Poll: Can you roleplay as something you're not?

[Thunderous Cacophony]

I'm not talking about changing superficial things like age, race, life experience, etc. I mean whether it is possible to truly play a character who motivations and actions are completely different from your own.

This question came up when my D&D group talked about starting a campaign for evil characters. We had some fun tossing around character design ideas and how scenarios would play out, but as we kept talking, it became clear that we did not actually know how to make a believable evil character-someone who, for instance, would break into a poor farmhouse, ransack it and kill anyone who tried to stop him. We joked about how the party was getting tired of trail rations, or has a grudge against farmers, but that's because we couldn't construct likely motivations for a group of people to engage in vile, callous behaviour on a whim-we just couldn't get into the mindset.

I've seen this play out in less obvious ways to. A friend of mine is the closest thing to a paladin of Pelor that I have ever seen (we joke that we have to put blinders on him downtown, otherwise he would see a mission and spend the rest of his life working there). Getting tired of our jokes, he decided to create his mirror image: a spoiled, pampered aristocrat, quick to violence and uncaring of anyone beneath him on the social ladder. However, as the campaign progressed, it was clear that he was uncomfortable with it, and the aristocrat learned generosity and compassion almost subconsciously. The guy is not a bad role player, he just couldn't keep coming up with reasons why he would act in a manner that is so out of line with his regular thinking.

So that's my question, Escapists: can you truly roleplay (not just play it for teh lulz) as a character that is not just different from you, but is your antithesis, or at least thinks in a way completely foreign to you?

 

[senordesol]

So long as you understand what his motivations are and why, sure.

 

[JoJo]

As a forum roleplayer, I think it is certainly possible to roleplay someone with different values to yourself but difficult, especially if it's a good character you are attempting to play. A bad character is easy once you pin down the motivations of why they do bad things (e.g. greed, insecurity, hatred of a certain people, revenge). With a good character however you can often unwittingly (this happens to me a lot) fall into a character who holds similar opinions, speech patterns etc to what you do.

 

[requisitename]

If I'm roleplaying as myself, am I really roleplaying?

I enjoy the challenge of getting into the minds of the characters I RP and figuring out what drives them. I like for them to be as different from me as possible. I very much let them "be their own person", so to speak. When I make decisions in-character, I don't make decisions based on what I would say/think/do, but based on what the character I created would. It makes people look at me strangely, but I don't mind. It's fun to take a break from being myself sometimes!

 

[SckizoBoy]

... not really sure.

I'm one of those 'the ends justifies the means' people, so I would necessarily commit an evil to ensure a greater good... thing... besides, I'm a thin tempered bastard who has no qualms about beating someone up for wasting my time (or telling dead baby jokes).

On the other hand, I've played through KotOR games as a lighter-than-light side character... which feels rather weird... so, not really sure...

 

[Vegosiux]

If I'm roleplaying as myself, am I really roleplaying?

I enjoy the challenge of getting into the minds of the characters I RP and figuring out what drives them. I like for them to be as different from me as possible. I very much let them "be their own person", so to speak. When I make decisions in-character, I don't make decisions based on what I would say/think/do, but based on what the character I created would. It makes people look at me strangely, but I don't mind. It's fun to take a break from being myself sometimes!

Indeed so. My characters develop personalities of their own. They even develop traits I do not have, like patience. And they can turn out to be a lot less misanthropic than I am. But basically, yes, when I'm in character, they're speaking through me. We roleplayers need to have a slight schizo episode going I suppose.

 

[Erttheking]

That's what's so fun about roleplaying, being your polar opposite. I find that the best way to do this is to remove all consequences, normally in Fallout I'm a goody goody, but between me saving my game and turning off the console, I have a tendency to run around the town I'm in killing everyone, and I did play through the Legion campaign and found it enjoyable...though to be fair it probably would have been more fun if it wasn't my first time playing hardcore mode too and I was practically tripping over my feet to get to the end at level 16 because NCR hit squads were crawling up my rear.

 

[JesterRaiin]

So that's my question, Escapists: can you truly roleplay (not just play it for teh lulz) as a character that is not just different from you, but is your antithesis, or at least thinks in a way completely foreign to you?

Wow. Good question. Good question indeed.
I'm inclined to say "yes", but i know i can't. I can act like someone else, but i can't roleplay someone who at least isn't partially similar to myself.

Ont he side note, i'm pretty complicated person so there are plenty of roles i could easily fit into. However i couldn't roleplay the leader or someone like that. Not my thing.

 

[octafish]

It is hard, and I find the mindless evil characters incredibly boring to play. Getting the motivation right is always the key, they have to be the hero of their own story. I find roleplaying in CRGPs almost impossible with the rigid "moral" systems so many have.

 

[Thunderous Cacophony]

It seems like most people can, in fact, roleplay someone who is their complete opposite. Perhaps I'm just terrible at this, but I can never seem to make a fully-fleshed out character that acts completely different from me. To quote a typical well-phrased post:

If I'm roleplaying as myself, am I really roleplaying?

I enjoy the challenge of getting into the minds of the characters I RP and figuring out what drives them. I like for them to be as different from me as possible. I very much let them "be their own person", so to speak. When I make decisions in-character, I don't make decisions based on what I would say/think/do, but based on what the character I created would. It makes people look at me strangely, but I don't mind. It's fun to take a break from being myself sometimes!

I'm not just talking about roleplaying yourself vs. roleplaying a different person; I'm talking about someone who is completely alien to your life, who's entire outlook bears no resemblance at all to anything you think and feel; whatever motivations you create for them, they are totally different from your own, with totally different responses

 

[requisitename]

Indeed so. My characters develop personalities of their own. They even develop traits I do not have, like patience. And they can turn out to be a lot less misanthropic than I am. But basically, yes, when I'm in character, they're speaking through me. We roleplayers need to have a slight schizo episode going I suppose.

That's what makes it fun for me. I view it as interactive novel writing of a sort. When I write fiction.. which I almost never do anymore.. I make up my characters and turn them loose in the world I've made up. While I guess it could be argued that I am technically making the decisions and guiding them, it doesn't feel that way to me.

I'm not just talking about roleplaying yourself vs. roleplaying a different person; I'm talking about someone who is completely alien to your life, who's entire outlook bears no resemblance at all to anything you think and feel; whatever motivations you create for them, they are totally different from your own, with totally different responses

As am I. I think I don't explain it adequately for other people to understand, but I don't feel as though I am "creating" motivations. I am exploring them. My point was that if I don't go far afield of myself (some combination of same (my) and different (not my) age, gender, orientation, race, life's experiences) then I am in essence just being myself rather than roleplaying. I'm not saying it's a bad thing or that people shouldn't do it or that people who do it are somehow inferior or anything else negative: I am simply saying that when I RP, I don't want to be anything that resembles me if I have other options.

 

[Lt_Bromhead]

I'm quite a keen actor, so if I'm required to play a role whose morals, motivations etc are wildly different than my own I really just have to suck it; it's not considered good form to say "I totally think I should play a definitive Shakespeare character with a different personality."

In this sense, if I'm playing an RPG (be it on the computer or with a bunch of mates on a slice of paper) I tend to decide on my character's personality without taking myself into consideration, then stick with what I've chosen.
A good example of this would be the fact that I, personally, despise religion in all it's forms. Yet I frequently play Warhammer 40K RPGs where one HAS to be a religious character to survive. So I just go with my mentality of "suck it up, soldier". I find it gives one a lot more freedom and you can often end up having a lot of fun playing a character that's your own polar opposite.

 

[Thunderous Cacophony]

As am I. I think I don't explain it adequately for other people to understand, but I don't feel as though I am "creating" motivations. I am exploring them. My point was that if I don't go far afield of myself (some combination of same (my) and different (not my) age, gender, orientation, race, life's experiences) then I am in essence just being myself rather than roleplaying. I'm not saying it's a bad thing or that people shouldn't do it or that people who do it are somehow inferior or anything else negative: I am simply saying that when I RP, I don't want to be anything that resembles me if I have other options.

Interesting. I can see where you are coming from. I didn't know if there were people who were completely capable of ignoring all their personal moral views and emotional baggage to throw themselves into a role. Lt. Bromhead brought up acting, which I think is a perfect example; as an actor and friend of actors, I find that people tend to form moral judgements of the character, consciously or not, and play them as such. For example, you have a lewd Hamlet vs. a resigned, fatalistic Hamlet vs. a Hamlet driven by the tightly wound spring of vengeance