I may have mentioned before that I'm a bit of an escapism addict. It's certainly part of the reason I enjoy tabletop RPGs and LARP, but it does have its downsides, namely keeping all those personalities straight and in-check.
I have a few past RPG characters that are not memorable, mostly from my early days of gaming or from a first attempt at a new system. I have two I'm very attached to but who don't get out to play because the games are on indefinite hiatus. Finally, I have two currently in play and am ready to roll up a third, all in different systems. I try to make the characters different from each other in a bid to make it easier for me to remember who I'm supposed to be being today: I don't always succeed, although I have yet to confuse anyone else in this way. I prefer to think that this is because I catch myself, rather than because I'm a rubbish roleplayer...
The first of the two on hiatus is a young, naive and somewhat flighty werewolf in a new World Of Darkness campaign, but with house-rules to the old WoD rules when the GM prefers them. She started out as a twenty-something living it up in London while working as a Parliamentary Researcher but after almost two years of play she's a scarily powerful werewolf with no paying job, sharing a ramshackle house with two mages, hanging out in the spirit world and a bar guarded by Wraiths and trying to avoid any responsibility in the decimated local pack. Oh and she has a wraith in her head: the only way she could escape the Deadlands as a werewolf after dying during her first Change was to agree to allow a wraith to guide her back. In return, he overtly and covertly pushes her to fulfil his own ends, and when he achieved them he will leave her. Allegedly...
The other hiatus character is for a post-apocalyptic free-form system run by Proud Lion's very own Ben called Cactus Land. This one was a rebellious adrenaline junkie, caring for almost nothing and no one. I have to admit, I loved this game. Because it was systemless, if there wasn't a reason in your backstory for you to be able to do something, you couldn't do it. End of. Backstory and character development is the key reason I roleplay, and the main reason I didn't get on with D&D v4 at all. As a social board game, it's good. As a roleplaying game, it sucked, and not in the good way. Back to Cactus Land: as an ex-Nascar driver and jillaroo, Lisa had many skills I do not, and her independence and nihilism meant there was no falling around persuading the party to cooperate! She still hasn't forgiven herself for almost escaping from a prison camp and hesitating when the rest of the party seemed to be in trouble, and then all being recaptured together. Really, who needs a spark of humanity with experiences like that?
Of my two current characters, Gudrun is a half-elf sorceress in a Norse setting of D&D v3.5. It's the first system I ever played but I've had mixed results on the roleplaying side of the game. I'm struggling to inhabit this character, and while there are things she will do, such as taking the dawn watch (because she follows Dellingr, father of Day and god of Dawn) and weaving in the evenings and walking with a staff (because that's what the Volva did), she doesn't have a unique personality for me. Yet...
I've mentioned Lady G before, my Curious Pastimes alchemist. She's a lovely roleplaying challenge because although she considers herself a lady "by accident of birth rather than character" she's unwilling to give up the status it brings or intentionally behave like a common peasant. So, I get to spend a weekend trying to avoid making a single smutty comment (something I have yet to achieve!) and influencing people by diplomacy rather than outright leadership, or shirking duties entirely – it's always Gin O'Clock for some players! I have a very clear sense of who she is and how she reacts, but even so, maintaining it unscripted for 16hours a day is another challenge. As a non-combatant alchemist, there's an awful lot roleplay involved in being her, so it's refreshing to take time out on a monster slot to just mindlessly hit things as the third gribbly from the left.
I'm trying out Maelstrom LARP later this year, which will see me attached to the pleasure cult, providing services in return for personal gain. And she will utterly detest nature, thus being a complete change from every other character I've played, and definitely involve me playing against my own preferences. Escapism, here I come...
This weekend, Saffron is running around being Lady G, then skipping off into the Mediterranean sunset for a well-deserved rest and cocktails on a beach, followed by some gentle sightseeing.
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