[miltonyorkcastle]

I got into RPG's, both PnP and online, because I dig stories, adventure, and a good mental challenge. However, I am a very logic oriented person and for my first tries at character creation for DnD all I could see were stats and modifiers. Somewhere between now and those first looks at RPG's I managed to procure a degree in theatre arts, which means that I spent the better part of five years studying the how, what, when, where.. you get the picture... of the art of "role playing." As someone previously mentioned, all characters you play will share a piece of you, that is, by their very nature, must share at least some of your traits, points of view, etc. Also, unless you are schizophrenic, you should always, no matter how 'into' your character you get, recognize it is just a character, and that you are not truly that being. It is a fine line, really, between losing yourself in the character and simply playing the character. (There are a number of actors out there who believe you must lose yourself to, completely become, the character you are playing to play it the best. I disagree, believing that one can interpret and actualize another personality to it's fullest extent without losing one's own.) I bring this up because of questions in this thread and because when you are playing an RPG, as the name implies, you are role playing, which is also known as >acting< So, do you consider yourself an actor? If you have ever "stayed in-character" for longer than a few seconds, than you were acting. Granted, a much different stage and much less make-up, but then, "all the world's a stage," right? I have found all the thoughts on character creation, ideas, playing, etc, from this thread to be useful. I definitely have discovered that how a character starts is certainly not and should never be how a character ends. That is, always leave room for, pursue, and expect growth. Stagnant characters grow old fast. Ever read a book where the main character never, ever changes? Never discovers anything? It's plain boring (yes, there are stories like that out there, some just to make the point that such a story is boring *shakes head*). If you're really having trouble with this whole 'role playing' your character thing, there are a slew of books at public (and college) libraries on acting, character breakdown, etc. I encourage you to ask your local theatre junkies which books and ideas they found helpful.