[video=youtube;7YCVHnItKuY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YCVHnItKuY[/youtube]


So, Is Matt right?  Does Roleplaying cure baldness?  Does practising funny voices really get you all of the chicks?

Who?

I wasn't too sure about his roleplaying vs Roleplaying and Real Roleplaying being about playing a PC with different motivations than yourself.

I'm just not interested in deep roleplaying to the point I have to come up with an alt-personality and make portraying that alt-personality the point of the activity.  The activity is the point of the activity.

All my characters are essentially branching variations of myself.  None are quite the same, especially over time as stuff happens in-game.  But neither am I sitting at the table going "fuck, I must come up with something wholly not-me for this to be real roleplaying".  I want fun places to explore, situations to exploit, enemies that try their damnedest to take me out (and I likewise), and interesting objectives I choose myself.  "roleplaying" is encouraged when it's both natural and fun-enhancing for everyone at the table, and if very little of that happens during a session because the action's hopping then that's OK too.  

I don't, for instance, make players have a fake conversation in order to buy a suit of armor.  Handwaive that stuff.

Oh I'm big on playing characters that aren't me.

In one game my character is an avid drug addict and spends a third of his money on drugs and he thinks he's a good person and family man.

In another, I play an avid good guy who refuses to kill bad people and strongly disagrees that people and law enforcement should have advance weapons.

If the character isn't different from me, than I don't feel like I'm role-playing.

Quote from: JeremyR;1102115Who?

He is on first.

Roleplaying sometimes overlaps with Acting, but the Venn diagram of both has a relatively small shared area.  If you are choosing actions based on your character, you are roleplaying.

Quote from: Rhedyn;1102126If the character isn't different from me, than I don't feel like I'm role-playing.

Same here. I love playing characters with traits I don't have, like a high Dex!

I'm an agnostic IRL, but I love playing fanatical, evangelical clerics. And samurai who'd never disobey their corrupt lords, or an Inquisitor who sees heresy everywhere based on no evidence.

Or weird aliens, like a human who care about other people's feelings.

For me, that's the fun of roleplaying.

Quote from: Rhedyn;1102126Oh I'm big on playing characters that aren't me.

If the character isn't different from me, than I don't feel like I'm role-playing.

Yup, I'm with you here. Part of the fun of RPGs for me is assuming characters drastically different from myself, both aptitudes-wise and personality/motivations-wise.

Quote from: EOTB;1102123I'm just not interested in deep roleplaying to the point I have to come up with an alt-personality and make portraying that alt-personality the point of the activity.  The activity is the point of the activity.

All my characters are essentially branching variations of myself.  None are quite the same, especially over time as stuff happens in-game.  But neither am I sitting at the table going "fuck, I must come up with something wholly not-me for this to be real roleplaying".  I want fun places to explore, situations to exploit, enemies that try their damnedest to take me out (and I likewise), and interesting objectives I choose myself.  "roleplaying" is encouraged when it's both natural and fun-enhancing for everyone at the table, and if very little of that happens during a session because the action's hopping then that's OK too.  

I don't, for instance, make players have a fake conversation in order to buy a suit of armor.  Handwaive that stuff.

From playing with kids, I can tell that treating the situation one is in as real is a lot more important than treating your character as a real person. RPing really works fine if your PC's name is Bob and his motivation is liking money as long as Bob interacts with the environment in fun ways and acts as if he's banging around a real place, not a sound stage or a computer game level.

Personally I have more fun if my PC has a personality that is separate from mine but I'm not very good at coming up with alt-personalities that "click" so I often recycle the ones that work (the most commonly recycled one is "happy go lucky dumbass, who is really brave" which is an aspect of my personality really exaggerated) and get a bit frustrated when I have one that ends up a bit bland in actual play. I've started using con game one shots to "field test" new PC personalities so I don't get stuck with one that doesn't really work over the long haul.

I just enjoy that in some campaigns with the same group my PC is best friends with another player's PC and then in the next campaign our characters are rivals that can barely stand each other. Having those relationships shift around can be a lot of fun.

Quote from: JeremyR;1102115Who?

I recognize the name from his book, Strongholds and Followers. After reading through it and seeing how he writes, I don't really care to hear him speak.

Yeah, like his Sandbox vs. the Railroad video, Matt's on the money here. He's talking about a trend that started long, long ago and needs to go away.

I wish I would have seen this video 20 years ago.

Quote from: Anthony Pacheco;1102219Yeah, like his Sandbox vs. the Railroad video, Matt's on the money here. He's talking about a trend that started long, long ago and needs to go away.

I wish I would have seen this video 20 years ago.

What trend is that?

Quote from: Daztur;1102202Personally I have more fun if my PC has a personality that is separate from mine but I'm not very good at coming up with alt-personalities that "click" so...

Have you tried something like Pendragon's Trait listing where you can track and shift how your character behaves.
You can either play it as rolled or use it to inform your play.

Quote from: S'mon;1102221What trend is that?

The Different Voice/One Dimensional character is the pentacle of roleplaying rather than just being entertaining.

There is nothing wrong with entertainment (far be it for me to declare something WrongFun).