Do you "roleplay" in RPGs?

[Ol' Willy]

Think this: instead of you larping some kind of predefined character, your char is just a blank slate and world (gameworld) around is shaping him/her. Your starting char, inexperienced fella, turned into vicious backstabbing killer by the harsh reality of the wasteland; or, despite all the violence around your char managed to save his dignity.

 

[Invictus]

I think some people are confusing Larping (playing out a role in your head and acting it out on a game) for example putting rules like eating and sleeping instead of role playing (playing the game as your ingame character would act) so if you are roleplaying a thief for example you sneak around, pick locks and steal stuff... if you decide to use a battle axe because your thief is a rejected barbarian is larping

I would say that Oblivion and Skyrim especially are the cause of this confusion; those game started the whole “do everything join all factions” gameplay so realistic role playing decisions were now only bound by larpers who put the restrictions themselves

 

[Bigg Boss]

Until you roleplay as Captain Picard you don't know what roleplaying is.

 

[JarlFrank]

If so, to what extent?

I personally never bothered. Whenever I try, I fail miserably. I prefer RPGs with strong mechanics so that the game effectively does the roleplaying for me. e.g.:
- Instead of pretending my character is weak and can't handle heavy weapons, my preferred RPG will have a mechanic that limits heavier equipment to characters with high Strength.
- Instead of pretending my character has to autistically eat, drink, and sleep, my preferred RPG will have needs mechanics that force me to eat, drink, and sleep... or better, not have them at all because these mechanics usually suck and are completely negligible.

My roleplaying begins and ends at the character creation screen. Afterwards, it is the limits that the game's mechanics impose on my character who define who they are.

Roleplaying isn't about playing pretend in a game that doesn't mechanically recognize your choices, it's about making choices based on a character concept. I play the good guy, that means I support Kilian over Gizmo, that means I help out the poor family instead of robbing them, etc. I play a warlike amazon, that means I invest in ranged and melee skills and pick aggressive dialog options whenever I can. I play a pacifist, that means I invest in speech and stealth and pick de-escalating dialog options whenever I can.

If the game allows you to play out a certain character concept within its mechanics, that's roleplaying. When you're confronted with a situation and think "what would this character do?" then make your choice accordingly, that's roleplaying.

Pretending that your character is X and either restricting yourself with house rules that aren't in the game (like "I have to eat once a day" even though there's no hunger system) or doing things the game doesn't recognize (like patrolling the walls in Oblivion and pretending you're a guard) has nothing to do with roleplaying, it's just LARPing.

 

[gurugeorge]

My roleplaying is also very tied up with character creation, which "sets" the character in both a stats and rp sense. For me, the point of having min-maxing knowledge is to get the best out of whatever concept you have, to get the best within the limitations set by the character concept.

And then, the next most important thing is the character icon. I tend to stuff as many character icon packs, etc., into games as I can, and then when I'm creating a character, I skim through the icons and sort of roughly meditate on the personality as represented by the image that most closely matches the character.

Then, when faced with dialogue choices in-game, I glance at the character icon and think, "How would HE/SHE, how would THAT person, respond?"

 

[Falksi]

I just play a game & try & enjoy it.

 

[Grauken]

I just play a game & try & enjoy it.

I'm sure that's a pretty novel way of looking at games on the codex

 

[Ol' Willy]

Then, when faced with dialogue choices in-game, I glance at the character icon and think, "How would HE/SHE, how would THAT person, respond?"

No offense, mate, but this sounds like something a someone from Reddit RPG section would say.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

roleplay in role-playing games? nah don't think so

 

[Apostle Hand]

I like to create and develop my character not necessarily following game rules, but rather on my own fantasy world, for example, some features that would look weird in the game I would add them.
so when I come surrounded by ordinary warriors they would be curious :
look that guy's sword has fire in it!
or look he can shoot fireballs!

 

[Funposter]

tried to larp in oblivion when i was 13 and got bored of it. i basically settle at trying not to wander around at nighttime even if the game lets me.

 

[Darth Canoli]

It's ironic that so few RPGs actually facilitate role playing. The best ones in that regard I've played are Fallout 1 and 2.

Otherwise role playing for me is more like house rules to make the game more challenging, like only rest eight hours a day, no stealing or murdering if having a Paladin in an AD&D party or mixing Good and Evil alignments, and things like that.

Depending on the game, i do something similar, except the thief is allowed to get upstairs to do his business alone.
I also don't mind mixing alignments, depending on the game mechanism but i'll define a line of action for the party, mostly evil*, neutral or purely good (limited exceptions are allowed).

*Purely evil parties and not taking part to good quests is quite tough in most cRPG, you'd skip most of the content or even most evil options are lame.

 

[Thac0]

I dont make a conscious effort to roleplay, but most good rpgs make me do it anyway.
I try to keep my characters consistent from a personality perspective and fashion > stats for the most part.
If the game has some immersion mechanics like Fallout New Vegas survival mode all the better.

 

[Shaewaroz]

For the longest time I thought LARPing meant this:

But now it means sitting in front of your computer and using your imagination while playing a game?

 

[Van-d-all]

Afterwards, it is the limits that the game's mechanics impose on my character who define who they are.

That's why I'm roleplaying a minmaxer.

 

[Horvatii]

I roleplay that I care about their retarded stories, their completely moronic juvenile children characters.
I roleplay that the fluff is in any way interesting and not triggering all kinds of verisimilitude problems.
I roleplay that their mechanics are anything but a slightly obfuscated fitting of square peg into a square hole.
I roleplay that the people gaming are not mentally handicapped.
I roleplay that the time spent on it, is not wasted but high quality enternainment.

Single player games are idiotic trash for idiotic trash.

 

[pomenitul]

Even light roleplaying tends to increase a given game's overall difficulty, which is a plus in and of itself.

 

[Jasede]

I don't roleplay as such, but I try to stick with the main-character's alignment and I do what I consider 'realistic resting' once I am good enough to handle it, which essentially nerfs mages hard in most RPGs, but they are still important for key battles.

 

[zapotec]

I stopped roleplaying when playing Karak Kadrin in Total War: Warhammer 2, the local greenskin tribe invited Karaz a Karak (the dwarfs main faction) to join the war against me.

 

[EldarEldrad]

I play the role of player when I play the game even if it is not role-playing game (RPG) game.

 

[urmom]

I am roleplaying right now.

 

[undecaf]

I try to, to what end the game actually allows that. But I don’t do anything the game wouldn’t recognize. I.e. I do not play pretend or e-LARP or anything; that both sounds and feels false. I only make decisions that are available in the game, and according to few preset guidelines I’ve given to my character/party.

 

[gurugeorge]

tried to larp in oblivion when i was 13 and got bored of it. i basically settle at trying not to wander around at nighttime even if the game lets me.

I tend to do that (go to bed at night, wake up in the morning) in the more recent Bethesda games where I can, with the time-stretching mods too if they're available (the day/night cycle is absurdly quick out of the box), and I walk most of the time (i.e. have walk as standard and run as SHIFT). I also use the "realism" mods (food, drink, camping, etc.) adjusted to the longer days. The only time I see night is if I've been in a particularly long dungeon and come out at night, then I camp and sleep asap

 

[Saduj]

Usually, my choices are some combination of what I think I would do/what I think will get my character the best gear/what I think will gain access to the most interesting content.

The last game that got me to make choices strictly for "role playing" purposes was Expeditions Vikings, and I don't think it was intentional. The game has a timer and a town building mechanic that ties into how you plan to win. For my first time through, I was planning on going the prosperity/making allies route and was building towards that. There are two potential allies and you can do the quests for each past the point where both kings will tell you "If you do this one last thing, we will send the support you are asking for...". You have a definite agreement with both, but after you meet your end of the bargain and save their asses, both kings will tell you "Well yeah, we still aren't supporting you. But if you do this one last thing.......". It is really just meant to be the point in the game where you have to pick one or the other. But the way it is written, these guys are backsliding on solid agreements and, IMO, you'd have to be a fool to assume either will live up to their word if you do their final surprise quests. So I decided that I had no choice but to take them both out even though the timer was half used up and I had been building towards the opposite goal. Put the outcome of the game in question but I had just enough time to build what I needed to build to recruit enough vikings to kick off the invasion and trigger the end game without losing. Made it more fun because I felt the outcome was in doubt for a while. But it also killed any chance of a second play through because after that, there was no way I could play again and try to go the other route.

 

[catfood]

Life is but a stage and we all have a role that we play.