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Playing Discordant Characters Effectively
#1
Playing Discordant Characters Effectively
And Teaching Yourself to Blend in With Society
a caffeine-filled post by
Moose

H'okay, where do I start here?

I'm Moose, if we haven't met before. I'm an avid gamer and take an active interest in playing less-than-nice characters--in fact, villainous and cruel types are probably my favorite to play. When done right, they feel alien to us and completely compelling--while we grow attached in an expected manner to good guys, the bad ones draw us in and make us question our own morality by finding things in common with what we want to push aside as pure evil. Unfortunately, it's very easy to play a bad guy (or even an antihero) the wrong way, which is detrimental to IC scenes in RP and OOC consistency. A bad villain played wrong is never fun for anyone.

I won't get into it too much as there's plenty of guides around, but when you make an unsavory character you want to keep a few things in mind--namely, you can't be in the spotlight as often as a good guy is, your character is in the wrong (and the right typically prevails), and there's more to your character than just the bad stuff. It's easy to get caught up in the dark arts rituals and the mad lust for power, just don't let it become the only thing you ever do. To play a villain, you have to be patient.

But this post isn't about villains.

This post is about discordant characters, which are far more than just villains--in fact, unsavory characters spawn from their personality, not their alignment. A discordant character is something of the following: gruff, aloof, rude, crude, petty, brattish, snobbish, cruel, spitfire temper. They're not the sort of people you want to keep as friends in real life. Drama follows them everywhere and threatens to drown them in their own blood as they're constantly getting into fights, be it verbal or physical conflict. Many of them are good at drawing attention to themselves and then spurning the sudden interest taken when they act in a way that society would consider uncouth.

Discordant characters draw attention to themselves, but playing one requires OOC courtesy and a general knowledge of where to draw the line. Everyone should have a chance to be in the spotlight and you may end up toning down your loudmouth just so the quieter characters get their own facetime. Unfortunately, this is harder than it sounds--after several years of playing meanies, I still struggle to find a balance between IC technicalities and stepping aside OOCly. But I can share what I know with you.

To start things off, here's a few discordant archetypes I've seen:
Calculating Researcher:
Jordan spends most of his time hunched over his disorganized notes, mind always buried in calculations and work. He tends to neglect his physical health and has odd sleeping habits, leading him to be tired and irritable in the day. Though he's not that bad a guy, he keeps few friends and tends to speak with others in a detached, cool manner. He is not very expressive and sometimes attempts to analyze emotions, and the like that should be left out of the scientific method. This archetype can be researching any manner of things. It's typically swung either sympathetically, where the focus is on the researcher's tireless devotion and eventual destruction of themself, or cruelly, where the focus is on the researcher's work and the downright horrid ends they're willing to meet. A close cousin of the Researcher is the assassin that spends most of his time planning another's murder and studying the art of silent killing.

Greedy Bastard: Gustav always has money on his mind. He will do anything to get at money and has few morals or ethics if the end result is profit. He has a head for numbers but prefers to con others into doing the dirty work for him; when he's found out it's difficult to track him down thanks to careful covering of his tracks, which is what has enabled him to survive many of his predecessors. This fiscal-minded character is most often male and faction-neutral, though this isn't always the case. Most goblins are based off this archetype, to one degree of social behavior or another. Its shortcomings lie in overuse and abuse; characters that claim unsavory, grey-moral activities in the name of money are often red-flagged for poor RP.

Mister Angry: Something's got Hogarth's panties in a knot, and it seems he's got a grudge befitting the whole world. Anger and annoyance follow him in a cloud of persistent petulance. He's not much of a talker and typically responds to people with grunts instead of real words; he will resort to violent tactics when pressed. This character is usually male and not a magic-user. He's often a cynic that has seen a lot of war, and tends to be a merc-for-hire. The degree of violence varies widely from someone who is merely unsociable to someone with a hair trigger.

Nobler-Than-Thou: Claire is, by all accounts, a spoiled twit. She's petulant and seems to think the world revolves around her; whenever more mature people prove otherwise she resorts to throwing fits and complaining loudly about how nothing ever goes her way. She expects the world to kotow to her nature, and is often met with disappointment when this is not the case. Personally, I've seen this archetype more in women than men but it's been done for both genders. In WoW's setting, this is especially common in blood elves and human nobility. It can sometimes be difficult to enjoy playing characters like this because of the type's tendency to not back down and reject all logic and reasoning in favor of what they think is right.

Spitfire: Ember is a brattish, fiery woman with an incredibly sharp tongue. She's quick to retort and constantly finds herself in petty arguments without knowing when to quit. Her words are often unnecessarily rude and bitter. When frustrated, she resorts to underhanded tactics such as blackmail and extortion. This character is typically a female rogue. In modern settings she is often a redhead with freckles and green eyes; this likely stems from Irish stereotypes. Unfortunately, it's also a very overused concept and takes some work to play in a distinguishable manner.

World-weary Warrior: Rob doesn't take crap from anyone. He isn't up to dealing with childish complaints and tends to laugh in people's faces when they try to give him guff. While he's not always the man on top in fights, he is physically fit and packs about as much bite as he does bark. He can be overly aggressive and quick to judge; Rob jumps the gun on most issues of great importance and is usually regarded as a callous jerk. This character is typically brutish and--you guessed it--a warrior. There's also a good chance they spend most of their time in taverns. A common variation is the world-weary rogue, which is usually more passive but still refuses to put up with diplomacy.

There are, certainly, other archetypes out there that I haven't listed, but you likely see where I'm going by now. Discordant characters are not nice people and are much more likely to get into trouble than your average Joe. As such, they can be much more fun to play . . . but it's also difficult to get them right. It's very easy to take an archetype and spin it in the wrong way, creating a character that is detrimental to RP rather than helpful. For the most part, whether or not you can make a bad character work relies on your OOC handling, but your character's given personality also plays a part. Below I've included some examples of the same archetypes that I've seen in the past--either they make me groan and shake my head, or just sigh a little bit and move to the other side of the tavern. For whatever reason, something went wrong when the player created or started playing the character, and they ended up unrealistic in some manner.

Discordant Archetypes Played Wrong:
"Bad" Calculating Researcher:
Jordan is an outright psychotic man with a penchant for needles and test tubes. Though he has no verifiable training in his line of work, he adores watching people bleed and always carries his tools on hand. While fun to play, this example has little to no use in an everyday setting because of the mental instability and vioelnce; he would quickly be apprehended and locked up in most areas of society. Remember, kids, you don't need to be crazy or unscrupulous to be bad.

"Bad" Greedy Bastard: Gustav is literally rolling in wealth. He has a huge empire and lots of connections and no one ever catches him because he's very careful and usually has his minions do the work for him. Everyone who tries to rat him out he silences--personally. There's not much wrong with this example of the archetype, except it assumes no responsibility for its actions and thus cuts out an important part of dramatic RP. Its "personal" note is a bit on the side of Sueism, which is never a good thing, and it conflicts with him preferring to use minions for his dirty work.

"Bad" Mister Angry: Hogarth is a very quiet, thoughtful man. He keeps to himself and never has much to say, but is easily angered and will lash out with physical force in response to very little provocation. This example is bad because it limits the amount of interaction between this character and a stranger. Chances are, very little will be accomplished.

"Bad" Nobler-Than-Thou: Claire is an elegant, well-mannered woman that grew up in a noble house with everything given to her. She comes off well and everyone likes her so they give her what she wants, though on occasion she can be frustrated when things don't go her way. This example is bad because the character's personality conflicts with her upbringing and gives off mixed messages throughout. The player wants us to view her as kind, but offers no evidence as to why we should think she's a good person.

"Bad" Spitfire: Ember is a witty, attractive woman that always knows when to find the right words at the right time. She has a bit of a temper and can sometimes get in trouble, but is always able to get herself out with minimal trouble; everyone's a sucker for a pretty face. This example is bad because . . . well, if I added a winking emoticon, it would sound more like an eRP ad than a real personality.

"Bad" World-weary Warrior: Rob thinks everyone around him is stupid and challenges people to fights every chance he gets. He loves to fight and almost always wins because he fights so much; the bartender at his favorite tavern lets it go because he pays so much money to the establishment and always buys a round of drinks for the combatants once he's beaten them. This example is bad because the character is assumed to win most fights, and is not reprimanded for poor behavior. In a realistic setting, the character would be thrown out of any bar for starting a fistfight.

So where's the big problem with most of these examples? They're all somewhat realistic and would be just fine with a little tweaking; you know a few people you could trust to spin it right on its head and turn the character into something great. And that's wonderful; I know some people like that too--but there's also the people that do it wrong, and you should especially watch yourself when playing a discordant character to help keep from souring RP.

As a rule of thumb, if you doubt whether or not you're being disruptive, just back off. If your character is yelling at one guy in a bar and there's six PCs there, you should probably quiet down--how you do so depends on your character, but being needlessly volatile is often a bad idea. Keep in mind that there are going to be other people RPing with you besides just yourself. By the same token, if your character is ignoring any and all attempts to communicate, where's the fun in that? You'll get nowhere if all you do is tell people to go away.

Thus, I provide you with a caffiene-fueled rant and a list of techniques I've used in the past to take bad characters out of commission and throw the goodies in. Most of these are broad generalizations, and you'll likely have to fit them to each and every situation, but when you're stuck it may be a good starting point to look here.

First up: talkers. Are things getting too heated? Does your character not want to back down, but you know that remaining stubborn could result in unneeded OOC drama and cause hurt feelings because of the result? Are you worried that a fight will erupt and you'll face guard abuse or being forced to leave because of a tavern brawl? Do you feel the need to keep the peace or step out of a conversation for any reason? Here you go.

Getting Your Loudmouth Out of a Negative Conversation:
1. Step back OOCly.
Let the people you're RPing with know that you're looking to back off and would like not to be pressed too hard. This way, they know you've got some player reasoning behind actions that may be slightly out-of-character and will adjust to fit instead of questioning you.

2. Take a look at the situation. Who started the fight and where does it look like it's going? How angry/frustrated/emotional is your character compared to their normal state, and are the other characters in a similar state? What is the main focus of the fight? Through this, you can help decide what reasoning you can use to have your character step back.

3. Let your character calm down. Maybe they realize they misheard something, or start listening to the person telling them that they're being childish, or they remember a key piece of information that . . . you get the point. This is entirely situational and may be difficult to pull off if you feel that your character would not back down, but you have other options discussed below.

4. Let the other characters calm down.
Generally, once one player steps back and accepts that their character is going out of line to an uncomfortable level OOCly, the other players will rein themselves in automatically. It really just takes one person to shift the focus of an RP from negative to positive, which is very useful if you feel your character is followed by too much aggression.

5. If you can't quiet your character by reasonable means, ask someone else to help via whisper. PM a friend that you came in with and have them drop a line that you can escape with--your character is screaming bloody murder, but your friend grabs them by the shoulders and holds them back so that a real fight can't erupt. Getting the message, one of the other players grabs the man you were about to fight and holds him back too, giving everyone a chance to sit back.

6. If all else fails, and you're not happy with where things are going, get out. Have your character storm out if need be, or escape to pressing business, or just leave quietly because no one else is taking the hint and quieting down. If it's not fun for you, there's a chance those around you aren't enjoying it much either.

And, conversely, some characters aren't good with starting conversation because they're not very sociable. These types are especially hard to play because they rely on other players to take the initiative, and without OOC communication most players will assume you're busy and/or don't want to RP (for some odd reason, you're sitting on CotH anyway) when you tell their character to leave.

Making Friends for the Socially Awkward:
1. Talk out of character first.
While you may not be a fan of metagaming, making nice OOC is the key to avoiding misunderstandings and hurt feelings. It helps to set something up ahead of time with characters that don't like to talk, because you already know the person you're going to be meeting--thus, you don't need to explain your actions to them and they know you want to RP with them.

2. Focus on making your emotes easy to respond to.
No one wants to have to lead an RP all by themselves; if you give the other player nothing to work off of they'll grow frustrated. Instead of grunting and offering terse answers, consider throwing in a condescending remark or something similar for good measure--it may not be pleasant, but it helps give the RP direction so the other player isn't doing all the work.

3. Seek out like-minded characters and give your character something to appreciate in others. If you hate everyone equally, except for people who earn your respect, then you'll never give anyone a chance to earn your respect. A night elf may not want to speak to your average drunk, but she may not mind speaking to another elf in Darnassus. And then, though she'd never talk to a gnome of her own volition, one of her progressive friends may declare the gnome to be "all right." Everything is situational, which leads me to my next point.

4. Stick your character in situations where they will be inclined to speak. Do not plunk your researcher down in a tavern where it's loud, noisy, and generally disruptive and expect him to get any work done. Taverns are there for socializing, and we all know that one guy who sits in the corner and occasionally emotes turning a page in the book he's reading--try to keep away from that. If you have a brawler, take them to a brawl when looking for friends. If you have a researcher, go to sites of intellectual interest (you may have to set up an appointment for that one). If you have a drunkard, by all means stay in the tavern--but don't expect to find your greedy bastard a partner in crime just by sitting around boozing all day.

So your snappy jerk avoided getting in a brawl today and your antisocial jerk made a friend. But you still have your greedy meanie to worry about and whatever's going on with his empire, and your researcher is getting nowhere which makes him kind of boring, and you're not quite sure what you want to do with your rogue because she's always being . . . well, you get the point.

Either way, you made a lot of progress today and now you think it's time to treat yourself to playing your main; after all, you were just reading this guide because you set something up that wasn't going to happen for a few hours. So you log on your main but the things you've just learned are stuck in your head and you can't stop thinking about your alts, so you vow to get one of them the storyline they deserve . . . for some reason, you end up playing major villain when you were originally going to be dicking around with your group of friends. No biggie; you're still locked together OOC.

Playing Storyline Villains:
1. Remember that the heroes are supposed to win.
Unless you're going at it OOC for a downer ending, accept that you're likely going to get the short end of the stick. People like happy endings. You can't change that. You can still go out with a bang, cause some tragedy and make the world hate you, but you have to keep in mind that in the end you will not prevail. Though just because you know that OOC is no reason to let it affect your IC schemes.

2. Accept that you are a supporting character. You will be left out of the hero's plotting and will likely only appear in the storylines when the heros need you to. Unless you're lucky enough to be in a villain-centered storyline, or one where both good and bad characters get equal representation, you won't be seeing as much facetime as you might like. As such, you've got to do a lot of OOC planning--keep track of where your villain is off-screen at all times, what they're doing and what's a realistic marker of advancement in between appearances.

3. Take a look at how your character relates to the heroes. What ties them into the storyline? Is it something as simple as an accidental murder that led to your character being on the run, or a planned series of killings to undermine an otherwise strong order? Depending on the situation, your character may be a grey-area question of morals, or he may be the black part of a black and white situation.

4. Play up your strengths in the beginning and hide your weaknesses, but set yourself up for failure in the end. As mentioned above, the good guys are probably going to win, and if there's no question about who's the good guy then it's not you. But as a storyline villain, you are probably the primary storyteller and the one driving the players behind. I speak mostly of D&D and DMing in this matter, but if you're pulling the strings you better be able to put on a climactic show.

5. Don't metagame. While it's alright to stick around in an RP after your character has left ICly, don't use any of the information you learn without good reason. And when I say good reason, I mean /good/ reason--it's very easy to play a rich villain and say he had a spy watching, but unless you go out of your way to emote the spy/tell people OOCly that there's someone watching, then you better not let it give you an advantage in RP. This is your main failing as a storyline villain: you likely don't have anyone to plot with. You're alone. In the event you have multiple villains involved, that just makes it all the better for you.

6. Make your villain appeal to human emotion. Playing a cold, callous, wretched individual is great, but it can be perceived as flat and/or poorly characterized. Instead of taking the obvious route and playing a monster that's easy to hate, consider playing a villain with grey morals that challenges the audience to consider his line of thinking instead of branding it as evil--study modern social issues and apply them to fantasy settings; take a look at the underlying principles behind conflict and build a plot that resolves around emotional distress and questions. Or go ahead and play a hack n'slash game; that's fine too.

There's a far more extensive variety of personalities and archetypes than what I have listed up near the beginning of this post. You can find these by google, but I offer you one site in particular: http://www.sff.net/paradise/plottricks.htm This link is especially important if you're at all interested in playing a storyline villain. It's a very humorous read if you've never seen the Evil Overlord List before, but it has tons of information added on and compiled in an easy to read manner. Though particularly useful for humorous endeavors, it has a very realistic/cynical view on combat that can easily be used to reflect a villain's way of thinking; I like to refer back to here every now and then for laughs and plot ideas.

And now then, if you're wondering, I wrote this post and threw it up on the internet because I like to share my ideas. Even if none of you benefit from reading this, I know I helped set myself straight by writing it and learn something new just by attempting to impart my ideas to others. I like seeing bad-to-the-bone characters, but sometimes they can disrupt otherwise fine RP and I felt I might be able to make a difference by posting a few helping techniques to keep that from happening. Don't take your naughty children to church, ladies and gents.

Keeping these principles in mind, go on and participate in whatever RP you have set up . . . and leave me alone. I don't want to know what you do in your spare time with that elf, thank you very much.
Moose
Blah blah blah, sorry Moose, I TL;DRed you again.
[Image: lichkingfell.png]
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#2
Dear god, Moose. The qualities of these things are ridiculously high, I love both guides you've written up now.

This deserves to go into the guides forum IMMeEEADIAaTELY

Analytical, well written, roodeedoo blah blah. Really, I just... Really... like it.

But the "Good guys win" part made me feel sad for Lorailis D:




Move him into the sun—
Gently its touch awoke him once,
At home, whispering of fields half-sown.
Always it woke him, even in France,
Until this morning and this snow.
If anything might rouse him now
The kind old sun will know.

Think how it wakes the seeds,—
Woke, once, the clays of a cold star.
Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides,
Full-nerved—still warm—too hard to stir?
Was it for this the clay grew tall?
—O what made fatuous sunbeams toil
To break earth’s sleep at all?
[Image: 62675bf4fd.jpg] [Image: 0e7357dcfe.jpg]
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#3
... Have I ever told you that you're a genius, Moose? Well, I have, but yeah, you get the point. Seriously though, this is a brilliant guide. It's extremely well written and formatted, and successfully dissects several all-too-common character archetypes and how people play them in the right and wrong ways. I can see this being a massive help for loadsa peeps in the future; hell, I've already noticed how I'm doing a couple things badly with Jared just reading through this.

Also, if I start referring to Jared as "Hogarth", now, then DAMNIT WOMAN IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT D:<
Reply
#4
Sol Wrote:Also, if I start referring to Jared as "Hogarth", now, then DAMNIT WOMAN IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT D:<
Hogarth is quite possibly the best name ever. I approve of this change.
[Image: lichkingfell.png]
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