The way we play our characters

[Spike]

I've been thinking (and yes it hurt ).

Recently I read Shiff's post http://forums.layonara.com/general-discussion/256212-fessing-up.html, and well it got me thinking about the way we play and devolope our characters.

It seems that there are two ways we can use our PC's. Do we remain faithful to the characters own personal devolopment or do we focus on our enjoyment? Simple put, if you had say, a netural good dwarven fighter that went through some dramtic unpleasent changes in their life, and the only logical out come was an alignment shift to true netural or even netural evil, would you do it?

This can of course go the other way. With my own character Jehoram (netural evil corath weapon master) I have a particular series of events in mind, that if they ever occured IG, I would follow them up and start to shift his alignment back up the scale to NG. I would then of course retire the character and roll a new one (I avoid good characters the way most people avoid evil ones, call me old fashioned but I need major personaility defects to keep me interested :rolleyes: ).

That said, we play this game for our own enjoyment, and some people (myself included) don't enjoy role playing characters a certain way.

So I'm asking you, what comes first for you personally? Enjoyment or character devolopment? (Remember that there is no right answer here).

[geloooo]

I suppose it's enjoyment first before character development for me. As a player, I would not want to deviate from my original plans for my character and bring about his untimely demise. Of course, it boils down to the choices your character has to make, and you have to think of how and why would your character do such a thing. If you play an evil character and you got your alignment shifted to good after a quest, why were you in the quest in the first place? Maybe you should have done something congruent to your alignment to have avoided the shift?

I was in a particular quest a few weeks ago, wherein the group had to help the citizens of Karst. If I had a dollar for every time Ni'haer helped out in the plight of those affected by the tsunami, I'd probably be broke by now, with that said, he just isn't as compassionate as the rest of the group. I didn't know the quest was going to be like that, so I thought there was no harm in going, but since it really didn't make sense for a Lawful Evil Dark Elf to help out in a ruined town, I just left. Sure, I didn't get that much experience, but hey I got to giggle at the expense of this gypsy fortune teller. It goes to show that not all quests are for you. Maybe I should have thought of a dastardly plan during the quest so I could have at least stayed and extracted money from the commoners, like maybe start an overpriced food stall.

On Daralith's WLDQ, I was forced to cut off Ni'haer's leg because he got caught in a very intricate trap while facing a very large wolf (Legendary Dire Wolf). Since he had no knowledge on how to disarm traps nor could he yank the trap and bring it with him successfully, I opted to cut his leg off. I was so afraid that I had to role play a cripple, and the thought of seeing him like that was saddening. But then I realized that I could regenerate the leg with a spell of mine, so it was all good, embarrassing, but hey he's still got both of his legs intact!

So yeah, not all choices will make you enjoy your game, but hey that's much like how reality is. But then again, it's a game, it's meant to be fun. My two cents.

[ycleption]

I think the question is a false choice - a big part of the enjoyment of role playing for me is seeing my characters grow and change. If a character changes in a way you didn't anticipate, its part of the joy of roleplaying, and a sign that you are doing a good job of inhabiting your character.

[Alatriel]

When I first started my character Alatriel she was Chaotic Good.  Through rp, and circumstances of various different rp things as well as a very long and hard quest line for her, her alignment was shifted to CN.  I admit that when she went that way it was not really what I had seen for her, nor was what I had wanted, however, I didn't think that it was fair to the development of the character to disregard the things that had happened to her and try to force her to act as if nothing happened.  It took me a while to get comfortable into the new role of Alatriel, but now as I look back over it all, I'm glad I let the rp take the character through her changes.  Sometimes dramatic things happen to people.  It's what makes a person more than a two dimensional write up on paper (or computer screen).

[miltonyorkcastle]

a big part of the enjoyment of role playing for me is seeing my characters grow and change. If a character changes in a way you didn't anticipate, its part of the joy of roleplaying, and a sign that you are doing a good job of inhabiting your character.

I think the point is that some of those unexpected changes are unpleasant (unpreferred by the player), and while some don't mind/enjoy such changes, even if unpleasant, others would prefer to have the changes their character experience remain within a set of 'pleasant' parameters.

Me, I just play a character that is already aware enough of who he is that his core persona (from alignment to the things he cares about) is  near impossible to shake. :p What is this "change" you speak of?

[Dezza]

I actually enjoy the challenge of having varied and different characters and trying to remain true to each one being different from the other.

I see many people with multiplie characters and each character is almost an exact duplicate personality wise to the others. I try to avoid that the challenge is to create separate entities and give each one a rich and dynamic personality thats different from the others.

Also I commit myself to each character and their alignment and motivations from inception, therefore they are true to themselves in a way and act according to their original motivations and not from my own personal influence. This is how I stay true to alignments and in some cases the Faiths of any characters I have.

I firmly believe that if you commit yourself to adhering to the characters alignment and original motivations there is rarely any reason for alignment changes down the path or that events (unless extreme) could change their outlooks on life enough that it affects the character at a deeper level.

[Polak76]

I've been thinking (and yes it hurt ).

Recently I read Shiff's post http://forums.layonara.com/general-discussion/256212-fessing-up.html, and well it got me thinking about the way we play and devolope our characters.

It seems that there are two ways we can use our PC's. Do we remain faithful to the characters own personal devolopment or do we focus on our enjoyment? Simple put, if you had say, a netural good dwarven fighter that went through some dramtic unpleasent changes in their life, and the only logical out come was an alignment shift to true netural or even netural evil, would you do it?

This can of course go the other way. With my own character Jehoram (netural evil corath weapon master) I have a particular series of events in mind, that if they ever occured IG, I would follow them up and start to shift his alignment back up the scale to NG. I would then of course retire the character and roll a new one (I avoid good characters the way most people avoid evil ones, call me old fashioned but I need major personaility defects to keep me interested :rolleyes: ).

That said, we play this game for our own enjoyment, and some people (myself included) don't enjoy role playing characters a certain way.

So I'm asking you, what comes first for you personally? Enjoyment or character devolopment? (Remember that there is no right answer here).

You just want to make a champion of Corath!

Regardless I can see your point.  the way I try to play my many corathites is to try and stay away from the do-gooders as this is simply a place that is not welcome for them.  Unfortunately beggars can't be choosers so we have to occasionally join up with others and RP it in a way so that we can all enjoy the night.

If the population was huge on Layo so that at any given moment we could cover groups of all races, religions and alignments, then you'd probably find your characters hanging around with their own crowds and the opportunities to shift alignment to good/evil vastly reduced.  I know how hard it is to play evil characters as it is very lonely and a very slow advancement.  Fortunately I've seen the numbers grow and the balance shift.  You should find similar characters of your aligments a little easier these days.  Please note however I do not want to discourage you moving towards a good alignemnt if thats how it simply turned out.  I do however encourage the rest of you to start sliding towards the Mad One!

Alignment aside however, I'm extremely positive when it comes to failing.  I feel if you fail a quest it often opens up vast new opportunities and makes your character so much more interesting and enjoyable.  I'd never lose interest if I failed a quest or CDQ.  

Cheers,
Polak

[EdTheKet]

I'd never lose interest if I failed a quest or CDQ

Perhaps this is a good moment to highlight the D in CDQ. It stands for Development, so whether your CDQ meets your desired outcome or not, your character will have developed, one way or the other.

[Warchild214]

IMO - I think it might be a little of both.  We come here for enjoyment and we play layonara for enjoyment..plus we also in some shape or form all develop our characters in a certain way.  Personally, I play Layonara for enjoyment and relaxation...I also am very involved with Shadowleaf's development as a Ranger, hunter, tracker etc...  i do not mind he XP gap between levels (im talking after 4th), becasue I feel it gives me more time to develop him as time goes on and after completing certain quests and such, make adjustments that better fit his current stature.  Events happen to our characters over their history that will develop them in some sort of way whether we like it or not.  Im sure not everyone has (on paper) all their progressions with feats, skills, etc. from 1-40th level.  Im dont think many can say that their charcater is the same as when they first created it...some but not many...

[DiegoBastet]

It's obviously a little of both. But personaly, as a long-time DM, I like to make development of my char, that's what makes me happy. If I planned a guy that is totally in love with her wife and would never cheat her (and let's suppose she's another pc), and circunstances IG could lead him to fall in love with another female char, I would totally go for it! After all it's development. I don't buy the idea of "It's not what I want to play" of some people, but I do respect. I don't play my chars as my avatars, but as real people in a real world, so I think that an unexpected thing here and there is very fun. Besides, if the change was totally incredible and IC and I don't like OOC what he became, I'll just give him a gran finale and get another 1st level char rocking. Easy like that.

[Xaltotun]

I must admit I play my characters for fun and for fun alone. I do not have a 'plan' of how they will develop, only an idea of how they started.

I actively allow interactions with the world and other players to change my characters as they develop. I may think it's an idea to go down one path, but something unplanned may happen to divert that particular stream, so I embrace that

Why do I play this way? Because I use this game to escape from real life, from real life plans, issues, problems, nags, moans, groans, issues (oops, mentioned that twice - maybe I have issues?).

In Layonara, you can blow with the wind, or not, and if the worst comes to the worst, hey, like DiegoBastet said, you can start again. Can't do that in real life.

[Hellblazer]

(oops, mentioned that twice - maybe I have issues?)

*Just whistles as he walks by* :p