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'Acting out of character' is, IMO, basically meant to apply when you do a thing that would generally be a Breaking Point for a human being that the Cover represents to do - with some exceptions. A cop can get away with shooting someone, say, even though that'd cause them a breaking point if they were human. The cop's still gonna have a compromise if they, say, scoop out your eye with an ice cream scoop as torture to get you to talk. But it's not just 'huh, that's weird for a schoolteacher to do,' it's 'there is literally no way that a schoolteacher would do that'.
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Jul 5, 2016 19:54
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Mendrian posted:I was more warning that too much of that kind of thing is Unfun and you have to be careful with how liberally it is applied. I was thinking along those lines, but I figured it might be too much bookkeeping. Making it group-wide cuts down on that, but instead you run into the problem where Mr. Kind, who has spent the entire session fastidiously upholding his Cover as a school counselor is suddenly on thin ice because Ms. rear end in a top hat, supposedly an upstanding civil defense lawyer, flipped off a cop. One version I was toying with was just having an "alert state". Sort of "yellow-red alert" as per above, but in terms of a single scene. You could even use an actual sound cue to clue people in that they're pushing it without beating them over the head with it. Another possibility is some kind of "three strikes" system. Make players put a tick on their sheet for a minor infraction; three ticks and you trigger a Compromise. Have them go away at some kind of regular interval. A bit naïve perhaps, but any method of giving a slap on the fingers could help.
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Jul 5, 2016 20:01
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Terrorforge posted:I was thinking along those lines, but I figured it might be too much bookkeeping. Making it group-wide cuts down on that, but instead you run into the problem where Mr. Kind, who has spent the entire session fastidiously upholding his Cover as a school counselor is suddenly on thin ice because Ms. rear end in a top hat, supposedly an upstanding civil defense lawyer, flipped off a cop. Maybe Ms. rear end in a top hat just had a bad day. My favorite cover defense was a Demon explaining away his sudden expertise on a subject by using quantum uncertainty to just so happen to have the wikipedia page up on their phone.
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Jul 5, 2016 20:08
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Mendrian: Thanks for the advice!Doodmons posted:The trickster-type character is going to be very difficult to pull off imo - not that it's going to be hard to pull pranks or spread chaos, but it's going to be hard to do that and not have everybody hate you out of character. In character, vampire society is very hard on that kind of thing - one loose cannon messing things up for laughs can bring the whole house of cards down so a trickster-like character is very probably going to be murdered. And that person will be totally in the right to do it. I don't want to be hated OOC, but to be honest, a horrible trickster being murdered for doing pranks ("want to see mer make this dagger disapear?") sounds like a pretty good ending for the character actually, and I don't think i'd really mind. If I did use this character i'd be really sure to have a talk with the ST and players and be like "look, I know this character acts like a poo poo, let me know if he's getting too annoying OOC and I can just use another character, but if he gets murdered, I understand." (Honestly, this wouldn 't be the first time I'd been murdered by a fellow PC in a RPG, and that time we were all supposed to be in a party together. :P) I'd hope I'd be able to play him off as devious, but also light hearted and amusing. Yeah it'ws hard to tell how well this would work. One idea I had was, for his Malk trait he'd be convinced he's a being from another demension, ala Q. I imagine this could be amusing. quote:The Tremere Alchemist is absolutely fine - the Tremere tend to think of their Thaumaturgy as more of a science than an art and there's a lot of hermetic alchemical lore bound up in their cultural identity. If the STs allow it, there is an actual literal Path of Alchemy for Thaumaturges to pick up. The Tremere tend to not be trusted but to, by and large, be too useful to ignore. Expect to spend a lot of time cliquing it up with the other Tremere and acting like the mad scientist advisor to other vampires. Sadly, Path of Alchemy is't in the Mind's Eye Theater version.  quote:Gangrel Scholar is a good, classic inversion of the 'dumb Gangrel' stereotype. This one could be a lot of fun to play. There's an NPC in the tabletop game by the name of Beckett who is something akin to this archetype, so there's some lore backing you up. By the sounds of it, you'll be relying on your mundane skills and Backgrounds to get things done more than your supernatural powers - this is perfectly fine and will require more thought on your part, so will be a lot more satisfying if you can make it work. Thanks for the advice!
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Jul 5, 2016 20:43
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Foolster41 posted:Mendrian: Thanks for the advice! My suggestion is to A- plug in to some other character who wants to see something said without having them say it B- do your prank-ish behavior as a way to say such a thing without actually saying it. If you are murdered for saying something that obviously CAN'T be true of an upstanding person, you'll all but confirm that it is true even if it is not explicitly said. Fishmalk'ing is better reserved for games that desperately need something to talk about because the Staff/Plot-to-Player balance is all sorts of messed up. Talk to staff to see if they need such actions to take focus off their plot rather than merely asking permission to act as you want to act. The best characters have a personal goal. Make one up. Show loyalty to a character and Never, Ever betray that person. You don't have to be a toady or ask permission to exist, but proving you can be a good ally will give you more interesting interactions better than showing you can do an epic betrayal. Count the votes. Its easier to be on the 'side' of a large percentage of the game of whatever issue currently divides them. Let other people talk and justify their behavior (LARPers love to justify themselves beyond what their characters 'should' say) and be a good listener, take account of who thinks what, and then occupy any vacuums or angles.
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Jul 5, 2016 22:45
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quote:My suggestion is to A- plug in to some other character who wants to see something said without having them say it B- do your prank-ish behavior as a way to say such a thing without actually saying it. If you are murdered for saying something that obviously CAN'T be true of an upstanding person, you'll all but confirm that it is true even if it is not explicitly said. I'm not 100% sure what you mean. I was planning on him being a bit more cautious and deliberate than perhaps I was portraying here. I don't think he'd be quite fishmalk levels. :P I wasn't imagining he'd go around and piss everyone off, but more he'd do stuff that couldn't be traced to him, or he could plausibly deny ("Well it looked like it me" *shrug*), except maybe more harmless pranks, in the traditional sense of pranks (not hitting people with fish). He probibly wouldn't do much right away, but if things got "boring" (it seemed like not enough going on with the main plot) he might step in to liven things up a bit. I don't think he'd actually try stabing someone in the back literally, (since that'd be risky) unless he felt he really had to eliminate someone because they were causing troubles for him, or to pre-emptively strike. He'd probibly try to arrange an "accident" for them anyway first. Having one person who he'd have as an ally he'd never betray is a good idea. I'm not set on the idea of doing the malk trickster, it could be funny if I could do it well, but I don't think I could really. Also, probibly not a good idea for a first character with a group of people I don't know. I'll just keep him in my back pocket...
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Jul 5, 2016 23:29
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Foolster41 posted:Mendrian: Thanks for the advice! I'm just going to come out and say it: Never play this type of character. It sucks and you suck for doing it and everyone will hate you. Never. loving. Do it.
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Jul 5, 2016 23:33
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Soonmot posted:I'm just going to come out and say it: As a multi-year LARPer, I've BEEN that character. It's incredibly difficult to do well and I wasn't one of those who could, but I had already been everyone's friend for months before I pulled him out and OOC after he was killed off everyone hated him. But he was a prototypical fishmalk and super hyper and "zany", and mainly interacted with the wives and girlfriends so that "serious RP" could take place. You may not be like that character, but this path can easily make you into the super hyper jester chaos character everyone hates. If you want to play that kind of character within the game, talk to the ST. Most of the time I've been allowed to have a primary character - the Gangrel Historian for example - and the crazy malk as my secondary character. Your description implies mostly reactionary pranks, and coming in cold with a fresh game it might be better to let the game breathe a bit then bring out your concept. One issue I think you may run into is other players will target your PC for harassment from the first interaction because poke the malk was a socially acceptable pastime in mid to late 90s LARPing groups. Make this devious character your second or third PC, after you have a feel for the game and the personalities that dominate the plot and my guess is that you'll have a bit better of a go at it.
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Jul 6, 2016 04:50
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Nystral posted:One issue I think you may run into is other players will target your PC for harassment from the first interaction because poke the malk was a socially acceptable pastime in mid to late 90s LARPing groups. Make this devious character your second or third PC, after you have a feel for the game and the personalities that dominate the plot and my guess is that you'll have a bit better of a go at it. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking if I do it at all. By the way, as I type this I'm watching Buffy the vampire slayer. :P I know it's probably a bit off in terms of tone, but I've been meaning to watch it because it's Joss Wheadon. (And I was looking for lost boys on netflix, but they don't have it).
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Jul 6, 2016 05:10
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The classic way to get involved at a LARP is to identify a sect official with a lot on their player and offer to help.
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Jul 6, 2016 08:21
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I tried watching the Buffy series again and it was too bittersweet for me. I already saw how things work out in the end and I just got too sad because I love the characters so drat much.
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Jul 6, 2016 13:02
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The Malkavian that's my pipe-dream character I'd love to play in a LARP eventually is a regular, got-it-together guy who just happens to know that the ST is there. Somebody gets murdered and they send for the Malkavian to see if the famed Malkavian perceptiveness can make any headway. You walk into the room, look at the dead body, then look over at the ST and go "So who killed him?" ST shrugs and points at one of the other PCs "That guy, Jim." "Thanks, Steve." "Don't mention it, Jim. Always happy to help." "So my friend over there says Davros did it." ... "thanks for the help, Malkavian" I don't know if it would be fishmalky or not, but a completely normal person who just happens to have an invisible friend they can talk to seems in the right ballpark for Malkavian madness - thematically appropriate and also sort of sad and disturbing. Having it be the ST means you don't actually have to talk to the empty air all the time and it lets the ST control how accurate your prophecies are. I dunno, I just think it would be cool to be able to talk to someone IC that everyone can see OC and is desperately trying to ignore so as to not look crazy IC.
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Jul 6, 2016 14:11
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The best LARP Malkavian I ever heard about was an entirely normal person, except that he hated talking to people. So he carried around a tape recorder and would turn away and mutter into it and then play it back and higher volume for people. And at one point he apparently recorded a speech on it, and knew his audience enough that when the response he got ('gently caress you, Steve') came, he just hit play again for 'No, gently caress you,' No new recording needed.
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Jul 6, 2016 14:15
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Mors Rattus posted:The best LARP Malkavian I ever heard about was an entirely normal person, except that he hated talking to people. So he carried around a tape recorder and would turn away and mutter into it and then play it back and higher volume for people. Unless this happened in multiple games (quite possible), that was my first real LARP experience. It died shortly after I came in and was replaced with a game by the same name, which wasn't the same in any way.
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Jul 6, 2016 14:22
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The one I heard about was somewhere in Massachusetts. I wasn't there but an acquaintance was. (I'm not gonna call the guy a friend because he was an old LARP creeper and I'm glad I only ever met him twice. LARP turned out to not be my thing.)
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Jul 6, 2016 14:24
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I just realized the Dickie Dollar Scholars in Scream Queens are basically the perfect version of Ashwood Abbey. Drunk fratboys from wealthy backgrounds whose response to a gruesome murder in their midst is to do a lot of steroids, find a bunch of baseball bats, and roam the streets yelling the killer's name until they come out for a fight while also attacking cars and fire hydrants because they share a colour scheme with the killer. Beautiful in its idiocy.
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Jul 6, 2016 14:49
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Yup, that's the one. And yes, there were a substantial number of old LARP creepers.
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Jul 6, 2016 14:50
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OMG! I feel kinda stupid for just now getting this but: God Machine=GM=Game Master
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Jul 6, 2016 16:10
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I played a Malkavian who couldn't accept certain emotions (anger, fear, that sort of thing) and would externalize them onto a hallucination of a friend that obviously wasn't there. I'd hold detailed conversations, delegate tasks to him, physically restrain him from attacking people my PC was angry at, try to get him Acknowledged so nobody would kill him... Much later I discovered that the general consensus among other players was that I'd worked something out with the ST and my PC was actually talking to somebody the other characters simply weren't privy to the existence of, which made me kind of proud.
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Jul 6, 2016 16:17
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Loomer posted:I just realized the Dickie Dollar Scholars in Scream Queens are basically the perfect version of Ashwood Abbey. Drunk fratboys from wealthy backgrounds whose response to a gruesome murder in their midst is to do a lot of steroids, find a bunch of baseball bats, and roam the streets yelling the killer's name until they come out for a fight while also attacking cars and fire hydrants because they share a colour scheme with the killer. Beautiful in its idiocy. Worked didn't it? .....for given values of "worked" at least. And considering the surprising amount of heart the Dickie Dollar Scholars had they really are the 'perfect' version of Ashwood Abbey, where it's more detached privileged idiocy than depraved rapist serial killers.
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Jul 6, 2016 18:33
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Mors Rattus posted:The best LARP Malkavian I ever heard about was an entirely normal person, except that he hated talking to people. So he carried around a tape recorder and would turn away and mutter into it and then play it back and higher volume for people. This is great. My first thought went to a dorky vampire who has a bit of a stiff personality and who doesn't get social interaction, and calls the other vampires "clods". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpZ1hTjuG0U. Hmm. Now you're giving me ideas. :P Pope Guilty posted:I played a Malkavian who couldn't accept certain emotions (anger, fear, that sort of thing) and would externalize them onto a hallucination of a friend that obviously wasn't there. I'd hold detailed conversations, delegate tasks to him, physically restrain him from attacking people my PC was angry at, try to get him Acknowledged so nobody would kill him... This is also great. These are the kinds of Malks I was more thinking. A little zany.
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Jul 6, 2016 19:13
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A Malkavian concept I haven't got to use yet is one who thinks the angry ghost that keeps tormenting him is an hallucination (because all Malkavians are crazy right?) but it actually is the angry ghost of a dude whose death he caused. His real derangement is something else entirely (I think I'd do with black-outs, for maximum character dread).
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Jul 6, 2016 19:25
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Quite possibly the worst Malkavian derangement that I've ever seen was the one where the dude thought he was in a video game. Dude's trying to collect power-ups in the middle of formal court. Or maybe that was the best? As an aside, that tape-recorder Malk at Dark Dominions, Julian DiPatri, was the Malkavian Primogen. There weren't a lot of Malkavians in the city anyway but his position became especially amusing when the rest of the Malkavian players realized that, aside from DiPatri, every single one of them had (independently and unbeknownst to each other) made a Caitiff who was pretending to be a Malkavian to skirt the Prince's draconian crackdown on Caitiff. So aside from the tape recorder dude, every one of them was doing their level best to pretend to be a stereotypical Malk.
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Jul 6, 2016 19:45
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One idea I like as a Malkavian is to take some ordinary and changeable feature, such as wearing a hat or holding a glass or whatever, and base the entirety of a person's trustworthiness on that feature while not being overt about what you're doing. You are convinced that a given person is a lying bastard you can never trust because they were introduced to you while carrying a wineglass. While their friend is a completely reasonable trustworthy sort who is simply being duped because they were not carrying anything. No idea if it would come across as fishmalk or annoying in practice though, as I have never put it into practice
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Jul 6, 2016 20:00
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Kaza42 posted:One idea I like as a Malkavian is to take some ordinary and changeable feature, such as wearing a hat or holding a glass or whatever, and base the entirety of a person's trustworthiness on that feature while not being overt about what you're doing. You are convinced that a given person is a lying bastard you can never trust because they were introduced to you while carrying a wineglass. While their friend is a completely reasonable trustworthy sort who is simply being duped because they were not carrying anything. No idea if it would come across as fishmalk or annoying in practice though, as I have never put it into practice I think that honestly depends on the presentation. If you formalize it with lots of ranting than no, it would be pretty fishmalk. If you made it more subtle and just used it as the basis for all of your character interactions the same way other charters use legitimate traits to base their opinions on you'd probably come off as capricious and unpredictable. Particularly if you were otherwise very logical. In other words, like all Malkavians, it becomes dumb only when you explain it. As long as you leave everybody else in the dark about why you're doing what you're doing (e.g., no ranting and no trying to convince everybody about how reasonable you are) than it becomes pretty terrifying, which is the point IMHO.
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Jul 6, 2016 20:07
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Mendrian posted:I think that honestly depends on the presentation. If you formalize it with lots of ranting than no, it would be pretty fishmalk. If you made it more subtle and just used it as the basis for all of your character interactions the same way other charters use legitimate traits to base their opinions on you'd probably come off as capricious and unpredictable. Particularly if you were otherwise very logical. Yeah, the idea was to use it without ever actually explaining it. Use some common psychological failings to explain away your trust or mistrust. For example, only remember the times the guy lied, or latch onto some negative personality traits they may have and extrapolate from there. Come across as a bit unstable but otherwise reasonable. Like a conspiracy nut who is perfectly fine as long as nobody brings up the moon. Or if you're expressing as extreme trust, rely on good old fashion excuse making. Yeah, he tricked that other guy and staked him in the sun, but he's actually really nice most of the time. Just get to know him and you'll see, couldn't ask for a better friend.
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Jul 6, 2016 20:28
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I think my favorite Malkavian I ever had to interact with was a dude who played up the whole blind seer/mystic prophet angle but was otherwise fairly lucid and reasonable. Eventually when the game was over someone asked him what his derangement actually was, and got the answer "Oh, he wasn't actually blind. He just thought he was" with the implication that all the vague and portentous prophecies he handed out -weren't- part of his crazy.
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Jul 6, 2016 20:29
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Kaza42 posted:Yeah, the idea was to use it without ever actually explaining it. Use some common psychological failings to explain away your trust or mistrust. For example, only remember the times the guy lied, or latch onto some negative personality traits they may have and extrapolate from there. Come across as a bit unstable but otherwise reasonable. Like a conspiracy nut who is perfectly fine as long as nobody brings up the moon. Or if you're expressing as extreme trust, rely on good old fashion excuse making. Yeah, he tricked that other guy and staked him in the sun, but he's actually really nice most of the time. Just get to know him and you'll see, couldn't ask for a better friend. I think what I like about the idea is that it doesn't even need to read as Malk. You're having a conversation with the Primogen and suddenly notice his tie is untied, then you get real quiet and angry. He would naturally assume it's because of something he said. When it reality, it has nothing to do with what he said. You'd basically just look like someone whose feelings shift and change wildly which I think is p.good roleplaying if you ask me.
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Jul 6, 2016 20:37
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Mendrian posted:You'd basically just look like someone whose feelings shift and change wildly which I think is p.good roleplaying if you ask me. Having played a Malkavian for like 14 years at this point, this is a big part of how you do it. There's a thing called "lateral thinking", which is basically making a left turn in your chain of logic without any warning and assuming everyone will just follow you. The secret I've found for portraying it is have a couple of basic assumptions which are at best partially correct, then have them be assumed unalterable truths. Go straight from initial assumptions to your conclusions without ever mentioning them - consider them as fundamental as our assumptions that gravity will continue to work, or that when someone snarls they're angry. Act as though those assumptions are true, and everyone knows about them and has them. Think about how your character will react if someone directly challenges one - confused, angry, politely dismissive? Figure out a couple before you start game. If something comes up a couple of times, add it as a new unchangeable assumption. For reference, a few of my long-time Malkavian's basic assumptions:
Another good technique to add in to the difficulty following your character's logic chains is rapid disorganized changing of topics - switch from the plot to a movie that it reminded you of and back to the plot, without ever actually providing any of the standard conversational tags to show you are intending to switch topics. Next bit of advice: Give plot suggestions to the STs. Good ones. Ask them if they can take your idea, alter it so it doesn't go exactly as you think, then run it, and if you can have your character mention it in the middle of a rant before it happens. When you do, don't place any special importance on it - you don't want to run up to the Prince and say "I know what's going to happen", you want the person you were talking with to realize after the fact that you knew what was going to happen before it happened. Also make up other things you didn't talk about with the STs - maybe they'll adopt them later, maybe your character is wrong. And try to avoid describing them literally or directly- don't say "Joe is going to run into a human at the 7/11 who recognizes him from when he was alive", say "they're around, they're all around, just BREATHING, and they recognized him, you know? They KNEW him, from before, and there by the 7/11 they knew him. (laugh) (on to the next topic, like what book you're reading or a movie you saw)". As a Malkavian, part of your character's role is helping the STs in laying out puzzle pieces for other people to connect. Really, the main thing to me is to figure out what particular mental issue you want to portray, research it a lot, and portray it respectfully. You are portraying someone with an incurable mental illness. It should not be played for laughs. Even when you do something funny or silly or zany, there should be a deep, personal tragedy behind the veil. This is a game of personal horror, after all.
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Jul 6, 2016 23:29
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Oh boy, Malkchat! An excuse to talk about mine again  The (Requiem) game he was in went long enough to add a ton of nuance to his pathology, but the short version is that he was a painter that had Sanguinary Animism as his core derangement, because Sanguinary Animism is the best derangement. He was convinced that when he fed, he took tiny pieces of the victim's soul with the blood, which he experienced as soft, hallucinated voices and memories. The thing is, he was also a compulsive mind reader, and habitually read the surface thoughts of everyone around him at all times, so his hallucinations often ended up being more akin to intrusive, stolen thoughts. His derangement evolved over time to make him obsessed with absorbing as much of people he met as he could, incorporating a fragmentary memory-image of them into his own mind, even if it was just someone he passed by on the street. He used these stolen memories, emotions, and sensations to act as bootleg inspiration for his art, since after getting Embraced he lost most of his creative spark. He was, in short, a psychic parasite that didn't particularly care about the fact that other people (or vampires) didn't often appreciate having their brains rifled through like handbags to fuel his next stab at a magnum opus, or to fulfill a compulsive voyeurism. Past a certain point, he was almost more alien in mindset than the local elders. He viewed himself less as one vampire, and more an aggregate soul-mass that took bits and pieces off other minds and souls to expand itself that just happened to be rooted to the body of one particular vampire, and used its personality as a front. Very few vampires got a look at what he was behind that front, and the only reason none of them killed him immediately was that the Prince had a personal interest in using him in schemes. He was also a Holy Engineer on top of all that too, so take all of that and add Radio Sickness and a particularly strange set of fanatical religious beliefs. The longer you picked away at his "harmless artistic eccentric" facade, the more distressing he got. E: Yessod posted:Really, the main thing to me is to figure out what particular mental issue you want to portray, research it a lot, and portray it respectfully. You are portraying someone with an incurable mental illness. It should not be played for laughs. Even when you do something funny or silly or zany, there should be a deep, personal tragedy behind the veil. This is a game of personal horror, after all. This is basically the most important thing. One of the seeds that led to my character was the idea of an obsessive, voyeuristic personality with nigh-effortless access to mind reading. What would that do to them?
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Jul 6, 2016 23:29
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I've played two Malks, both variations on the same idea since the first one's game ended unfortunately early, where they talked in Bloodlines Malk-esque mystic metaphors and vaguely-portentous nonsense... And were faking the whole thing. Or, well, most of it; they did have the seer thing going on, but that wasn't why they spoke like that. First one, in addition to the usual Malkavian precognizance, was extremely paranoid (with that being his derangement since those were mandatory in those rules). Among various other things, he was terrified that, if people realized he was lucid (well, lucid-ish; he was still crazy, just not so much in the ways he pretended to be) he'd get murdered or worse, so he tried to pretend he was a usual incomprehensible seer so that people wouldn't realize he was actually well, well aware of what was going on, and he could have plausible deniability and play dumb if he ever had to reveal some big thing or other; sure, he just casually revealed such-and-such important person's dark secrets, but he doesn't realize he did that, he's just a harmless Malkavian. Though sometimes unintentional prophecy seeped into his speech too and he was genuinely unaware of it, which nearly got him in trouble a couple times, like when he said something that another PC took as him being aware of a murder he committed, or when he unintentionally insulted the Sheriff (I think) to his face, only realizing what he said after it was out (and immediately becoming extremely terrified). Heck, a lot of his "fake" rambling was actually somewhat portentous, just not intentionally so on his part. While I really liked the idea (and still like it, really; it was fun), I actually feel kind of bad about that game because, while I detailed the paranoia, precognizance, and all that in the character app, I forgot to mention the mad speech; I think I surprised the other players and the ST when he first opened his mouth and that stuff came out. And sadly the game ended before I had a chance to reveal to someone what was really up with him (which could have happened soon, too; among other things, the aforementioned murderer-PC was wondering if he'd need to deal with my character, so a one-on-one interaction/confrontation there could have been coming up), so I worried that the other players thought I was fishmalking or something. (The next time I apped a character with something like that I made it very, very clear in the app what was going on with them because of that.) I think Bloodlines being my first VtM experience was bad for me because it resulted in me really, really liking Malkavians, and it wasn't until much later that I learned the reputation and general way they go in actual games. Still, I love hearing the stories of them being done well, like some of the ones being shared here. They're really neat when done well, they're just... Usually not done well. Roland Jones fucked around with this message at 23:39 on Jul 6, 2016 |
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Jul 6, 2016 23:31
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Daeren posted:This is basically the most important thing. One of the seeds that led to my character was the idea of an obsessive, voyeuristic personality with nigh-effortless access to mind reading. What would that do to them? Yeah, that was one thing about playing a malk I wasn't sure about. The derangements specificly wasn't a reason I chose malk for that character, but more in general Malks seemed the most trickster-like. Honestly, maybe another clan would work too, or work better. I think I chose Malk mainly because of the Sophistry merit looked neat. Honestly, I'm not sure how interesting I could make a character with a delusion ala Kevin Spacey in K-Pax. (E: Like I said, I'm drifting away from this idea anyway) E: When you(all) write characters, how do you start out designing a character? Do you start with the base of a tv/book/movie character? An archetype? Start from traits like Myers-Briggs? Foolster41 fucked around with this message at 00:01 on Jul 7, 2016 |
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Jul 6, 2016 23:56
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If you're set on playing a trickster, skip the Malkavians and get creative with it, like a Toreador performance artist or a Silicon Valley-style disruption-obsessed Ventrue. Just always have a goal in mind and know what the trick you're pulling is trying to say, rather than just doing it for the sake of playing pranks.
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Jul 7, 2016 00:06
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The best Malkavians are the ones my gaming group made up: https://the-act-of-hubris.obsidianportal.com/wikis/malkavia-and-lucidity
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Jul 7, 2016 00:14
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Foolster41 posted:E: When you(all) write characters, how do you start out designing a character? Do you start with the base of a tv/book/movie character? An archetype? Start from traits like Myers-Briggs? Usually my characters start out with a concept or idea I like and come more as flashes of inspiration, at least for the initial bit. After that it gets built upon and fleshed out depending on the game and what I want to do and such. The starting point can vary quite a bit though, from just gameplay stuff ("I want to be a Zeka" or "I want to use this particular discipline") to particular characterization ("a person whose goal is to such-and-such") to even most of the basic idea already ("a guild of assassins would be a pretty neat thing in this game of politics and intrigue"). Likewise, the process of fleshing them out can vary, where sometimes I ask particular important questions and make up the answers, while other times things just sort of come to me (though usually it's a varying mix of those things and other stuff). There really isn't much consistency to it, other than the usual starting point, whether it's a particular gameplay thing or a character like this one thing I like or whatever, is something I want to play or think is a neat idea, and then I basically make a character around that. TL;DR: I start with what I want to do, whatever that is and however small or unimportant that may be, and go from there. Roland Jones fucked around with this message at 00:30 on Jul 7, 2016 |
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Jul 7, 2016 00:26
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Foolster41 posted:E: When you(all) write characters, how do you start out designing a character? Do you start with the base of a tv/book/movie character? An archetype? Start from traits like Myers-Briggs?
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Jul 7, 2016 00:57
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Yawgmoth posted:I usually start with "I want a character who uses this discipline/joins this legacy/has this merit", then I stat them out based on what attributes/skills that discipline and so on will need to be functional, and then once I have the stats down I look at it and think what kind of person would have these stats. I've had people get weird at me for this because it's "backwards" but I always end up with a character I want to RP who has things I want them to be good at. I kind of do this, but it depends on the game. I'll usually try to find some sort of thing to latch on to, be it a profession, a discipline, a merit, a combat mechanic ("I want to explore the grapple rules"), or whatever. Then start putting things on the sheet to support that, pull in some other stuff that's interesting, and talk to other players as I go, if that's an option. Generally as I plug pieces together I find unexpected elements coming together to give me ideas about the character's history and personality ("Oh, this discipline has a Wits+Survival roll, I guess this guy's an outdoorsman...say, if he's a tracker maybe he was a US Marshall instead of a cop") and the pieces kind of fall into place. If you're thinking of playing a trickster, I'd consider less of a prankster and more of a traditional mythic Trickster archetype. I would define this (fairly subjectively) as someone who maybe does pranks occasionally, but usually either to benefit himself or to teach someone something. Tricksters are often also scapegoats, and they're usually storytellers. They can say things that other people can't get away with, and express ideas that are taboo. The jester is the only one that can mock the king. A trickster is not someone who just says random zany things, but someone who thinks in lateral ways and solves problems by doing things, usually dangerous, painful, or humiliating, that other people can't or won't do (Like tying your nuts to a goat). It's a hard thing to play because nobody is really going to trust a trickster, and is going to expect you to be an annoying rear end in a top hat.
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Jul 7, 2016 01:42
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In my first game, I picked a Nosferatu Lancea Sanctum because there were none of either in the local LARP group at the time (and also the Lancea Sanctum is cool). Ever since then my characters have been based on some kind of concept (former Chechen soldier Obrimos Silver Arrow, introspective, cerebral Eledoth Hunter werewolf, Ventrue Martial Artist and owner of a chain of Dojos). Usually this concept is spur-of-the-moment and I just wing everything from that point on. It... it doesn't always work, but it's usually pretty fun. I also just realized I've played a little more WoD than I thought, but half of my characters were only played very briefly.
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Jul 7, 2016 02:04
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Gilok posted:If you're thinking of playing a trickster, I'd consider less of a prankster and more of a traditional mythic Trickster archetype. I would define this (fairly subjectively) as someone who maybe does pranks occasionally, but usually either to benefit himself or to teach someone something. Tricksters are often also scapegoats, and they're usually storytellers. They can say things that other people can't get away with, and express ideas that are taboo. The jester is the only one that can mock the king. Yeah, that's also kind of what I was thinking is the court jester type, who's the only one who has the guts to mock people in power. i was doing some research a little on shakespear's jester's too (Touchstone from "As you Like It" and the Fool from "King Lear")
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Jul 7, 2016 02:08
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Doodmons posted:The Malkavian that's my pipe-dream character I'd love to play in a LARP eventually is a regular, got-it-together guy who just happens to know that the ST is there. Somebody gets murdered and they send for the Malkavian to see if the famed Malkavian perceptiveness can make any headway. You walk into the room, look at the dead body, then look over at the ST and go "So who killed him?" How is this not getting any love? It's loving gold (with the right group). Also if anyone wants some cool Changeling stuff to rip, The Nightmare Stacks by Charles Stross has some good poo poo.
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Jul 7, 2016 06:01
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