Character personas you wished you dabbled more in!

[Nero]

I've never been able to play a proper young and naive character. Regardless of archetypes all of my characters tend to be older world-weary sorts that are vary between somewhat experiened to being jaded enough to be claimed by China as a historical artifact.

[Kellach Woods]

The problem I have with playing an evil character is that... it feels limiting. I try not to do it just because of that. However, saying that I don't want to play evil doesn't mean I don't want to play bastards, or people who do evil things. I'd rather evil be an action.

 

I also have a problem playing right old bastards because I have problems determining when too much is too much. I also don't tend to like these characters in general even though I've rolled one.

[Melkire]

Kids. I've dabbled with roleplaying little brothers and sisters as NPCs, and I've actually made a couple of PCs for this purpose, but....

 

Roleplaying children and adolescents after you're long past those phases is hard. They don't talk the same, walk the same, they don't even think in the same logical progressions that we do. Taking oneself back a decade or two or however long it's been isn't easy. Stepping into those shoes again is awkward, because the whole time I'm in them I'm thinking, "this is dumb. This is stupid. I would never do this. I would never say that. WTF, kid." It doesn't jive with the here-and-now, and for me that's a difficult gap to surmount, those years.

 

Hopping the gender terminator is not so difficult in comparison, for me. =x 

[GloryRhodes]

I've played a lot of things, but I tend to gravitate towards funny characters.

 

Some friends of mine once told me that all my characters are people who shouldn't fit where they are, but somehow make it work.  At some point I want to try a serious, relatively generic person who fits in perfectly with her environment and setting.

 

but I'd probably get bored and she'd start telling bad knock knock jokes all the time.

[TheLastCandle]

Couldn't agree more with Osric. ^ It's so hard to write from a teenager's perspective. I've had such characters in the past, and I always felt like the character was acting way too mature for his age. And so I'd compensate for it and inwardly facepalm for acting like a brat. -snicker-

 

Opposite gender is nothing in comparison. For the longest time, I couldn't wrap my head around playing a female character in an MMO - despite the fact that I wrote from female characters' perspectives in stories and the like. I've said so before on these very forums! But, now that I have bitten the bullet and done so, I think most people who have interacted with my female character don't realize she's being played by a guy at all, much less by me. #KeepinUguessin

[Jazz Egi]

A comedic character.

 

But I cannot do funny.

 

The problem I have with playing an evil character is that... it feels limiting. I try not to do it just because of that. However, saying that I don't want to play evil doesn't mean I don't want to play bastards, or people who do evil things. I'd rather evil be an action.

 

I also have a problem playing right old bastards because I have problems determining when too much is too much. I also don't tend to like these characters in general even though I've rolled one.

 

A good starting point for comedy is the 'funny drunk' archetype. You can have a morose, no nonsense businessman of a character who, upon drinking, becomes a clumsy oaf who is more likely to put a foot in their mouth than on the ground. I do this with Weaver, who drinks to cope with stress.

 

As for evil, try not making them directly evil. Try for a neutral or even good person who has a very unpopular motive and work from there. Perhaps he robs people to sustain ailing family, or believes submitting to the Garleans will be less devastating than resistance. (Doma anybody?) A villain with depth tends to have arguably defensible goals.

 

As for myself, I cannot play non-human/hyur characters. Races in most settings tend to be very restricted in lore and character direction.

[Kellach Woods]

That's what I meant by I'd rather "evil be an action".

 

Although I've kind of went against that with two of my characters here, but one I've never really played because I know I'd probably get half the server on my ass the moment I opened my mouth.

 

The other's Kell and I'd need to get into that and I don't want to right now

[Jazz Egi]

That's what I meant by I'd rather "evil be an action".

 

Although I've kind of went against that with two of my characters here, but one I've never really played because I know I'd probably get half the server on my ass the moment I opened my mouth.

 

The other's Kell and I'd need to get into that and I don't want to right now

 

What is evil but a construct or a label? True evil generally requires some of degenerated mental status or bad writing.

 

Perspective is everything! With a minor change in perspective, The Warrior of Light becomes a deicidal murder-hobo bringing about the end of all beastmankind and licking the boots of the political elite of man.

[Kellach Woods]

That's what I meant by I'd rather "evil be an action".

 

Although I've kind of went against that with two of my characters here, but one I've never really played because I know I'd probably get half the server on my ass the moment I opened my mouth.

 

The other's Kell and I'd need to get into that and I don't want to right now

 

What is evil but a construct or a label?  True evil generally requires some of degenerated mental status or bad writing.  

 

Perspective is everything!  With a minor change in perspective, The Warrior of Light becomes a deicidal murder-hobo bringing about the end of all beastmankind and licking the boots of the political elite of man.

...that was kind of my point.

 

You can also toss in delusional too.

[Delilah Scythewood]

For a writing challenge, I almost made Lili a funny lush when I first started the game. It was going to be her way of coping with widowhood, but I couldn't see her teenagers letting her get away with that for long so it didn't stick but I always wondered about playing a drunk or drug addict.

[Jazz Egi]

For a writing challenge, I almost made Lili a funny lush when I first started the game. It was going to be her way of coping with widowhood, but I couldn't see her teenagers letting her get away with that for long so it didn't stick but I always wondered about playing a drunk or drug addict.

 

I'm honestly surprised there aren't more drunks afoot! The Calamity seems like a pretty traumatizing ordeal.

[Aduu Avagnar]

Nako wasn't actually in Eorzea at the time of the Calamity, but he does drink an awful lot, but only really when he is alone, so that is the reason he tends not to be drunk in public.

[TheWizard]

I made a char that I intended to be a naive noblewoman who ends up picking up the cause of justice out of that childish desire to right wrongs in the world only to come to realize that corruption is found in every group of people, even the good ones, and eventually go down the path of being like an anti-hero or knight in sour armor. Ultimately being a Dark Knight was my preferred outcome for her but after only rping on her once shes sat dormant for months and now I'm considering deleting her.

 

My character creativity tends to come up with female ideas, though my dedicated main is male, and I come up with so many ideas that 8 slots really doesn't cut it.

[Delilah Scythewood]

My character creativity tends to come up with female ideas, though my dedicated main is male, and I come up with so many ideas that 8 slots really doesn't cut it.

I come up with a lot of ideas myself. Problem is I hate leveling because you have to do the story content and unlock everything over and over again.

 

I have five character slots I use. Two of which are characters I play, one is a character I'm going to start playing soon, one is Lili's son, and the last is my 'away from it all' character. One I use that no one knows me on where I can grind or do whatever without being whispered or poked at.

 

Over time they all develop a story, but if I didn't hate the beginning content grind so badly I'd have more established characters walking around.

[Random Encounter]

I've always wanted to try are servant type character, like body guard or assassin for a noble that answers to that person only. But only once did I ever find someone I felt it could work with and back then our schedules never aligned well. D:

[Delilah Scythewood]

I've always wanted to try are servant type character, like body guard or assassin for a noble that answers to that person only. But only once did I ever find someone I felt it could work with and back then our schedules never aligned well. D:

 

I've played a character like that before! It was a lot of fun But yeah schedules are a biggie.

[Kyatai]

A truly evil character in an MMO.

 

I was able to do it in a forum RP group I was in... so successfully that she was someone that everyone hated, but loved to see because... well... I love dynamic characters. True EVIL isn't the man in the black coat, waxing his mustache, or the twisted thing lurking in the corner. It is the sadist, the sociopath, the one that watches, plots and plans, manipulates. It is the patient intellect with no morals, save those he/she creates for themselves. It is sometimes beautiful, charming and engaging... perhaps even funny. It is always terrifying when faced.

BUT.

They are also 'human' and have weaknesses, frailties, fears,... like everyone else... They are just masters at hiding them. Which, naturally, becomes their Achilles heel should anyone discover it.

 

By the gods, she was fun to play. So challenging, so exciting...

But I had that magical alchemy of wonderful RPers  I could feed and play off of, who could throw it right back at me and challenge me. It was very mature RP at its best without being overly graphic or gratuitous...

 

... but something I have never been able to reciprocate in an MMO.

The closest I came to one in EQ2 was my Tier'dal who... *sighs* who just by remaining IC and behaving as I thought a Tier'dal female should... managed to cause OOC drama because folks couldn't separate the IC from the OOC...

THAT is the problem... and that is why I have been unable to do it again. I care too much about possibly hurting people's feelings or not causing drama. A game/RP should not make a person feel OOC bad about themselves. IC? pfft... anything goes.

 

So I simply play the categorically grey characters... that are essentially good at heart, but not afraid to do socially unacceptable things for a cause. 

 

But oh... for a chance to be with a really great RP group, with people I can trust to not take things OOC and to be able to roll with whatever is thrown at them again... I would be giddy.

 

.....

 

That said, I have never played a 'Slave' in RP before... but giving it a go  (with twins!) opposite Jaques' experiment in an 'evil' character... Gonna try to stretch my wings a bit with them, see how it goes!

[FreelanceWizard]

I've always wanted to try are servant type character, like body guard or assassin for a noble that answers to that person only. But only once did I ever find someone I felt it could work with and back then our schedules never aligned well. D:

 

Me too. I pretty much never get to play those types of characters.

 

I had one in CoV (an assassin/bodyguard on contract to an evil mastermind), but schedules kept me from keeping up with it. That said, the slice of life RP was rather amusing, especially how she kept her professional life separate from her personal one; when they blended, comedy ensued. I was meaning to do one in XIV, but the game's unfriendly enough to alts and my time is so limited that I just can't bring myself to do it.