Character creation - do you even roleplay?

[eXalted]

You don't, right?

You play a roleplaying game but you just min-max your character/party, don't you?

Do you even play suboptimal builds because you have THAT character in mind?

 

[Sentinel]

Videogames don't allow for much role-playing, so no I don't.

Thanks for asking though.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

I always create wonky builds, that's half the fun of the game for me.

 

[Melcar]

I always create someone I can see myself fucking.

 

[Jasede]

Roleplay?
Like

Fave/Yes/Maybe/No?
Pervert...

 

[Dorateen]

Do you even play suboptimal builds because you have THAT character in mind?

In Grimoire, I had a human wizard and a human cleric, because their pen and paper characters were human. Not feyfolk, not wolfin, or any other race that might be more apt for magic-users in the Grimoire role-playing system.

On the other hand, this was countered by including a barrower metalsmith/berserker, which is the optimal build.

 

[DalekFlay]

I don't min-max or build to do as best as possible, no. Years on here have taught me that most do though, yeah.

How much I "role-play" depends on the game. In something like Fallout I'll definitely make a certain type of character and stick to what they would do. Usually I like female assassins for some reason on a first playthrough. So in New Vegas for example my first playthrough I worked for Mr. House as his private asssassin/spy and pitted the NCR against the Legion as much as possible. I enjoy that kind of role-playing in the right game. For something like Baldur's Gate though, where the story is more broad and focused on a fight against evil or whatever, I'll usually just make the good guy choices and let it play out.

 

[Yosharian]

I'm quite happy to not dump attributes, pick roleplay-focused skills, pick the race that sounds the coolest, etc... In other words, things that generally qualify as 'I'm role-playing!'... IF the game actually takes these statistics into account, or is balanced!

Examples:

• In some games, if you dump Charisma or Intelligence, there are actual penalties. Like, real ones. Not the occasional [DUMB] option, or some effectively meaningless 1% penalty to NPC interactions. For example, if some companions just straight up refuse to join you because your CHA is too low. Or, you are actually locked out of talent trees, perks, whatever, if you have an extremely low intelligence. But most games just don't have any penalties for dumping attributes.
  
• In some games, all skills are equally useful. But in most games, there are 1 or 2 skills that are essential, and the rest are just window dressing.
• In some games, all races have equally powerful abilities, or their qualities are relatively weak, so that it doesn't matter, from a gameplay perspective, which one you pick. But in most games, there are 1-2 races that are incredibly powerful, and then a couple that are just straight up awful, like 'What the fuck was the developer thinking'-awful.

I absolutely despise the obnoxious elitism of people that think the 'true' way to role-play is to deliberately pick skills, races, attributes, whatever, that are mechanically weak, and prance around on forums proclaiming themselves to be the true masters of role-playing. Fuck off.

TL;DR: make a game that actually recognises my role-playing and I'll happily role-play and love it. Otherwise, I'll just focus mostly on mechanics, with some light role-playing.

 

[octavius]

Depends on the game, and wether it's single character or not.
I'm more likely to roleplay my character in Fallout than I am roleplaying my party in Nahlakh.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Videogames don't allow for much role-playing, so no I don't.

Arcanum.

Oh, it was so much fun creating crazy builds and seeing how they fared. Especially with low int or smth.

in other games with low reactivity, it's not much fun though. "yay, I do things less efficiently now". heh.

 

[fantadomat]

Not really,i always play a character that is larping as me . Always a rogue,always nick everything,always bang everything. Tho it is a shame that i always have to use cheats to get my 18 in all starting stats.

 

[Duckard]

The consequence of meaningful choice is that some approaches are superior to others. Sometimes the superior approach is boring, but that is a flaw of the game, not the fault of the player.

I can tolerate intentionally building an inferior character if I think it will be more fun to play, but I don't like doing it. I certainly don't make up a backstory for my character and base gameplay decisions on that.

 

[Reinhardt]

Do you even play suboptimal builds

I have no idea how to build characters so i have no other choice.

 

[Lord_Potato]

I always create someone I can see myself fucking.

While I generally share the sentiment, sometimes it is not so simple. With all the romances in modern rpgs it often ends with one of the male npcs or party members boning your girl and observing it is not fun (with the exception of a Dance with Rogues, whoring Lyanna as much as possible in this NVN module is fun in itself).

So, I sometimes create a fuckable heroine (mainly in a game with decent visuals), but then take care not to engage in romance with any guys. Girls, especially the hot ones - sure, why not. I can live with my girl having bisexual tastes

In this day an age it is the closest to actually roleplaying you can actually get!

 

[Butter]

I always create someone I can see myself fucking.

While I generally share the sentiment, sometimes it is not so simple. With all the romances in modern rpgs it often ends with one of the male npcs or party members boning your girl and observing it is not fun (with the exception of a Dance with Rogues, whoring Lyanna as much as possible in this NVN module is fun in itself).

So, I sometimes create a fuckable heroine (mainly in a game with decent visuals), but then take care not to engage in romance with any guys. Girls, especially the hot ones - sure, why not. I can live with my girl having bisexual tastes

In this day an age it is the closest to actually roleplaying you can actually get!

Degenerates like you belong on a cross.

 

[Lord Andre]

If I make a fighter character that's supposed to be the player avatar, I give him decent intelligence even if it's not needed or acknowledged by the game. I can't abide the idea of my video game stand in being a retard. Other than that I do my best to make the character competent.

 

[Tavernking]

Min-Maxers are ruining RPGs and they should go play MOBAs instead

 

[BANANA CONDUCT]

Min-Maxers are ruining RPGs and they should go play MOBAs instead

I disagree

 

[Max Damage]

There's 0 reason to roleplay in a game where you're not meaningfully punished for dumping stats. As for min-maxing, you're not "playing role" properly by allocating stats in subotimal/random ways, party-based or not. Self-imposed challenges can be interesting, but if a game doesn't actually recognize how charismatic your fighter is, or that you're LARPing as dudebro muscly wizard, - you're doing the opposite of role-playing.

 

[Delterius]

I don't dump INT, WIS and CHA for +1 AC.

In fact, I headlarp so much it took me 100 hours to kill the stag lord.

Help me.

 

[slymer]

I never min/max. I can't stand having an Int of 3 even if Int is useless for my character.

 

[mondblut]

Larpers are ruining RPGs and they should go play visual novels instead

FTFY.

 

[mondblut]

you just min-max your character/party, don't you?

What do you mean, "min"-max? I just max.

 

[Azarkon]

No; and I consider it one of the greatest failures of CRPG systems to presume that people will gimp their characters to "role play." That's not what we do in life. Humans choose the skills and traits they think will most benefit them towards their goals. That is to say, people always min max as much as they can manage. So why shouldn't we in games?

 

[Absinthe]

Sounds like OP is one of those fucking LARPers. In the immortal words of mondblut:

I don't give a slightest fuck about make-believe "i-am-a-paladin-so-i-will-only-do-paladinlike-things" bullshit, because there is only my computer and me, and neither of us cares.

I've built characters with bizarre stats before, but only because I'm experimenting with unorthodox builds for kicks (or as a deliberate handicap). LARPing is a stupid idea imo. It shows that you are compensating for how shit the game is by needing to play make-believe in your head to fill in the overwhelming lack of reactivity and attention to detail. Stop playing shit games and stop using delusion to fill in the gaps so you can pretend it's good.

Min-Maxers are ruining RPGs and they should go play MOBAs instead

Honestly there are a lot of shit RPG designers who seem to think that the appropriate solution to minmaxing isn't to fix the game so there is value in varied builds or improve reactivity but to tell the player to fuck off and go play arena shooters or shit if he wants to be a tryhard. Lazy gameplay design is depressingly fucking common in RPGs.