I'm interested in unique character quirks that have a big impact on a character's behavior. Everybody seems to love Winnae's brain damage, for instance, and I've heard of people playing mute and illiterate characters, etc. Are personality disorders or disabilities gimmicky? How do they fit in a world where everything has a cure? Can they be done well successfully, and if so, who's done it best what are some examples? You don't even have to name names.

I've never been fond of these types of threads, because it's always just a popularity contest.

Having that been said, I wish Ongaku's Dissociative Identity Disorder could elevate to the level of awesome that Ixchilgal has brought with his "Collective." However, if I did it even remotely similarly to him at this point, I'd just be called a copy cat.

I will also say that I don't know of any Lucidians whose colors change as dynamically as Xaakin's do depending on their emotions. I also don't know of anyone who, like Xaakin, does not express emotions without some sort of facial expression or body language (other than colors).

Sorry, I didn't know even this had been done.

Some of what I've seen from Winnae reminds me of Daganev and Wepaw, since you bring it up. But I only see Winnae on the forums and in a few shouts here and there, and that's way too superficial to really make such comparisons. I'm sure the similarity is similarly superficial.

Perhaps I'm a sourpuss, but I've yet to see a "personality disorder" character in Lusternia that didn't strike me as gimmicky. Since you ask. I wouldn't want to sound like I was putting anyone's efforts down. I just feel that Lusternia's not a good canvas to explore things like that, so even sincere attempts by creative people tend to either melt, or turn into a gimmick as a means of avoiding melting.

That said, it's entirely possible it's been done well and I wouldn't know about it, because the one thing I know for sure in Lusternia is that the best really good developments of character and roleplay in Lusternia are pretty much always the ones happening quietly in small groups of people. The stuff that is loud enough for the whole world to see it (or even a whole guild or city) is usually broad strokes. Lusternia's conflict-driven, organization-based structure really makes us too insular to allow anything with any depth to ever gain any wider notoriety. So if anyone has done this well, probably no one saw it but their close friends -- and no one will trust the report of those obviously biased sources, so we'll never know for sure.

Any sort of thread about "Who did this the best?" or "Who is most awesome at this?" is just about who everyone likes best, from what I've seen. They used to creep up a lot when I played Aetolia (haven't even checked their forums for a while, so that could have changed). Perhaps I'm just being cynical though.

Winnae is bringing talking in the third person back. I'm 90% certain he's not brain damaged too!

Years-old Internet forums are like The Simpsons: It's all been done before at least three times over. Also, if it was the least bit controversial, it turned into a flame fest.

My personal opinion: Yes, obvious quirks can be a tad gimmicky, but gimmicks have their place. The word "gimmick" has negative connotations for most people, but the actual definition is fairly neutral:

An innovative stratagem or scheme employed especially to promote a project

If the gimmick creates interest and is genuinely entertaining, it's fine.

Also this. Winnae's adorable, perhaps a little on the innocent side, but he doesn't seem to be sustaining brain damage or even be an idiot.

Just do something really weired, without it being inconveniencing.

There was this furrikin from Celest I used to see all over that was a mute that seemed pull it off rather well, but I can't quite recall her name... was really short though, 3 letters I think...

And Lexa was the only nervous stutter that didn't annoy the crap out of me.

Fay, and she was damned awesome. I wish she was still around, she'd chew on wood and everything.

I agree with Lexa not being annoying when she stutters. Also, she doesn't -always- stutter. The last conversation we had actually surprised me (in a good way) since she stopped stuttering towards the end.

Also, I hear Ixchilgal's good with rp-ing his split-personality. I haven't really interacted with him, but from the quotes and logs I've seen here in the forums, he's really good at it.

Mmm, wood.

And here I thought Winnae was straight.

Treat various objects you carry as alive.

Lucan's son does that. :3 It's interesting, I think he's let that RP go somewhat though.

Kial used to talk to tarot cards too. Do what I did, have a childish character that slowly loses their mind and their innocence. Then have that childishness crop back up in weird places like weaponized toys.

Shishi has his gold piece that he talks too and calls philipe. It's how I'd lure people into noticing me as I sat in the aetherplex with nothing to do.

Kialkarkea used to do the hole 'changing colours to suit mood' as a lucidian when he changelings into one.

Fay was mute? Didn't she always used to go 'FAY GOES!' before moving? Though she was adorable.

I can't recall ever hearing her speak. Maybe the mute thing started or ended at some point.