The way you play your RPGs

[Sergeant Politeness]

After seeing the subject being discussed in the Tyranny thread, I decided to finally create a thread since I believe this could lead to interesting discussions.

The way I see it, there seems to be mostly four categories of players:

-Those who place themselves in the shoes of the protagonist and react accordingly.

-Those who create a character and, well, roleplay. If you fall in this category, to which extent do you do it and are ready to penalize your character by making sub-optimal choices? Do you have any specific character type you tend to often create (aligments, by exemple)?

-Those who are on the powergaming side of the spectrum and tend to do what gives the most XP/Loot.

-And, finally, those who simply do whatever feels the most fun, wthout too much considerations of playing a consistent or powerful character.

Of course, people tend to play different games in different ways or mix those. So, how do you usually play your RPGs?

 

[Francis H]

I try to do everything guides tell me to do, feel like it´s boring, then realize it´s a fucking game and I should be more relaxed about it. Wonder if anybody has the same syndrome.

 

[Millim]

I tend to start off playing as how I would feel, not role-playing as such, but kind of just kicking off and seeing what's what.
Then I may do a second playthrough a bit later this time actually role-playing.

I'm doing this currently with New Vegas where I'm playing a gunslinger with full dedication to the NCR.
So in doing so, he tends to not listen to what Legion has to say, instead he follows his own path for the NCR.

That being said, it's hard to restrict myself, especially considering I have my repair up for guns and things yet I can fix an elevator, but to be fair, I just saw that as a shortcut and so just fixed it without care.

Things will probably get more interesting however once I start doing the DLC.

 

[Francis H]

I tend to start off playing as how I would feel, not role-playing as such, but kind of just kicking off and seeing what's what.
Then I may do a second playthrough a bit later this time actually role-playing.

I'm doing this currently with New Vegas where I'm playing a gunslinger with full dedication to the NCR.
So in doing so, he tends to not listen to what Legion has to say, instead he follows his own path for the NCR.

That being said, it's hard to restrict myself, especially considering I have my repair up for guns and things yet I can fix an elevator, but to be fair, I just saw that as a shortcut and so just fixed it without care.

Things will probably get more interesting however once I start doing the DLC.

That part of the Bison Steve always confuses me. (a) Why would someone with basic repair skill (35) know how to fix an elevator? Yeah, fallout-science shit, but did they really advance so much to the point that a normie can fix them? (b) Why would any character repair it? "Oh I coudl repair this elevator... or I could just take the stairs, get to the same place without wasting my time repairing this and never using this again. It is weird because Vault 22 did the elevator thing so much easier: so you don´t get lost in the mazes of the Vault.

 

[Sergeant Politeness]

I try to do everything guides tell me to do, feel like it´s boring, then realize it´s a fucking game and I should be more relaxed about it. Wonder if anybody has the same syndrome.

I use to do this to an absurd degree when I was younger...in Oblivion. Yeah. I was trying to get every unique item, do every quest... It was ridiculous.

I don't do this anymore, fortunately.

 

[Francis H]

I use to do this to an absurd degree when I was younger...in Oblivion. Yeah. I was trying to get every unique item, do every quest... It was ridiculous.

I don't do this anymore, fortunately.

It has become quite a problem with me these days, trying to get as much items as possible and then wondering why this chore feels like a chore.

 

[R.Graves]

I usually just role play as myself in such situations and react how I'd think is react. On later playthroughs I have a habit of metagaming though...

 

[Risewild]

It depends on the game... But usually I play a true neutral kind of character but leaning to good.
I usually play as someone who likes to help people but it is still quite greedy and doesn't have any problems stealing what he wants.
If there is a reward for doing something, my character will usually accept the reward unless for some reason he took a liking for the people who offered the reward, then he might refuse a reward. On the other hand, if he dislikes the people offering the reward, he might ask for a bigger payment.
I usually enjoy playing melee combat oriented characters in Sci-Fi and games based on "modern day times" but for some reason I like playing with ranged on medieval fantasy and steampunk games (specially if there are crossbows or old fashioned firearms like muskets, arquebuses and old flint pistols).
I don't really roleplay while I play RPGs. Or at least not in the same way I would if I was playing P&P.
I pick a role and try to stay in it on cRPGs, but many times I find there is not the dialogue option or way of completing a quest that I would actually do if I could roleplay properly. That spoils my roleplaying (and just frustrates me) so I don't do it anymore in games and just pick an option in dialogue that could work (and that is why I consider cRPGs not real RPGs, because due to the format and hardware we are usually very limited on our choices. Even the best cRPGs still don't have options and dialogues I would pick or do in a real RPG and that just breaks my roleplaying).
I also like to play in a way and make character builds that most people wouldn't do. I noticed I play games very differently from most people (and that goes for many game genres, not only RPGs. For example that is why I suck at multiplayer RTS while I am quite good in single player mode.).
In RPGs I have a thing for making my character regenerate health... even if it is a game where making that a build is not viable. I am also more defensive (focusing on taking less damage or avoid the damage) than offensive (focusing on dealing tons of damage at once). And to finish, I also love characters who can place traps and/or summon creatures/allies to their side.

Sorry for the pseudo wall of text... I got carried away .

 

[AskWazzup]

I used to think that i'm kind of role playing, but i was usually just playing a part of my ego. It never dawned on me that you can actually play in different ways than what you as a person would do in those situations, until someone (i think it was brother none) mentioned it in some thread. So i kind of started playing different characters, but after some time in the game i would just forget what my character was all about and just play it as a simple game.

Recently i started trying to play an rpg like i'm writing a book. I even wrote the biographies for my chars in Ice Wind Dale and even though there is no banter in that game, i try to imagine what my created characters would say in some situations and how they would act. Trying to shoehorn my characters personality in every conversation is a bad idea, since a game has only limited options, so i try to follow my narrative more broadly and not in every instance. That means that an evil character does not neceserally have a linear personality, which cannot ever be considerate. I also try to avoid metagaming/powergaming and just go with the flow, accepting various outcomes. For instance my char got his imp killed two times and permanently lost 2 points of constitution (he's a warrior/mage also) and i did not load the game. Now i don't do this every time, because there are some limitations to where your character would become useless (at this instance i just got rid of the imp), but i try to go with the flow as often as i can.

So now instead of having my ego drive the game where i have to win everything and get everything, i'm a bit more laid back, imagining various scenarious, somtimes giving up things and treating the whole thing as an adventure book with random elements in it. I think this is also a good mental exercise that, depending on your aptitude, can add greatly to the experience of the game.

 

[Mr muggyman 3000]

I tend to base my game character on some of my fave characters in fiction. One of my new Vegas characters was a mix of John Constantine my favorite comic character, and Vass the stampede, my favorite anime character.basicaly my character was a overall pacifist that would usually do the right thing,but Is not a against conning a few people to save his own skin.

 

[Black Angel]

Sadly, as I have zero experience with P&P RPGs, and haven't played much cRPGs, my playstyle was mostly restricted to -> Good Karma Talker trying his/her best to talk out of all situation and convince people to do the good thing, Sniper in combat.

Having said that, I finally tried to get out of my comfort zone when playing Fallout 1.5: Resurrection and actually go with an evil character until the very end (despite convincing the end boss to redeem himself at the end, which kind of a shame for me), and now I'm really enjoying trying out other playstyle, and I'm now looking forward to play other Fallouts as an evil character, when before I would just drop them right away because I can't.

 

[SuAside]

On first play through, I invariably try to do what I feel is morally "the right thing".

On later playthroughs I'm more likely to power game my way through it or attempt to explore all possible paths (including morally unsavory ones).

 

[dopezilla]

Usually I just play as what I would do myself, which is usually sort of a good but greedy character. I'll do the right thing, unless something else offers more reward.

After that I usually do a pure evil playthrough and a pure good playthrough to see other outcomes.

In Age of Decadence I don't yet know what the fuck I am doing, though. I'm playing greedily, yes, but I'm still kind of lost in all the intrigue.

 

[Sergeant Politeness]

Like most people here, I tend to play a generic chaotic good/neutral leaning to good character in my first playthrough. I find it hard to create a truly interesting character when I am not familiar with the setting or the limits imposed in the game.

I try to make more developped characters on subsequent playthrough, but I mostly stick to general concepts since, like Risewild pointed out, most choices are too limited to really acknowledge and react to anything more complex.

As for powergaming/metagaming, it mostly depends on the game.

Sadly, as I have zero experience with P&P RPGs, and haven't played much cRPGs, my playstyle was mostly restricted to -> Good Karma Talker trying his/her best to talk out of all situation and convince people to do the good thing, Sniper in combat.

The classic FO build. Don't forget the Gifted perk.

I don't have any P&P experience neither.

Having said that, I finally tried to get out of my comfort zone when playing Fallout 1.5: Resurrection and actually go with an evil character until the very end

I haven't played the mod yet but it did seemed to be hard to play a truly "good" character since the world seemed pretty grim.

 

[Black Angel]

Actually, it is still fairly easy to play a good character. What's not easy, however, is to get an equally good outcome and consequences. I love it.