This is a site for discussing roleplaying games. Have fun doing so, but there is one major rule: do not discuss political issues that aren't directly and uniquely related to the subject of the thread and about gaming. While this site is dedicated to free speech, the following will not be tolerated: devolving a thread into unrelated political discussion, sockpuppeting (using multiple and/or bogus accounts), disrupting topics without contributing to them, and posting images that could get someone fired in the workplace (an external link is OK, but clearly mark it as Not Safe For Work, or NSFW). If you receive a warning, please take it seriously and either move on to another topic or steer the discussion back to its original RPG-related theme.

Author Topic: Role Playing Who You Always Wanted to Be  (Read 2136 times)

Vic99

  • Old Guy That Still Games
  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 302
    • Wicked Cool Games FB page
Role Playing Who You Always Wanted to Be
« on: July 27, 2016, 04:18:31 PM »
Another thread by Shipyard Lock got me thinking . . . .

I have noticed that whenever I run a game for people either new to roleplaying or new to an rpg genre where you can play a modern or modernish character, the FIRST character the player chooses to play is a character with a profession and or traits that s/he always wanted to try in real life . . . sort of a - if I could do it all over again, I would be this when I grow up.

For example in 1920s COC one player who is a science teacher in real life, but also a history buff, played a history professor.  Another with an undergraduate in psyche played a pyschologist even though in real life she became a registered dietitian.  In a present day game with characters thru-hiking the Applicaian Trail only to stumble across aliens and a government cover up, I saw the same.  Electrical Engineer, Park Ranger, Pilot.

Ever do this or notice this?  Any wild stories or really unusual character concepts that were based in what the player always wanted to do but never got the opportunity to try or was afraid to try?

Again, I've only noticed this for the very first character that person has ever played in this genre.

AsenRG

  • Bloody Weselian Hippy
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5036
    • http://storiescharactersandsystemsinrpgs.blogspot.com/
Role Playing Who You Always Wanted to Be
« Reply #1 on: July 27, 2016, 05:23:20 PM »
Quote from: Vic99;910068
Another thread by Shipyard Lock got me thinking . . . .

I have noticed that whenever I run a game for people either new to roleplaying or new to an rpg genre where you can play a modern or modernish character, the FIRST character the player chooses to play is a character with a profession and or traits that s/he always wanted to try in real life . . . sort of a - if I could do it all over again, I would be this when I grow up.

For example in 1920s COC one player who is a science teacher in real life, but also a history buff, played a history professor.  Another with an undergraduate in psyche played a pyschologist even though in real life she became a registered dietitian.  In a present day game with characters thru-hiking the Applicaian Trail only to stumble across aliens and a government cover up, I saw the same.  Electrical Engineer, Park Ranger, Pilot.

Ever do this or notice this?  Any wild stories or really unusual character concepts that were based in what the player always wanted to do but never got the opportunity to try or was afraid to try?

Again, I've only noticed this for the very first character that person has ever played in this genre.
I'm trying to remember my first modern character, but I'm not sure which one it is. But as a general rule, I don't think I've ever stood a chance of becoming one of my "Modern" characters:).
Then again, most of them have never stood a chance of becoming like me;).
What Do You Do In Tekumel? See examples!
"Life is not fair. If the campaign setting is somewhat like life then the setting also is sometimes not fair." - Bren

AaronBrown99

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 434
Role Playing Who You Always Wanted to Be
« Reply #2 on: July 27, 2016, 06:48:10 PM »
Role-playing as wish fulfillment?  

It's why I do it!

(web developer, wheelchair-user)
"Who cares if the classes are balanced? A Cosmo-Knight and a Vagabond walk into a Juicer Bar... Forget it Jake, it's Rifts."  - CRKrueger

Gronan of Simmerya

  • My member is senior
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 8769
Role Playing Who You Always Wanted to Be
« Reply #3 on: July 27, 2016, 07:45:57 PM »
MOST people I've gamed with over the last 44 years role play as "Me if I were a Jedi Knight" "Me if I were a Starship Captain" "Me if I were a barbarian adventurer" "Me if I were... " etc, etc, etc.

It's only in the last ten years or so that I've heard that roleplaying as wish fulfillment is "doing it wrong."

And to quote Sam Vimes, "arseholes to that."
You should go to GaryCon.  Period.

The rules can't cure stupid, and the rules can't cure asshole.

Shawn Driscoll

  • Role-Play Purist
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2928
Role Playing Who You Always Wanted to Be
« Reply #4 on: July 28, 2016, 02:47:52 AM »
Quote from: Vic99;910068
Again, I've only noticed this for the very first character that person has ever played in this genre.
Happens a lot with first player characters when given the chance. As long as it is an easy character for them to role-play, I can then focus more on teaching them the game mechanics.

Once a player sees what they can do in a game, they put more effort into making their next character for doing even more exciting stuff with the mechanics they've learned.
« Last Edit: July 28, 2016, 02:51:37 AM by Shawn Driscoll »

The Butcher

  • Cyborg Shock Trooper
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 7183
Role Playing Who You Always Wanted to Be
« Reply #5 on: July 28, 2016, 08:21:00 AM »
I have this amazing player and friend who sometimes stutters and overthinks stuff, and very often plays suave, socially oriented characters.

As for myself, well, I do like to mix it up a little. Unless your game has cyborg as a PC option. Cyborgs trump everything. ;)
« Last Edit: July 28, 2016, 08:30:46 AM by The Butcher »

Battle Mad Ronin
BANNED

  • BANNED
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 237
Role Playing Who You Always Wanted to Be
« Reply #6 on: July 28, 2016, 08:36:26 AM »
I wanna play a character who can put the whisky bottle down for one god damn second...

No, but seriously; RPGs to me are an escapist yarn where you can have fun with friends playing characters that rub each other in ways that makes for interesting stories. I'd rarely play a character that reflects me exactly, much rather a character that I can imagine getting some interesting conflict up and running in the game world and within the group. I'm not that guy, and probably wouldn't want to be that guy, but as for a character in a piece of fiction that guy is someone I could count on to make interesting decisions.

That doesn't mean there can't be some wish-fulfillment attached. I'd very much like to be better at a lot of things that are hard to accomplish in the real world but easy to play out on the tabletop.

Skarg

  • Venerable Gamer
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2380
Role Playing Who You Always Wanted to Be
« Reply #7 on: July 28, 2016, 12:47:34 PM »
Always? I'm avoiding the other thread because responding to generalizations tends to bug me. I think it makes more sense to say "I've often seen X" rather than "people always do X", and it can avoid many tangents where people are mainly arguing because of the generalizations.

I think practically all games have a fundamental fantasy involved in them... I think modern settings simply make it more natural to include more explicit elements of themselves. But I think playing "myself as the profession I didn't get into" is fundamentally like the guys who bring a picture of their new character and it's an anime girl with pink hair and green skin...

Opaopajr

  • SeƱor Wences
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 7768
Role Playing Who You Always Wanted to Be
« Reply #8 on: July 28, 2016, 02:19:06 PM »
I don't think I've yet to do a character of who I wished to be... Hmm? I don't even have the foggiest of what that would even try to be? I don't desire things in that sort of rational? manner, and never did. I as a child was never into the superhero comics thing, let alone patterning off of emergency service professions as heroes, so I guess I never had that drive?

Roleplaying to me was always about being in the head of another, to be outside yourself, to wear the mask. And I'm willing to wear any mask. Wish fulfillment... I just don't really get it, I guess. Might explain why I can't watch action movies or rom-coms as wish fulfillment, either; they're just movies to me. I found myself asking what it would be like to be that potted plant in any posh hotel lobby scene more often than what it would be like to be James Bond...

I honestly think I don't have that gene. :confused:
Just make your fuckin' guy and roll the dice, you pricks. Focus on what's interesting, not what gives you the biggest randomly generated virtual penis.  -- J Arcane
 
You know, people keep comparing non-TSR D&D to deck-building in Magic: the Gathering. But maybe it's more like Katamari Damacy. You keep sticking shit on your characters until they are big enough to be a star.
-- talysman

Bren

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 7638
    • http://honorandintrigue.blogspot.com/
Role Playing Who You Always Wanted to Be
« Reply #9 on: July 28, 2016, 05:36:17 PM »
Quote from: Skarg;910247
Always? I'm avoiding the other thread because responding to generalizations tends to bug me. I think it makes more sense to say "I've often seen X" rather than "people always do X", and it can avoid many tangents where people are mainly arguing because of the generalizations.
If people avoided hyperbole, threads would be much shorter.
Currently running: Runequest in Glorantha + Call of Cthulhu   Currently playing: D&D 5E + RQ
My Blog: For Honor...and Intrigue
I have a gold medal from Ravenswing and Gronan owes me bee

Omega

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • O
  • Posts: 17093
Role Playing Who You Always Wanted to Be
« Reply #10 on: July 28, 2016, 11:48:17 PM »
Considering some of the horrific stuff thats happened to several of my characters... er... no. I dont wish I were my character!

aheh...

I just play what the dice hand me. That happens to usually be a kinda clever wizard with a knack for negotiation. But its also been many other things. Ive also played "me as a super hero" and "me as a star explorer" because thats what the dice suggested and it seemed like a fun idea. So I guess I am more of the "play what seems fun to play" sort when not being the "roll with what fate handed you" sort.

Vic99

  • Old Guy That Still Games
  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 302
    • Wicked Cool Games FB page
Role Playing Who You Always Wanted to Be
« Reply #11 on: July 29, 2016, 10:01:01 AM »
Quote from: Skarg;910247
Always? I'm avoiding the other thread because responding to generalizations tends to bug me. I think it makes more sense to say "I've often seen X" rather than "people always do X", and it can avoid many tangents where people are mainly arguing because of the generalizations.
   


Skarg, you are correct.  I meant to say "often" not always.

Skarg

  • Venerable Gamer
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2380
Role Playing Who You Always Wanted to Be
« Reply #12 on: July 29, 2016, 11:56:27 AM »
Ever do this or notice this? Any wild stories or really unusual character concepts that were based in what the player always wanted to do but never got the opportunity to try or was afraid to try?

I've seen people play versions of themselves, and done it, both unintentionally, semi-intentionally, and explicitly. I've seen and played in several games where we intentionally played ourselves, usually with some alterations. Once the GM had us make ourselves several years in the future, but into a not very hopeful future. My future me was a paranoid cab driver, for example.

I think I wasn't clear when I wrote about the green anime girl PCs... I mean that I think most role-playing involves projecting ourselves into imaginary characters to explore what it's like to live a different life, whether it's mostly the same or almost entirely different.

Bren

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 7638
    • http://honorandintrigue.blogspot.com/
Role Playing Who You Always Wanted to Be
« Reply #13 on: July 29, 2016, 12:16:36 PM »
Quote from: Skarg;910443
I think I wasn't clear when I wrote about the green anime girl PCs...
Thanks for clarifying. It wasn't clear to me. I read it as an implied ad hominem about the sorts of players who invariably choose green anime girls as their character...essentially I read green anime girl as being akin to the infamous lesbian stripper ninja.
Currently running: Runequest in Glorantha + Call of Cthulhu   Currently playing: D&D 5E + RQ
My Blog: For Honor...and Intrigue
I have a gold medal from Ravenswing and Gronan owes me bee

Christopher Brady

  • The Voice of Raisin
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • C
  • Posts: 4733
Role Playing Who You Always Wanted to Be
« Reply #14 on: July 29, 2016, 04:00:16 PM »
Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;910104
MOST people I've gamed with over the last 44 years role play as "Me if I were a Jedi Knight" "Me if I were a Starship Captain" "Me if I were a barbarian adventurer" "Me if I were... " etc, etc, etc.

It's only in the last ten years or so that I've heard that roleplaying as wish fulfillment is "doing it wrong."

And to quote Sam Vimes, "arseholes to that."

I've never played myself as X.  I'm short, ill-favoured and I've spent the last decade gaining weight, and losing physical mobility due to an early onset of rheumatoid arthritis.  The sheer mind-numbing ego to think that I am somehow worth pretending to be a 'Jedi' or a Superhero or a Wizard is not only laughable in my case, but rather pathetically sad at the same time.

I roleplay to be something I'm not.  Which is NOT to say the opposite of what I am (If that were the case, I'd play nothing but amazonian women) but rather a character/caricature of what I happen to think is cool at the moment.
« Last Edit: July 30, 2016, 12:53:03 AM by Christopher Brady »
"And now, my friends, a Dragon's toast!  To life's little blessings:  wars, plagues and all forms of evil.  Their presence keeps us alert --- and their absence makes us grateful." -T.A. Barron[/SIZE]