Roleplaying Psychology
My elf tells you more about me than you actually wanted to know.
Let's start with the basics. We all have our escapist guilty game pleasures - World of Warcraft, Everquest, and Neverwinter Nights to name a few - but they are all based on the beautiful brainchild of the dear departed Gary Gygax, Dungeons and goddamn Dragons.
(From now on, I am going to explain things circa version 3.5, and anyone who has a problem with that can go back to their mom's basement right now.)
Everyone gets a character. It has an alignment, a race, and a class. In my computer gaming habits, I am a chaotic good elf druid. In my current tabletop D&D game, I am a chaotic good elf ranger - and male, to boot - but the tabletop game is a team player sort of thing where your preferences must be adapted to suit what the group needs, not just what you think is the most badass thing you can possibly pretend to be.
That's exactly what we're doing, isn't it? We are dressing up a virtual avatar to be the prettiest, sexiest, most badass thing ever to walk Middle Earth. And in D&D, when someone plays a certain character, they are putting their views on what is sexy/dreamy/badass right there on the table - sometimes even in hilarious miniature form.
I am a short, brown-haired, pointy-nosed, rough sketch of a Pratchett heroine with a bachelor's degree in environmental science and questionable morals hidden under a teacher's pet complex. I am also female.
I want to be a lithe, green-haired, pointy-eared Tolkien wet dream with the power to control the elements and a Robin Hood complex. Occasionally, I want to be male.
Get it? Okay.
Now, for some generalizations one might call analysis. First, there's alignment. Lawful/neutral/chaotic - good/neutral/evil. I've found that people have a hard time deviating too much from their real nature; I'm pretty neutral good, which means I try to do good things, but I do not do good things because of or in spite of society's rules. In other words, I'm pretty boring. I don't think I could play lawful, because that's just hard for someone who doesn't actually care, and I don't think I could play evil, since that's the sheer opposite of what I'm into - at least, I hope it is. I know some pretty lawful people who couldn't play neutral or chaotic if they tried, and I know some spiteful souls who just can't bring themselves to play good characters because it really gets in the way of mass pretend-murder.
That's kind of mistaken, by the way - we all play these games to kill things. Some of us just try to only kill bad things. Let's not lie to ourselves there.
Maybe I'm not as good as I thought I was. My parents (who Know About These Things) say that your second character is more your true nature than your first. If this is the case, I am a male lawful evil elf cleric.
But this isn't about Ellimere Eilde, it's about me. So, next: race. Anyone who's read Cryptonomicon, just understand that I agree completely with Neal Stephenson's breakdown of dwarves, elves, and men. For the rest of you, more detail.
The dwarves are the hardworking sons of bitches who want to be left alone by the other races so they can do clever things underground. Computer scientists are an excellent example. The twisted thing is, dwarves are very strong physically, but those who play them tend to be very strong mentally - I tend to think of it as a desire to have the inner strength showing on the outside.
Elves. Everything mysterious. COVERED in mystery. They speak a language with the beauty of Italian and the complexity of Mandarin; they live for-fucking-ever, due to - I don't know, an unfathomable body chemistry, a lifelong commitment to vegetarianism, whatever you like; they collect skills like we collect stamps; they have an affinity for long-range weapons that allow them to stay all mysterious and untouched in the shadows; oh, and they're effing gorgeous. This one's simple: those of us who play elves have egos the size of Saturn. We're the sorts that would be dwarves, but have this hang-up about needing our perfect little avatar to be pretty AND clever, so we take a hit to the physical prowess (the minority of elves are big strong warriors, the majority are spellcasters and arrow-tossers) and technological skill (i.e., elves are to dwarves as Apple is to Linux). We live in our heads, and don't come out very often. I think Plato is a good example of an elfy sort; if you demand a modern example, I think I'd go with Gackt.
Men? Men are men. You've met them - you are one - here we are! Ironically, it's pretty hard to fathom why people play humans, so here is where my oversimplistic college major similies break down. Really - why the escapism if you're making yourself into yourself? However, some people - mainly from the far side of the nerd spectrum - just want their character to have some semblance of normalcy. No frills, no beards, no nancing - just a guy. A guy with social skills, and a girlfriend, and a +5 greatsword. Who doesn't want that?
Halflings are less common, but I certainly like them. Playing a halfling gets people to underestimate you, and when they underestimate you (or stretch their necks), you can put a dagger in their ribs. I have known few strictly good halflings.
Half-orcs are posers. A half-orc is big, strong, and dumb - their choices are fighter, fighter, fighter, or fighter. Half-orcs tend to be people who just want to kill things - and if you have no motive *besides* killing things, you should not be in a basement with a lapful of die strategizing.
Half-elves? Elves too modest to admit they want to be straight-up elves. You get none of the really useful feats or abilities of humans or elves, it's really only useful if you have a character history that combines the worlds of humans and elves.
What's left? Oh yeah - CLASS. There are tons of these, and I will not break them down for you, but they fall into 3 general categories: fighters, spellcasters, and healers.
Fighters (basically, characters with little to no spells): you want to be in the front of the action. Patience is not your strongpoint. You probably have a good deal of aggression to get out; your boss calls you names at work, or you feel like killing someone just for taking too long at the ATM, or maybe the subject of DRM brings your voice up an octave. Those who play the mellower versions, such as bards and rogues, are more lovers than fighters, however - you want your expressions of inner rage to look downright dashing, or perhaps you want to clever your way out of the rage bit entirely.
Spellcasters (basically, characters with a lot of spells and little chance of survival in close combat): you want to command respect. You shoot fireballs from your fingertips, and damn the man if he tries to keep you down - because you shoot FIREBALLS from your FINGERTIPS. Who needs fighting skills when you can just boss the fighters around? Center stage of the Danger Show is a bad place! The back of the party is where you do your plotting, scheming, and general world-saving.
Healers (those with a fair chance of survival in close combat as well as a fair number of specialized spells): these boil down to the druids and clerics, which are kind of weird classes to begin with. Clerics are kind of like priests, except in return for their prayers they get spells - mostly the zombie-zapping sorts - and healing powers. Druids are kind of like druids, except in return for their rituals they get spells - mostly the poison-ivy element control sorts - and healing powers. You may think the healers are lawfully good-hearted souls who want to ease pain: not so, as evidenced by the fact that I AM ONE OF THEM. We hate dying - hate hate hate it - and want abilities that make sure this never happens. Healers, simply put, are those of us who need a backup plan. We need to be able to hit back in combat when we run out of spells, and when even that fails us, we need to heal back some hitpoints and keep at it.
EDIT: I suppose there can be people who play healers because they are good hearted souls; I simply have not met one.
There you have it. The very act of creating a roleplaying character is like baring your soul - to a tableful of people, to a massive online community, or to your bedfellow, depending on the scenario. I am kind of frightened by real life tabletop gaming for the same reason I'm kind of frightened by therapists: I don't like telling intimate details of my life to strangers, especially in a limited amount of time.
Let's start with the basics. We all have our escapist guilty game pleasures - World of Warcraft, Everquest, and Neverwinter Nights to name a few - but they are all based on the beautiful brainchild of the dear departed Gary Gygax, Dungeons and goddamn Dragons.
(From now on, I am going to explain things circa version 3.5, and anyone who has a problem with that can go back to their mom's basement right now.)
Everyone gets a character. It has an alignment, a race, and a class. In my computer gaming habits, I am a chaotic good elf druid. In my current tabletop D&D game, I am a chaotic good elf ranger - and male, to boot - but the tabletop game is a team player sort of thing where your preferences must be adapted to suit what the group needs, not just what you think is the most badass thing you can possibly pretend to be.
That's exactly what we're doing, isn't it? We are dressing up a virtual avatar to be the prettiest, sexiest, most badass thing ever to walk Middle Earth. And in D&D, when someone plays a certain character, they are putting their views on what is sexy/dreamy/badass right there on the table - sometimes even in hilarious miniature form.
I am a short, brown-haired, pointy-nosed, rough sketch of a Pratchett heroine with a bachelor's degree in environmental science and questionable morals hidden under a teacher's pet complex. I am also female.
I want to be a lithe, green-haired, pointy-eared Tolkien wet dream with the power to control the elements and a Robin Hood complex. Occasionally, I want to be male.
Get it? Okay.
Now, for some generalizations one might call analysis. First, there's alignment. Lawful/neutral/chaotic - good/neutral/evil. I've found that people have a hard time deviating too much from their real nature; I'm pretty neutral good, which means I try to do good things, but I do not do good things because of or in spite of society's rules. In other words, I'm pretty boring. I don't think I could play lawful, because that's just hard for someone who doesn't actually care, and I don't think I could play evil, since that's the sheer opposite of what I'm into - at least, I hope it is. I know some pretty lawful people who couldn't play neutral or chaotic if they tried, and I know some spiteful souls who just can't bring themselves to play good characters because it really gets in the way of mass pretend-murder.
That's kind of mistaken, by the way - we all play these games to kill things. Some of us just try to only kill bad things. Let's not lie to ourselves there.
Maybe I'm not as good as I thought I was. My parents (who Know About These Things) say that your second character is more your true nature than your first. If this is the case, I am a male lawful evil elf cleric.
But this isn't about Ellimere Eilde, it's about me. So, next: race. Anyone who's read Cryptonomicon, just understand that I agree completely with Neal Stephenson's breakdown of dwarves, elves, and men. For the rest of you, more detail.
The dwarves are the hardworking sons of bitches who want to be left alone by the other races so they can do clever things underground. Computer scientists are an excellent example. The twisted thing is, dwarves are very strong physically, but those who play them tend to be very strong mentally - I tend to think of it as a desire to have the inner strength showing on the outside.
Elves. Everything mysterious. COVERED in mystery. They speak a language with the beauty of Italian and the complexity of Mandarin; they live for-fucking-ever, due to - I don't know, an unfathomable body chemistry, a lifelong commitment to vegetarianism, whatever you like; they collect skills like we collect stamps; they have an affinity for long-range weapons that allow them to stay all mysterious and untouched in the shadows; oh, and they're effing gorgeous. This one's simple: those of us who play elves have egos the size of Saturn. We're the sorts that would be dwarves, but have this hang-up about needing our perfect little avatar to be pretty AND clever, so we take a hit to the physical prowess (the minority of elves are big strong warriors, the majority are spellcasters and arrow-tossers) and technological skill (i.e., elves are to dwarves as Apple is to Linux). We live in our heads, and don't come out very often. I think Plato is a good example of an elfy sort; if you demand a modern example, I think I'd go with Gackt.
Men? Men are men. You've met them - you are one - here we are! Ironically, it's pretty hard to fathom why people play humans, so here is where my oversimplistic college major similies break down. Really - why the escapism if you're making yourself into yourself? However, some people - mainly from the far side of the nerd spectrum - just want their character to have some semblance of normalcy. No frills, no beards, no nancing - just a guy. A guy with social skills, and a girlfriend, and a +5 greatsword. Who doesn't want that?
Halflings are less common, but I certainly like them. Playing a halfling gets people to underestimate you, and when they underestimate you (or stretch their necks), you can put a dagger in their ribs. I have known few strictly good halflings.
Half-orcs are posers. A half-orc is big, strong, and dumb - their choices are fighter, fighter, fighter, or fighter. Half-orcs tend to be people who just want to kill things - and if you have no motive *besides* killing things, you should not be in a basement with a lapful of die strategizing.
Half-elves? Elves too modest to admit they want to be straight-up elves. You get none of the really useful feats or abilities of humans or elves, it's really only useful if you have a character history that combines the worlds of humans and elves.
What's left? Oh yeah - CLASS. There are tons of these, and I will not break them down for you, but they fall into 3 general categories: fighters, spellcasters, and healers.
Fighters (basically, characters with little to no spells): you want to be in the front of the action. Patience is not your strongpoint. You probably have a good deal of aggression to get out; your boss calls you names at work, or you feel like killing someone just for taking too long at the ATM, or maybe the subject of DRM brings your voice up an octave. Those who play the mellower versions, such as bards and rogues, are more lovers than fighters, however - you want your expressions of inner rage to look downright dashing, or perhaps you want to clever your way out of the rage bit entirely.
Spellcasters (basically, characters with a lot of spells and little chance of survival in close combat): you want to command respect. You shoot fireballs from your fingertips, and damn the man if he tries to keep you down - because you shoot FIREBALLS from your FINGERTIPS. Who needs fighting skills when you can just boss the fighters around? Center stage of the Danger Show is a bad place! The back of the party is where you do your plotting, scheming, and general world-saving.
Healers (those with a fair chance of survival in close combat as well as a fair number of specialized spells): these boil down to the druids and clerics, which are kind of weird classes to begin with. Clerics are kind of like priests, except in return for their prayers they get spells - mostly the zombie-zapping sorts - and healing powers. Druids are kind of like druids, except in return for their rituals they get spells - mostly the poison-ivy element control sorts - and healing powers. You may think the healers are lawfully good-hearted souls who want to ease pain: not so, as evidenced by the fact that I AM ONE OF THEM. We hate dying - hate hate hate it - and want abilities that make sure this never happens. Healers, simply put, are those of us who need a backup plan. We need to be able to hit back in combat when we run out of spells, and when even that fails us, we need to heal back some hitpoints and keep at it.
EDIT: I suppose there can be people who play healers because they are good hearted souls; I simply have not met one.
There you have it. The very act of creating a roleplaying character is like baring your soul - to a tableful of people, to a massive online community, or to your bedfellow, depending on the scenario. I am kind of frightened by real life tabletop gaming for the same reason I'm kind of frightened by therapists: I don't like telling intimate details of my life to strangers, especially in a limited amount of time.