reason why I don't enjoy WoD games where all the supernatural stuff is out in the open, displayed like dirty laundry.
Nah, I get what you mean. One person's passion is another's poison, and so on. I have realistic characters as well - I just recounted the fun ones.
You might be surprised, though. Quite a few people - including Cobalt - have remarked on my excellent roleplaying skills.
Take one of my characters on Cobalt's game. She was an ordinary Human architect and was fairly mellow and unassuming.
You would probably have liked Cu Chulanna (the white Irish Spearmaid) the most, since she would be right at home in a normal modern city, tending a bar.
She is, in fact, named after this person: http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/irish-story-and-legend-cu-chulainn-002150
Zastaraya (the black African Swordswoman) can hold a conversation if you can keep from irritating her long enough. It's not like you would run into her and she'd start screaming "WE MUST KUNGFU FIGHT! HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Well, not most of the time, anyway. XD
Arcueid Brunestud - for that is the name of the German Vampire Princess - would discuss tariffs, border control policies, and law with you if you spoke to her at any length, as well as the nature of power - that is, once you penetrate her initial ditziness about shopping and clothes and delicious food.
Interestingly, in the game Arcueid comes from, she is even flatter and less interesting than in my roleplay.
I fleshed her out by giving her a nationality - her name sounds vaguely German or Prussian, and she kills other vampires, so I put her at the head of the Teutonic Knights, who claimed to be killing supernatural creatures back then, and had her play a role in the Baltic Crusades by having her tiny German monarchy, which was part of the Holy Roman Empire (an agglomeration of tiny monarchies, each of whom all elected a 'kinglet' from their bowels, as a famous man said) - similar to Brandenburg or etc., intervene on the behalf of the Teutonic Knights, by funding and arming them, and providing military support.
Also, their wardrobes are vaguely similar.
("I regret destroying your possessions," Arcueid states, coldly. Try to imagine that is a Lithuanian duke's castle and holdings aflame in her wake.)
(Some German Order knights on the attack. Most likely because Arcueid said something to the Hochmeister, informing him of the latest Lithuanian heresies.)
They are 'rounder' than you might think, or, at least, the people I played with seemed to think so. They could just have all been anime-watching 14-year-olds though, so I don't disagree with you.
I have to say that this only makes me want to play with your characters even more: it would be like one of those ridiculous love-comedy animes where a normal guy or girl hangs out with a Norse Goddess, or a Demon, or someone equally wacky and unrealistic.
I'm imagining your character holding 'Raya (the black African Swordswoman) by her shoulders and pleading with her not to chop up the police officer staring at her rudely.
I'd like to write a novel about Arcueid's history with the German order when I have more time. It will be called "Tsukihime Prologue ~ Fire On The Moon" and it will be grand in scope, spanning the runup to the Baltic Crusade and the establishment of the Teutonic Crusader State.
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Arcueid
Where did you play her? The only place I've seen someone play that character was MVC.
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Shang.
(sad face)
That was also where Cu Chulanna (the white Irish spearmaid) lived. She worked the bar at the 7th Heaven lounge.
I also role play as Arc on FiMfiction.
Here's a quick way to decide if it's me: ask the Arc in question what she did in Eastern Europe.
If she responds with "Putting the German Order of St. Mary in the field of battle with the Baltic Pagans,", or mentions the
German Kingdom of Brunestud, bordering Saxony and Brandenburg, it's me.I have to talk about my male characters eventually.
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@Cirno I think reading over your things that you like to play character that people might immediately judge in a negative manner. Stuff that people would dismiss as caricatures without bothering to RP with you, or find out why you find those characters fun-- or to see if they could be fun. Frankly, I don't think there is anything wrong (as long as you aren't being deliberately offensive with your concept) with having a "caricature".
Do you enjoy the challenge of making something "grounded" and "fleshed out" of those concepts? Or do you enjoy making people get all up on high-horses? Or both?
I have been guilty, and probably will be in the future, of eye-rolling and judgment of other peoples characters. At this point I'm trying to find that zen place where I don't judge anyone for their fun. I might not want to play a stripper-ninja, but how does someone else playing a stripper-ninja hurt me? It doesn't.
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Cirno, are you Nuku?
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@Cobaltasaurus said:
Nuku does come around every so often to talk about Ponyfinder. He (?) has been fairly successful with it.
Boy was I surprised to discover that's not some kind of Brony dating site.
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@Sessurea said:
@Cobaltasaurus said:
Nuku does come around every so often to talk about Ponyfinder. He (?) has been fairly successful with it.
Boy was I surprised to discover that's not some kind of Brony dating site.
Maybe it is. Nerds Find Other Nerds Through Kickstarter? I'm now waiting for this news headline.
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@Cobaltasaurus said:
@Cirno I think reading over your things that you like to play character that people might immediately judge in a negative manner. Stuff that people would dismiss as caricatures without bothering to RP with you, or find out why you find those characters fun-- or to see if they could be fun. Frankly, I don't think there is anything wrong (as long as you aren't being deliberately offensive with your concept) with having a "caricature".
Do you enjoy the challenge of making something "grounded" and "fleshed out" of those concepts? Or do you enjoy making people get all up on high-horses? Or both?
I have been guilty, and probably will be in the future, of eye-rolling and judgment of other peoples characters. At this point I'm trying to find that zen place where I don't judge anyone for their fun. I might not want to play a stripper-ninja, but how does someone else playing a stripper-ninja hurt me? It doesn't.
For what it's worth, I enjoy entertaining people. My intention is to entertain and make people forget about the real world for a time.
(This is why I play characters that are explicitly not like myself at all. If I wanted a 1:1 replication of real life, and a character just like myself, I could just go outside. But that is what I do for my own amusement - drink! - and if other people want a gritty, realistic MU* with realistic characters, they're perfectly welcome to do so.)
You might say that I enjoy making something "grounded" and "fleshed out" over these concepts, because when you get to the meat of it, I play these characters from the understanding that they are human beings (mostly. Obviously with supernatural characters, this is not so much the case).
Take Cu Chulanna, or Miss Lancer, if you want to call her that. She is a spearmaid, but hates fighting. Right away you have some internal conflict of the sort you find in Homer's Iliad, where Achilles, despite being a warrior, refuses to fight. Or Yossarian from Catch-22, who hates fighting in spite of being a bomber captain.
It also displays that she isn't just a ping-pong ball bouncing off the paddles of fate.
I'm afraid I don't know who PsyJane is. Sadface.
A joke: You must admit I have some creativity, because these character concepts would be even worse in someone else's hands.
Miss Lancer, or Cu Chulanna, would be an awful drunken Fenian Irish stereotype who wants fisticuffs all the time.
'Raya, the Black Swordswoman, would be a ghetto stereotype.
"Oh, hey, Shanaenae. Naw, I can't come to da sto' right now, I gotta fight someone wif a sword. He did what, honey? ( sucks teeth) Aw, hell no, you ain't gotta take that from him, you - oh, hold on a minute, lemme fight this dude."
(Raya carefully puts away her blingy cellphone case with her much too long fingernails)
Arcueid would be a typical unfunny German stereotype who likes yodeling and beer.
You may laugh, but I have seen some hideous racial stereotypes on MU*s. XD
