I get so exasperated over how many players just have to make their characters always prepared, always unfazed, and permanently tougher-than-thou about everything. Even characters who are consummate badasses can have moments where they get caught off-guard, and 90% of those I see played like this aren't that.
It makes trying to play someone chaotic or disruptive into such a shitty experience. Or just playing someone who's capable but not perfect, since they end up surrounded by people who are always on point.
I prefer that the things that unsettle my hard-to-faze character come from the game's plot and the mods, not so much from "chaotic or disruptive" player characters.
The problem with playing a capable but not perfect character in a sea of people who ignore their characters' flaws seems more valid to me.
I play a character who's had a very tough life so realistically they should honestly be more prepared for things than MOST of the people around them, but they're human so they still make mistakes and get flustered/surprised/outsmarted/what have you and I play that up because I really enjoy playing them out of their element.
But then it gets frustrating because so many characters who may or may not be more on-the-ball than they are are being played as constantly having the upper hand in every situation with them. It's not that I don't enjoy my character being an underdog or making a fool of themselves from time to time, but when it's all the time the fun goes away.
It's worse when the CR started out genuinely fun and you don't mind a bit of that dynamic but the person just won't let up ever.
My character is HUMAN, not a 24-7 mistake machine for yours to smirk at and walk all over. Pretty sure your character is a lot less experienced and hardened than mine is in canon, anyway.
I feel like part of the problem, speaking as someone who plays characters who are capable but not perfect, and tries to protray them like that, is that a lot of the time if you're anything less than perfect you get treated like an idiot by the characters. So people who play even capable but not perfect, or even relatively normal but not a total idiot, types of characters end up feeling like they have to be always on point if they don't want their character treated like a dunce by everyone else. It's like any mistake, no matter how understandable, is liable to get you treated like you're too dumb to live.
Even worse, if you let your character get thrown by something/fuck up/come to a reasonable but wrong conclusion, the other players will frequently treat you, the player, like an idiot.
This. Yes, my character got something wrong. I know it. I said I know it.
Can you guys stop making self congratulatory plurks on how your characters are so ~right~ and ~showed~ mine? Especially when you ONLY have CR with mine when your characters can have the upper hand but NEVER let your characters ever not have the upper hand.
So many people really seem to play mostly to have their characters be right about everything. They will never allow even a tiny hint of weakness or uncertanity.
i like it when my characters screw up, get called on it, learn from their mistakes and have to deal with some ruffled feathers and hurt feelings afterward. not so much when other characters have over-the-top reactions to mine making a small screwup, treat them like a total incompetent asshole no matter how they behaved before and will behave after, and will not let it go. no thanks.
I play a character who has been shown in-canon to be crazy-prepared, and this is in a horror-based canon. In the game, I play him as being unfazed by things that are reasonably close to what he experiences in canon, but he gets caught off-guard by things that are totally outside of the realm of what he would have experienced in the past.
Even though the balance of "calm your tits guys I got this" and "holy shit what is that" is roughly 90% to 10%, he still gets treated like an incompetent dunce by most of the characters.
He also got (ICly) criticized for being fooled by a villain's nice act when he had no reason to suspect said villain was anything but genuine.
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no subject
(Anonymous) 2013-04-06 10:58 pm (UTC)(link)It makes trying to play someone chaotic or disruptive into such a shitty experience. Or just playing someone who's capable but not perfect, since they end up surrounded by people who are always on point.
no subject
(Anonymous) 2013-04-07 07:29 am (UTC)(link)The problem with playing a capable but not perfect character in a sea of people who ignore their characters' flaws seems more valid to me.
no subject
(Anonymous) 2013-04-07 04:21 pm (UTC)(link)I play a character who's had a very tough life so realistically they should honestly be more prepared for things than MOST of the people around them, but they're human so they still make mistakes and get flustered/surprised/outsmarted/what have you and I play that up because I really enjoy playing them out of their element.
But then it gets frustrating because so many characters who may or may not be more on-the-ball than they are are being played as constantly having the upper hand in every situation with them. It's not that I don't enjoy my character being an underdog or making a fool of themselves from time to time, but when it's all the time the fun goes away.
It's worse when the CR started out genuinely fun and you don't mind a bit of that dynamic but the person just won't let up ever.
My character is HUMAN, not a 24-7 mistake machine for yours to smirk at and walk all over. Pretty sure your character is a lot less experienced and hardened than mine is in canon, anyway.
no subject
(Anonymous) 2013-04-08 04:44 am (UTC)(link)+1
(Anonymous) 2013-04-08 04:57 am (UTC)(link)+100
(Anonymous) 2013-04-08 07:31 pm (UTC)(link)Can you guys stop making self congratulatory plurks on how your characters are so ~right~ and ~showed~ mine? Especially when you ONLY have CR with mine when your characters can have the upper hand but NEVER let your characters ever not have the upper hand.
So many people really seem to play mostly to have their characters be right about everything. They will never allow even a tiny hint of weakness or uncertanity.
+1
(Anonymous) 2013-04-08 02:11 pm (UTC)(link)no subject
(Anonymous) 2013-04-08 12:36 pm (UTC)(link)Even though the balance of "calm your tits guys I got this" and "holy shit what is that" is roughly 90% to 10%, he still gets treated like an incompetent dunce by most of the characters.
He also got (ICly) criticized for being fooled by a villain's nice act when he had no reason to suspect said villain was anything but genuine.
no subject
(Anonymous) 2013-04-08 07:34 pm (UTC)(link)