What the Hell is wrong with you people?! Â I just said my characters had skinned people alive, tortured them, and engaged in all manner of evil debauchery and violence. Â Why DOESN'T anyone think there's something wrong with me?! Â My roleplay has at various times become sick and disgusting and I've played those characters sympathetically!
Jeez, you people...
In all seriousness, I'm rarely serious. Â I wouldn't take anything I say as a personal attack and my own ego is pretty bulletproof. Â I half expected someone to respond, "Well, most people should feel some kind of connection with their characters. Â Not you, Iggy. Â You need 24 hour care and one of those rooms with no inflexible protrusions or sharp edges."
The whole point of the post, self-deprecation removed, is that I tend to play characters that, for some reason, people have a lot of sympathy, respect, and admiration for. Â Which is strange, because I most often play characters who engage in terrible violence, horrendous crime, and no small amount of indulgence.
It's entertaining, and I feel like I can tap into an undercurrent of people's feelings where they can respect someone like that and even follow them, then see how low they're willing to follow the character into the hole in the ground they live in. Â I love the archetypical "dark knight", a villainous character of high moral principle that is just as likely to buy a poor kid an ice cream as he is to hide a police officer's body in a sewer for the rats to consume. Â I really like seeing what kind of decent people might end up following them and to see how they react to falling from grace.
Which is fun, but I'm the last guy that says you need to have empathy with your characters. Â At the very least, be happy I'm not that well connected to mine. Â I've had people cry IRL when bad things happen to my character simply because people come to like and admire them. Â I don't; they don't deserve it.
I do sometimes worry about people getting too attached to their characters and mine, though.  There have been a few RP relationships that the individual players have taken too far, mistakenly thinking those feelings made their way OOC.  Definitely not in my case, as I feel as much connection to the positive emotion of their love as I do to their anger when they're bodily ripping someone's ripcage out and wrapping it around their backs.
Yes, that's happened in RP as well....
Jeez, you people...
In all seriousness, I'm rarely serious. Â I wouldn't take anything I say as a personal attack and my own ego is pretty bulletproof. Â I half expected someone to respond, "Well, most people should feel some kind of connection with their characters. Â Not you, Iggy. Â You need 24 hour care and one of those rooms with no inflexible protrusions or sharp edges."
The whole point of the post, self-deprecation removed, is that I tend to play characters that, for some reason, people have a lot of sympathy, respect, and admiration for. Â Which is strange, because I most often play characters who engage in terrible violence, horrendous crime, and no small amount of indulgence.
It's entertaining, and I feel like I can tap into an undercurrent of people's feelings where they can respect someone like that and even follow them, then see how low they're willing to follow the character into the hole in the ground they live in. Â I love the archetypical "dark knight", a villainous character of high moral principle that is just as likely to buy a poor kid an ice cream as he is to hide a police officer's body in a sewer for the rats to consume. Â I really like seeing what kind of decent people might end up following them and to see how they react to falling from grace.
Which is fun, but I'm the last guy that says you need to have empathy with your characters. Â At the very least, be happy I'm not that well connected to mine. Â I've had people cry IRL when bad things happen to my character simply because people come to like and admire them. Â I don't; they don't deserve it.
I do sometimes worry about people getting too attached to their characters and mine, though.  There have been a few RP relationships that the individual players have taken too far, mistakenly thinking those feelings made their way OOC.  Definitely not in my case, as I feel as much connection to the positive emotion of their love as I do to their anger when they're bodily ripping someone's ripcage out and wrapping it around their backs.
Yes, that's happened in RP as well....