Role-Playing : Tell Me About Your Character(s)

[atolnon]

This is just your weekly Weston reminding you that I don't just have one or two characters written up waiting to go, but that I literally have a file folder on my computer simply titled RPG Dossiers. One of my arbitrary fun-time goals is to have a character written up of every different Exalt type for 2.5, and I'm branching out into Pathfinder, Vampire, and Mage.

I am a nerd. 

Has anyone got any role-playing stories lately? Like, is anyone gaming? How's it going? I haven't been playing all that much lately, (but I've got some gaming stuff coming up in the generally near future), and there are people here I just haven't talked to in way too long about anything, much less gaming. 

I have a hunch I'm not gonna get a lot of bites on this because I don't get a huge amount of comments, but I know some of you actually do read this, so I'm interested in what you're up to. Rambling or ranting is acceptable, if that's what you got.  

Comments

[q99.livejournal.com]

Purely writing, following the mechanics of the universe in question.

[atolnon.livejournal.com]

See, that's something Kay does that I haven't done in a really long time! When I was a lot younger, I roleplayed with a few people (and nagarerutenshi is the only one I'm still really ever in contact with at all, and somewhat sporadically to boot.) for Serial Experiments Lain.

It was good times! There was stuff about it that would probably frustrate me today, but the lack of mechanics also also a little freeing.

As I get older, I get more and more interested in both ends of the games I play, but kind of separately, like two different hobbies that are pasted together. Anyway, it sounds interesting! I'm just musing a little, don't mind me. = )

[q99.livejournal.com]

It helps that I have a really well-defined idea of what the characters can and can't do and how the series combat works.

And I'm fairly poor at coming up with characters (I can do some, but not in quantity and in a coherent manner without a lot of forethought), but I'm pretty good at using existing characters I think, so using an existing universe helps me a lot. And it sometimes puts me in positions where I don't know how the plot is going to go- my own characters I generally am able to figure major reactions in advance, but using an existing one I find I have to react more ^^

[atolnon.livejournal.com]

I can understand that. Do you talk pretty extensively with the players before playing about character abilities and limitations? I've seen other people play, and they seem to intuitively know, but there are some occasional cockups, too.

Personally, I really like putting together new characters and ones who are inspired by other media, too. (I'm building some Exalted characters right now who are inspired by Cowboy Bebop, and a bunch of others that are really just David Bowie alter-egos.) Kay, on the other hand, doesn't get into making new characters at all, and tends to just re-purpose existing ones. It's worked out just fine for us, though, even in paper and pencil rpgs.

[q99.livejournal.com]

It's a combination of telling them and them being familiar with the base material (and then telling them some more, because some people have loose interpretations). If someone wants to do something that's just way off, I pause and explain things (other times, if someone wants to do something that's way off, it's just player greed ^^ 'You have time to do one of two things, but not both' 'Let's do both, and maybe a third thing too!').


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Personally, I really like putting together new characters and ones who are inspired by other media, too. (I'm building some Exalted characters right now who are inspired by Cowboy Bebop, and a bunch of others that are really just David Bowie alter-egos.) Kay, on the other hand, doesn't get into making new characters at all, and tends to just re-purpose existing ones. It's worked out just fine for us, though, even in paper and pencil rpgs.-

I repurpose characters from other things to fill out NPC slots. The players have yet to figure out their neighbor 'Maku' is based on Big Macintosh from My Little Pony ^^

I spend a fair amount of time on my major ones like villains and rivals, though.