Huh. Never thought about his, and I'm obviously biased, but I'm comfortable playing a wide range of characters; though I'd say trickster types are the ones I've had the hardest time pulling.

And I have a pretty decent range of accents. When I don't speak the language, I'll learn half a dozen words to sprinkle here and there.

Quote from: _kent_;588645It is a mistake to put on voices for characters. It is difficult enough to vary the language that npcs use but unless you are a professional actor your repertoire of voices will severely limit the variety of your characters.

I think of npcs as three distinct kinds.

First there is the ubiquitous and the mundane. These are the non-classed non-adventurers. I improvise these usually plucking a representative from a movie.

Second are npcs who are adventurers of similar competence and degree of integration into the campaign to the PCs. I work hard at making these npcs interesting, frequently creating new classes for them. I find it difficult to bring these guys to life in conversation at the table. I can visualise them and their behaviour. I can think their thoughts and write about them but dialogue in real time in character, switching from one character to another is very difficult.

Third are the strange and insane great beings in the campaign. I love playing these guys and find it easy and a great laff. Taste precludes any more than a few encounters with the players though.

I use voices for all my characters and all my NPCs. Much like Ben I can have a room full of NPCs and the characters listening on their conversation and from voice language usage and attitude the players can tell which character is speaking without me ever having to say so.
its hard differentiating between multiple NPCs from the same region with the same accent. So a room with 5 french sounding musketeers is hard because I don't think I have 5 distinct french accents so you vary with tone and language.
When I run a Muder mystery I will talk in character all weekend so its easy to do it for a 6 hour game session.

I used to have trouble playing the femme fatale but earned my spurs playing 007 so now have that down. The hard bit is making a Player genuinely fall for an NPC love interest when you are all in fact blokes sitting round a dinner table. If you can pull it off though its worth it.

I do very social heavy games.

And humans are not the most populous race in my main setting.

I tend to do the more sophisticated, scheming, or high-social skill NPCs well, but I think that is where I put my effort.

Oh, and I do a mean bugbear.  Bugbears are very sarcastic and ironic in my setting.  So it is a release of a sort to play a bugbear.

Quote from: Benoist;588653Do you have a Boston accent, Brendan?

I have had a number of people tell me that my accent places me on the east coast, but that is about it.

I cannot play inconsistent characters. Characters who are legitimately insane or emotional to the point where it is indistinguishable from being insane. I also don't play benign characters (when I'm a playa). I mean characters that don't want to do anything significant or who allow people to use them as a doormat.

I find playing 'Good' characters to be easy, and playing 'Evil' characters either easy or hard: chaotic evil is difficult for me, lawful evil is easy.


I enjoy playing stupid characters more than playing a smart character.




So mainly chaotic evil or nutcase characters fall out of my comfort zone.

Quote from: MGuy;588965I cannot play inconsistent characters. Characters who are legitimately insane or emotional to the point where it is indistinguishable from being insane. I also don't play benign characters (when I'm a playa). I mean characters that don't want to do anything significant or who allow people to use them as a doormat.

Oh, I can play crazy all right.

What I can't stand is people who use "my character is crazy" an excuse (a) to do what they want, and (b) for lame slapstick humor. I find this grating. It's like nails on the chalkboard for the soul, really.

MGuy, some crazy people are very, very consistent in their warped take on reality. "Thy son is mad, but there is method to his madness." If you're interested in trying to portray insane people, perhaps less pop-culture "ha ha" crazy and more DSM-IV or ICD-10 "oh shit" crazy might work for you.

Quote from: The Butcher;588982Oh, I can play crazy all right.

What I can't stand is people who use "my character is crazy" an excuse (a) to do what they want, and (b) for lame slapstick humor. I find this grating. It's like nails on the chalkboard for the soul, really.

MGuy, some crazy people are very, very consistent in their warped take on reality. "Thy son is mad, but there is method to his madness." If you're interested in trying to portray insane people, perhaps what you need is less pop-culture "ha ha" crazy and more DSM-IV or ICD-10 "oh shit" crazy.

I feel the same way. "I'm crazy" is not a license to do anything and everything that comes to mind in my games.

Quote from: The Butcher;588982Oh, I can play crazy all right.

What I can't stand is people who use "my character is crazy" an excuse (a) to do what they want, and (b) for lame slapstick humor. I find this grating. It's like nails on the chalkboard for the soul, really.

Thats a good point and I agree.

I have played characters before that were insane, such as a fighter obsessed with circles and spheres to the point of madness. He was still reasonably functional though.

Once he got angry at the mast of a ship he was on, and spent hours trying to rip the mast from the ship. He was not strong enough but quite certain the mast was going to kill everyone.

Quote from: The Butcher;588982Oh, I can play crazy all right.

What I can't stand is people who use "my character is crazy" an excuse (a) to do what they want, and (b) for lame slapstick humor. I find this grating. It's like nails on the chalkboard for the soul, really.

That's how I feel about evil characters.  In my experience most players who wanted to play evil characters did so as an excuse for their own selfish and dickish behavior.

I have yet to find a personality I couldn't become.  That's one of my biggest strengths as a GM, and my players regularly say so.

RPGPundit

Quote from: The Butcher;588982Oh, I can play crazy all right.

What I can't stand is people who use "my character is crazy" an excuse (a) to do what they want, and (b) for lame slapstick humor. I find this grating. It's like nails on the chalkboard for the soul, really.

MGuy, some crazy people are very, very consistent in their warped take on reality. "Thy son is mad, but there is method to his madness." If you're interested in trying to portray insane people, perhaps less pop-culture "ha ha" crazy and more DSM-IV or ICD-10 "oh shit" crazy might work for you.

Agree with this playing properly crazy needs focus and consistency.

I ran a Vampire game where the party got into an asylum where loads of Malkav were locksed up so I go tto play many crazy vamps and you know what none of them had a teddy bear... although one did have an imaginary wife, or was she just invisible ...hard to say.

I have played one very sucessful Crazy PC. a cleric that worshiped a god of insanity . The most rational consistent character I have ever played.

Quote from: Bill;588984Thats a good point and I agree.

I have played characters before that were insane, such as a fighter obsessed with circles and spheres to the point of madness. He was still reasonably functional though.

Once he got angry at the mast of a ship he was on, and spent hours trying to rip the mast from the ship. He was not strong enough but quite certain the mast was going to kill everyone.

See you can play crazy realy well so stop putting yourself down.

One of the most important aspects of crazy is when the pirates storm the ship you are still hacking at the mast becuase its obvious that the mast has summoned the pirates and if we can just kill it and get it overboard they will cease to attack the ship or possibly just disappear.

Quote from: Sacrosanct;588991That's how I feel about evil characters.  In my experience most players who wanted to play evil characters did so as an excuse for their own selfish and dickish behavior.

I would say exploring an evil PC is often a lot more interesting. It's why really great actors are drawn to playing the bad guy role rather than the hero
The GM has to give them a hook though expectign them to stick around just to save the kingdom is a bit of a stretch.

Well I found IN SJG Demonic Player's Guide useful in exploring the commonalities of an evil mindset. According to it Evil has a selfish overarching resonance with self-deception and self-preservation as a core, which in turn manifests through a dark form of superiority, aggression, manipulation, and competition. It's actually a complicated framework where you have to twist everything received and forcefully project out in an attempt to survive -- you're never in a state of rest, peace, or ease.

As a result, it tends to be trying to act out such a character. And actors do so love a challenge. I just found it a useful breakdown why evil characters have such an acting draw.

However I understand Sacrosanct's discomfort with it. I've seen my share of Lone Wolf players default to evil anything just so they can play, pardon my usage of your name fellow poster, Killfuck Soulshitter the ninja assassin double-katana wielding samurai vampire knight from the future (who is awesome in all things™). And oh, are they so exhausting... Further, it too often looks like they aren't even trying to role play, let alone enjoy the group's company, instead just looking for an excuse to be the misanthropic, entitled little shit they are. It'd be enough to turn you off of all of it forever.

Thankfully I've grown up and lost my patience with crappy people in my life. I normally had no trouble speaking my piece, but by now I've no patience with any lingering geek fallacies where the group asshole is tolerated to the extreme. It's been a net plus. It even re-opened evil characters as being fun again. I think it's an issue of keeping in-game and out-of-game behaviors separate.