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Discussion: Do you add yourself in Roleplaying?

Tags: #ZonnoSpark +1  #RP:Discussion 
  • Member
    September 21, 2017
    My characters so far have all been me as a Khajiit or Argonian, each exploring different aspects of my personality (I haven't been able to settle on one particular version that's wholly me). I'm guilty of taking things that I've only used once or twice IRL and getting them to 100 in-game, or rationalizing (e.g., "the maxed-out heavy armor is just a metaphor for me.")
  • Member
    September 22, 2017

    mitch blatt said: My characters so far have all been me as a Khajiit or Argonian, each exploring different aspects of my personality (I haven't been able to settle on one particular version that's wholly me). I'm guilty of taking things that I've only used once or twice IRL and getting them to 100 in-game, or rationalizing (e.g., "the maxed-out heavy armor is just a metaphor for me.")

    Rationalising is a massive part of this! Don't worry, I don't expect you to really spew fire from your hands, if you like lighting them then is good enough.

  • Member
    September 22, 2017

    I've got a little anecdote of yesterday's ESO sesh. Normally I try as much as possible to not do what I'd do when playing. If there's a situation where there's a chance of trolling, normally I take it even if it's out of character - hey, in ESO you can't save as you go so you need to take advantage of each opportunity. Yesterday I was met with a tough choice, and (spoilers) had to choose between ending Fildgor Orcthane's life after a private duel or capturing him and letting his brother, King Jorunn, decide.

    That seemed easy: Let the king decide. It wasn't until the dialogue following that my decision became hard to swallow. I had just forced the king to decide the fate of his own brother, and even though he says their is only one punishment for treason, it still hurt him to make that call. It might have been a better option to have killed him myself rather than pass the buck. 

  • Member
    September 24, 2017

    Paws said:

    I've got a little anecdote of yesterday's ESO sesh. Normally I try as much as possible to not do what I'd do when playing. If there's a situation where there's a chance of trolling, normally I take it even if it's out of character - hey, in ESO you can't save as you go so you need to take advantage of each opportunity. Yesterday I was met with a tough choice, and (spoilers) had to choose between ending Fildgor Orcthane's life after a private duel or capturing him and letting his brother, King Jorunn, decide.

    That seemed easy: Let the king decide. It wasn't until the dialogue following that my decision became hard to swallow. I had just forced the king to decide the fate of his own brother, and even though he says their is only one punishment for treason, it still hurt him to make that call. It might have been a better option to have killed him myself rather than pass the buck. 

    Damn, thats dark. I think that while making a brother execute the other is not ideal, on a larger scale its the right thing to do. You at least let him have a trial of sorts, gave him a chance to make peace with his decisions etc, although its still grim. Plus the King is the authority figure, which we go to for tough calls. The question is should protocal be followed in such a unique scenario - family being treated differently by royalty? Not uncommon, but not good either.

  • Member
    September 24, 2017
    Yeah Zonit was dark! It was completely out of character, being based on what I would do rather than roleplay for all the reasons you mention. But the result and listening to The Skald King lament what he had to do was rough. Better that I had killed his brother and said it happened in combat, saved that pain. Rarely do I step out of character unless for trolling purposes or flirting.
  • November 28, 2017

    My experiences in Roleplaying resonate with pretty much all of what's being said in this topic, I mean, I also find it extremely hard not to put pieces of myself in the characters I create. Good storytellers are usually people who live very interesting lives and/or meet very interesting people, and are able to put those different experiences and personality traits in their characters, making them not only seem real, but also relatable. For example, you might not have been abused when you were a child but, unless you are a cold blooded psychopath, you can definitely sympathise with the pain of an abused child. That's because pain is universal, and at some point in our lives we've all been inflicted pain without deserving it. You might not like a character simply because she or he was a victim of child abuse, but it's hard not to relate to that to some extent. And that is just one example; you can do the same thing with other personality traits and life-changing events that will make your character relatable to pretty much everyone. 

    It's also true that some games are better for roleplaying than others. That depends on how much freedom you are given to build your character physically, how much freedom you are given to write your character's story, how much information you are given about the universe in which the story develops and how believable the other characters (NPCs) inhabiting this universe are. A heavy modded Skyrim is certainly the best Roleplaying ground I've ever had. It's the first platform that allowed me to create believable, deep characters that make sense to me despite sharing only few personality traits with me. The extensive Elder Scrolls lore allow me to go deep into my characters' past and imagine how historical events and societal customs could have influenced their lives and made them who they are. AI mods give more consequence to actions and make interactions with other characters more dynamic and complex (which is what Skyrim lacks the most in a RP perspective).

    I'm kinda drifting here, but my point is that yeah, I do add at least a little of myself in my characters, but the more I am able to create characters who are different from me and especially different from each other without compromising their authenticity and their relatability, the better my characters become. 

  • November 28, 2017

    Paws said:

    I've got a little anecdote of yesterday's ESO sesh. Normally I try as much as possible to not do what I'd do when playing. If there's a situation where there's a chance of trolling, normally I take it even if it's out of character - hey, in ESO you can't save as you go so you need to take advantage of each opportunity. Yesterday I was met with a tough choice, and (spoilers) had to choose between ending Fildgor Orcthane's life after a private duel or capturing him and letting his brother, King Jorunn, decide.

    That seemed easy: Let the king decide. It wasn't until the dialogue following that my decision became hard to swallow. I had just forced the king to decide the fate of his own brother, and even though he says their is only one punishment for treason, it still hurt him to make that call. It might have been a better option to have killed him myself rather than pass the buck. 

     

    I think that was a bit naive of you, Phil. I mean, it wasn't an easy decision but we often think that doing the right thing is avoiding making difficult decisions, when it's often the opposite. Like, I'm totally Machiavellian in that sense, and I believe that the more responsability we take for our actions the more chance of doing good we have. If you leave an important decision to some else, you are missing the opportunity of doing the right thing and who knows what the other person can do? How compromised this other person is? I reckon we all fall for that mistake every now and then, only to remember that being apathetic and being good are very different things lol 

     

  • Member
    November 28, 2017

    Sarah Lannister said:

    I think that was a bit naive of you, Phil. I mean, it wasn't an easy decision but we often think that doing the right thing is avoiding making difficult decisions, when it's often the opposite. Like, I'm totally Machiavellian in that sense, and I believe that the more responsability we take for our actions the more chance of doing good we have. If you leave an important decision to some else, you are missing the opportunity of doing the right thing and who knows what the other person can do? How compromised this other person is? I reckon we all fall for that mistake every now and then, only to remember that being apathetic and being good are very different things lol 

     

    Naive is my middle name :D Well it's not, but still. I think the compelling thing in this scenario is that the choice is determined by what seems more just and how you look at it. Allowing a brother to commit fratricide when it could have been avoided and made to look like an accident in self defence is a pretty bleak choice but maybe the more morally sound, but on the other hand he's the king and the decision as to what justice should be meted out to his traitorous brother should be his alone. Passing the buck was an easy choice, but it was hard to witness the aftermath. Had I to have saved the king that responsibility, it may have transpired that I was undermining his monarchal responsibilities and denying him the closure of what was a very personal series of events.

    Should we take responsibility from another to spare their feelings? Or recognise that something is their responsibility and stand by and watch them get hurt by it? Normally I would chose the former.

  • November 28, 2017

    Should we take responsibility from another to spare their feelings? Or recognise that something is their responsibility and stand by and watch them get hurt by it? Normally I would chose the former.

    Yeah, fair point. Like, in this case the guy was the effing king so it was his responsability indeed. I reckon the level of involvement depends a lot on how much you care about that character; I mean, do you care enough to go through the trouble of killing his brother to spare him the pain of doing it himself? I admit it must be some pretty solid storytelling if you feel at least a little conflicted about it, considering that those people aren't even real. 

     

  • Member
    November 28, 2017

    Sarah Lannister said:

    Yeah, fair point. Like, in this case the guy was the effing king so it was his responsability indeed. I reckon the level of involvement depends a lot on how much you care about that character; I mean, do you care enough to go through the trouble of killing his brother to spare him the pain of doing it himself? I admit it must be some pretty solid storytelling if you feel at least a little conflicted about it, considering that those people aren't even real. 

     

    Aren't real?! I will not sleep now. Next you'll be telling me Santa is a made-up figure. Which would be a relief, for the idea of a bearded, fat deer-rider sneaking into your homestead to snack on your mince pie and swallow your milk is pretty damned creepy.

    I digress. ESO does have some amazing quests and well-rounded characters. You'd be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn't feel an attachment to Razum-dar, or feel a pang when they have to make that choice. It helps that it's the only TES game that gives you genuine moral dilemmas to work through on a regular basis. Mostly they are small decisions, but sometimes those choices involve people that, over the course of many hours, have earned your genuine affection.