[Resolved]
[Resolved]
[Resolved]
1 Like
That my good man is a tricky conundrum.
While the social outcast character can be fun to play, they are inherently just that, an âoutcastâ, which sort of goes against the whole purpose of a social rp-realm.
Worse yet, you donât want to play a generic character you wouldnât like.
Iâd suggest extending a hand to a few guilds or communityâs to see if you can RP/live life on the edges, rather than outright out on your own.
Failing that, maybe consider some sort of middle ground and entrench yourself in a set of purpose built ooc/IC rules to keep you safely anchored there.
Nothing worse than being stuck out in the RP wilderness alone! I wish you luck in finding what youâre after.
14 Likes
Having any of these attributes arenât the cause in 0 social interactions for roleplay.
Youâre in control of your character to put it bluntly, burden your character with these attributes rather than stunt any growth and development by avoiding stuff. Simple
3 Likes
Some of my own characters are hardly the most social or easy to approach. That being said, thereâs always ways to justify having your character interact with others. At some point theyâll presumably need to ask for directions, purchase supplies, take up a contract for coin or visit a blacksmith to maintain their weaponry.
All are great hooks to get your character interacting with someone which can, in the right circumstances, lead to greater and broader adventures. Depending on the character you could even offer your services as a bodyguard/blade for hire or take on an apprentice to pass on knowledge.
5 Likes
As said above, you are in control. Think about what kind of situation would force your otherwise outcast/antisocial character to deal with other people, and then put your character in that situation.
Maybe find a guild that shares their goals or values. Iâm not sure what you mean by joining a guild based on OOC decisions - are you opposed to using OOC tools (such as forums or AA) to find a guild, then approach them IC? Because you may have to do that to solve your issue, and you can still turn it into an IC story.
3 Likes
Thatâs not necessarily a problem- Although many people do make it into one.
Just because your character is unlikable, solemn and/or what you describe, doesnât mean that they need to lack for interaction. Even misery loves company, after all.
Make interaction out of your characters outcast and misfit nature. Donât turn them into a statue.
3 Likes
You could always just roleplay with yourself using Narcissus.
1 Like
I had the same problem.
Two things worked for me.
One, make a character thatâs full of PTSD and all the good edgy stuff, but make them suppress it. Hide trauma with humour, make them the fun kind of insane rather than the depressed one. They can still have the deep mental struggles, but donât make them wear it on their sleeves. Have coping mechanisms and use them as RP hooks. Go out drinking, pick fistfights, try scamming people with card tricks, etc.
You can go up with the most stupid, silly excuse you can think of and itâs going ot be fun RP 7 out of 10 times. Usually people are receptive and good sports about it.
And second, sort of the same as the first but not quite;
Make their trauma a part of them but not their defining personality trait. Try making someone who still wants to maintain a sense of normalcy in their life, even if theyâre failing at it horribly. Something being unappealing to you can still be incorporated into a characterâs goals and ambitions without any plans for them to actually reach or achieve them. And when eventually they do, because they might, they can just realise how dull and unappealing it actually is for them too, now that they reached it, and go back to their old, strifeful ways. Sort of like the trope of âhe was destined to conquer it, but never to rule it.â Strive for something that you donât realise would make you absolutely miserable, so when you finally get it, and have that revelation, you throw it away and go back to having adventures.
And with both of those, you can still have a deep and meaningful exploration of their past traumas, but make it like a mystery, and intruiging for other players, and reward them with just tidbits and pieces of information, so when they earn a heart to heart conversation with your character, itâs a cool and cathartic moment.
7 Likes
Donât do this.
Keep doing this.
I will elaborate further I played my Argent Crusade (Calvin Bronzewolf) with severe PTSD and with ways to go about interaction with people would be sometimes heâd hear voices, whispers of his former comrades who he lost in a campaign (this actually happened) . He would also see faces of his old comrades on people passing so sometimes he approaches them in a confused state. However, it wasnât them. But it then led to a talk or maybe a brush off and walk away from the RP from the other party.
Calvin was a very troubled guy who lost everything in a War against a Cult and Scourge. This added to his character and flavour a lot. People mentioning certain things could also get his interest or maybe heâd think that it was still currently happening and signs up to assist eventhough thereâs nothing to assist.
There are ways to avoid being the statue Rpâer type even with a anti-social / griefstricken or traumatized character. You just need to not feel shamed or anxious and go straight for it. As a wise man once said to me;
Every shot is missed if you never took the shot in the first place.
4 Likes
Op! I would say; at the core experience of RP is âengagementâ. So wether you be talkative, or antisocial - try to give a reason for interaction.
Ie, think of it like fishing, you canât catch fish if you do not come equipped for it. And even then, you need to either stir the angler, or let it rest depending on what you which too catch.
Like, a small emote - a glare, a look? Perhaps dropping your knife causing a sound/scene - all can be âstartsâ to interactions, or depending on the character; attention!
Just try to invite people to âplayâ with you, but not giving out a reason for it (lack of emotes, silence, and little in terms of acting) Will surely keep you in the dark, without RP.
So give it a go! Try to invite people a bit, regardless of being social or anti social!
10 Likes
Not quite an outcast, but on the topic of PSTD
LaĂŠy gives you great advice here on so many points.
I have a character, he suffers from some PSTD as a war veteran, but itâs not his defining character trait.
He takes it with a dash of humor, tells incredible exaggerated stories;
He totally fought 12 Quillboars most defiantly all alone with one broken arm⌠yep. Then was forced to throw himself off a cliff as an army of them came over the hill and charged him in retaliation, and down in a valley where he had to walk for 2⌠no 5⌠no it was 10 days, actually! With no food or water under the blazing sun
He knows hes parsley making things up, the audience knows that,and he knows they know, but thatâs alright.
He never let people on, about how much of is actually true or not.
Thatâs left for people to make out themselves.
But there is truth and a point in the stories he tells.
With some truth in it he remind people how war is a horrible thing for everyone involved.
If someone got a paper cut: Heâd talk about, in great detail how heâs seen people get sliced up in tiny bits and in that perspective a paper cut is proper good.
Then he laughs it off and changes the subject.
And itâs only in very few, intimate and rare moments he reveals what years of war have done to him. Like when he is dragged into a situation such as battle where dark emotion can get the better of him. For all his laughs, and smiles he can be incredibly cruel if he believes it necessary to the enemies. When certain topics come up, he becomes quiet, sombre⌠As he is struck with memories of the past, people he knew, things that are no more⌠what could have been.
However, this is something he tries to avoid, he doesnât actively seek these situations, he tries to avoid them and suppress it in everyday life.
He wants to live content or if anything, at peace.
And what makes the PST so powerful, is exactly that.
He knows battle is a trigger for him, so he ratther stay back and bandage people unless hes desperately needed on the field. He limits himself from certain activities but don stright out say it.
âThink Iâll be more use helping out the woundedâ
And leaves it at that.
If someone complement him, how he is such a good medic, heâd probably reply with a genuin answer that hes seen a lot of stuff in the army, and hes just doing his job.
Contrast, and itâs a trait not a whole character, not a whole life.
Because people are complex and ⌠frankly, playing a depressing character is depressing, not to mention playing with one is extremely boring if thatâs all they have to offer.
1 Like
Iâd say if the struggle is in pushing such a character into RP, figure out a solid reason why the character would have to interract with people. Give it a quest or a purpose. Have someone or something to search for, to ask around about. Maybe they need work, maybe theyâre just straight up lost. Azerothâs a big olâ place.
5 Likes
Playing a few outcast characters myself, my solution is to be proactive when engaging someone.
since my character is likely to be out in the middle of nowhere alone, when someone does come by I donât hide or ignore them, I draw attention to myself and try to poke them for a reason to approach me.
2 Likes
Iâm not exactly sure what the problem is. By 0 interactions do you mean literally zero, or just too few to have satisfying RP?
I donât know the extent of said edginess or troubles and how they permit socialization for your characters, but Iâm rather sure all of those - PTSD, other trauma, outcasts - all have means for having satisfying amount of interaction with other characters.
One thing to keep in mind is that if youâre dependent on other people coming to you for RP, especially so if itâs all random RP outside of guilds, people donât bother with the âyou gotta break the shell to get to really know meâ type of characters. I made that mistake with my first âseriousâ RP character. I fleshed out her entire story, with all the tragic moments and whatnot and she became a distant, cold, and/or standoffish at start. I had thought of the quote above, but in the end I just locked myself out of RP as nobody really wanted to bother with that - or didnât even get that from the character.
My next character, who I made as a throwaway alt at first was Nerathion, who was very easygoing and I guess likable, and had none of those problems. I ended up enjoying the RP I had with him infinitely more, even if both characters were very interesting to me. Sometimes maybe the better answer is that even if the character is interesting to you, you are the only one who knows the character. You might want to have a character thatâs also interesting to others, while relegating the outcasts to a more auxiliary status in a story or something if you seem to have no luck with others being interested. Your characters can still know eachother after all, so itâs not like youâd have to bench them completely, and this way you can still leave a window open for others to peek into that outcastâs life.
7 Likes
Not exactly an advice, but youâre not alone on this one. I enjoy RPing somewhat deep outcast-y characters and war veterans, generally more serious personalities. My characters may vary between being reserved but friendly, or being just downright socially avoidant troublemakers, which still somehow find some IC excuses to socialise.
And I can relate to your struggle of finding RP for these kinds of characters, as people often seem to dismiss those chars which suffer silently or blame roleplayers for playing chars with PTSD, because them acting out their PTSD is unpleasant socially and it rarely seems to come to other charsâs mind that yours might need help (before itâs too late for your char, or youâll have to constantly OOCly save your char from others making it worse for your char IC). Especially if you are like me, who doesnât necessarily want to make chars sweet and endearing in order to âbuyâ appeal.
Or if your char is a combatant and wants to serve once more, they might still be ignored by healers in military guilds, because healers deem their family/close friends/romantic partner more important than a member of your unit. Nobody likes being neglected forever, and it becomes draining to RP an outcast char, if theyâre turned down over and over. People may say chars like that are interesting, but they donât often extend opportunities to explore these chars more in the end, or offer them opportunity to development/connections.
I often get blamed for RPing these types simply for âyour char is antisocial, make them more socialâ and if I say âI canât make them more social if most interaction they get are negative attitudes and dismissal/neglectâ and soon enough, Iâd find myself defending my chars and point of view OOC rather than discussing solutions/middle ground for the future.
2 Likes
I always end up with making social outcasts / PTSD veterans / in seclusion, that would have 0 social interactions with other characters, but are otherwise very interesting to me
Iâm a big fan of characters that moderately fit into these categories but as youâve observed, they often lack reason to seek out company or interaction which limits how much RP they get.
My solve was just adding that those of my characters who are dealing with something like this are hellbent on breaking out of it somehow, like the social outcast feeling lonely and thus actively seeking out people, even if it gets very hard for them to figure out how to be more likeable or if they at all can be liked the way they are, and tragic when it backfires. Thatâs still plenty of RP there.
Being in a guild helps. Mine has many that are struggling with something and since there is a big point to âweâre supposed to work togetherâ, other characters have incentive to help figure out how to work things out, despite their flaws (it of course requires that the flaw is not the big defining trait of the character and that character growth is your actual goal).
4 Likes
That is a very odd statement to make. While yes, you should stick to what makes the most sense for a character, it is also important you enjoy the environment you are joining on an OOC level; we canât enjoy the IC interactions if it doesnât feel right OOC. There needs to be a basis level of OOC interaction to find a guild you feel you will enjoy RPing your concept(s) with.
The same is very much true for character interaction and RP moments, be they random or not. Sometimes it doesnât entirely make sense for an antisocial character to walk up to someone, but the alternative is just not getting any RP - as others have already pointed out. From your own words, I get the idea that you still want everything to spring from IC hooks but that is causing everyone to pass you by. After all, who would interact with the dour looking characters sulking in the corner?
RP enjoyment does require a balancing act between your OOC desires and your characterâs IC desires: you cannot entirely ignore one over the other. Getting those IC interactions requires being assertive and stepping up to get those interactions from people who look interesting to RP with on an OOC level. Continuing to go âmy character wouldnât do thatâ is not going to bring you any RP soon.
I wish you the best of luck finding some footing. Conflicted or traumatized characters can be extremely interesting to see develop once people start to become invested in them. Others have given some great tips on how you can get people hooked, without suddenly becoming a social butterfly (which is something you really donât have to be either to find RP), and I very much urge you to try them.
5 Likes
A massive trope of people, roleplaying any characters with PTSD, like to roleplay their characters as massive anti-social loners, who cannot comprehend how to make a single sentence with another person.
Now, whilst I will not talk on an account of everyone, who suffer from actual PTSD, but I find it awfully offensive. There is no absolute reason for you to bend your character to an edgy emo phase, where they just grunt and say zero or no words all-together, for that is just simply⌠not PTSD. Thatâs your character being edgy, Geralt-of-Rivia-level edgy.
There are multiple ways of roleplaying post-traumatic events: flashbacks, nightmares, anxiety - the whole shabang. You intentionally not talking to others in RP serves not only as a reason to push other people away from you IC, but also as a point of annoyance OOC. It creates difficult motivation to seek OOC interaction with that particular person, cause I have to be honest, if I have to stand and be the person to drag someone into conversation - Iâd be simply wasting my time.
15 Likes
I remember an interaction I had with someone in Stormwind years ago. That character was condescending and insulted my character from the get go.
Now, were they interesting character? Maybe. Did the player have heart of gold? Perhaps. Did I ever get to find out? Nope, why would I? One IC conversation lead to my character not ever talking to them if they ever ran into each other in the future because that´s what you usually do with unpleasant random people.
This is overall the problem with such characters in RP outside of guilds. There is absolutely no reason to interact further after first unpleasant interaction. And as Valteryl said, these conversations aren´t usually pleasant on OOC level either (oh the joy of typing three sentences with multiple conversation hooks, only to be answered by âYesâ).
Frankly, to solve your problem, you have only two options:
- Create a character that will be more talkative. They can still have issues and traumas, but they also need that hook which will make other characters interested in talking to them again.
- Join a guild or community. In guild setting, there is that sense of common purpose (as Vitsaus said), but also a reason for your character to be invited to events as a member. Your character will say 5 words during an event but is a good fighter? Great, they´ll be valued for that skill and it will make sense for them to stay in the group, which then opens up the possibilities for others to get closer to the character and discover the depth that is hiding underneath the cold surface.
But mainly, it´s good when your OOC wishes for a character line up with their IC wishes. They can be different for other characters, but you´ll only be causing yourself a headache if you want to do social RP on a character that would do anything to avoid it.
3 Likes
I have a different suggestion from all the comments above, as someone who has roleplayed characters with such concepts.
Give your character a reason to interact with others. While it sounds simple, itâs one of the best options to find roleplay at random in any type of character.
For example, letâs say that your character is a druid who was highly traumatised by the War of the Thorns and has moved to Stormwind. You could weave in that said druid is now a wandering healer and a botanist, seeking to heal the injured and feed the needy due to having felt the ravages of war and lacking a home first hand.
It wouldnât need to be such an important thing either - for example, war veteran who is an avid enjoyer of card games and other such activities because it was one of their favourite pass times during off-duty hours at the war camp, who is now seeking for new friends to play said card and dice games in more peaceful times.
It doesnât need to be something grandiose, playing to some higher plan or some sort of thing. It could simply be that your character likes to talk with people and has a few hobbies here and there, while dealing with their war-torn trauma. Itâd both be easier to play, and possibly even more realistic - though I am not authority to speak on the latter.
6 Likes