The Roles We Play
Some thoughts on roleplaying during what looks to be (and I hope will remain) a quiet evening. Thankfully, I "get" to leave a little early tonight to avoid overtime, though Fridays are often low-energy nights online.
I caught one conversation a day or two ago on Furryfaire where one player stated they wouldn't RP if they couldn't play their chosen kind of character. Prompted further, they admitted this was generally true in other games as well. No pixie/foxlike race, no play. As was pointed out at the time, that misses out on so many aspects and rewards of roleplaying that could come from playing something different. Empathy and wider understanding from putting yourself in different shoes and such. But they were fairly adamant - playing other sorts of characters resulted in rapid loss of interest.
And... well... I can understand that. People seek out different things from their roleplaying. For some, it's playing an ideal version of themselves when, for whatever reason, they can't attain that in reality. That's not invalid, though I do find it sadly limiting in some ways. It is escapism from what they are, most fantasy RP is, but they invest so much of their own dreams and wants that everything becomes personal. And that can be a rough drawback in any game where there is risk to the characters in any sense - probably even more so with emotional risk than physical.
For some, it's a chance to expand horizons and see things from different points of view. But even if that's the conscious goal, most will carry certain traits over with them. "Different" characters show pattern behavior based on the player. It's natural. No matter what role someone is trying to fill, they are still the one doing it.
In my friends' characters, I see plenty of patterns. Some are more divorced from their real-life selves than others. And I see it in my own characters, especially the online ones played over a long stretch of time. That seems to make it harder to adhere to deliberate distinctive behavior. So, really, how different are we from someone who only plays what they want from the get-go?
I'm pondering the question and I'm not sure.
I caught one conversation a day or two ago on Furryfaire where one player stated they wouldn't RP if they couldn't play their chosen kind of character. Prompted further, they admitted this was generally true in other games as well. No pixie/foxlike race, no play. As was pointed out at the time, that misses out on so many aspects and rewards of roleplaying that could come from playing something different. Empathy and wider understanding from putting yourself in different shoes and such. But they were fairly adamant - playing other sorts of characters resulted in rapid loss of interest.
And... well... I can understand that. People seek out different things from their roleplaying. For some, it's playing an ideal version of themselves when, for whatever reason, they can't attain that in reality. That's not invalid, though I do find it sadly limiting in some ways. It is escapism from what they are, most fantasy RP is, but they invest so much of their own dreams and wants that everything becomes personal. And that can be a rough drawback in any game where there is risk to the characters in any sense - probably even more so with emotional risk than physical.
For some, it's a chance to expand horizons and see things from different points of view. But even if that's the conscious goal, most will carry certain traits over with them. "Different" characters show pattern behavior based on the player. It's natural. No matter what role someone is trying to fill, they are still the one doing it.
In my friends' characters, I see plenty of patterns. Some are more divorced from their real-life selves than others. And I see it in my own characters, especially the online ones played over a long stretch of time. That seems to make it harder to adhere to deliberate distinctive behavior. So, really, how different are we from someone who only plays what they want from the get-go?
I'm pondering the question and I'm not sure.
Comments
Post a Comment