(04-14-2014, 04:58 PM)Ignacius Wrote:(04-14-2014, 03:59 PM)K Wrote: Unless you're a creature that lacks the ability to empathize then I don't see how you could not experience strong or harsh emotions for your characters. I have felt a variety of things through, or on behalf on my characters, even if they themselves didn't. In addition, I have also been through a lot when exposed to other characters even when I was totally uninvolved with the scene taking place or even so much as not even having ever roleplayed with the character. This is what makes RP exciting and interesting. If you couldn't feel anything from it then I don't understand why one would do it in the first place.
I've played a character before that has nailed a woman (literally with carpenter nails) naked to a table and interrogated her by skinning a tattoo off her hip and tossing it down on her face. Â He finally got her to talk by preparing to slice off her finger to show her the ring she was wearing, having her tell him it had come from her husband, and threatening to have them find her husband to torture him as well.
It was fun, it was tense, it was dramatic, it was absolutely 100% not something I'd ever want to empathize with. Â I've had a great many heroic roleplaying characters in my time, but I've also played characters that, at various times, have burned down an orphanage after killing everyone inside, had a witness killed and disposed of in order to get a murderer acquitted, and had one character bring a yearlong forum RP thread end by killing his own fiancee on behalf of his employer after leaving his entire gang to death.
My post was targeted specifically towards the OP's experiences. Of course there are exceptions out there too but I was simply making a broad claim rather than a universal one. In your case where you play a character you morally despise then I guess it would be a case where you are getting most of your enjoyment from the reactions and developments of the characters around you, though if I am mistaken then by all means correct me. In any case, I'm sure you can at least empathise with other peoples' characters.
(04-15-2014, 10:31 AM)ArmachiA Wrote: I always try to get inside my characters head and feel what they feel when trying to play a scene and I have a lot of empathy when something bad happens to one of my good characters (Not so much with my evil ones) and I have cried at overly emotional scenes - just like reading a good book or watching a good movie will do.
I think in order to play our characters accurately, we have to try to feel what they feel in the moment. Whether it's a funny scene or a serious scene, we have to try to get into their head. In essence, we're actors and thats what actors do.
This precisely. If you can't even try to understand how your character thinks then you are just setting yourself up for inconsistencies and random OOC behaviour when compared to past events. Even if a character had something coming to them, its still very possible to feel sympathy for them on some level(actually, K'nahli is a fine example of that).
Characters: Andre Winter (Hy'ur) / K'nahli Yohko (Miqo'te)