On another thread (I forget which one) Eri-Ye Of Little Faith mentioned how Kalo was really hard to rp, and Roark mentioned something similar about a Troll Warrior that he had played.

It got me thinking, what would be some good challenging roleplay ideas? Out of the normal, or even normal, if just challenging.

Discuss.

Hmm. Well, as I said there, playing someone with the intelligence of a very young child is difficult, at least for me. I've apparantly managed to do so very well, and a lot of people have given me compliments on it, and were actually surprised to find out I was the demon-worshipper behind Erion.

As to other challenging roles, a very stupid igasho would be amusing. I've tried it a few times, and did fairly well at it. Other roles along the lines that challenge you to remember things - speech impediments, mental incapacitation, that sort of thing. Roles that force you to think twice before you say things.

Is that what you were trying to be?

Playing deaf.
Playing blind.
Playing smater than you are.
Playing a Lucidian who has no emotion.
Playing a human who can not handle the diversity in races. (there was a movie like this where a redneck went into outerspace)
Playing a 1960s pacifist.
Playing a bum.

I'd like to see a Ghandi-like character
And a Confucius or Bhudda-like Dracnari
And a monk-like Loboshigaru

An insane Tae'dae bent on the subjugation of reality.

Oh, wait. It's been done.

If only it could be done right, next time.

I'd love to attempt a deaf character. It would be really interesting to see how I could do it, and how other people would make allowances. I could invent a sign language with people.

There's no way to do it right. If you pit yourself against the entire game, you're going to go down in flames. The trick is to do it in style.

I think playing a role that is very different than you is the hardest, whatever that may be. For example, my very first girlfriend in 9th grade called me "Spok" for a reason. Thus I think that emotionless lucidian example would be really quite easy. But if I was to play a compassionate snuggle-bunny oozing love and butterflies 24/7, that would be very tough for me to do properly. Almost every character I play has at least some element of my real self in it, even the little amount of role I've developed for this one (though I stress "little amount" since Roark is a very twisted rendition of the man behind Roark), because I don't think I have the ability to RP something totally divested from the real-life me. I just would not know what to do!

That sounds like fun, actually...

In a different game, I had a character who was the wife of a blind man. It was kind of fun, and making all these allowances for him was interesting, to say the least.

I am unable to create a character without a sense of humor, it's just too much a part of me. Even dark and twisted Guido was prone to mouth off and tell jokes at the Pool of Stars.

One problem I've seen some people have when trying to develop a unique roleplaying persona is that they end up with a one-dimensional character which gets boring really fast (thus they lose interest in playing that character). This is especially true for any character whose roleplay rides upon a one-trick pony, such as the "dumb as a brick" character who only talks like Tarzan, etc. So I'd suggest trying to develop a character with some depth and multiple facets to his/her personality.

BTW, there's nothing wrong with "dumb as a brick" characters. Talking like Tarzan is fine but there may be other aspects to develop as well (such as a highly developed survival instinct, fondness for bad jokes or limericks, strangely attracted to furrikin, etc.). Some of you who consider such a character might find inspiration by reading Grunts by Mary Gentle, which gives a perspective from the orc point of view. (It's not an especially great book but for some perverse reason I found it amusing.)

See, that was my problem with characters such as Nanki. Okay, stupid Igasho. Acts like an idiot, and laughs with his sister about getting "fuzzies" (furrikin) stuck between his toes. Just didn't get much depth, though.

Kalodan, however, was a lot deeper. Kalo the Faeling was made by a Fae-spirit. Ibaesha and Jairdan were on the Ethereal, and the newly awakened Spirit, who's been sleeping since the Vernal Wars devestated much of Lusternia took bits of their essence. Since he was Fae, it was easier for him to manipulate the fae-part of the Faeling, and thus made Kalo the more Fae than Ling Faeling.

Kalo then, not long after being made (at a young age, 16) became obsessed with centaurs, and wanted to ride them. (first thing he really saw, once he was at the Moonhart). The roleplay was fantastic, what with Kalo not being certain what the voice in his head was, and Gwylifar near constantly probing and poking him whenever he saw him.

If I may say, it would be rather incorrect to play a lucidian who doesn't follow the no-emotion path. It is a central part of their race characteristics and all. And on the other hand, I also find it to be quite easy to present rationalizations instead of emotions when playing lucidian. It just takes a bit of thought.

I don't think anyone who's seen Ye post on forums could possibly be at all surprised that he's Erion.

I was.

Hm. Well, maybe that's because you know his character? I wasn't surprised - I never thought that he might be an alt, but when I found out whose he was, I thought I should have seen it all along.

No, I knew the character too but worked it out, Vix is just a bit slow sometimes.

Woh woh woh. I'm still like, trying to figure out why everyone's all "OMG YOU'RE ERION? =\\" Is there something WRONG with the fact that, gasp, I might be a decent role-play? Like, jeez. =\\ Was Erion THAT badly played or something? Or was he just that hated?

Gwylifar always used to tell me he didn't believe it was me, because he felt Erion was not CAPABLE OF THAT DEPTH OF ROLEPLAY. =\\ I was like. "wtf?"